If you haven't read it already, you can read my new short crime story here- https://www.nairaland.com/4979449/sniper-short-crime-story-olumide

Chapter 7: Bisi Sanmi Versus Debby (Part 2)

We were going to write a total of twelve exams in thirty days, so the papers were well spaced, and we had enough time to study in-between. Even with that fact, I still couldn’t totally rekindle the love between Debby and I during this period. We would see, and exchange a few words, but nothing more than that. I was still spending time studying with Desola, Bisi Sanmi and their crew. After a while, it became just Bisi Sanmi and I studying at night, before I would walk her to the front of Moremi Hall, and then head back to class to read some more. By 6am, I would get the first cab home to sleep till afternoon, before returning to school to continue the cycle again.

One night, we had been studying for hours and decided to take a brake. Bisi Sanmi had a textbook wrapped in old newspaper, and I picked it up to read the news on the paper. I got to a word I wasn’t familiar with and turned to her to ask, “What’s cleavage?” She burst out laughing and had to cover her mouth when people started turning around, wondering what was going on. I really didn’t know the meaning of the word; there was no blogs or social media sites over promoting sexuality at the time.

When she stopped laughing, she looked down at her chest, and before she said anything, I got an idea what the word meant. But the thing was, Bisi Sanmi had a flat chest, so she couldn’t use herself as an example. She looked around and then pointed at a light skinned girl seated a few rows in front of us. The girl was sitting backward on the bench, talking to one of her friends, and she had a white plunging neckline top on that showed her cleavage. “That’s a cleavage; the exposed part of her breasts.” Bisi Sanmi said and I went “Oh” as I nodded my head a few times. When I looked at the girl longer, I realized she was the one that had called out Debby for me when I went to see her a few days ago, and I quickly looked away.

When I stylishly looked in that direction again, I saw another girl sitting on the same row with Debby’s roommate now looking at me, and I looked away again. She must think I’m a pervert or something. I thought to myself; little did I know that I knew very little about what was running through the strange girl’s mind.

She was quite pretty; in fact, she was very beautiful- not too slim, not too fat, caramel complexion, and there was a lovely way she smiled while she conversed with her friends. I had never seen her around before, but it seemed she was with the Diploma crew, as I had found out later that most of Debby’s roommates were Diploma students and she was in their circle.

Every time I looked in that direction, I always saw her looking my way. I couldn’t read any longer. I decided to take a walk to clear my head, and maybe buy Tomtom for my breath while at it. I went off, and took a little while before returning as I ran into some old friends who wanted to talk about music and I couldn’t resist it. When I got back, I met the strange girl on my seat, talking to Bisi Sanmi. I said hi to her, and sat on the right side of Bis Sanmi on the bench; the girl was sitting on the left side.

They stopped talking, and the girl left shortly after I got there. And then a few seconds later, Bisi Sanmi started packing our books and asked if we could move to another class. I nodded, and started packing our books, wondering what the heck was going on. Was she angry that the girl wanted to meet me? I wondered. But I got the shocker of my life when we got outside and she told me the girl had actually come there to ask her out.

“What!” I said in a low voice. My brain couldn’t comprehend what I had just heard. My ego was also bruised a bit as I had believed the girl had been checking me out. But more than that, I couldn’t believe this 17 year-old girl was a lesbian; and she was bold enough to ask my friend out.

Bisi Sanmi had probably not experienced anything like that before, as she appeared confused and disorganized. She asked that we go down a few floors to get away from the girl. As we were descending the stairs, we ran into Debby coming up. Even though the staircase was dimly lit, I could read her body language as we greeted each other, and I sensed she didn’t like the fact that I was with Bisi Sanmi.

Bisi Sanmi and I found an empty class to read, and both stayed silent, not even talking about the lesbian girl. Then all of a sudden, she turned to face me and asked, “Why don’t you like me like you like Debby?”

I was caught off guard. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. This was the same girl that had advised me to go see Debby the other day, why is she saying this? I wondered. After several seconds of rambling, I was able to make out these words, “I like you a lot, but I’m a messed up guy, and I don’t want to put you through shiit. You deserve a better guy.” She smiled and looked away. The kind of smile that said, ‘couldn’t you have come up with better bullshit?’ But there was no way I could look her in the eye and tell her the truth; that even though I liked her a lot, I was still obsessed with Debby, and I just couldn’t bring myself to date anyone while there was still a chance I could get Debby.

