₦airaland Forum

Electricboy:
that episode 12 mad o

Glad you're feeling it broa

S02E09


Cletus told me something else that was entirely shocking but first he told me the rest of his story. Apparently, he hoped to cushion the effect of the shocking news with his entertaining story, a plan that worked excellently.
With the truck dead and the bleak situation, the men whispered among themselves that it was better to start trekking. It was Dumebi, one of Cletus' companions who first suggested the idea. But it didn't sell. This was the desert for God's sake, sandstorms, scorpions, mummies and uniform nothingness in all directions. Trekking for a whole week could as well be futile.
Besides, there were no more supplies. The best and only option was to pray and expect another truck.
They shuddered when they remembered the man who died in a praying position.
Suddenly Cletus declared, "let's go." They'd come too far to lose out on their dreams, he said. But other than Ekpo and Dumebi, he was on his own.
They stripped their luggage to the barest and stamped brazenly into the dusty horizon like there was a bus stop next mile.
They'd travelled for a little over an hour when Ekpo heard the sound of revving engine. In a moment, a truck rumbled past in a dizzying cloud of dust. It took them a moment to realise it was their truck. They screamed, waved and danced theatrically, the truck rumbled on mindlessly. For the second time, it was over. Cletus said he'd never been that miserable in his life.
But fortune smiled on them.
After plodding around like idiots till eventide, Ekpo heard another rumble. This time, they successfully stopped and boarded the truck. It was not as full as the previous truck and the occupants didn't mind having others join them. The only thing was that there were two dead bodies riding in the truck with them; the owners unwilling to let go. Incidentally, the truck was headed for Sabratha instead of Tripoli and had left Agadez only three days before. But the boys did not mind.
The rumble continued through the desert for another few days. Cletus and his companions were shocked to again pass by their own truck which seemed to have gotten stuck once more. Only this time, the new truck driver was unwilling to entertain new riders in his truck, so he sped on.
One night as they neared the border town of Libya which could be seen by the bright skylight, another vehicle, a Toyota Hilux drove towards them and ordered them to stop. Their truck attempted to out-maneuver, but it was no match for the sleek Hilux. Men with guns came out and began snaring instructions to the occupants of the truck, all of who came down quietly--they'd had enough on the journey to be fazed by some gun-wielding men. Cletus later found out they were the legendary Asma boys.
The Asma boys was a criminal gang which held migrants for ransom in detention centres and then promised safe passage into Italy on payment of the ransom. Cletus' was $4000, and it sounded funny until the first month passed and a third part of the group was either dead or brutalised.
It was at this point in April 2014 that Cletus called me.

Brainiac12:
This is the reason I don't like reading stories on nairaland small thing buy my story or read it in my blog wtchewwwwwwww

Lol. That's not the issue naa, Thing is I began the story on my blog, and I update there every Sunday evening. The reason why updates are inconsistent here is because the spambot often blocks my posts.
I'll be better from hence. Promise.

Electricboy:
next update on your blog please, what happened to sansa ?

Incoming... Sunday evening...

I started updating late here, the latest update on my blog is S02E11.
Do well to visit and read.
superiorwords.com/blog

S02E08


"You did not know she was pregnant?"
I shook my head, dazed.
“Well, I suppose she was waiting for the perfect moment to tell you.”
My brow creased all the way down. Perfect moment?
"You're saying you're not responsible?" The doctor said, impassively.
I shook my head again, not in reply, but in wonder. How could it be?
Then I told him, as true-to-God as I could.
Sansa had firmly decided against sex until our white wedding. 'Since the wedding isn't much longer,why not wait?' She'd say every time, then tell the story of the little boy who stole his own rice because he couldn't wait. This was why she wouldn't let me live with her at first. She said it was an instruction from her pastor and that she would no longer violate herself. We visited, saw each other frequently, and did all other things but sex.
So whence was this? I couldn't believe Sansa was seeing someone else. I felt like a spinning top whose rotation was coming to a gradual end, sputtering and jerking electrically.
The elderly-looking doctor unpursed his lips finally.
"We found evidence of oral thrush and her body was mostly filled with rashes. It is likely that she has an untreated STI which may have damaged her foetus. In all honesty, the diagnosis has proven to be complicated and I may have to refer you to the University of Benin teaching hospital."
I listened with my head in my hands.
Afterward, he advised me to stay by Sansa and not jump to conclusions yet. He also said not to ask anything until she was well enough to talk.
I just looked on and thought, this man clearly knows nothing about love.
I went back to peep at Sansa snoozing body, I could swear that every iota of affection I had for her was slowly diffusing away, like a gas, moving from a more concentrated region to a less concentrated one.
Her colleagues came from work later, including Shaggy I was told, for I had left to prepare dinner.
The next day, we moved her to UBTH. A surgery was performed. Sansa survived but the complication had affected her foetus and it had to be removed. She was placed under a long rest.
I decided to leave quietly; she'd been too kind for me to disgrace her publicly.
I stopped seeing her, got a job as an insurance broker and moved to another part of town.
I couldn't let one woman ruin me. I had a whole life ahead of me and I was going to live it.
When I told Cletus later, he said,
"I swear, all women are like that."

