Finch

I have always hear that when it's tough, the tough get going. That the tough people get to the top in tough times. Yet, my one skepticism had always been: "How come all the people in Africa isn't tough and why all don't get going all the time?"- it's never been easy over here for once since Adam.

My mind, often whirling, found it at times difficult to wrap fully around that logic. Some say that might be reason I am poor. They claimed it's thing of the mind. That last part I doubt not for I have lived it and still doing. Every battle are lost or won in the mind before actual confrontation.

I have this buddy, Chucks by name. Clearly an Einsteinian, late twenties that carry that maxim around like a yoke on the neck. When Covid-19 was ravaging this planet like nothing ever did, he concluded it's tough time and time for toughs to rise to the top.

You recalled the state this planet was thrown in that period, many were showing their true self that period, no one wanted to die. I don't recall any that was not shaken during that time as they reel out the list of the dead each day state by state, nation by nation. That was what that my 'G' dissected and ideas started forming in his devilish mind. "time for the tough to get going" he muttered to himself and went to work of roving all over the internet, gathering people's fears and the degree it's hitting each class. After at it for five days or more, he called.

"Em buddy, it's time" he said.

Initially, I was confused and went after my diary to see if I have forgotten an important engagement, but nothing. Besides, although government didn't mandate citizens locking themselves inside like some nations did, but then no one is allowed to cross state borders into another state, so, somehow, we were free to roam a little.

" time for what?" I asked. "Time to get to the top in tough time Buddy" he retorted in his usual way. Feeling still a little lost in what he's yakking on,I asked to be put well.

"Tough people rise to the top in tough times buddy, you don't see the amount of fear oozing from the first-class citizens everywhere in the net? They are the ones with the dough they believed will keep them alive in any situation, time for the piece of their little pie buddy"

" Hey chucks, I am still in the sea, what are you riffing on?"

But he continued on his soliloquy way.

"The religious ones among them are sleeping in the churches and mosque, the nonreligious ones among them drinking all manners of concoctions, it's high time for our own brand of covid concoctions buddy"

As I pressed further in what's roaming around in his devilish scientific head for I know him since primary school level and all know what he's capable of, but all I got was

"sit still in that hut of yours, don't move, I will be there in 35 minutes."

So, I sat still waiting to know how we are going to rise to the top in this tough time. True to his words, he made the distance in 28 minutes, hauling along one diary that I know he had been busy adding and minusing before picking up his phone. He's one of those kinds that believes that once it worked in the paper, it will in real life. I have no doubt this his concoctions must have worked in his papers or he won't call. He's that kind of calculative fella.

After initial greeting in our way, he rejected the alcoholic drink I presented as kola. First time in recent memory he's rejecting alcoholic drink, opting for soft drink and I know immediately that it isn't one of his pranks he came with. That rejection alone piqued my interest on his visit and this concoctions thing.

"Some say if you boil mango leaves and alligator pepper, cover your head with wrappers or towel and inhale its vapours for ten minutes, that one is immunization, and if you inhale cashew leaves and bitter leaves for ten minutes, that is the cure if you have gotten it" he stated in his direct way once again.

With him,no preambles as far as Chuck's nature goes, that isn't necessary. I was eyeing him still to know if he's serious or being himself, but people, the face is as serious as all the faces I meet each day since this Covid. No sign of fucking around in it. So, I focused more for I too is worried about this thing that have bested many scientists and their malfunctioning vaccines. I must be honest with you when some HIV carriers were screaming for protection against this Covid, my own fear tripled on that disease. The rate it's downing every living creature on its way was alarming.

"How do you know it's not those home professors at work in the internet as usual?"

I wanted to know if he has done anything serious in regard to experiments on this thing or just straight from the internet to diary thing.

"What type of experiments, where will I see the sufferer government is rounding up everywhere to experiments and moreover, the states are playing number games for federal grants. I am here to start marketing my own mixtures. The power of marketing in you is where all the difference in your pocket is made. Once you sound convincing enough, these fearful millionaires are ready to empty their account on you. That's where you came in. That knowledge of marketing from school, it's time you put them into practical use here, it's money making time buddy" he said "leave the mixtures and the packaging for me" he said eyeing me with a kind of expression bordering on 'don't bell on me now buddy'

"what's that you grinded and packaged" I asked.

"Are sure you want to know?"

"why not, my face and image will be the one riffing on the internet everywhere, the one government will come after if there is any fuck up"

We stayed at it for about three or more days, arguing, ironing and fleshening out certain ends that aren't all that convincing. Each time we are on it in my balcony, I noticed that one Finch always perch at the fence about seven feet's away from us pecking its wings, and rubbing its beak this way and that.

Initially, I don't pay much attention to it but when our little details started being heard on the radios, being ringed out as warning and Armageddon being pronounced on anyone mixing one nonsense or another and selling to the public as cure for Covid-19, the rate our word to word was being pronounced there, I had no doubt that someone is eavesdropping on us.

I decided to intentionally prolong our discussion with idea to know if the Finch is bird or something else. It's the only life I see around us. The exact wording continued being ringed out as we are wording it on the air, and the telecommunications firms sending it as warning to their subscribers. I called Chucks attention to it, for I know in his way, he believed its general announcement,

"who knows you" he asked waving away my fear. But I insisted and we waylaid the bird that continued to perch anytime we gather. We deliberately chose our wording for two more days to know if this little pecker is our number-one enemy.

The weather,on our side, cool and the cloud moody that you find it hard telling if it's rain or sun hibernating behind it. Our sitting area combed for planted mics, sitting arrangements shifted a little inward, voice deliberately lowered, our tailored wordings out as we wanted them. And yet, for those two days, it came to pass as we are wording it. Our confusion cleared.

We packed shop and face south, tough time continued but our little ratter seems to be tougher than both of us combined. Better poor than caged.