| DANGER AT DUSK. (PAGE 2) |
| By now, we had somehow gotten out of the inner-city traffic, noise and bustle and were speeding nicely on the long stretch of highways and roads, stopping at a few police check-points along the way. We had not got very far out of Lagos before we started to notice the changing landscape and vegetation. The further we went, the more forest we observed (of course only Wani and I were awake), and everything around us, and as far as we could see, were these large, tall trees with the greenest of leaves and the widest of stems. Wani said some were sapele trees and others were mahogany. The forests looked so dense that I wondered how anything could walk through it. Above the roof of the forest, the subtle blue of the cloudless sky came into view, and I could feel the cool, fresh breeze of the forest shade whiz into the car. After about five hours on the road, we reached the town of Benin. Its brick red earth, narrow roads and dispersed hamlets were instantly familiar. Once the center of the great Benin Empire, the town itself had declined over the decades due to loss of a lot of the youth to commercial centers such as Lagos and Aba. We drove straight to the motor park to obtain some more petrol for the car and then, we drove to the town market where the drivers were going to enjoy a heavy meal of pounded yam and bitter-leaf soup. This routine was not new to us. Father had taken us to the village quite often, on vacation, but that was some time ago. I was very young then. I did not always like going to Nembe, but over the years, I had grown to love its solitary distance from modern hassles like the traffic which we were now in. We reached the main market and everyone got out of the cars to stretch their legs. A little while later, the drivers had filled their bellies and we were once again on the road. It was approaching evening now and the sun was getting ready to go to sleep. After staying awake for most of the journey, I was getting ready to go to sleep too. However, it was not to be. Just as I was about to drift into sleep, a loud �pop� was heard. Our car came to a gradual halt as the driver steered us off the main road. It was a tire puncture. I was too sleepy to grumble. We all alighted, and to our alarm, the car ahead of ours � Father�s wagon, sped away into the sunset ignorant of our sudden predicament. It was getting darker by the minute and though I tried not to show it, I was afraid. �Father and the rest must have gone very far before realizing that we had stopped along the way�, I thought. We had driven southwards and into even deeper forest and the trees seemed to be taller than the tall storey-buildings in Lagos. Everyone was uneasy. Mother, despite all her aplomb at home, could find none of it here � in the bowels of this unknown forest. She trembled uncontrollably with fear. With all this going on, the driver and Wani were feverishly searching for the screw jack with which they would raise the car and replace the damaged tire. No one wanted to waste any time in this dark, eerie place. Adding to our fears was the knowledge that roads on the Benin � Port Harcourt route were riddled with armed robbers, waiting to pounce on innocent citizens. The elusive screw jack now found, the driver began to attach the spare tire. He had almost finished screwing it on when, in the blink of an eye, we found ourselves surrounded. There must have been at least thirty men in all but only four of them came toward us. It was dark already and their features were vague but I could see that they were armed with machetes and daggers. �Where is the money?� they bellowed in unison at mother as though they already knew her. �Eh, eh, here it is�� mother said shakily as she offered the money from her brown handbag. �Give me dat thing�, one of them said in a deep, guttural voice as he snatched the bag away from her hands in one swift motion. �Now� they said, �all of you will lay down flat on the ground and say nothing. �Driver�, come with me!� The driver led the men to their bounty � our luggage. �Wait, wait�� mother interjected. �Shut your mouth woman or else�� one of them had barked. The robber�s voice trailed with aural venom. Mother obliged just like Oikio would to her commands. The men searched frantically for any item of value, and finding a fair share of Oikio�s underwear, they were all the more infuriated. I whispered quite unconsciously to Wani who stood right beside me. I was overheard. * * * � Selegha Michael Daukoru 2001. BACK TO HOMEPAGE TO PAGE THREE(3) BACK TO PAGE ONE(1) |