Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E66

2 years ago

Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E66

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 66

The bike surged forward throwing me backwards. He drove forward towards Lagos Island then he suddenly turned sharply and next thing I knew we were on the other side of the road heading back towards the roundabout. He went up the bridge towards VI, snaking through cars and accelerating as if he wanted me to fall off. I was having a hard time holding on to him and keeping the bag on my laps.

He bent his body to the right and we came down the bridge heading towards Lekki Epe express way. At this point he speeded faster than I’ve ever experienced on a motorcycle. We were coming up to traffic lights and LASTMA officials when the lights turned red, but rather than slow down I felt my body suddenly lurch backwards as he sped towards the junction that was about to be crossed by impatient motorists who had just been given permission to cross.

I think I screamed; I’m not sure, but I peed. He was driving as if he thought we were being followed. I was trying to see where we were going but the wind was rushing at my face so much and forcing water out of my eyes that soon, squinting wasn’t enough and I had to close my eyes.

When I felt us swerve again, leaning dangerously close to the ground, and I heard voices shouting curses at us, I ventured to open my eyes to see where he was going. He had turned off the express way onto the road leading to 1004. He drove up a distance then suddenly did that thing he did at Falomo when he suddenly turned and faced the other side. This time he stopped almost as soon as he turned and when I was still contemplating placing my shaking legs on the ground, a hand reached out of a black Passat parked next to us. His helmet was turned backwards looking at me, waiting for me to hand the money over. I lifted the bag off my feet and tried to look past the hands waiting to get them and into the car. Once the man had the bag in his hand the biker kicked off again, this time almost really making me fall off. I turned to see what the Passat was doing but the biker suddenly shunted in front of oncoming traffic and I had to look forward to know where to ‘fall well’ if I was going to fall. Before I knew it we were back on Lekki Epe expressway speeding towards the new tollgates.

As soon as we passed the tollgates he stopped, in the middle of the road, and nodded for me to get off. Apart from the fact that it was the middle of Lekki Epe expressway and I wasn’t ready to be hit by bankers rushing to get to work in VI, I was also acutely aware of the fact that I just handed over twenty-five million naira to a pair of hands in a Passat and I’d not yet collected what I paid for. I stayed put. I didn’t know if he could hear me but I asked all the same. “What off my friends?” I shouted into his helmet.

He didn’t answer me. He shook the bike as if to scare me to get off – big mistake. I wrapped my hands around his body tightly and I screamed into his helmet again.

He let go of the handles and tried to peel my hands off his body. That was when I bit him, or at least tried to, through the think leather thing he was hearing. I didn’t see his elbow coming but I felt it meeting my jaw. I pulled him with me as I fell off his bike and the bike fell with us. He was trying to pull his leg free from under his machine but I wasn’t bothered about mine; I just wanted him to tell me where the people I had paid for were.

I decided to go for his helmet. Somehow I felt unmasking him would defeat him and give me the upper hand. It worked. He stopped fighting me and started struggling to keep his helmet over this head.

As we struggled on the floor I saw people running towards us from the tollgates. Some cars had even parked on the road and their occupants where either part of those coming towards us or they were looking at us waiting to see if they were needed. That is one of the things I love about Nigerians: you cannot beat a woman in public and expect to get away with it. He also saw them coming, some of them with sticks, and this must have made him panic. He left me to trying to get his helmet off and focused all his attention on getting his leg free from under the bike. He succeeded. He got onto his feet, quickly finding that he could not stand well on the leg that had been under the bike, then he looked at me on the floor, and even though his face was covered behind the visor of his helmet, I could feel that he wanted to deal with me.

He looked up at the people rushing towards us. I expected him to pick up his bike and try to get away but he did the most unexpected thing; he started running towards them.

Strangers who a minute ago had been running to help me even though they didn’t know me suddenly parted for him to pass or ran backwards as he charged at them. He sprinted past them through the passage they had made for him and he jumped into a car with the backdoor wide open. The car speeded off screeching.