It is 6:30pm now and our driver is still missing. Jewel Chima is getting increasingly worried. “Maybe we should go and look for him.”
“For where?” I ask.
“Maybe he go shit?” Oliseyenum Amaka says, shaking her head.
“Pesin dey shit for over one hour?” Ifeoma Ojeifo is really bitter and it’s evident in her voice.
“Or maybe a Lion has eaten him up or a constrictor has swallowed him.” Emefile Francis Waje says, laughing.
“Abeg make una come make we act film. This place dey nice to shoot movie clip.” Peter says, bringing out his phone.
“And you know what’s worse?” Ken asks. We are out with the others now. “There is no single network here.”
“Ei God!!!” Everybody exclaims.
“So that’s how our driver vanished into thin air?” It’s Mhiz Fidel Nkemchoro Pfc. She is still scribbling.
“Maybe he is an evil spirit. And he has brought us here for sacrifice.” David Victor suggests and everybody keeps quiet.
Amaka looks at him with ‘bad eye’. Then Arere Doris Elohor speaks up, her voice shaking, “Biko… Let us go and look for him. Maybe he went to pee and he got lost.” She pleads.
After a while, everybody decides to go and look for him. We all huddled to the edge of one part of the road that begins into the thick forest. But there is a problem. Nobody wants to go in first.
“Oya make the men go first na. We go follow una.” Doris suggests.
“No,” I disagree.”Some men should be at the front and the others at the back. We will stay in the middle.”
All the ladies agree.
Then Beola Blade bursts out laughing. “I think sey una be feminists? Haha so who will protect us the men? Kpekeres!”
The men agree with laughter and nods.
Then everybody keeps quiet, waiting.
When after a few minutes, nobody makes a move, everybody returns to the bus, some hissing, some of the ladies, insulting the men. Zuby Baron suggests we should try to stop a car that will take one or two of us to town to get fuel. Then whoever knows how to drive will drive us and we will forget the driver ever existed. But well, it’s a little past seven now, and no cars are passing by. There is no network to contact anyone from outside here and the sounds of nocturnal animals are beginning to come from the forest.
How do we survive the night?
***
It’s night now and we are all bundled up together inside the bus, the doors locked. It feels eery and extremely cold, and almost everybody is looking for somewhere warm to sneak into. Emefile pulls out a thick coat from his bag and wraps it around him. I snuggle closer to Ken, our bodies producing heat for each other. Zuby and Jewel are kissing . Doris is lamenting and regretting why she did not follow her boyfriend’s bus earlier. Ifeoma is cursing loudly and wishing for her Alhaji husband.
Then suddenly…
We hear a very loud unearthly shriek from outside and everybody stiffens.
TO BE CONTINUED
P. S: This series was first written in 2017 and posted on Fortune Aganbi’s facebook wall. For reasons personal to the writer, she has decided to not alter, edit or change anything about the original stories.
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