S02E07


I was on my back on the cold tiles in my room reflecting on Cletus’ riveting story when the knock came. By this time, Cletus and I had been speaking on and off for one week; he’d get called in for work and would be gone, for long stretches at times. Other than the job applications which I was making during the day and the few online jobs I undertook at night, I had time to kill. So whenever I laid down to rest, like this afternoon, there in front of me was Cletus wading in the desert sand, a muslin cloth over his head and dust caked in his beard.
It was Ariyo at the door. Ariyo was one of the janitors at TrustMond; faithful as a dog. I had been kind to him and now he was the chief janitor. I wondered what he wanted, we’d only spoken twice since I left TrustMond. He was succinct.
“Madam collapse for office today.”
“Madam? Which Madam?”
“Madam Sansa. We just hear shout from her office. Somebody say she don die…”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest of it. I dashed out and onto a bike. Only when I arrived St Clarence Missionary Hospital did I wonder how I knew it was here. It was the hospital where I had done the paternity test regarding my run-in with Kome and her child. The nurses recognized me and soon, I was in the room with Sansa. She lay peacefully on the bed. When I saw her chest heaving gently, I let out a long pent-up breath.
“What happened to her?” I asked the nurse who’d ushered me in.
“She must have suffered a heat wave. You know its early March and the heat is much. We are however performing a series of tests right now so as to diagnose her condition.”
“Heat wave?” I said, incredulous. “She works in a bank. The AC is on twenty-four-seven.”
“Oh, well then.” The nurse said resignedly and made to leave. “Do your best not to wake her up. She needs all the rest she can get.”
I ignored her. “Has anyone been here from the bank?”
“Some of her colleagues, yes. They promised to check on her later, perhaps at the close of work.” The door whined shut behind her.
I patted Sansa’s temple, it was moist, and her hair lay in ruffled bangs on her forehead. Her breathing was short and muffled, almost silent.
Suddenly, I became rueful. Sansa rarely got ill but since I got out of prison, it had been one thing or the other. She'd asked me to move in with her but I'd declined saying I needed a job first. Then there was work, she had been pushing herself vigorously because of the forthcoming promotion and Shaggy was a formidable rival. I should have had her slow down. Or maybe it was that sly bastard who did this to her. I resolved to ask Sansa when she stabilized.
I was beside myself all day, even missing calls from Cletus, having left my phone at home. When much later I was ushered into the doctor’s office, I lightened up, expecting the news.
“Miss Ebime is your betrothed?”
“Yes doctor.”
“I need you to take this news as a strong man, okay?”
I nodded.
“There was a complication with the baby…”
“Baby? What baby?”

Brainiac12:
Update iyanyin.......

Yes sir!!

S02E06B



On the seventh day, supplies were running low and suddenly, a group of people were standing in the obscure path, waving frantically and hysterically. Someone whispered that they had either been robbed or their driver had deserted them. Cletus made a mental note to always stay in the truck or hold on to a part of it if Abu ever asked everyone to disembark. It turned out that they’d been robbed.
He couldn’t believe it when Abu stopped the truck, approached them and began to bargain with them, some on their lives. In moments, Abu was rearranging the packed-full truck to the fury of everyone in it, to make room for the new passengers. Of course, it couldn’t take everyone, but the stranded did not mind if a thread was all they had to hang on to.
This was a bad idea because a number of people who didn’t get good grips fell along the way. You just realized that when the truck stopped, certain persons could no longer be found. And you were either glad because you had a little more space to stick out your nose to get a dollop of the dust-ridden breeze or worried because you just could be next.
On the twelfth day with all supplies gone, the truck waded to a stop plunk in the middle of nowhere. Push as they might, it wouldn’t budge. The women wailed, the men bit their fingers. It was over.

