The lost money

Hello good people, it has been a while here. I missed you all.

Today, I want to tell you a story about what happened to me years back. It may seem funny but it wasn't funny to me that year.

My every school day routine was to go to school in the morning and return to grandma's store afterwards for lunch and stay there to wait for my parents to pick me in the evening.

Source: Unsplash.com

On a Thursday evening, after school, I got to my grandma’s store as usual and had lunch.

My grandma had told me the previous day that I’d be going to the market that day to purchase some goods for her to restock some products in her provision store and to also run other errands after school so I reminded her about it when I was done with my meal.

She gave me a huge amount of money and told me to keep it well as well as lists of what to buy so that I wouldn’t forget any.

She gave me goods to deliver to one of her customers too as well as complain to the store where she last bought biscuits.

She also gave me a sack and told me to board bike to the market and back.

As I set out to find a bike, I thought of the bread buns and zobo drink that’s always sold at the top shop in my school. I imagined saving the transport fare to the market to use it to purchase extra bread buns in school.

I then decided to trek to the market so that I can buy the extra bread buns and zobo.

The journey started. The market was about thirty minutes walk from my grandma’s store so I walked so quickly so that I wouldn’t waste so much time to the extent that she would notice I didn’t board bike or was rather delayed.

After I’ve walked like 20 minutes, I just suddenly stop to check my pockets for the money.

I thought I'd left it at home .
I stood in the market, wondering if I took it or not, I searched everywhere, didn’t find it.

I dipped my hand in my skirt’s side pockets, I checked the back pocket as well and nothing was there. I alternated the sack that I carried between my two hands and checked my hands like they had pockets.

I started to get afraid, my palms were wet and I was gradually feeling cold.
I stood beside the drainage in the market, had a serious conversation with myself for a few seconds and I still didn’t get where I kept the huge sum of money.

I even scanned through the drainage with my eyes if it fell off while I was searching for the money but nothing still.

I didn’t have a cell phone to call for any information about the money at the store.
It was left for me to decide whether I would go back to the store to inform my grandma or not.

I then thought that; what would be the point of going to the market if there’s no money to purchase the stuff there.

“Should I just go to the market to deliver the goods and complain alone?” Since I was almost at the market already.

I thought about it again, “what if I had lost it on my way?”

I quickly turned back with the goods, walked quickly but carefully, checking every nook and cranny on the ground. I even stared into the major road at intervals in case the money fell and the breeze blew it to the road.

I searched till I reached the junction of my grandma’s store

At that point, I was already sweating and scared because the money was quite much. I had a long list of things to purchase for our store.

So I decided within myself that I’ll just go home and tell my grandmother about everything regardless of the outcome.
I knew she’d scold me for having chosen to trek to market after she gave me transport fare to and fro.

I bursted into tears when I realized that.

Well I can’t possibly stay outside forever..
I was almost at the store when I saw my grandma outside her store, she seemed to be in a serious discussion with one of her customers.

Immediately I sited her, I remembered where I kept the money.
I quickly dropped the goods that I was supposed to deliver to her customer in the market and checked inside.

I remember that I kept it there because of my grandma’s warning.
She hammered that I shouldn’t keep the money in my pocket because of the amount. She was afraid that it might fall off while I sat on the bike.

At that point, I was so glad that I hadn't even delivered the goods to the customer because I wouldn’t have checked for the money inside and by the time I’d remember, it might have been too late.

I turned back in annoyance. As I bent to park the goods and head to the market, a bike man stopped beside me and asked;

“shonlo?” (are you going?)

“Beeni” “oja oba” ( yes, king's market)
I replied and hopped on the bike.

Until I got to the market, I kept the money tightly wrapped in the piece of paper containing the long list of goods to purchase and held it in my hand.

Finally, I delivered my grandma’s messages as well as the goods to her customers.

I purchased all that was required and took the bike back to my grandma’s store.
My grandma stood outside waiting for me, I could see that she was so worried about why I returned late from her expression but she helped me offload the goods from the bike before asking what went wrong.

I just gave her some other excuses to calm myself for the moment before I gathered the liver to tell her what actually happened.

After she sorted the goods, she was so impressed with all the stuff that I got and she gave me some money (200 naira). At first I thought she wanted to send me on another errand but she simply said I should use it to buy any snack of my choice in school the next day.

I was extremely happy. For me, getting 200 naira free of charge to buy snacks at that time felt like winning a bet. I thanked her so much and eventually told her about what happened before I left in the evening.

Thank you for reading my story. Have a wonderful evening.