I don’t know if it was Debby that put the word out, but the very next day, people started approaching me with questions about my relationship with Bisi Sanmi. At the time, there were only two couples in our department, and it was like people were hungry for a third couple the way they jumped on the rumour. Most girls that I didn’t even know knew my name started teasing me, calling me Bisi Sanmi’s husband. I was a very reserved guy, and that started getting on my nerves at a point. And then there was the fact that Sope and Bisi Sanmi never ever got along, so Sope didn’t like the rumour at all. They were always fighting anytime I tried to hangout with both of them. At a point, I even thought they secretly liked each other.

I became like a mini celebrity for the remainder of the week as people kept looking at me with smiles on their faces as they walked past me. It was becoming really annoying, and I made, I think the second dumbest move I ever made in Unilag. I sat Bisi Sanmi down in class and told her we had to stop hanging out for a while till the rumours go away. She felt so dejected hearing me say what I said, but she quickly covered up her disappoint with a smile.

And that was how my friendship with Bisi Sanmi ended. And my pursuit of Debby continued.

I think I should call this a flash fiction...It is just 1,450 words long.

Sniper

By

Olumide Odusanya

Peter was seated on the cold tiled floor of his small self contain room, putting on just his white boxer shorts, with two bottles of Sniper insecticide by his side. He looked at the white bottles and the horror of the damage the content would do to him made him shudder.

He sniffed and wiped tears from his eyes as he got his lanky self off the floor and lazily walked to the window. He had been doing that all morning, like he was expecting someone to come and stop him or someone with some good news. He had already broken his phone and thrown his sim card away as he thought that would buy him some time before his creditors found him.

In just three months, his debt profile had risen from zero to four hundred and fifty thousand with all the apps. In those three months, all his businesses had also collapsed, and he currently didn't have any source of income.

Twelve years of hustling, night and day busting his ass, and he had nothing to show for. He didn't feel like going on living, but he found it so hard to kill himself.

The numerous cases of people committing suicide with Sniper that had been in the news lately had given him the impression that it had to be a quick way to go, but as he sat back on the floor and uncapped the bottle, the vapor from the liquid alone had him feeling dizzy. He stretched his hand to get the bottle away from his eyes as he started to hyperventilate; the thought of ending it all both frightened and excited him. It was a journey he would eventually take, so why not take it now when he didn't want to keep on living. He thought to himself.

He took a few deep breaths and hurriedly brought the bottle to his mouth. He closed his eyes and was about to take down the content in quick gulps when images flashed through his mind, and he halted the process. He had heard stories of people's lives flashing before their eyes at near-death experiences, and he never understood it till now. In a flash, he had seen a flashback of himself playing with his niece, flashbacks of riding his first bicycle, flashback of himself and his first girlfriend making out, and a couple of his other fun memories...all in a flash of a second.
He picked up the two bottles, walked over to his toilet, and poured the contents down the sink. He went on to sit on the toilet floor before busting into tears.

...

At the other end of the city from Peter's apartment in Ibadan was a market called Ojoo. It was a busy place, and even busier today as the Vice President of the country was around, introducing market women to a business empowerment program from his government. He was moving around the market with a big smile on his face as people cheered him on. Little did he know that a sniper had him in a scope a few meters away.

Andrew had Nigerian roots, but was an American trained sniper, who had become an assassin in the Nigerian underworld after his discharge from the military during the U.S war in Afghanistan ten years ago. He was in his forties now, but still slim and physically fit. His job today was his easiest thus far. All he had to do was maim all the secret service men assigned to the VP without hitting the VP himself.

He didn't understand the job, but he never asked questions.

As he stood with his tripod on the window-sill of an empty upstairs shop a few meters away from the busy market, he closed his eyes for a few seconds to visualize how he felt the SS men would react after being hit. His accomplice, Rashidi was breathing down his neck, and he turned around for a second to give him the 'back off a bit' look before taking his stance by the window again. Rashidi was a lot younger and didn’t have the patience Andrew had developed over the years. They both had army fatigue on for easy get away after their operation.

Andrew shut his eyes again for a second, opened his eyes and fired the first shot, hitting the shoulder of the SS man closest to the VP. Without wasting any time, he fired the second shot, and then the third. Under a minute, he had taken down eight SS men, leaving the VP exposed and running for his life like everyone else at the rowdy market.

Andrew moved away from the small window, and Rashid quickly took his place; firing four canisters of tear gas into the crowd in quick successions. Everything happened within five minutes. Even though there was a police station right next to the shopping complex they were operating from, everything happened too fast for them to be noticed. Within minutes of firing the tear gas they were on their individual bikes, riding away from the chaos.
...

