My Annual 9/11 Anniversary Story – Mazi Abe Idris

By Abiodun Idris

….My wife doesn’t like me telling this story, but I must tell it every year….

It helps me…..It’s my therapy. My “Thank God I’m Alive” testimony.

I confess, I used to be a drug addict….

9/11:

This day 19 years ago, when I was “still in the world”

……I can vaguely recollect sitting in a dingy flat on Cold Harbour Lane, Brixton, London, stoned out of my skull after a three day binge on cocaine.

Yes o, cocaine, crack cocaine.

Till today, I don’t even smoke cigarette.

I beat the habit.

I beat it!

That fateful afternoon, I was staring at the TV in a haze, wondering what all the fuzz was about on CNN, after the first plane had crashed into the first of the Twin Towers.

I actually saw the second plane ✈️ fly directly into the second Tower.

As the plane hit the building and exploded into an inferno of flames, I also bent over and took another hit up my nostrils from the mountain of white Angel Dust on the table.

“What James Bond movie is this?” I asked the equally stoned, dreadlocked Jamaican, slouched on the couch besides me.

“Me nah know, Ade. Mus be ah new release” he drawled.

“They really tried with this one, it looks real” I mumbled, taking another cocaine hit from the table, as the CNN anchorman announced yet another aircraft hit on the Pentagon.

That was how far from reality I had drifted 19 years ago; mistaking a 6 for a 9.

The Jamaicans call it 649.

The twisted irony is, that 9/11 disaster was the tragedy that turned my life around to where I am today, sitting here on my bed, rewriting this for the umpteenth time.

A few hours later into the tragedy, back in my own living room and my own world, I turned on the TV to realise that what I had been watching earlier was no James Bond movie.

It was real!

Over 3,000 innocent lives had just perished before my eyes and I sat there, in that smelly Brixton drug den, with God knows who, sticking the devils own cocktail up my nose, far removed from reality.

As I opened the fridge to grab a beer, reality hit me like a sledge hammer that afternoon :

3,000 lives gone, yet, I was still alive!

This useless Abe was still alive!

Yet, here I was, doing my best to kill myself through irresponsibility and indulgence.

That moment, I said to myself “taaa! I noh go gree! I must beat this shit!”

I became determined to stay alive.

And I am still alive today.

Alhamdulilah!! Alhamdulilah! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

As I pray for the souls of those who died in the 9/11debacle, I also thank their Blessed departed souls for saving me.

Their tragic death kept me alive.

Man can never understand the ways of God, but I love his ways, still.

It was not an easy road for the following few months of beating that disastrous habit, but the 9/11 tragedy was a catalyst to my own self-rehabilitation.

I did not go into rehab ó.

Determination, self will, prayer and a wonderful supporting wife Lanre, sister in law Bisola Abike Balogun and bestest Mother-in-law, Abebi. 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

And dèm sabi pray??? Chai! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I no no wettin dem see for my body o, but they stood behind me gàdàgbà! They were like “iwò? We will not gree for you!” 😅😅😅😅

Even my own blood family didn’t know that I was almost gone.

Na so I beat the shit o!

You see, the secret is, I will always consider myself a drug addict.

There is nothing like “ex-drug addict”

You will remain in denial, if you think yourself as an ex-addict.

If you are not careful, you can go back to the habit. So I continue to take one day at a time and face the reality of my past.

I am not ashamed to admit my past, for in it lies my present and my future.

I believe that as long as I admit and share my past follies, I will not make the same mistake again.

I hope many with similar, but secret problems like this, learn by reading this.

Lets jus say, I am a lucky man.

A fucking lucky man.

Soo, you see why I always write humour?

Everyday is a blessing.

You will cease to envy your friend’s Gucci shoes, the day you see someone without legs.

Even common cigarettes, I can never ever smoke again in my life.

So, when I write humour and say 🎵pass me the Rizla 🎵 na joke. I no dey smoke again, 19years after the last sniff or jumbo. 😀😀😀

I thank God and my dear wife, Mòmó Fela for that.

May God give us a good life partner.

As Bob Marley sings : 🎵 when there’s a will, there is always a way 🎵

Selah.

Good Morning and have a wahala free day ☕️☕️🙏🏾🙏🏾

© Mazi Abe and Friends 2020

** This one you can share or even plagiarise sef. As long as it reaches the right people.