Christmas on Harlem Street

A short story by Eniola Olatunji

“Silent night, holy Night
All is calm: all is bright.”
The church down the street sang.

It was indeed a silent night on Harlem Street. No house was decorated with Christmas lights. There was no sound of chickens being slaughtered, neither did the smell of jollof rice permeate the air. The air was indeed solemn. No one wore any spectacular dress. It was the 24th of December, yet everyone greeted each other as if it was a normal day. It was a festive period, but what was there to be festive about?

Everyone on Harlem Street had their job tied to two major companies. Alake Electricity Company and Softmalt Bottling Company. Two years ago, the two companies shut down simultaneously. The economic environment was too stifling for their operations to continue.

Chike sat in his room, brooding. His mother used to work at Softmalt Company, and his father at Alake-Electricity Company. They were both laid off in June and ever since then, the family had been living from hand to mouth. 

Everyone on Harlem Street had gotten used to spending Christmas in a dark atmosphere. There has not been electricity for the past two years due to the failure of their electricity transformer. The people of Harlem Street were doomed. 

“Chike!” His mother called.

“Take a plate and come and collect your food.”

His two sisters also gathered in the kitchen. Their mother dished the food. Partially cooked eba to be eaten with over-warmed stew prepared two weeks ago. Oh, you thought I was joking when I said there was nothing festive about this period? Their mother was rationing the gas, which was why the eba was partially done. They had been depending on electricity to cook their food by using hotplates before now. Eba and an over-warmed stew was Christmas food?

With tears welling up in Chike’s eyes, he looked up and said: 
“Dear God, I’ve read of Christmas miracles in books, if it is real, let one happen tonight.”
He retreated to his room. Chike waited to see if a miracle would happen. Nothing happened. When it was 11:59 pm, Chike slept off. The clock hit 12:00 am. No sound of any banger. Three years ago, everyone would be lighting the sky with fireworks. The spirit of Christmas was long gone on Harlem Street. 

1:00 am.
“Ko! Ko! Ko!” Chike heard a knock at the door.  He heard his mother leave the room to answer whoever was at the door. She peeped through the window.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Good morning, ma. We are the Wings Poultry Company. Please, our trailer broke down and we are wondering if we could get a mechanic in this area. Sorry for the disturbance”

Mechanic? At this time of the day? “Can’t you wait till daybreak?” she asked

“We wish we could, but we have a very important delivery by 7:00 am. So, we must quickly deliver this first to be able to go for the other one,” The man replied.

She shined her torchlight through the window to see the men outside. Truly, she saw a huge trailer full of turkeys. Even if she did not want to help them, the turkeys were “screaming.” Any further delay and they could begin to die. 

“Wait, let me call the mechanic,” she said, picking up her phone. She placed a call to the mechanic. Though it was 1:00 am in the morning, he came out.

Very soon, the whole community gathered outside. The turkeys were disturbing everyone in the street. About 500 turkeys. The community looked at the turkeys with pain in their hearts. How they wish they could afford to buy them to celebrate Christmas.  
The repairs continued for over an hour. By this time, everyone was with their torchlight. The turkey owners were already apprehensive. They needed to deliver this batch of turkeys by 3:00 am and come back to deliver another batch by 7:00 am. They discussed it amongst themselves.

“Oga, please, if this man does not get this trailer fixed in the next one hour, I’ll implore we turn back so as not to miss the 7:00 am delivery. We can afford to miss this one, but the Senator’s delivery by 7:00 am is unavoidable.” 

“And you think I’m not aware?”

Then the mechanic announced, “oya, start the trailer.”
The driver started it, it worked and everyone cheered. However, it was stuck in a large pothole. They had to push the trailer out. The turkey owners were confused. Who would push the trailer? Pushing the trailer would require about fifty people. Is it these people who had been awake since 1:00 am, pointing torchlight for over an hour that would push it? Highly unlikely. 

However, the people of Harlem Street were not like that. If they could not enjoy Christmas, at least, they should help others enjoy theirs. They joined hands together and pushed the trailer out. They had to unload the turkeys, and the turkey owners were quite surprised to discover that the number of turkeys was still intact afterward. These people did not steal any turkey. However, all these efforts were futile. After all the repairs and pushing were done, it was already 3:00 am. The company had to go back, unload the turkeys, restock another breed of turkeys, and deliver them to a senator. 

“Oga, if we carry these turkeys back with us and start unloading them again, they would die due to stress, abi wetin you think?”

“I think so too. Okay, call everyone to come around.”

The whole of Harlem Street gathered. The head of the turkey owners stood on a drum so that everyone could hear him.

“Good morning. First and foremost, I want to appreciate everyone who took the time to come out and help us get our trailer fixed. You are all a blessing. I know how uncomfortable it is to come out when you ought to be sleeping, on a festive night for that matter, to help us, random strangers. We appreciate it. However, despite getting the trailer fixed, we cannot still make it in time for this delivery. We have a much more important one to make by 7:00 am. So, we will be returning to our factory to prepare for the next delivery”.

“Won’t that stress the turkeys?” One of the community men queried.

“We’ve thought of that. So, to save the turkeys, we have decided to give each family one turkey. We…”

The community did not wait for him to finish his sentence before they started making quizzing noises. 

“Did he just say he would give us a turkey?”

“I think so”

“Jeeeessuuuuus”

Chike could not believe his ears. Was he dreaming? A whole turkey for Christmas. Even when things were buoyant, the most they bought were cockerels. The community was agog with happiness. Each family received their turkey and went to sleep. 

Chike woke up due to a noise he was familiar with. It sounded like someone was delivering the news. That was the sound of John Momoh of Channels TV. Wait a minute! That would mean the television was on. But he did not hear the sound of any generator. He rushed to switch the lights on. 

“Up NEPAAAAAAA!” he screamed.

He rushed out to meet his father watching television. He was bewildered. His mother was in the kitchen, dealing with the turkey. The sweet aroma permeated the air.

 “Breaking news,” John Momoh said. “The American shoe brand, Nike, has decided to open a shoe factory in Nigeria. According to the company, the factory would be situated in Ogun State around the Sango area”

Did he just say the Sango area? Harlem Street is in the Sango area. That meant jobs were coming back to Harlem Street.
 
“Ko! Ko! Ko!”

Chike’s father went to get the door. It was a delivery man with a letter for Chike’s mother. His mother received the letter to read. 

“Yaaaaaaaay!” She screamed.

His father quickly grabbed the letter to read.  Chike’s father was shaking when he finished reading it. Chike was confused as to what was in the letter that made his mother and father shiver. He went to read the letter. The letter was a job offer from a company offering his mother an annual salary of Seven Million Naira.
 
Chike went back to his room. Just twenty-four hours ago, everything looked bleak. No light, no Christmas chicken, and no money. Now, everything was beginning to look very bright.

“Chike!” His mother called. He went to answer her.

“Take a plate and come and collect your food.”

His mother put a turkey lap plus six spoons of fried rice on his plate. Then something whispered within him: “So, do you now believe that Christmas miracles exist?”

Chike burst into a river of tears.