YAZIM. Episode 2
© AMAH
I stood there puzzled, I don’t know if i should go front or go back.
“What kind of stupidity is this. this girl just took my money…she said it was hers…in a clear day light, when I’m not dreaming…I feel so stupid right now. how do I go home…what do I do…
I thought to myself as I started walking gently still thinking of what to do, like a joke my money is gone.
I try to wave down few cars but none st©pped for me.
I brou-ght out my phone to call my friend, Luke, to know whether he can help me out.
As I try calling Luke what I heard was “dear customer, your account is too low for this call, plea-se recharge as soon as possible…”
I opened my eyes and stare down at my phone as my frustration grew with every pas-sing second.
I nee-ded to buy airtime and recharge my phone to be able to call Luke but how do I do that when all my money was gone.
I try to st©p speeding vehicles to see if I can get help to any nearest bust©p maybe from there I will start trekking it but I couldn’t get any help.
I started jogging down until I was so exhausted.
I felt so tired and weak and decided to rest.
I saw a boy hawking water and begged him for a sachet of water but he also ignored me and walked past.
Today is definitely the worst day of my life.
I stood up and started walking again, feeling so thirsty.
I saw a girl hawking cold water, I decided to call her.
I asked her to give me a sachet water, and I pretend to have money to pay.
She carried down her bowl and gave me water, it was so chilled just like I have wanted it to be.
After I drank the first one, I wasn’t still satisfied I nee-ded more.
Within seconds I have finished three sachet of water. I collected two and poured on my sweating head, ma-king it five Sachets.
After drinking I felt energized, I was strong again, even if I decided to run away the girl won’t be able to catch me because I have long legs, I’m a fast runner
I looked at the girl staring at me with her whole eye ba-lls as if she can re-ad my mind.
she started acting like I was wasting her time.
I knew what she was waiting, her money, of which I do not have even a dime with me.
but I pretend not to know as I gradually started moving backword just to find enough space and escape.
If I take a step she takes two after me and and Just when I was about to take another step to run the girl suddenly gr@bb£d my cloth.
“Oga, what do you want to do… you want to run away with my money…eeeh?
I looked at the girl, anger was written all over her, I try see if I can pacify her.
” Aaah..ah..calm down… how much is even the money that you are holding me like a thief… I have the money here with me…is not like i don’t have the money o…I do and I wanted to even give you extra cash… more than all the money for the sachet water that I drank…but if you keep embarras-sing me like this…I won’t be able to do that again…be a good girl and relax…I have your money and even extra for you.. st©p embarras-sing me, can’t you see that you are attra-cting onlookers… pas-serby have started looking at us… just leave my cloth first so that I can bring out the money…
“Oga, plea-se forget all this long talk and pay me my money… you are wasting my time… you took five Sachets of water and did not want to pay…
“Is not like I don’t want to pay o…I will still pay if only you will let go of my cloth…
She started acting drama, calling me thief and I saw some r0ûghly looking boys coming towards our direction as she started screaming.
I f0rç£fully pu-ll-ed out her hand from my cloth and pick race.
I ran without looking back, I was hearing many legs running after me, and I guess is those area boys.
I refuse to look back as I kept running.
Thank God for my long legs, I gave them enough gap as I ran with all my strength.
They kept shouting “thief… thief” and more boys c@m£ out to pursue me.
I don’t know how they managed to block me and I ran straight into them and that’s when the beating began.
Even those who doesn’t know what happened c@m£ out from nowhere and join in the beating.
I was beating blue and black with no mercy
As I heard one of them suggest that they should put tyre on my head and burn me.
I started shouting out for mercy.
“Is only sachet water I drank o..is water oo not human being…I only drank water plea-se don’t kill me… don’t kill me…
People were gathering, and nob©dy bother to ask what exactly happened, as different stories started flying around, one said I wanted to use an innocent hawker for ritual. another person said I wanted to r@p£ the girl. still another said I stole a hawkers money and ran away.
I began to wonder if this is how jungle justice happens to the innocent.
One of the area boys who wanted to put a ring of tyre around me was st©pped by an elderly man.
Who asked everyone to calm down as they kept saying different things.
“Everyday for the thief one day for the owner of house…the bush meat has caught the hunter… the wicked shall not go unpunished.
Different insults were hauled at me until the elderly man, who seems to be well respected ask everyb©dy to leave me alone.
I was on the ground crying and thinking if this is how I was going to die.
“Is today going to be my last day on earth”.
I thought of the wicked girl that took my money and started cursing her.
‘it shall not be well with her… God will punish her, that money she took from me will never be useful to her…
I kept cursing and continue to cry for mercy.
I can not die because of ordinary water that i drank because I was thirsty.
The mistake I made was drinking extra and even pouring some on head.
If I knew that it will result to this I would have just keep begging until I see someb©dy who will be kind enough to give me water to quench my thirsty dry throat.
The elderly man asked me what happened and I told him I drank water without paying because I didn’t have money.
He called the Sachet water hawker who was among the crowd to come out.
He asked her what happened and she said I drank five Sachets of her water without paying.
The elderly man brou-ght out money and gave the girl even paid her extra before asking her to go.
And after the girl left, people started leaving one after the other.
The man asked me to stand up.
My face was alre-ady disfigured as I stood.
He gave me money and ask me to also leave.
I thanked him and immediately i started going.
I took a bus home and as I got into the house I began to think of what just happened earlier, I was still in shock just knowing my life would have ended few hours ago if the elderly man did not showed up on time.
I began to shake just knowing I could have being a dead man all because of my foolishness.
I thought how the dropping of money on the ground that works for Luke and he was able to get Ladi, and they have being so close ever since, I thought such method will also work for me but instead it almost killed me.
After treating my injury that those boys inflicted on me, I l@yon my be-d that night and stare at the ceiling as h0t tears burn down from my eyes.
” I will never in my life be foolish again or forget this day in a hurry”
“God plea-se do not forget to punish that girl who took my money, those r0ûghly looking area boys that wanted to Lynch me and plea-se don’t spare even the sachet water hawker… God plea-se punish all of them…but that elderly man… may his days be long…aaah, thank God I did not die today…
I was talking out loud as I kept imagining all the things that happened to me today.
Tbc…