PROLOGUE
A group of Nigerian youngsters, striken by sheer abject poverty, seeks to change their fates and enjoy luxuries of life. These guys embarks on a notorious journey that really changed their fates drastically and yet unexpectedly so quick. These guys went through hell before resulting to them becoming thieves - from Kola, to David, to Justice, to Christopher , to Ishaq, and to Emmanuel - their tech man...and they were all graduates with first class honors degree. Due to their situation of being in sheer abject poverty, they resulted in becoming notorious thieves popularly known as "THE DEN"...but the legend of "THE DEN" ended on a fateful operation... Their trip to USA...
THEIR STORY.
I was soaked in deep thoughts, soliloquizing and asking God when all these struggles, suffering, and lack was going to end when my immediate younger sister tapped me and began her greeting with; "Broad Kola food nor dey house and you sit down for here they think like fool dey follow yourself dey talk l like madman like say na that one go feed us. Nor be your mates dey street dey hustle so? Abi Justice wey dey run pure water for road na mumu? Nor stand up go hustle go find work. Agbaya oshi" my sister said to me with full total disgust as she hissed and walked away. Our mother was late. She died two years ago and our father abandoned us a week later, leaving me as the first born to cater for my five siblings and myself. The disrespect, humiliation, shame, and stagnancy was all I could think of. A first class honors degree graduate, hawking pure water?? Why is life so unfair to me? Even people that I taught back then at University have branded their own companies and are still branding new companies, and here I am going from one uncompleted building to another because I can't afford house rent. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I bit my lower lip so hard that it started bleeding. I've been tempted to seal over and over and over again but the thought of " what if?" always held me down.
I went to the market and started my work as an "alabaru", and there I met Christopher and David. They were new too so we all went together after exchanging pleasantries and all the normal guy-man stuffs. As it seems like fate brought us together and luck decided to smile on us because that day was the day I counted my first ten thousand naira in my entire life. We were all so filled with joy and happiness as I rushed to get provisions and foodstuffs so that my siblings could at least be able to feed till when next I earn a lot of money again. Christopher and David followed me "home" - the uncompleted building, and David broke down in tears. I was confused till he said "see some people living in this kind of place, and I'm here feeling like a king because I inherited a house". He started begging God for forgiveness then Chris then said that we both were lucky to even have somewhere to return to and lay our heads after a long day. "Omor I dey sleep anywhere belle face guy- anywhere night reach me, I go sleep for there and then 4 am we go again. I do ln dey do conductor since two years now and my oga dey do anyhow, so I say make I con try this alabaru work and omor see premium cash out" he said as he sniffs his money. We all had things in common. Our parents death and leaving. David's dad died and his mother cared less and became a prostitute, and sent David away from the house, until he learnt that he inherited a house from his dad and no one was aware of it because his dad had just completed it and died the day he wanted to dedicate the house. That's where he stays. But the twist here is that his father was rich and had plenty properties, but his mother was a chronic pathological gambler and she had used all her husband's properties to gamble and had lost all.
Chris on the other hand, was the only child of his struggling parents and they died in a car accident on his convocation day. His father's family claimed all the properties, which made him stay with one of his father's sister porpularly know as "big mummy" and she treated him a slave for a year before he ran away and started living the ghetto life. After we all shared our stories, David offered to take us in his house which would be more safer and more comfortable. Words couldn't express how grateful I was. My legs started shaking and my hands clinched together in gratitude as tears rolled down my cheeks. That same night, we moved our things to David's house and started a new life there. That day was the most significant day of my life and as I said earlier, luck was smiling at us.