A story that ends with "I wish I did not meet the man".

Rose, a young graduate, was searching for a company job. She got a

teaching

appointment but rejected it. Teaching, she said, is a profession that

stifles the progress of man. Moreover the reward of teachers is in

Heaven.

She was obsessed with the idea of working in a company.

After two years of unemployment she did not find life easy. It was

becoming

unbearable. She could not continue to beg for daily bread. It was

dehumanizing. She could not sell her body for money since she came

from a

good Christian home. It was irritating to her to stay indoors.

This situation prevailed until she met Jerry Jones, an old school mate

who

promised he would get her a job. He gave her an appointment. When she

came

he introduced her to the idea of drug trafficking. He told her how

wealthy

she would be in a short time and that she would finally be laughing at

those

who were ridiculing her when she had no money.

At first Rose objected to this proposal. Jones put more pressure on

her

because he feared Rose would expose him. She eventually succumbed,

without

thinking of the repercussions of being caught.

She made the first trip and a it was successful. There was plenty of

money.

She did not believe how wealthy she had become. She was also

successful in

her second trip. Temptation, unlike opportunity, will always give one

a

second chance. She did not remember the saying, "Many days are for the

thief but one day for the owner of the house." The severe penalty for

drug

pushing did not deter her. She began to live big in accordance with

the

Epicurean philosophy of "Enjoy today for tomorrow you may die."

Rose was caught in her fifth attempt. She would have wisely stopped

after

her first trip but "when a dog wants to die it does not perceive the

smell

of excreta." Her master Jerry Jones, the drug baron, did not come to

her

aid. Rose was shown on the television screen as a drug pusher. She was

clamped into detention for two years before she was tried.

Rose spent a lot of money during her trial. She sold most of her

property

to hire a very brilliant lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Finally she was lucky to be discharged and acquitted for want of

evidence.

But the first casualty was her freedom and the second her reputation

because

even though she was freed, people avoided her like a leper. Nobody

desired

her for a wife any longer. She now realized that one should work

through

lawful ways to achieve satisfying success. A female drug pusher was a

shame

to womanhood, that "slow and steady wins the race." She cursed the day

she

met Jerry Jones. "I wish I did not meet that man," she lamented.