Sojourn U-turn.

An escape journey goes wrong...

How did I get myself into this nonsensical situation? I sneaked out of my room that morning. The room that I was paying 3k per month for, apart from other "monthly contributions" for the non existent power supply and fuel for the generator that goes down every week like a sickler. I hated coming to this shanty cubicle that is no bigger than those MTN kiosks.  I called it home but I can't sleep on the street now, abi? 

      So my landlady's daughter, I mouth-lashed her well that morning. My landlady was rarely at home so it was her pompous daughter that bossed all of us tenants around. The day you forget to sweep because it rained that morning, or you didn't mop because there was no water, is the day heaven will fall on you in that house.  My next door neighbours, I can't even recognize them but I find it safe to say they had at least a dozen children, perhaps more, plus dad and mum, all crammed into a room. Everybody would bathe, wash cloth and they would cook at least once a day. Yet we had to pay and equal amount of money for water and light. Its unfair now!

 What injustice! Had Buhari been in power that year, I would have reported to him.

        I had been fed up with all of these nonsenses and the young lady came to add her own on top that morning. So don't blame me for telling her that she should take a trip to blazes and take up permanent residence there...at least she should give me breathing space! She was surprised as I had been otherwise reserved in the house and she quickly came around and told me she would make sure I didn't sleep in that house that night.

       Sleeping in the house that night couldn't be farther away from my plans as I already had plans to travel with O. and P. that evening. There was an unwritten rule in the house that anyone who had to travel should go from room to room and inform his neighbours. Okay o, so that they can now use juju to let my motor have accident. Thanks, I wasn't having any of that trash too. 

       After a brief sojourn in O.'s room and lebbing rice and beans concortion, we met up with P. at the park and set off to Oluku. Lest I forget, this was the era of fuel scarcity (I mean, which era is there no fuel scarcity in Nigeria?). The normal transport fare of #200 had sky rocketed to #500 and many drivers didn't even want to go. I would gladly pay even #1000. I sha didn't want to sleep in that house that evening. At about 7:30pm, we finally left Benin and was travelling towards our destination when the driver suddenly stopped and said the fuel will not be enough to get us to our destination. We encouraged him to try a few filling stations but the queue there was enough to make one's head spin inside. 

         The driver gave up after a few tries and headed back toward Benin to drop us at the park. My foolproof plan of escaping from my landlady's daughter suddenly crashed. 

     " So eye yam goween tu sleep in de saim haoz weet dat teribu lady! Gawd! A beg naw" I prayed silently as the car sped toward Benin and toward my landlady's daughter.

           A miracle did happen that night sha...

Author's Note

Ignore grammar problems. This story contains sentences in Nigerian Pidgin English.