₦airaland Forum

Debbietiyan:
That was officially my first trial at speculative fiction. Judging by the response I got, it's obvious not many people enjoyed it. That doesn't mean I'd stop writing them though...I believe in Persistence. Shout out to Alennsar (you're the main reason I chose to paste the complete story here on NL). I really hope I'll post more here, but no guarantees. God bless you all.

That

was


AWESOME!!!


I've been away from nairaland for so long, will probably disappear again soon, but I must say if I had seen this earlier, we would definitely have connected. Your "imagination" is great, beyond par from many here. Your use of English wonderful, no mistakes or tense errors. And of course, being a huge 'fan' of the supernatural, I enjoyed every bit of your story. You actually made me stop doing my assignment angryface
Nice one. Very nice.

Debbietiyan:
yes she is. Had to cut the story...I just don't want it to end .

That's a mistake because it is very interesting.

gracile:
Royver, Tiffanyj, kingphillip, kingspen, repogirl, larrysun, misspicey, missmossy, safari, divepen, thronekid, oluwabuqqyolo, theagba

Are this bosses still on nairaland

We watch from the shadows.

Good job.

Watch your tenses.

CRASH DATE 4:

There was a dull ache in my head and ankles as the pod woke me up from cyber-sleep. I was about entering Earth’s atmosphere and even though the escape pod was perfectly capable of landing itself, I had programmed it to awaken me just before it descended into the planet so I could choose a safe place to land. The earth appeared a little different from what was present on the archives. It appeared darker, less green, more polluted; an obvious sign of human infestation. I quickly updated the archives and did an even quicker bio-scan of the planet.


Earth has evolved into a world of two dominant civilizations and seven super-sub species including the universally ubiquitous and peace-loving dolphins. Of course the two dominant civilizations are humanoid, one living on the surface of the planet and the other living within the crevices of the Earth’s seas. Both civilizations appear grossly unaware that the other exists as there is no trade or communication between both that the bio-scanner can decipher. I quickly discarded ideas of inhabiting with the sea dwellers as aqueous bodies are not a Thesbian species forte. There is a reason my species has 2 pairs of lungs; no matter how thin the air gets, we will survive, which is why we are most comfortable in cloud cities and high altitudes (sic. Edited for your understanding, Amaefuna). We as Thesbians are a free airborne race and do not do well at low altitudes such as those the ocean depths provide. The vacuoles in our bones would simply implode without adequate protection. Anyway, the sea dwellers out of the picture, I focused on landing my ship on the land mass with the least sophisticated signal detection devices.


I located a continent that was dark, devoid of maximal development, but rich in vast mineral deposits, rare metals, and relatively lush greenery. Perfect for refueling my starship. It was night time and one of the regions on this continent was darker than most, proving a perfect cover for my landing. Humans are known all over the universe as extremely inquisitive creatures. If even one of them was to spot me landing I would either be worshiped as a god or dissected for their nefarious studies before sunrise. I had to be extremely careful. I steered my pod noiselessly for the banks of a river and made a perfect landing. As my pod touched down on the still waters, there was a general rustle as the local primitive nocturnal wildlife scattered in various directions. I had chosen a village settlement situated at a river bank and I maneuvered my escape pod beneath one of the primitive houses held above the water with long bamboo sticks. My pods engines hardly made a sound as it burrowed into the soft earth and camouflaged itself to look like a rock. From inside the pod I scanned the area once more for humanoids but the closest ones were a female and her male offspring inside the hut. The other huts were further upstream and were too far away to cause any nuisance.


I alighted from my vehicle and stepped unto the soft mushy earth. I had landed in a swamp. I collected as many valuables as I could carry including an artificial human suit my escape pod had synthesized over the past three days. I crosschecked if everything I needed was with me. Finally, I nodded in satisfaction and took a few steps away from the pod before I noticed my reflection in the water.


I let out a huge sigh. Thesbians and humans are not too far removed from one another when it comes to anatomy. I have the basic structures; one head, two upper limbs, a torso and two lower limbs. But that’s about it. For some reason the humans have lost their tails. Mine is a lush green and black colour and is about a meter long. Squashing that into the human suit is going to be a pain. Same pain I was going to feel squeezing in my ten fingers and toes on each hand and foot. Humans are also not double hinged, their limbs bend in only one plane which is odd but suitable for them, I guess. I have four eyes like any other decent species, humans have only two (some have three). Being an omnivore, my dentition is similar to theirs, but my tongue changes colour when it perceives different scents and tastes. Human tongues cannot smell, only taste, and does not change colour. I’ll have to remember that. Apart from that and my two hearts, four lungs, two livers and three stomachs, the rest are minor issues (Except for the vitamins and their effects on me, which I was not aware of at the time of writing this report).


