If you haven’t read the first part of this story, here’s the link. Kindly read it before starting this one.

When he told me he had stopped betting in December 2020, I didn’t believe him. I felt it was too ambitious for him to just wake up one day and say, “I’ve stopped betting.” It’s not easy to run away from addiction—anything you’ve done for more than a year can’t be stopped in a day. So I gave myself three months to monitor his movement and also to see the effort he was putting in to run away from his addiction. 

He is a teacher. He always complained about how small his salary was and how he was doing everything to escape from the profession. In his mind’s eye, the only hole through which he could escape was through betting. I sat him down one day and told him, “You have a lot of time on your hand as a teacher. When school closes, you don’t do anything. You can use those hours to learn something. Anything at all you think can make you money. If learning something new is not your thing too, why don’t you organize extra classes for the kids? You can visit their homes and teach them or you can simply have a place where they can come to on Saturdays and Sundays.”

He said, “It’s a great idea. I will give it a shot. He started the home one. It was one student at first and then he got another one. When they got to three, I told him to combine them since they were in the same class. He did. The kids were coming to his place after school each day for extra classes. On weekends too, they came. He was busy. I love the fact that he was using his time for something profitable. At that moment, I didn’t care so much whether or not he was still betting. I said to myself, “When he gets too busy and making proper money, no one will ask him to stop.”

When he had five kids coming to his house every day after school, I told him, “Your place is no longer ideal for the kids. Get an open place close by and use it. It could be a school or even a church. You only have to speak to the owner for permission.” One day he called me. He said, “I’ve had a new place. It’s very big. The owner wants me to pay GHC500 every month.” I told him, “That’s too much. Talk to him to reduce it.” Later he came to me and said, “On second thought, I want to do something else with the space. There’s no DSTV center around the place. I want to talk to the man and use it for DSTV football screening center.” 

It sounded good to me until I realized having a center like that wouldn’t help him to run from his addiction. You can’t run from addiction and still stay in the same environment that helps the sprouting of your addiction. I said, “Why don’t you concentrate on the extra classes for now and later think about that?” He said, “I can do both at the same time. Football is mostly at the weekends. I can teach them on weekdays and use the place for football screening on weekends. That way, we are looking at double income.”

I said, “If you’re positive about it, then go ahead.” I was with him through it all when putting the place together. I painted with him, cleaned with him, and launched the place with him. The very few weeks that it started, I was there with him. It looked promising. I stopped going there and instead fed on the information he gave me about the place. He stopped the extra classes but I didn’t complain. Whenever I called I asked him, “I hope you’re not staking bet?” He said, “Me? I’ve even started advising people to stop. I’m not going back again.”

He sounded very assuring so I dropped my guard. I never asked about it again and I never checked on his phone again to see if he was still doing it. Anytime I called, I asked the same question. How many people came to the game today and how much did you make? He’ll tell me, “The number keeps increasing. Very soon I will get another TV so I can show two matches at the same time.” Then he’ll tell me, “If I knew I could make money like this, I would have started this long ago.” The things he said made me happy and because he was always busy and didn’t ask me for loans, I assumed he had stopped the betting.

It was 29th May 2021. The time was around 10pm. I was about to sleep when I saw my phone ringing. The call was coming from him. Immediately I picked the call, he said, “Can you come and take me home?” I was like, “What do you mean I should come and take you home.” He repeated, “Please come and take me home.” Then the call dropped. I called back he didn’t pick. I called again and again, he didn’t pick. I dressed up, took a taxi to the place, and found him seated in a chair sleeping. There were two guys standing next to him. I asked what the issue was and they said, “W’abo.” I asked, “He’s drunk? How?”

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I got closer to him and he was murmuring something I didn’t hear. I asked what the issue was and he couldn’t speak audibly. I took a taxi and sent him to his place and went back to my place. All night I was thinking what could make him drink heavily like that. Early the next morning I called his phone and it was off. Instead of going to church, I decided to go and check up on him. Immediately I got there he asked me, “Where’s my phone?” I said, “I don’t have your phone. Where did you put it last night?” He looked everywhere, he didn’t find the phone. Apparently, Someone stole it before I got there to pick him up. 

I asked why he was drunk the night before and he wouldn’t say anything. I said, “You don’t drink so what made you drink last night?” He couldn’t tell me until I found out myself days later. He put all he had on Man City to win the champions league but City lost. That was the reason he got drunk until he lost his phone. He denied it but a lot of people around the center confirmed it. When I told him I wasn’t coming to him again he thought I was joking. When I didn’t pick his calls for days, he got the message and started chasing me around. I was too far gone to even look at his face.

He didn’t stop betting. He got better at hiding it from me and because he was making money from the center, he had enough money to bet with it. I trusted him too much to let him have a field day but when the time came for me to leave, I trusted myself not to look back. He’s still pursuing me and the funny thing is, he’s still going about betting with the money he gets from the center. I’m not a prophet of doom but I know how the whole thing will end. I wish him well though. 

–Winnefred 

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