“Oshòdì Òkè!"
The conductor shouted and jumped down from the bus before it rolled to a stop.
“Enter with your shange
oh!”
The crowd at the bus stop surged towards the bus and struggled
to get on it. Chinomso stayed back and watched in satisfaction as more than
half of her fellow would-be passengers got on the bus. At least, there would be
a better chance for her with the next one.
"Abeg moff
oh" the woman selling pepper by the side of the road snapped, sprinkling
water on her cherry ripe tomatoes and anyone who didn’t move far away enough
from her wares. The woman’s little toddler found it funny and giggled. Chinomso
eyed the woman and moved away from her. Sorry
oh, as your father has paid Fashola for the road now, she murmured under
her breath and hissed. The toddler watched her leave and stuck his tongue out
at her. It’s not your fault oh. One day,
you’ll be in my shoes.
Ten minutes later, there was still no bus in sight and the crowd
had tripled. She brought out her phone and started to chat with her friend on
WhatsApp.
> Pls kp a seat 4 me, still @ Airport rd, waiting for a bus
> Babe hurry oh, test starts at 12
> Yeah, I knw. bloody fuel scarcity!
> Kpele!
>People are not smiling at all oh! Na to fight kung fu enter
bus today oh!
>Lol!
The shouts of the crowd dragged Chinomso’s attention away from
her phone. They were all screaming and pointing at the pepper seller’s toddler
who had somehow slipped through the crowds from under his mother’s eye onto the
road and right into the path of a pick-up truck. Chinomso didn’t think, she
simply dashed across the road, snatching the boy on her way. He had been so
close to the pick-up that Chinomso actually scratched the back of her hand on
the rusted grill on the front of the pick-up. Everything happened so fast and
all she remembered was the wind in her face, throwing her fake Brazilian weaves
all over the place. She stood panting on the other side of the road with the
dazed child still clutched in her arms. The mother crossed the road and
approached her with a glazed, shocked look on her face. Chinomso handed her the
child and watched as she shrank away from her in fear. Àjé. That was
what her eyes said. She looked around at the crowd that was starting to close
in on her and she saw the same look on their faces.
“How did she get
there so fast?”
“She disappeared!”
“I didn’t even see
her pass and I was closest to the road.”
“Ó gbófe ni oh!”
“This one na mammy
water!”
“E dey fly
for night…”
“Tuffia!”
Yet again, she didn’t think, she just got the hell out of there
and all her would-be lynchers felt was the draft of air she left behind as she
ran all the way to Oshòdì without stopping.