Getting in and out of a human suit is not easy but I was going to have to get used to it if I was to survive on this planet. I stripped out of my clothes and protective gear until I was stark naked and neatly packed my clothing into the pod. I donned the human suit; it was a little tight at first, but as soon as I put it on it adjusted and reconfigured itself to give me as much comfort as possible. I then clicked a series of keys on the pod’s remote on my wrist causing the pod to submerge further into the mud until it was no longer visible. I inspected myself in the water’s reflection one more time and satisfied with the result, I proceeded to the hut.


As I approached, I heard the baby boy crying irritably as the mother sung a lullaby to try and soothe him. I climbed up the crude ladder to the door and on hearing my approaching footsteps the female stopped singing.


“Pereyei…Pereyei! Is that you?” She asked in her local dialect. I held up my bio-scanner and coughed to encourage her to speak some more so I could download her language’s consonants and vowels.


“Who is there? What do you want? If you are a thief there is nothing to steal oh and my husband will soon be back! He is a vigilante and has a gun!”


The bio-scanner clicked. Download complete. I brought the scanner to my eyes and used alpha rays to quickly upload her language into the speech center of my brain. I mumbled a few words to myself to get the accent right.


“I’m sorry ma. Please don’t be frightened, I am a stranger and I lost my way. Please If you can direct me to the nearest habitable city I will be very grateful.”


I tuned my voice down to just the right pitch so that it appeared humble and trusting. It worked as I felt her relax and approach the door.


“The town is far from here oh. These are the creeks. You will need to go by boat tomorrow morning.” She replied from behind the door. The baby in her arms was silent. It was either listening in or had gone to sleep.


“Thank you ma. Please I will stay on the boat under your hut, I believe it is yours? I will like to stay there till morning if you don’t mind as I don’t know my way around. Thank you.”


I could sense her thinking whether she should trust me or not. Finally she gave a sigh and opened the door. The primitive lamp from inside the room was surprisingly bright and illuminated me fully and I had to shield my eyes momentarily to avoid the glare.


“It is ok, you can stay in the verandah until my husband comes…” she began, and then she stopped short as her eyes widened. She suddenly took two quick steps back and screamed loudly.


I was stunned and took a few steps back as well. I quickly inspected my body to see if I left any alien parts out. Nothing seemed out of place. Then why was she…


“Hey, Mr. Man! What are you doing with my wife?!” I heard a shout from what could only be a human male behind me. I turned around slowly and sure enough he was standing belligerently at the foot of the ladder, a primitive gun in his hand pointed at my chest. I studied his appearance and compared with mine.


It was then I realized I had not put any human clothes on. I was completely na.ked!

[quote author=luminouz post=56830161][/quote]Lol, thanks so much for your enthusiasm bro, but this isn't a collaborative thread. I saw you and gold.enheart's responses on the secrets thread and it inspired me to write this story. I was going to mention this after my opening post but got called away on some emergency. Just got back online now. You're very welcome to come along for the ride. Thanks man.

Goldenheart:
My secret is I am a from another planet, ... My ship crashed in Nigeria and now am stranded..


Help!

luminouz:
Now I have a kindred spirit.....am from d Hapes cluster....we were on a mission to colonise d ocean depths(we re amphibians) when our ship crashed n only urs sincerely survived....I have been blending in for d past 20 years....I just wanna go home.....let's make it happen bro!!!

CAPTAIN'S SURVIVOR'S LOG. THESBIAN RECRUIT. PLATOON 5 - MAINTENANCE CORE

36/05/3404 ON LAST DATE.

CRASH DATE 1[Edited to the local dialect "Engrish" at the request of my host human, secret keeper and roomate, Amaefuna]


My name is Locar don, a Thesbian recruit aboard the Star-ship Recluse. Following the recent scarcity of mineral resources, our vessel was on a mission to trade plutonium from the Scabites in Sector 3, a route that would take us directly through the infamous milky-way galaxy and human habitation; thus, we decided to go behind Saturn's inner rings to avoid detection. Albeit a risky venture, but the Thesbian nation has been in dire need of energy following the last political conflict on our planet. Captain Uber don is a skilled pilot and can fly circles around the best of our fleet. Unfortunately even he couldn't maneuver around Saturn's deadly rings. We came across an unexpected meteorite shower which tore into our left flank and destroyed five engines. The Captain was able to steer the ship to the only habitable planet on our records where we crashed violently into a canyon. The impact killed everybody on board except me, which is why I have the authority to input this data in keeping with protocol.