S02E06A


From Agadez, the road disappeared; it was all desert, with hot howling winds that filled every crevice in your body with sand. They said there was a trail which only the drivers knew but sometimes missed whenever there was a desert storm.
Cletus learned within the first few days the essence of keeping your property close to your skin. This was after he’d lost his money, his toothbrush and a host of other items. Everyone had a gallon of water tied to the wooden railing and hung outside the truck. Whenever there was a stop, you took out your tin cup, put in some Gari and added water and that was your supper.
When the driver got tired and stopped, passengers alighted and sat or slept in the dust. But no one actually slept because they were protecting their property. Four days into the journey, they lost track of the other vehicles and it became a horror story. At several points, the truck broke down. They had to push and push in the hot sun.
There were bodies strewn everywhere, bodies with passports on them. The whole place was like a graveyard. One time during a toilet break, Cletus and Alex his friend discovered the fresh bodies of two men, one on his back while the other had died while he was praying. They nearly went mad with shock, but the driver acted like it was normal. They buried them, but this was one of many others they saw on the way, of mother and child, of breadwinners who sought to bring their families out of penury …

MightyFortress:
Brilliant Writing. Good job, OP.

I'm honored sir

I'm getting too many blocks from this spam bot argh!
I need a permanent solution.

Brainiac12:
Good work Hydronium

Thanks a great deal Brainiac12

Lavish88:
I just stumbled on this series this morning and I couldn't drop my phone or do anything else until I read it all. Waiting expectantly for continuation.
You're an extremely good writer. Bravo!

So glad you enjoyed it. Hope you keep reading.

mansakhalifa:
Just one question.

How did one man get himself into so much trouble

Nice write. Nice read.

Loooong story.

Thanks man. I hope to write better stuff so you can keep reading.

ChiefSweetus:
Not bad, man.. Well done!

I'm honored to write for chiefs.

ChiefSweetus:
Not bad, man.. Well done!

Thanks a great deal man.

ThePreachersSon:
OP you're doing great, can't wait for the next episode.

Honored, man. I hope you'll keep following

jenifer007:
Just stumbled on this great work this morning....very interesting.... Keep it up

Thanks for the kind words. Do keep reading.

gokecont:
I just stumbled on this morning, and it made my day... Wish I could like this Gooooood why naaaa!!!

Glad to have been able to make as much as a glimmer of your day.

Electricboy:
great story

I'm Honored electricboy. Keep following, lots more coming.

USTAppreciation:
Interesting piece.

You're mighty welcome. Hope you'll keep following

KelvinCoaster:
Speechless.

Hey KelvinCoaster, thanks a great deal. Just trying my little best over here. Hope I'll keep seeing you.
And... Great idea. I'll consider that title... Metamorphosis...

USTAppreciation:
Interesting piece.

You're mighty welcome. Hope you'll keep following

S02E05B


The boys arrived on Monday night, the day most smugglers left town. Abu decided that since it was late, he'd leave with the boys if they had enough passengers by Wednesday night. Till then, everyone had to pay for lodgings and food and water.
On Wednesday morning, a white Toyota Hilux revved up in front of the compound. The car had blacked-out windows and ripped-off license plates and the boys gave a satisfied nod, but a short while later, a dusty truck plodded into the yard, belched a satisfied puff of smoke and halted in the center of the compound.
It was loaded with about five hundred liters of fuel and about three hundred liters of water for the three-day journey. When at last it was time to board, Cletus couldn’t believe how many people showed up outside the compound—over 50 passengers. He and the boys went to reason with Abu but were met with stern looks. The more they argued, the more seemingly comfortable spaces were taken up. When they finally conceded, they had to be crammed at the back of the truck, faces outwards, legs dangling from the parapet and gripping to the sticks attached to the truck to keep them from falling out when the vehicle picked up pace.
They went in a line, a caravan of three cars from Agadez to Durku, near the border of Libya, and when the vehicles zoomed off in a cloud of dust, a loud cry of prayer went up from the passengers, each calling upon his own god to bless the journey.
Prayer or not, this supposed journey of three days through the wilderness took twelve.

