The chill breeze of midnight air
caressed my flesh. My eyelids rose reluctantly, giving the boys beneath a faint
view of total darkness. With my spine leaned on an electric pole, it was easy
to decipher that I was in the wrong place. I pulled my mobile phone, flipped
the screen and met the horror I had once feared; it was 1:42am, and I had dozed
off by the roadside in Odukpani junction!
I rose in the confusion as if to
take a decision. The once busy road had turned to a graveyard. Memories of
zombies and wild animals crept surreptitiously through my clouded mind.
I could recall, faintly, that a
bus conductor had told me to wait for the next bus…I guess I was still waiting
when sleep visited. My khaki trousers covered my lower being from the cold. I
looked around and found a companion. Oh, it was a huge log of wood, I noticed
as I walked closer. Smart enough, I formed a second log beside the original one
and cuddled the cold wood like a newly purchased teddy. As I turned, my small
diary tickled my buttocks from my hind pockets.
Just as sleep took another
stroll around my eyelids, two lights shone from behind my sleeping companion.
Hoarse voices followed them. I fumbled around for my NYSC Identity card, and
found it on my neck. Unfortunately, before I could get it unhung, a whistle
went off. Footsteps sneaked up to me from all directions. I quietly arose;
hands in the air in an “I surrender” fashion. This didn’t help because dogs
don’t understand these signals. I stood face to face with two hunters,
struggling to call off their hunting dogs. I lifted my now weightless bag and
vanished as far as my feeble feet could carry me.
As fast as I thought I was, the
pack growled right behind me. Just as I was about giving up something went
wrong: the ground beneath my feet had given way and I floated mid-air for about
14.52 seconds. Then followed a loud thud, then two others…the dark vision
became a semi-trance, and I passed out.
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