On first inspection on my exit of the starship unto Mars, it became obvious that I would need to do an update on our history books. The Red Planet is dead. I have been wandering around the canyons for days and have not found a living soul. There are a few silicon based shrubs here and there, and some sign of bacterial life, otherwise the planet is empty. High levels of radiation from their atomic wars still remain, a deadly reminder of the terrible things that happened here. All the cities and countries, all the people have been blown away to red dust. What we thought was the most habitable planet is no longer habitable.


Mars is dead. They finally destroyed themselves.


I shudder at the human race.


I had to return back to the Ship after a while to see if the life-detection computers were still working so they could scan how far Earth and Venus had developed. Surely there would be some food and water there. Four of the escape pods had survived the crash intact and they had enough fuel to take me to either of the planets and back; not much but it was a start. I knew if I stayed here I would certainly die. The only source of food left here were the bodies of my dead colleagues and much as I knew they would be honored in the afterlife to have their bodies sustain me, I didn't want matters to get to that level of desperation before I acted. I carried Captain Uber's body from the command chair, grimacing at the deep gash in his forehead where his brain matter had spilled out. He hadn't decomposed at all as the ship's life support systems kept the bodies fresh even though their souls had long departed. I placed him beside his Mistress Tempi, both had finally had their wish of dying on the same day. I sort of went into a trance, carrying all eighteen passengers and placing them side by side in the ship's bay, making sure everyone was accounted for. I said a tumat of prayer for the peaceful progression of their souls and then proceeded to take command of the captain's chair. I ordered the computer to scan the nearby planets and sure enough Earth and Venus indicated thriving signs of life. Earth's life capacity was at a full 100% while Venus was at 89% and Earth was closer so I decided to make plans for Earth. Life forms visible were humanoid on both planets but Venus'es thick cover clouds made for a much reduced population. Earth had 6,214,230,451 humanoid forms inhabiting it. It would be much easier blending in there.


I spent the rest of the day burying my fallen colleagues and collecting all that I would need for my journey to earth. I set up a rescue beacon on Mars in case any other star-ship would dare pass by this route so they could pick up the signal and come rescue me. I hid three of the pods in the famour Kar-Ek mountain, now a rubble of its old self but riddled with enough caves to make a good hiding place. I did this as a precaution in case it was Demetrons that found my crashed ship first; knowing how scavengeous they can be.


The yellow sun is just setting over the horizon of the Red Planet. I stare wistfully at it one more time. Mars was a wonderful civilization once. I hope the humans have learnt their lesson. By this yellow sun's rotation it would take me three days to get to Earth. I entered the Escape Pod with my scant belongings, put the vessel on autopilot, said a prayer and activated hyper-sleep.


The last thing I heard was the gentle throbbing of the pod's engines as they came to life, lifting me off the surface of Mars, off this once wonderful and glorious planet.



Here I come, Earth.

Nobody wants to continue?

I would have written again, but romance is not my thing, it would most likely turn to horror in the next two or three updates.

Divepen1:
Affliction, people say, will not arise a second time. But that's a lie. For example, one Thursday evening when the rain was falling heavily, Rita stepped out of her room. The breeze ran in a frenzy towards her, howling as if she was an intruder. It tugged at her gown. Rita was forced to hold her cloth tightly. She stared into the busy road and wished to be in the rain like the little children running about in it. They shouted gleefully. A big smile spread across her face as she watched a little girl lick her lower lips.

Those lips sent sparks of desires into her head. It reminded her of Josephine's. They were childhood friends but their friendship ended in a rain as this. They were both playing when Rita slumped. In a bid to lift her, Josephine missed a step and fell headlong into a drainage. She hit her head on a stone and never woke to lift Rita. Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of everything they'd ever done together. She sighed and rub the tears off her eyes.

' Oh God! No' Rita screamed as the girl slumped while she was trying to avoid an oncoming car.

It was happening all over again. In a flash, Rita saw the car barrel towards the little girl as she stared blankly at it, caught in the headlights, not knowing what to do. There was a screech of brakes as Rita dashed forward to wrench the little girl from the oncoming vehicle.

She made it just in the nick of time.

She held the trembling girl close to her as the driver swerved past, hurling invective words at them both as he sped off. Rita bent down to wipe the tears and rain from the girl's eyes and she smiled sweetly as she did so.

