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 propertyto 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 David Martinez. "I wish I did not meet that man," she lamented.
Paul Revere’s fame as a hero of the American Revolution has been passed down from generation to generation through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Revere’s midnight ride before the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord warned American soldiers that the British were coming to attack them. But what was his life like before and after that glorious event? James Cross Giblin tells Revere’s story from birth to death in this richly illustrated narrative.
