It was just six pm, and everyone was seated silently in the sitting room, the ceiling fan spun slowly, the annoying sound of the bad generator could be heard by the entire neighbours, its fumes was enough to make a chemical weapon, all the doors and windows facing the corridor where the generator was, were shut tight, so the family had no idea what nuisance their generator was constituting outside. 

Even as everyone sat silently, the TV was left on, the volume muted, to serve as light in this family panel, since the generator just damaged the last bulb in the house; and Mr. Abati was not ready to get another one that will last only for a night until he calls an technician to know what was wrong with his generator.

Mrs. Abati sat on a cushion twined like one dying of cold and shaking her head in disappointment, stopping to look at her first son at any given chance, then taking another sigh and continued shaking her head. 

Mr. Abati was the first to break the silence, with his usual long boring tale of how he was a good lad growing up, loved by all and never caused trouble for his parents, then he went straight to another boring tale of listing the crimes committed by his seventeen year old son, who was about to enter the university in the coming month, and how just this evening, their neighbour had come to complain that he saw his son with some gang in a bar drinking and smoking Indian hemp. 

Mr. Abati yelled of how he never did this when he was young and why will God choose to punish him like this, he ended his speech this time, speaking directly to his first son,
 ‘if you choose to be useless, its fine by me, it’s your choice, after all you are not my only son, I have hope on others'
While he continued yelling, his son wept silently on the inside,  not for the words of his father, but for the pain his mother was going through because of his behavior. She was a woman with a bad heart condition and his behavior was compounding her problem.

When his mother spoke she said, 'my son it's either you wake up and make up your mind to be the good son of a good father or the bad son of a good father'. She led the family night prayer and left everyone in the sitting room, to continue weeping in her room. The father yelled again; see the pain you are causing this innocent woman, he pick up his car key and his bible and announce to everyone he was going for fellowship. 

His siblings increased the volume of the TV immediately their dad left and soon his son left also the house, telling his siblings, he was going to church to pray.

Six compounds away his friends were waiting to take him out to celebrate his recent admission into the university, they choose to drive to a small hotel outside their area, where they are sure no one will know them. When they got there they ordered for drinks, his friends laughed and made fun of him calling him a pussy because of his refusal to smoke and drink alcohol, but they gave him the assurance that once he gets to the university his holy attitude will change. he narrated to them what transpired at home, how his neighbour reported him to his parents after seeing him with them and concluded that he was smoking with them. 

After gulping two bottles of malt, he left the group to pee, on his way he heard a familiar voice talking with a prostitute, he ignored it and went on to pee. On his way back, he still heard the familiar voice, this time too familiar to ignore and his curiosity made him to investigate. 

He was sure his father was still in church as fellowship usually closes by 10pm, but he decided to take a peek at the man that sounded like his father. He saw the a back of the man with a bottle of beer on one hand and a lighted cigarette on the other, his arms on the shoulder of a prostitute  casually giving him a kiss and telling him not to forget to buy Tom-Tom on his way home. He gently walk pass the man, his curiosity made him to turn back and look at the man’s face and when he did… father and son made eye contact, for a seconds they stood petrified staring at each other, but they soon looked away and pretended they never saw each other.

When he got home, while his siblings were asleep he stayed up waiting for his father to return from fellowship, when he finally came in, father and son sat down staring at each other, trying the read the other's mind. His son broke the silence, i have made up my mind dad, I want to be the good son of a bad father. 
The father only bend his head and muttered what sounded like, I am sorry.