"Are you alright?" She asked

"Yes ma, thank you." the girl replied, then tilted her head to one corner. "Auntie Rita? Auntie Rita!" she exclaimed as she recognised her school teacher. Then her eyes grew frightened. "Please dont tell my papa."

"Of course not, but don't play on the road next time." Rita said, knowing fully well the little girl would recieve the spanking of her life if her father ever found out. She let the girl go back to her friends and continued her walk down to her house. Her thoughts were still on Josephine.

Josephine had been her first true love. Lumped together in boarding house during their first year in secondary school, Josephine had quickly made friends with and and together they watched each other's back against the terrible SS3 girls. They told each other their deepest secrets, they shared pranks on teachers and even owned up to each others faults so as to share punishments. Josephine was like the twin sister she never had. Life had been wonderful all the way to SS3...right up to the point where Josephine had slipped and fell into that drainage pipe which trying to stop her from falling. And all because she had been staring at a stupid boy.

Mark. Mark was his name. The boy from the heavens. That was the stupid name they had given him. Mark was light skinned fifteen year old with grey eyes and perfect dentition hidden gracefully behind rosy pink lips. He was almost too handsome to be a boy and yet his well developed biceps put paid to the doubt on his gender. Mark was not too tall but walked with a confidence that made him seem a head taller than anyone else. He always wore neat unwrinkled school uniforms and his socks were always white. It was rumoured that his mother had been a white woman but no one knew for sure as he lived alone with his father. All the girls loved mike for his charm and mystery but it was a very bad case of love-sickness for Rita.

The first day Rita had seen him up close he had walked up to punish her for something. He had stared deeply into her eyes and stopped abruptly as Rita, her mouth agape at seeing this adonis so up close, blinked at him stupidly.

"You are not clearing your portion." He had finally found his voice. "You will get double if you don't buckle up."

"Soh..Sa...Sorry senior Mark" Rita had replied, trying to get some spittle in her suddenly dried up throat. He had stared deeper into her eyes until she was sure she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her and then suddenly he took the cutlass from her hand and swiftly cleared what was left of her portion. he handed the cutlass back to her and gave a quick wink, right before Josephine had come running.

"I will help her sir, let me..." she had began

"That wont be necessary" Mark replied quickly and then began to walk away, He stopped short and turned around. "You know my name, but I don't know yours."

"Mark. Er...I mean...Rita...Rita is my name, senior." Rita stammered.

Mark smiled and Rita felt her whole insides turn to strawberry ice-cream. He winked and then walked away.

"What happened? What did you do? Did he really just help you clear your portion? What did he say?" Josephine poured out the questions, but Rita had only one answer for him.

"He...knows my name."

"Ahhhh, that one? He will forget it before night." Josephine smirked. But Rita continued to stare at the boy from heaven's now distant back.

"Jossy, I...I think I'm in love.

KingZero:
I have been on the lookout for you, hope you have been good.

this looks interesting

Are you writing a new story anytime soon? I always look forward to your work

Thanks brother. I'm currently going through the grueling rigors of specialization so writing has been a bit difficult. I just put out short stories from time to time.

STORED HERE FOR SAFE KEEPING

royver on December 24, 2013 at 10:15 pm said:
Mine, or should I say ‘Ours’, is a simple gift. It is a secret we have been keeping in the family since we were born. By ‘we’, I mean my brothers and I. I’m not even sure our parents know about our superpower.
We are the Icemen. Our skin is impervious to cold. Since we were hardly ever exposed to the concept of warm water except maybe in our toddler years, our skins have adapted to cold running water straight from the tap. Come rain or shine, whether late at night or the biting windy chills of the harmattan season like the one we are experiencing right now, we always have our bath with cold water. You can even dare us, add a few extra cubes of ice into the bath bucket to make things interesting, even make us have our baths outside where our bodies will be exposed to the raw elements, it will not matter. We will not shiver. We will not shake. We can never be frozen. Our bathing can never be stopped.

I remember once lodging in a hotel and noticing the red label on the faucet as i entered the bathroom, indicating that hot water would actually come out if I turned it open. Out of curiosity I did. I mixed the water to what I thought was a comfortable degree and began my bath. No sooner had I started than I felt something melt within me. My left arm had gone limp! I jumped away and used the shower head to spray cold water on myself then ran into the bedroom and put the AC on full blast and in moments my arm was restored.
I made a mental note that day. I had found my kryptonite.

hahn:
And where exactly have you been?

If I told you, you wouldnt believe me.

This might help

https://www.nairaland.com/3616218/event-happened-between-fictional-character/3#54789171

Oh, and whoever that man is, forgive him. Bitterness keeps you from flying.

