I used to have a brother. His name was Chibuzor Ebenezer Justice. He was the first son of my mother. He was my greatest motivation. While I was in school, he would tell me that I would join him in the film industry when I am done with my secondary school. He used to drag that with his immediate younger brother, who does music. That was what made me develop an interest in music and acting. As a matter of fact, they are the things I don't joke with.
When i was in Jss1, I returned home from school, tired and hungry. Unfortunately, no food was available for me to eat. I was very angry. You wouldn't blame me. The kind of hunger that students face after school is not a small one. Especially those ones that do not go to school with lunch. That very day was on a Friday so I was very sure that my brother would be rehearsing in one theatre he always attends. At that time, he was already a registered makeup artist in the Association of Nigerian Actors. That Friday was also my usual band rehearsal, I was in Royal Rangers of Assemblies of God church here in Abia State. I quickly changed my close and left to where my brother was rehearsing with the intention of getting some money from him to quench the hunger. So I trekked as fast as I could until I got to the place. Unfortunately, my brother had left for a makeup session before I could return, but I was told he would return as fast as possible. I requested for someone to make him know that I'm around, and he asked me to wait for him. I was asked to sit down and wait for him. I comfortably sat down when I saw one of my classmates sitted probably waiting for the director to call him on stage. The little time I stayed there before my brother arrived, I really loved the things I saw there, I could not get enough of it. When I saw my brother, I was happy and unhappy at the same time. I am happy that I will quench my hunger and unhappy that I should leave for band rehearsals.
After that day, I started disturbing my brother every Friday to let me go for the rehearsals, whether he was around or not. At first he didn't oblige, but seeing that I had a classmate that do go for the rehearsals , he let me. I was attending the rehearsals and also attending my band rehearsal for close to 5 years without choosing the particular one I wanted to do. In my next post, I will tell us how I started playing the drum. So when I was in SS3, my brother left to LAGOS to study film making. When he returned, he could script, direct, and even costume. By then, I was already done with secondary school, and that was when I was working for someone at ngwa road. I'm just helping him sell his goods. He asked me to come learn his craft, and I refused. By then, music had already become something I love so much, so I was not too interested. But he kept reminding me that I have the writing talent in me, and I must embrace it one day. Once he said that, I would say in my mind ,"What's my business," and wave it off. Until a few years later, I was in school, and I was told that my brother had an accident when returning from a shoot. I rushed to the hospital and saw him. It was terrible, I'd thought he would survive. On a Thursday, i was at the whiteboard writing down something . My lesson note fell off from my hand, and my mouth quivered. I knew something was just not right. Few minutes later the security man told me that someone was looking for me, I rushed outside and saw him but he was very far from the gate, he waved at me and I could not see him again. That was a red flag, I shouted. People held me thinking I've gotten mad. It was as though my dad knew what would happen, so he rushed down to the school and took me home. When It was as if I was down, he gave me a piece of paper, "Your brother said I should give this to you before he gave up the ghost," my dad said to me. I opened the paper and read what he wrote, "Emmanuel, we are only two in this family that has this talent. Our grandfather, before he died, told me that God would replace him when he died. Now I was thinking I was his replacement, but I don't know if I will survive this. You are a writer. It is in you. Learn the craft, do it. Teach my daughter when she comes up. Tell her that her father wished he could be there for her........." he stopped at that point. It was as though he couldn't wait again. That same night, I took a pen with pain in my heart. That was the day I wrote my first story. And ever since 2021, that was the year he died. I have been writing, and I know he would be proud of me.
What a painful story!!!
Ahh, so your brother kicked the bucket just like that? So sad. But am confused somehow. Please who is the person that came looking for you that didn't wait for your arrival before leaving the gate and later waved at you?