S02E05A


Agadez was a squat town, Cletus said, a warren of low clay buildings circling the thirty-meter-high minaret of the grand mosque which could be seen from most parts of the Islamic town. The houses were mostly single-storied with courtyards and windowless walls. The place was mostly quiet until Monday afternoons when preparations went into top gear for the journeys which were to be at night.
Eke had given him the number of a ‘connection man’, and had warned him not to trust anyone. Since Cletus was technically in charge of the gang with him, he bought a new line and called the number. The man, Abu, a Nigerian living and trading in Niger, referred them to his compound and there the haggling began. He would take a hundred and fifty thousand Naira per person. He boasted that he made the journey once a week, that the Sahara was a dangerous place to be—each time the route looked different, thanks to the regular sandstorms which changed the shape of the desert after each gust. He knew the Sahara ‘like his bedroom’ but others didn’t get so lucky, that’s why they died and people heard all that bad news on TV. And once you got lost, you ran out of fuel—and then water. And if there was no water, you couldn’t survive for more than three days. Then there were the bandits, Jihadis and other opportunists looking to steal cars, and kill you or leave you in the desert. Besides, driving them was illegal. What if they were caught? That meant he had to settle policemen and all sorts. By the time he finished, Cletus and the boys were pretty shaken up, so they agreed to a hundred thousand per head, although they later found that they could have paid as low as fifty thousand had they not been sweet-talked by Abu.

I was once again banned by the spambot. I guess it's the content of the story. If by any chance you do not hear from me in a while, you can read from here [url]superiorwords.com/blog[/url]

Slimpotter:
She's blunt and doesn't mince words right?

Yes blunt and as true to herself as can be

Met her at Akefest a few days ago. Strong and imposing personality. Between then and now, I've read the Binti trilogy. Not bad I must say.

mansakhalifa:
OP, might I make a suggestion? I think the word "heralded" should be substituted with "herded" which in my opinion would have been more appropriate.

herald
VERB
heralded (past tense) - heralded (past participle)

be a sign that (something) is about to happen.


herd
VERB
herded (past tense) - herded (past participle)
(with reference to a group of people or animals) move in a group.
"they were herded into a bus"

You're right. I corrected it elsewhere, but didn't effect it here. Thanks a great deal.

S02E04


Mama was beside herself when she heard that her Cletus was alive and well; my brothers as well, although their excitement was hinged on the fact that Cletus would be sending them gifts soon and would possibly ask some of them to come over. They sat many long nights arguing who it should be. The seeming sense of relief in our village was more on the premise that ‘we’ had family in 'obodo-oyinbo'. I thought it was a dangerous move for Mama to have let slip in her excitement and told everyone the story of her son who was once lost but now was found.
Sansa was just as glad, but she felt I urgently needed to find out how Cletus was doing. Did he need help? She pressed further when I asked her what help could I be, impecunious as I was.
I tried to reach Cletus on that line but I couldn't get through. I kept trying for another two weeks, wondering what could possibly have happened to Cletus this time. Just when I was getting thoroughly troubled, my phone rang. Same number, Cletus, his voice bustling over the line like freshly tapped palmwine.
When I asked why he got off the phone, he said he worked as a delivery boy and had prompt deliveries to make. What deliveries? Fresh groceries. Groceries? Yes groceries. What kind? Mumble mumble...
When I sensed he didn't want to talk about it, I asked how he was getting through.
Cletus paused for a long moment and ended the silence with a huge sigh.
He'd rather tell me how he'd been doing than how he was doing, he said. I knew he was up to something but what it was I never knew until he finished. And he didn't finish telling the story until weeks later.
That fateful day in April 2017, he'd sent me a text message as soon as he set out of our apartment in Okpanam which somehow I never got it. The text was a scalding one, it said, he was leaving for yankee and I needn’t bother looking for him since I couldn't provide the money he'd asked me.
The correct process was to fly to Dubai, and take a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur, but Cletus did not have enough money, so he followed Eke’s advice. After all, Eke had done it and had successfully ‘crossed over’ to the other side. Eke's advice and therefore the plan was to travel to Libya through Niger by road, cross into Italy by sea, and end the rest of the trip by road. It was really easy, said Eke. And since Cletus loved travelling, he'd relish every moment.
By the time I was ransacking garages and friends’ homes for my brother—going as far as MM2 in Lagos, Cletus was safely in Asaba, in an associate's house, chilling and waiting for night to dawn. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one, there were four others whom Eke had ‘mobilised’ to come over to Malaysia. They were to follow a small VW Golf by night journey which was meant to be delivered to a client in Lagos the following day. So while I was sweating my hide travelling to Lagos, combing MM2 for Cletus, my rascally brother was in a car cruising down to Lagos, and when I was on my way back the following day, he was in a bus headed for Niger republic. This hot bumpy bone-crunching twenty-something-hour journey to Agadez, the southernmost edge of the Sahara was where the bus, the comfort and the ease stopped.
It was where the nightmare began