The blood he spat out and the sharp pain in his jaw taught Emeka one important thing
Na only useless people dey smoke igbeaux.
It was a lesson from his mother. She caught him at age seven with rolled up paper in his mouth, imitating the men he saw smoking down their street.
Her response: break the jaw before he uses it to become a useless person.
As it was also the first time she threw her slippers at him, the lesson definitely stuck. However, it wasn't the last.
Emeka grew up judging smokers. Stigmatizing them. Especially those who smoked weed. They were the stain upon our already dying nation, and he was perfectly fine with them being arrested by law enforcement.
In university he associated smokers with being stupid and useless, and he did his best to stay away from them.
There were a few exceptions though. Like the girl with big lips who gave him the best blow jobs. The rules were simple: get high before you come here, don't bring that nonsense into my house.
Once she asked why he hated smoking and his reason was some bullshit about smoke causing cancer of the lungs and psychotic behaviour.
She wanted to press on with arguments on how cannabis has improved medical healthcare, but he shoved his cock down her throat and that was the end of that.
All of this changed when he became friends with a man he considered his role model. This role model had built a lot of successful companies, employed over 10,000 people and was a good provider for his family.
So imagine Emeka's shock when this his rich friend/role model extraordinaire admitted to smoking weed every week or two to clear his head.
Emeka could not fathom it. And the irritation must have shown on his face when he was offered a blunt and he refused. But his rich man didn't act like he took note of it.
At the end of this visit, Emeka decides to end his relationship with another scourge of the earth, but he is hesitant.
Marijuana smokers are often stupid and useless to society, so why is this man different?
Why is someone who built his wealth from scratch able to smoke igbeaux and still manage a handful of companies.
That's when he started questioning his beliefs
Who said weed is actually bad?
Why is it immoral to smoke?
Did the bible say smoking is a sin?
Is it because of health reasons?
But junk food does as much damage to our organs, so why is it not immoral as well?
That's when he decided to stop judging people for their smoking habits and instead focus on their good personality
To focus on what they could contribute. As he paid attention, he learned that there was a lot of human potential and beautiful friendship he was missing out on, simply because he focused on something as fickle as smoking.
The End.
Postnotes: I'm not a fan of publishing terrible stories. In fact this will be a first for me. But I said I would do it and I must.
This story is meant to be an introduction to a think piece i’ve prepared to publish tomorrow. It's not a story, but maybe it’ll serve as justification for how bad this letter was.
Until tomorrow,
Stay easy,
Dave.
Dave is teaching us to take igbeaux.