The Series Of My Life - Season 2 - Episode 25

4 years ago

The Series Of My Life - Season 2 - Episode 25

THEY WERE SCARED

I got to Austria and called Amechi, a man
from my village who had lived there for years.
He had traveled since 1998 and had never
returned back to Nigeria. My elder brother
who was his schoolmate during their secondary school had given me his number.

He picked my call and asked who I was.

After the introduction, he agreed to meet
with me at the Wien Florisdorf train station
in an Hour.

( Vienna is called Wien in Austria and
Germany. It is actually pronounced Vien.

Vienna is the English name chosen from
Vienna in Italy.)

I got to the station and settled inside a coffee
bar to wait for Amechi. An Hour passed
without seeing him. I called his phone again
and it had been switched off. I waited for
another 20 minutes and tried to call him
again, the number was still switched off.
I decided to spend the rest of the day in
Vienna before going back to Germany.
I got out of the station and called a cab.
”Take me to a nice hotel” I said to the
driver in German.

The official language of Austria is German. I
believe it was the only language too.

The cab looked on The mirror several times
and I suspected that something was wrong.
”Warum willst du in den spiegel schauen
(why are you looking in the mirror)” I
asked?

He said the Police were following us.
I asked him why, knowing that it was a silly
question.

He didn’t know but he said it could be that
they were actually following me. I suspected
the same as well.

I had spent over an hour in the train station
waiting for Amechi. They must have thought
that I had entered into Austria to deliver
drugs since I was making calls from the coffee
bar.

There were police stations in every major train
station in Germany and Austria. They must
have seen me from a spy camera in their
office.

We got to a clear road and the cab stopped.

The Police had blown their siren once which
signified stop.

I sat inside the passenger side of the cab and
pretended not to be aware of what was
happening. The cops came to our car and
asked the driver where we were going, he told
them that I had requested for a hotel.

They asked for my papers and I handed it
over to them. They asked me to come down
from the cab with my small bag.

One opened my bag while the other was
asking me where I had come from.

I told them that I had just come from
Slovakia where I had gone to purchase used
clothes and that I was going back to Portugal
but had decided to wait until the next day.

They opened my passport and saw Slovakian
Visa and bus tickets.

The one holding my papers told the one with
my bag that I had not come from Germany
and Switzerland as suspected.

They closed my bag and papers, handed it
back to me and apologized for the waste of
time.

We continued our journey to the hotel. The
cab driver stopped at the Kaiserin Elizabeth
hotel in the middle of the city. I paid him
and he left.

I entered the hotel lobby and it was a 5star.
I hated 5star hotels, they were all expensive
for my liking.

As an African poor boy, I was not raised to
live in such luxury.

But since I was there already, I walked to
the lady receptionist who welcomed me with a
warm smile.

”I need a room for the night” I said.
She handed me the paper containing the
prices of each suit and room.

1 – Super luxury suit = €2250.90
2 – Lite Luxury suit = €2000.90.
I scrolled fast down to the tail end of the
paper.

8 – Standard room – €450
9 – Normal room – €300

That was it. Why would a human being pay
over €2250 (400,000 Naira) for a night
in a hotel suit?

I could easily afford to pay €300 for a
Normal room but what was the need when I
could also drive further down and get a room
for €50 ?

I was contemplating leaving the place when a
group of four men showed up.
”we booked Suit 11 please” one of them
said.

The lady receptionist had focused on them and
I was just left there with the paper still on
my hand.

A closer look at the group and I was almost
shocked.

There standing with other three men was
Roger Federer, a famous Tennis star I had
been seeing only on the Television. Then I
understood why a €2250 suit was too
expensive for me.

For the reason that I had seen Federer, I
decided to take the €300 room.

I waited for them until they finished signing
their receipt, then I paid and signed my own
receipt. I got my keycard and took the lift to
the top floor where the room was located.
Whether it was worth it or not, I didn’t
care anymore.

I recalled the day I bought a first class ICE
train ticket from Berlin to Frankfurt. I had
sat on the first class coach and when our train
stopped in Hannover, Angela Merkel entered
with some other politicians I didn’t know.
She was not the German Chancellor then but
she was the leader of her party CDU. The
bottomline was that ” if you want to meet
with the society big wigs, you must behave
like them”. You can’t meet President of
Nigeria in Ajegunle.

I dropped off my bag, took a bath, wore the
cleanest jean I found in my bag, sprayed my
channel perfume and took the lift down to the
hotel bar/restaurant.

I had hoped that I would find Federer and
his group there sooner or later and I was
right.