Cup Man and Other Stories

5. Up in the Air

65 5 Up in the Air hey had planned it for months. So when they met secretly that Saturday night, it was to do the final touches, the fine-tuning. They were a group of four, calling themselves, ‘The bad gang’. Whenever any of them felt like coding their group name, they used “T.B.G.”. In fact, they addressed each other by those initials, in order to have a feeling of solidarity while remaining unidentified by outsiders. Adamu Fon, alias Adam, aged 26 was the gang leader. In his absence, Pius Akwabi, Alias Akwa, 24, deputed him. Solomon Mangoba, 24, alias Sly was the most adept of all. He carried out all the delicate and painstaking jobs. Abraham Nkwenti, alias Docta, was the intellectual of the group. Whereas the other three were primary school leavers, he had reached form five, written the G.C.E. ‘O’ Levels and passed in two subjects: English and French. When they were in action in a French-speaking town, he was always trusted to communicate in French. At other times, he was the group’s secretary, taking down minutes during meetings and read them at the next meeting. The leader, Adamu Fon, chaired that night’s meeting. He was also the host of the meeting, since it was holding at his three bed roomed house in the popular district of the town, Ngubanang. The gang had been working together for three years. They had met each other by chance at the motor park where usually, young men like them went to look for odd jobs such as finding passengers for commercial vehicles and being paid a token per passenger. Sometimes, they helped with loading goods on the roof of vehicles about to travel to other towns. They also helped to offload those that had just come into the park. It was through frequent contact at the park that they got to know each other. They ate together at the famous T 66 makeshift park restaurants. They drank beer together at the off licence when they could afford it. One fine afternoon, while they were resting in the park after loading up to five vehicles, the group leader, Adam, bought everyone a beer and in the course of their conversation, he said: “Gentlemen, I have been doing some thinking. The work we do here at the park is okay, but I don’t think the little income I get from it can sustain me. I can’t speak for you people, but although we are not married and have no children under our charge, I still feel I need an alternative source of income. What do you think?” “I agree with you, boss. But what can we do?” “The point is, there is a lot on offer around us. It’s just for us to define our parameters. If it’s money we want, we can get it. If it’s goods, there are lots of them about,” Adam replied. “I hope you are not asking us to rob people,” Sly enquired. ‘Rob? I wouldn’t call it that. It’s a question of being realistic!” “How?” Akwa came in. “Listen boys! We must decide whether we are men or boys. If we are men, then we must know a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.” There was silence, as if everyone had decided to reflect awhile. Then Docta spoke. Let us think carefully. It’s true that times are hard. But we must consider things carefully. Stealing or robbery or call it what you like is risky. So, if we want to go into such an activity, we must prepare ourselves well, because if we are caught, things can become nasty. We may find that we need guns to protect ourselves”. “Guns!” exclaimed Sly. “But I don’t want to kill anybody.” “No, nobody is asking you to kill anybody. If we carry guns, it’s simply for self-defence. Do you mean that if someone shoots at you, you will not shoot back?” 67 Sly said nothing. Then there was a minute of total silence, after which the leader ordered another round of drinks for everyone. By the time they dispersed, they had reached a consensus that they would “use those alternative means” to increase their income. They agreed that there were a lot of opportunities in the town and that all they needed...