The Grinch of Christmas’ Future.
By: Pagliacci
Tags: Purpose, Father Christmas, 12 Days Of Christmas, Santa Claus

He had his great ephiphany after killing Adu. It was Christmas Eve and after the deed of the day he went to a bar, sat with some Yoruba men, who were drinking and following a football game, the air was full with different scents which coalesced into a single pungent smell, not unlike the smell of an unwashed canal masked with an issey miyak cologne.

In this moment, rather in the moment of banter between the men over their various football clubs with the pop song playing in the background, and the T.V showing some football show anchors, he had his epiphany:

His was an ordinary thug life, grew up in the slums of Bariga, hung around with some "egbons" before he too became an egbon and realised what it took; the people who had to die, the children kidnapped, the people threatened, maimed; all these were the costs of what it took for him to be an “Egbon”.

But, being with these people he began to see things differently, he saw that if one of this men was killed, you erase a dynasty of sorts, his dreams, aspirations, agendas, family, everything poof! Gone!

The movies didn’t do justice to this part of it, the fact that he and others like him had to use some hard drugs to quell the trauma that threatened to beset them. The movies never told you that the bodyguard to the rich man who just died, had a family who would never see him again; that he had dreams and even if unachieved, the hope of it would have kept people ablaze; they never told you that life was life, it wasn’t something anyone should have Monopoly over ceasing from another because of more power residing with one over another. They never told you that, the violent systems keep on going, and the end of it is more violence, "he who kills by the sword will die by it" seemed now like a commentary on the Dynamo of violence, the gift that keeps on giving and how it desacralizes life.

All these went through Kunle’s head, and after about 5 minutes, he had become disgusted with himself.

He had become a monster who ceased dreams just to serve someone's political agenda, ceasing one person's dream to fund another's.

Kunle heaved a huge sigh and left the bar, as he left he could hear some acquaintances hail him "Kunle fighter" with all too loud voices.

As he walked down the tarmac, he decided to speak to those who saw him as an egbon, to show them care and try to take them out of the system.

He remembered the next day was Christmas and he had the perfect plan: he’d be their ‘Father Christmas’, he planned to throw a Christmas party the next day, and for years after, get some of his homegirls to work some food up and use that as his first step towards change, but first how would he tell his partners that he was done, he heaved a sigh of relief, Thank God he didn’t join the confraternity when some people offered. He’d either be dead or facing the threat of death due to his new decision.

The next day Kunle woke up and got the arrangements underway, as preparations were being made in his compound, he decided to go get some drinks, he got there, and heaved another sigh. It would take a lot, but it was going to be worth it at the end, and thus Kunle fighter gave his future to help the street kids nurture their dreams, and for the first time in a long time, he felt hope, felt fulfilled, felt alive.