By the time they got to their hideout, the news of their hit was all over the news. Some blogs even reported the VP had been assassinated.
Within an hour, they got a call from the middleman who hired them with instructions for one of them to come to the door. Rashidi was cooking, so Andrew walked to the door, screwing a silencer to the small black pistol in his hand. When he opened the door, he saw a duffle bag on the floor. He quickly picked it up, shut the door and walked back into the apartment.

He dropped the bag on the center table of the almost empty living room and unzipped it. After a quick assessment, he was sure it was complete - all £500,000 was there. Rashidi came out the kitchen with two plates of noodles and a smile on his face. He handed Andrew a plate, put his own the table and dipped his hand in the duffel bag, pulling out a few of the bundles of pounds, before dropping them back in the bag. Even though Andrew had done most of the work, the agreement had been to share the money equally as Rashidi was the one that got the job.

They ate in silence, as each man made plans of what he would do next after leaving the hideout with his share of the money. Rashidi was about to put a fork full of noodles in his mouth when Andrew fired three shots at his chest. The fork fell on the table, making more noise than the gunshots. Blood quickly soaked the black tee shirt he had on, and his body slouched forward, dangling here and there. Eventually, his head went bang on the table.

Andrew put the pistol on the table, and finished his noodles. He then proceeded to take a few gulps from the bottled water on the floor beside him before getting up and tucking the gun away behind him. He assumed a squatting position, zipped shut the bag, stood up and headed out the apartment with the bag in hand.

He was going down the stairs, two at a time when he started feeling a burning sensation in his stomach. By the time he got to the ground floor of the two-storey building he knew he had been poisoned. “The freaking noodles.” He said in a low voice and a smile appeared on his face as he leaned on the building wall. Even though he knew he was going to die any minute from now, he couldn’t help but laugh at how unexpected things had turned out.

He saw a lanky guy walking into the compound and waved him over. The guy ran quickly, getting to Andrew in time to support his fall. "It's your lucky day. Take a couple of bundles before you call the police." Andrew said with his last breath before he started foaming at the mouth. Peter laid him on the ground and wanted to run to get help, but he stopped midway when saw there was no use; the man was already dead. He looked around to be sure no one was there before opening the bag. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the money. He looked around one more time before dipping his hand in the bag and pulling out eight bundles of 50 pound notes. He stuffed them in his jeans pocket, took two more and headed to his BQ apartment at the back of the building.

He reappeared moments later, cleared his throat a few times and then started shouting, "Help! Help! Help!"

THE END

Chapter 4

It happened that the owner of the place was friends with the police DPO of the area, and a police van was sent in every night they were closing late to escort them home. Efe was sitting on a bench by the Shawarma spot now, waiting for his order. From following what was going on, he guessed the lady with the khaki shorts was the owner of the joint, and the girl that had been holding him earlier was her daughter.
“It will soon be ready sir.” The Shawarma guy shouted out and it made Efe turn around to look at him; when he looked forward again, by the wall he saw the girl in the white gown throwing up and her lover by her side, holding up her hair. He had smelt liquor on her breath earlier, and knew she had been drinking. The girl’s mom came out of the restaurant, looked at her, hissed, and headed towards the Shawarma spot, with a frown on her face. “Where is Mr. Soji?” She said with a bit of a lisp. The Shawarma guy shook his head and said he didn’t know. Then she said something about them running out of eggs.

Efe didn’t know when he said, “Do you need eggs ma?”
She looked at him curious for a few seconds, and then nodded.
“I sell eggs.”
“Well we have our supplier, but if you can get me 10 crates right now, I’ll be very happy.”
“I can.” Efe said as he got off the bench he was sitting on. He had twenty crates in the boot of his SUV. He had tried to supply them to one his customers in the area earlier that day, but didn’t meet her.
“Do you live around here?” The woman said, studying Efe.
“Yes. But the eggs are actually in my car.” He said.
The woman’s focus shifted to a short man in his thirties approaching them. He was corporately dressed in white long sleeve shirt, tucked into brown colored slacks, and flat sole brown loafers. With a frown on her face she said, “Soji, you are very lucky, I would have fired you this night.” She turned to Efe and said, “He will handle this.” She was heading off, then turned around and walked back. She pulled out a blackberry phone from her baggy khaki shorts and said, “Please, give me your number.”
“Okay ma.” Efe said, collected the phone, punched in his number, and handed the phone back to her.
“These people that are always disappointing us, maybe we can call you once in a while.” She said in a low voice as she stored Efe’s number on her phone. “Okay. Thank you. I’ll call you.” She added and walked off.

