In the life of a people, the Christmas season is always a time of festivities and conviviality. Nigerians are known for their attachment to everything Christmas that this last Christmas witnessed many returnee-Nigerians in the Diaspora who against the raging pandemic found ways to come home to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ among loved ones. Most especially for Igbo people of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria, every parent looks forward to reuniting with their children who live outside Igbo land and in the Diaspora.

And so it was for Kingsley, a young upwardly mobile young man who joined the nouveau riche class in the society. Having lived in Lagos for ten years, he felt the time was ripe for him to let his people see that he has finally made it in life.

That was what made him take off early 28^th December morning for his hometown in Igbo hinterland. His journey was successful. What was uppermost in his mind was to surprise his mother who raised him alone.

After beating the horrible Onitsha traffic, he put a call through to his mother’s handset to inform him of his journey and the fact that he was homebound. He overheard the commotion through his mother’s handset. On querying her, she informed him that she was at their home church’s annual harvest and bazaar sales. This got him elated as he was suddenly filled with every sense of nostalgia. But his mother caught him off by admonishing him not to bother coming for the bazaar as the Church would extort him completely. That instead he should find elsewhere to while away his time until she comes home in three hours’ time.

Kingsley had never disobeyed his dear mother for once. He wouldn’t start that day. Therefore, he ended up in one roadside pub nearest his hometown. While on his third Hero beer bottle, an armed robber strolled into the pub and shot him without provocation.

Kingsley’s mother is still lamenting that if she had known she would’ve allowed her son into the Bazaar and let the church extort him than bury him before his time.

Such a sad one!