The First Twenty Naira Tale
Mary had her way of dumping the things she no longer found useful in a dark drawer.
In 1984, after I had tagged along with her to the market, when we returned she picked me from her purse and flung me into the darkness.
Since that day, I had never seen light, and the rough edges of this cell she imprisoned me in has made my body frail.
After several years, almost 5 decades if my brain is still right, I heard the familiar footstep of her flip-flops as they approached the drawer.
Though it was brief, she pulled it open and the sun reflected in my eyes.
I was delighted and thought “Finally, I'll be set free”, how wrong I was!
She had only come here to dump more things, and among them, I saw a familiar face.
It was me, only in a different shade of green. I looked faint and the crease on Murtala Muhammed's face was deeper.
“Are you ok?” I asked what had been my substitute in all the years I've been here.
“Yes,” she said.
I helped her up and I could see she had lied. She wasn't ok. There was a glint of tears in her eyes and she couldn't even stand on her toes.
“What is the matter?” I pressed.
As though she had been waiting to be asked that, she let out an outburst of tears and continuous sob. As she cried, she said some things I could barely pick up but made out;
“They…good enough…don't want me…changed”.
I've been down this road before. It is why I'm stuck here in Mary's dark drawer.
She's been changed. Just like she substituted me in all those years I went AWOL, she's been substituted, and if I know anything about these cheating humans, her substitute is far more beautiful than she is, just as she is more beautiful than I am, though I credit mine to the lack of sunlight and age.
But that has always been it. Like Mary's Hollywood crush, Leonardo DiCaprio, once we've reached a certain age, they think it's only right to dump us in dark drawers and find another pretty miss.
I tried comforting her, but it is what it is.
She soon got used to the darkness and the fast aging.
In 2009, again Mary had new “useless” things and she dumped them on us.
I had grown too weak to go to them, so my substitute did.
It was my colleagues back in the days before 1984, #1, #5 and #10. While I was snatched, they had continued roaming the system, but seeing them now, as frail as I am, I can only conclude that the humans got tired of them too, after obviously overworking them to their bones.
“What happened?” My substitute asked.
“After you left” #1, the oldest of them started, “we knew it would soon be our turn. We heard them making plans. They said the new #20 was doing well for them, so maybe it was time to test run on us. They made us brighter and not easily tearable like they did your substitute, but we couldn't withstand the heat, so they made an entirely new set and since they've damaged us, they had no use for us again. Me especially. They said it would be a waste of resources to remake me. They said my time was done”.
Hearing #1 talk was sorrowful. Though he kept a firm face, I could tell he was breaking inside. He had been in the game even longer than me and for them to shove him off, as if tearing his page off the history books, not giving the coming generation a feel of his time…humans are wicked.
After months and years had passed, we were not expecting the humans to make any more Reformation. They already had currencies they could not easily wear out, what else could they want?
But one thing the humans have gotten right since their existence is the invention of the quote “Human wants are insatiable”.
It is the only reason Mary had come home one evening in 2023 and put a dump on us.
In all my years of living, I had never seen any of these guys. One was green with Sir Ahmadu Bello's face imprinted on the front and some cows at the back. She said her name was #200.
The second was brown with a tint of purple and red and bore the face of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Nigerian's first president. He said his name was #500.
And the last one was grey, with two faces; Alhaji Mai-Bornu and Dr. Clement Isong. He said his name was #1000.
Like us, they too have been dumped and substituted.
I don't know how long I still have to live, to witness the cruelty of humans, as they go about their affairs making changes as they please, with no consideration of how we feel. As though without us, they can perform.
I do not wish to live any longer. I hope the day is coming when Mary clears off her drawer and gets rid of me completely, rather than let me rust in this dark cell.