“Sir, you are Godsend!” The short man said excitedly as he and Efe approached the 4Runner. “My madam would have sacked me.” He added. Efe smiled as he opened his SUV trunk, carried the crates of egg, and put them on the floor, five crates at a time. They discussed price, and the man was surprised his crate of egg was fifty Naira cheaper than the price they usually got them for. He counted eight one thousand Naira bills and handed them over to Efe, thanked him once again before walking off carrying five of the crates.

Efe went off to get his Shawarma, and by the time he got back, the guy had come back to get the remaining crates. A smile was on his face as he drove out of the premises of fast food restaurant.

Chapter 3

When he had driven about thirty minutes away from home and knew there was no way he could be convinced to turn around, he finally picked her call. “Hello.” He said in a calm voice.
“Efe, what’s wrong with you?” She shouted out.
“What?” He barked back at her.
“I’m at your place. I’ve been knocking and calling for the past 10 minutes.”
“I’m not home. I thought I told you that.”
“It’s a lie. You’re always home by this time.”
“Well, sorry, I’m not home this time around.”
She went quiet as if she had calmed down to listen to the background and notice the noise of cars driving by. “Where are you? It’s 9pm. You hardly go out this late.”
“I had to go…”
“Efe!” She shouted out, cutting him off. “Susan wants to attack me.”
“Wait, what? How did she get out of her cage?”
“Did you tell her I broke up with you?”
He couldn’t help but laugh at what she said. He was about to tell her he would be home soon, but the old man’s face flashed through his mind. Even though he knew he could probably hold himself back from having sex with her if he went back home, he knew they might probably make out, and he didn’t know if that would go against what he was meant to do. “Susan. Susan. Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He heard Maggie say.
“Susan has recognized me now.” She said with a little laugh.
“That’s good. I guess she reacted to your loud threatening voice earlier.”
“What?”
“Yea, you had a loud voice when you first came on the phone.”
“Oh! Okay. So, will you come back now?”
He was quiet for a while, then said, “I’m sorry Maggie…I’m really far away from home.” When she didn’t say anything back, he added, “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.”
……….
He got back to the front of his house around 9:30 pm, and as he was about to drive in, he remembered he still had to make something to eat, so he changed his mind and kept driving down the express way. His house was actually the same house he had lived in as a kid. His father built it along the express when the place was a new sight about 30 years ago, now the whole place was developed as it was one of the major expressways that connected Lagos and Ogun state. Banks had approached the family with mouth watering offers to acquire the house, but his elder siblings were not in support of it. They were five kids. He had two elder brothers, and two younger sisters. His sisters were married, and his twin elder brothers were in America, so he lived in the 5 room duplex all by himself.

He drove his army green Toyota 4Runner into the new fast food joint that had opened along his expressway during Christmas period a couple of weeks ago. The place had a Shawarma spot by the side of the main building, and he planned to grab a medium size Shawarma for the night. He parked facing the main building, turned off the car, and stepped out of the SUV. He was heading towards the side of the bungalow when he heard the sound of Hip Hop music. He turned around and saw a black BMW pulling into the car park a little too fast.

He kept walking, but turned around again when he heard the thin voice of a girl shouting. A thick girl in her early twenties dressed in a white tight fitting gown came out of the front passenger’s side of the car and slammed the door. She started walking away from the car, then turned around and hastened her pace when she saw the guy that had been driving the car was out. When Efe looked well, he saw it wasn’t a guy, but actually a girl dressed like a guy. The slim girl was in ripped sky blue skinny jeans, a black tank top, black face cap, and a gold chain swinging around her neck as she rushed to catch up with her friend.

Before Efe knew what was happening, the thick girl had run up behind him, using him as a shield. “Calm down! What’s wrong?” Efe said to the tomboy dressed girl as she approached.
“Yes! I like guys too. What do you want to do about it?” The thick girl shouted out from behind Efe.
Her friend was hyperventilating now, but she didn’t say anything.
“Yes. I like guys.” She said again, and then started rubbing her hands around Efe’s chest, with her breasts pressed up on his back. He gently tried to pull her hands away from his white t shirt while trying to calm her friend down, but she kept running her hands through his body with the intentions of angering her friend.

“Stop!!!” Efe shouted out all of a sudden and it startled the two girls; the one that had been behind him, left his side, and moved a few feet away from him, looking at him strangely. The tomboy was also looking at him, with confusion on her face. Then a chubby lady in khaki shorts and red t shirt with a white Nike swoosh sign came out of the food joint, shouting incoherent words. She had a speech impediment, but it was clear to Efe that she was used to the two girls fighting and was tired of them. Just then, a police van pulled into the car park of the fast food restaurant.