JeffreyJamez:
Indeed it is.....Which one you want meet?..Make I conjure am come based on Oracle things



Royver!!! Come and do your in o!!



Prettyspicey you too!


AudreyTimms ma bo bi bayi o!


Safarigirl bia ne ba o

Repogirl...Oya come and do your own.

It was another bright and sunny afternoon here on the streets of Ilorin.

I heard people at the office were beginning to complain about my late-coming, so I decided to pull a fast one and surprise the staff by arriving early at work today.

Donning a bright blue striped Long-sleeved shirt and black stock trousers, I heaved my backpack over my shoulders and hailed a Keke-na-pep down to the office, ignoring the Nissan Xterra parked and ready beside the house.

It had been five years and I still hated driving.

I ignored a lot of things in this realm; like the keke-driver currently driving me down to my destination with a barrage of cigarette sticks and empty beer bottles wrapped in chains around him. I said hello to the security man, ignoring his son who stood forlornly beside him, unable to move on to the land of the dead because his father still mourned him after so many years. The cheerful fat nurse who usually handed the patients' cards over to me waddled into my office with a grin and a flirty wink. I knew she fancied me (or at least who she thought I was) and I am quite sure I would have taken a deeper liking to her too if all five of her aborted kids weren't always distracting me, twittering around her like little chicks following a fat plumpy mother hen. I knew she had caged herself into thinking her abortions were the reason for her not getting pregnant again even though the key to the cage dangled ever present just above her head.

The patients with the broken wings and those whose gifts had been stolen, greed demons sitting atop the heads of men of authority and the dark blinding cloud of pride enveloping the learned specialists and preventing them from seeing any other viewpoint apart from their own. I see, and ignore them all.

It's been five years. I have gotten used to it.

As another day came to an end and the thick blanket of night fell on everything physically percievable, I retired back to my home, tired, fatigued, and hungry for a good meal. I walked into the kitchen and prepared indomie with green and red peppers, chick peas and salmon chunks. I dropped the delicious dish on the table and went to have a quick shower as it cooled off, my stomach already grumbling impatiently. I had lived alone in this house for five years.

Imagine my shock when i came out of the bathroom and saw a complete stranger in tattered clothes chowing down my meal like a hungry lion.

Imagine my greater shock when I recognised the complete stranger was...Me!

"How...what...how did..." I stammered

He looked up at me suddenly, my alter-self, and I could see the urgency in his eyes.

"She opened a portal. Quick! Our time is short!"

"It's you...It IS you!" I screamed happily and rushed forward to hug him. But he remembered the rules better than I did and quickly backed away.

"Idiot! We musn't touch! Not yet! The Witch...she opened a portal. You must switch places with me again!"

"I, I dont think it's that easy!" I quipped, half overjoyed at seeing him once more and half alarmed at the urgency of the situation.

"Easy? Easy?" And then he grined for the first time and I saw the twinkle in his eyes. "What could be more difficult than pretending to be me for the past five years? what could be more difficult than convincing people that you were a real-life doctor instead of Chukwudi, the fictional character I created five years ago? If you could do that successfully, then you can do this!"

I saw the strength in his eyes and the determination in his voice. and far off in the deepest recesses of my brain Chukwudi the stronger sang with glee "We going home,brother! We going home!"

There was a crackle in the air and I knew it was now or never. I rushed to the locker behind the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a signet ring that I had kept there five years ago. I put it on and rushed back to the parlour. The air was thick now with static power, fizzling and crackling in the small apartment. Bright flashes of light emanated from a sliver of reality as the door to the other realm slid open.

He was on his feet, a harsh wind from nowhere blowing against his face, water drenching his tattered clothes although my living room remained dry. It was raining on the other side. He saw the signet ring and his face lit up with hope.

"At Last! Are you ready?" He called out, his voice barely audible above the crackling and humming.

I thought about it for a moment. Living on this side of reality was interesting and all, but in the end, there was no place like home. I looked at him, winked and stretched out my hand. He grinned and did the same, grasping my hand in his. Immediately we touched the rain came pouring down on me. The towel I still wore around my waist quickly became soaked and thunder and lightening blasted around me, almost deafening me, making me cringe. I felt a sudden transformation as his tattered clothes appeared on me and my towel found its way around his waist.

"Give me an awesome adventure this time!" I yelled with a grin and saw him shake his head as the signet ring appeared on his finger.

"Haven't you had enough adventures to last you a lifetime?" He shouted over the din.

"One more! Make it Epic!" I laughed.

