Must Read: Igbo-Smoking Keke Driver ( Short Story ) - Season 1 - Episode 4

7 years ago

Must Read: Igbo-Smoking Keke Driver ( Short Story ) - Season 1 - Episode 4

Once again I became very apprehensive though I wasn’t quite sure why. I looked around me, there were people everywhere. The bus stop was busy as usual, with people selling their wares, buses looking for passengers, and the destitute begging for alms. I looked at the time, it was 7.49am. At least he should have been half way here by now. I decided to wait.

Twenty minutes later and I was still standing there. There was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind but I kept shaking it off. I was now very late for my Onitsha appointment which was supposed to start by 8 o’clock. I called the number again, twice, but this time there was no response. And that nagging feeling kept growing.

By now the motor park touts had noticed me. I guess they were wondering why I had not entered any of the buses. I ignored their stares and focused on all the Kekes coming down the road, checking them all, broken windscreen or not, for the thin unkempt driver, my knapsack held loosely in my left hand.

From the corner of my eye I saw someone approach. He was obviously one of the touts. He walked up to my side and stopped, it appeared he wanted to do something but was hesitating.

By now I had begun to boil with rage. It was finally dawning on me that I was being played. It was obvious I was being watched, I had had the feeling for about ten minutes. The tout by my side finally turned to me and at the same time I faced him squarely. I don’t know the kind of look on my face but I saw his eyes widen in surprise and he warily took a step back. I turned away from him and pretended to still be scanning the horizon for the keke but in reality I was trying to come to terms with the fact that the Igbo-smoking keke driver had deliberately kept me here to either make his getaway or do something more sinister. I didn’t know whether to continue my journey to Onitsha or to go back home.
I didn’t know when another tout came to my other side. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Bros…” A deep, guttural voice.

I turned to face him. This guy was huge, dark, well built, clean-shaven with a faded silver ring on one of the fingers of the giant hand he was now resting on my shoulder. He sported a green polo shirt and khaki trousers.

“I am waiting for someone!” I said as I gripped my knapsack tighter.

He removed his hand from my shoulder.

“Sorry bros, I just wanted to know if this is your phone.”

I looked down at his other hand and there was my android phone! I had cracked the screen down the middle and so I recognized it immediately. I grabbed it from his hand and then looked back at him, puzzled.

“But, you are not the one that took my phone.”

“Sorry bros,” he said again politely, “The guy dey there. Him dey fear say u fit vex for am na hin he come say make I give am to you.”
I turned around and lo and behold, there was my dirty looking, red eyed igbo-smoking keke driver, standing nervously in a corner and smiling most genially at me.

I was totally confused. I walked up to him and he came forward.