He laughed too and there was a deafening crash of thunder and a blinding flash of lightening. And then all was normal in the house again.

*************************************************************************************************************************

I ran to the mirror and looked at my disheveled reflection. A scar ran down my left thigh and there was a burn mark on my right arm. But I wasn't worried about that. I laughed and then cried and then laughed some more. I was back in the real world where I belonged.

It had been a long five years pretending to be Royver.

Ishilove:
I just did. LarrySun, Repogirl, Royver, come join the horror...

I entered my room, locked the door, put out the lights and proudly tore open my new phone, eager to test the selfie camera.

A few seconds later I was drenched in sweat, unable to move, my lips trembling as I stared hard at myself in the camera and the bony hands that were reaching out in the darkness to touch me.

TheBlessedMAN:
Oh my Gawd... Why do i have to read this now? Am all alone in our 4bedroom flat, and am even scared to go out to the compound to off the Gen.. How am i going to sleep? Chai.. I don suffer diz 9t, wetin my eyes find com here self?

God... Abeg, how i go take off Gen now?

Lol.
Don't.

Teempakguy:
everyone gets a share of the blame. the readers and the writers.

A great story is one that is character driven. unfortunately, this can hardly be said for most stories on NL, the writers often just go on about how[b] "advanced" and "gadgety"[/b] their world is. too much time is spent on describing the world. and it's often in chunks.
guys, if you're writing for a Nigerian audience, your characters and their interactions take precedence over your world. it has to be as relatable as possible.

and the readers on the other hand have problems. the joy of reading SciFi lies in the world itself. How the writer's imagination crafts a future. but Nigerian readers always focus on characters and the drama. and that's why they don't like SciFi.


obviously, a compromise must be reached. unfortunately, it's the authors that need to bend over. the readers are the customers, and as they say, "customer is boss"

Just a thought. Science fiction doesn't always have to be "advanced" and "gadgety", sometimes the future can be post-apocalyptic.

JeffreyJamez:
One Nigerian Sci-fi I enjoyed reading was The Fist 2.0 on the naked Convos. The writer was fantastic. And it was more interesting because everything was based in Nigeria.

So if it's based locally,I would gladly read a Sci-fi story. NL writers I know who can totally pull that off are Royver and Frank316.

I think Royver has done something like that on NL.

Yes I did, but it was wiped off.

Mrbigman1:
Too bad I was not mentioned.

Apologies Mrbig.man. You are highly welcome.

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Happy New Year everyone

“Bros no vex…” He began.


“Where is your keke?” was the first question I asked as I made another quick look around at all the kekes in the vicinity. He smiled some more.


“I pass you, not up to ten minutes ago”, he replied. “I been dey wave but you dey check your time. I come meet you but be like say you dey vex as you see me, na him I waka go one side tell my oga make he come approach you.”


He was the first ‘tout’ to approach me! Why hadn’t I recognized him? Had I been so blinded by rage?


I listened in amazement as he told me his story. He had dropped me off at ogbogeonogo market and had immediately made a U-turn back towards Infant Jesus as that was his usual route, carrying passengers on the way. He had just dropped off the last person, a well-dressed female passenger, when he heard the phone ring. He turned around and saw it lying in the gap between the back seat and the metal frame of the keke; at the same time the woman stretched out and collected it. He became suspicious because where she sat was nowhere near where the phone was. He had grabbed her hand and asked her if the phone was hers to which she had replied an emphatic Yes. He asked her to prove it by opening the combination lock to the phone (I had put a combination lock to stop my kids playing with the games in the phone, not that it was helping, they had long since decoded it), she now said the phone belonged to her brother, that she was taking it back to him. It was while they were arguing that I had called the second time and when he told her to answer it she left the phone with him and walked away. That was when he picked the call and answered with his cool ‘Yes?’ He had picked up some passengers on the way back which was what had caused the delay.


I listened to his animated speech with great fascination. Here was a guy that looked like he would steal the clothes off your back if he had the chance and he had gone to all this trouble to return my phone. Sure he might have returned it hoping for a prize but then again he could have simply thrown away my Sim and memory card, flashed the phone and sold it for a very good price. I looked at him and for the first time a smile made its way to my face. I realized I hadn’t even thanked him.


“Thank you”, I said, feeling a little ashamed.


“No problem sir,” he replied with a grin and turned away.


He was going to leave like that?


“Wait!” I called after him and grabbed his arm. I tried to take him away from the group ofmotor-park touts that had surrounded us by then so we could be alone but he didn’t seem to understand my moves. So I brought out my wallet right there, pulled out some naira notes and squeezed them into his hand.


“Thank you sir!” he shouted gleefully and was immediately surrounded by the other touts. I hesitated for a moment and then walked away. I looked back and caught one more last glance of him as he joyfully shared his reward with the others.

It occurred to me there and then that one should never be too quick to profile people just because of the way they looked or where there worked.


Now I understand fully what it means to Never Judge a Book by its Cover!


THE END.

JeffreyJamez:
It's Royver!!!!!!!!!! ........I die well if I no read am finish

Happy new year bro.

Happy new year bro. As usual, its been a while. Good to hear from you

Once again I became very apprehensive though I wasn’t quite sure why. I looked around me, there were people everywhere. The bus stop was busy as usual, with people selling their wares, buses looking for passengers, and the destitute begging for alms. I looked at the time, it was 7.49am. At least he should have been half way here by now. I decided to wait.


Twenty minutes later and I was still standing there. There was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind but I kept shaking it off. I was now very late for my Onitsha appointment which was supposed to start by 8 o’clock. I called the number again, twice, but this time there was no response. And that nagging feeling kept growing.


By now the motor park touts had noticed me. I guess they were wondering why I had not entered any of the buses. I ignored their stares and focused on all the Kekes coming down the road, checking them all, broken windscreen or not, for the thin unkempt driver, my knapsack held loosely in my left hand.


From the corner of my eye I saw someone approach. He was obviously one of the touts. He walked up to my side and stopped, it appeared he wanted to do something but was hesitating.

By now I had begun to boil with rage. It was finally dawning on me that I was being played. It was obvious I was being watched, I had had the feeling for about ten minutes. The tout by my side finally turned to me and at the same time I faced him squarely. I don’t know the kind of look on my face but I saw his eyes widen in surprise and he warily took a step back. I turned away from him and pretended to still be scanning the horizon for the keke but in reality I was trying to come to terms with the fact that the Igbo-smoking keke driver had deliberately kept me here to either make his getaway or do something more sinister. I didn’t know whether to continue my journey to Onitsha or to go back home.
I didn’t know when another tout came to my other side. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.


“Bros…” A deep, guttural voice.


I turned to face him. This guy was huge, dark, well built, clean-shaven with a faded silver ring on one of the fingers of the giant hand he was now resting on my shoulder. He sported a green polo shirt and khaki trousers.


“I am waiting for someone!” I said as I gripped my knapsack tighter.


He removed his hand from my shoulder.


“Sorry bros, I just wanted to know if this is your phone.”

I looked down at his other hand and there was my android phone! I had cracked the screen down the middle and so I recognized it immediately. I grabbed it from his hand and then looked back at him, puzzled.

“But, you are not the one that took my phone.”

“Sorry bros,” he said again politely, “The guy dey there. Him dey fear say u fit vex for am na hin he come say make I give am to you.”
I turned around and lo and behold, there was my dirty looking, red eyed igbo-smoking keke driver, standing nervously in a corner and smiling most genially at me.


I was totally confused. I walked up to him and he came forward.

“Oga, why not call the phone?” Someone at the back seat suggested.


I scoffed at the idea. The guy I had seen driving that Keke didn’t look like someone who would return my phone. He was more likely to pocket it or sell it off as soon as he got the chance. I also didn’t want to call because I had actually been hoping that the Keke driver would not have noticed the phone in the back seat before we caught up to him and I didn’t want to draw his attention to it. Unfortunately it seemed I was running out of options and the passenger at the back persisted in his suggestion that I call. Eventually I heeded his advice and used my other phone to put a call through.


It rang the first time but no one picked. I tried again the second time, same response. I waited for a bit then tried again the third time. To my amazement a voice came through from the other side:


“Yes?”


The way he said ‘Yes’ was so calm, as if he was the owner of the phone! Any way I was glad he had picked and was hoping he wouldn’t cut the line. I tumbled out my words in a hurry


“Bros mi, abeg, abeg…”


“Where you dey?” He asked, again calmly, cutting me short.


“Near the Express! And you?”


“I dey Infant Jesus side.”


I gasped, along with all the other passengers who were listening in. Infant Jesus was on the other side of town! How had he gotten there so fast? So we had actually been chasing in the wrong direction?

That is, if he was telling the truth.

“Wait for me at Ibusa junction, make I turn back.” He said, cutting though my thoughts. And then he hung up.
The bus driver cleared at the side of the road and I jumped down, eager to get my phone back. The bus conductor wanted to get some sort of transport fare from me but the bus driver allowed me to go.

I sprinted across to the other side of the road and boarded another Keke heading back into town. I waited for a few minutes then called the Keke driver again but he did not pick. Deep down I was still worried he wouldn’t give the phone to me. The calm way in which he had responded seemed quite unnatural. But I kept going.

Finally I got to Ibusa junction. I paid my fare and tried calling him again. At the second dial he picked the call.

“I’m at Ibusa junction” I announced.

His voice was once again calm. “Okay, you are at Ibusa junction right? Stay there. Stay there o. Don’t move from that place.”


“Where are you now?”


But he immediately cut the phone.

He zoomed down the road like the keke was the Bat-mobile and it occurred to me that his driving skills might have been one of the many reasons why passengers we passed on the way seemed to politely refuse a ride and generally waved him on. I resigned myself and settled comfortably at the back seat, at least with the way he was going I would be at the park in record time.

Before I knew it I was at Ogbogeonogo market. I jumped down from the keke, grateful to have all limbs still fully intact. I paid the man his fare and headed for one of the buses that was just about getting filled up. I managed to bag the front seat (an agbero that had been pretending to be a passenger in front had come down for me to sit) and the driver started the vehicle. From the time I got down from the keke to the time I entered the Onitsha bus couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds.

The next thing I knew I was overcome by a dreadful feeling. My right pocket that usually housed my arguably expensive android phone was unnaturally light. I felt in it and gasped. My pocket was empty! My android phone was gone!
I raised an alarm and jumped down from the bus, searching for the phone to see if it had fallen out of my pocket. It was nowhere in sight. It dawned on me that it could have fallen out during my rigmarole ride with the hemp-smoking keke driver. I whirled around to look for him and his signature smashed windscreen but he was gone. The other passengers immediately began to sympathize with my plight but the Onitsha bus driver was a more hands-on fellow.


“Oga, enter the bus make we pursue am!” He shouted, and I jumped in. The bus conductor barely had time to shut the door before the driver zoomed off, blaring his horn and weaving deftly and dangerously through traffic. I was having my second bat-mobile experience and it wasn’t even 8 o’clock.


I told the bus driver about the shattered windscreen and both of us kept a sharp lookout for the signature mark on each Keke-na-pep we hurtled past. As fate would have it, each keke we passed on the way had seamless, unbroken windscreens. As we got closer to the Onitsha expressway I had begun to lose hope. What I was really going to miss in the phone was my photos and contacts and very important information that I had forgotten to back-up. There were items dating back as far as five years, all saved in my memory card. I had been planning on backing them up but had never quite gotten round to doing it. I sighed deeply and began to accept my loss.

Last week I had an appointment in Onitsha and prepared early so I could beat the usual traffic on the Asaba-Onitsha expressway. I hurriedly had my bath, rushed my breakfast and headed out of the house with my knapsack. As a rule I do not use my private vehicle within the Onitsha metropolis for personal reasons. So I went to the road to board a Keke-na-pep (commercial tricycle) that would take me to Onitsha park.
A few tricycles passed by, all of them full, and for a while no other keke na pep was in sight. I guess it was because it was still early in the morning. I was beginning to get impatient when I noticed a solitary and empty tricycle hurtling down the road in my direction. I stuck out my thumb for him to stop and the keke swerved sharply unto the side-lane and screeched to a halt by my side, scattering dust left and right. I jumped back a bit on impulse to avoid getting hit.


After a quick glance at the keke and its driver, my first reaction was to tell him to keep going. The Keke looked like it had definitely seen better days; the windscreen was broken with the cracks forming a kind of spider’s web with a jagged hole on the left side of the driver. There were bumps and scratches on the framework and the back seat was detached and a little skewed. It looked like a badly bumped bumper-cart.
The driver himself looked like a villain out of a Nollywood movie. Thin and unkempt fellow wearing a dirty yellow (or was it orange) T-shirt and rugged jeans. He was sitting so I couldn’t figure his height so much but he looked generally small. His facial features consisted of an uncombed hair, ragged beard and wild moustache.


But it was his wide red eyes that were his most prominent feature. Like someone who was suffering from a viral conjunctivitis, although he wasn’t squinting in the sunlight to indicate photophobia so I knew the redness was from something else, most likely marijuana. He stretched out a bony hand and beckoned for me to enter.


I paused. In other circumstances I would have told him to go, that I had changed my mind or something, and jejerly wait for another keke with a saner looking individual at the wheel. But I was running late already and I was thinking of how I was going to beat the traffic on the express. I thought, to hell with it, what could go wrong, right?


I boarded the keke.