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She added some salts. Earlier, she had prepared some vegetable soup and stew with cow beef.

'The food will soon be done,' she told him as soon as she re-entered the sitting-room.

'What're you cooking?'

'White rice. We'll take it with stew.'

Sam nodded. The food was one of his favorite.

* * *

Guba was at home towards dusk. It had been an eventful day at the mechanic workshop and he had raked in some substantial sum of money. He had agreed with Aishat, an eighteen year old young lady he was dating to come around in the evening.

She would probably stay with him till eight-thirty or thereabout before she would leave. Since the absence of his wife, Guba had not exactly been living a decent life.

He was supposed to have a jolly frolicking time with Aishat. He was supposed to be excited by the fact that she would be coming and he would be able to satisfy his lust. But Guba was not happy.

Something had been nagging at his mind and he was in a state of distress. The ache on his back had not abated one bit. He had taken Panadol extra, yet the pain remained. Just before he left the mechanic workshop, he bought the local medicine called 'agbo' from one of the women hawking the herbal medicine.

As a fact, taking the 'agbo' appeared to have made the matter worse. Now, the pain seemed to be searing at his back. He was still contemplating what to do when a knock sounded at his door. That must be Aishat, he thought.

'Yes, come in,' he called out.

The door was opened. It was indeed Aishat, wearing a tight-fitting jeans trousers and spaghetti top.

'Oga Guba, good evening,' she greeted.

'Ah, welcome. My baby.'

The way he looked and the way he answered her showed that he was distressed.

She sat on the plastic chair close to the old and worn out cushion chair he sat on. 'Anything the matter?' she asked. 'You look tired or something.'

'I'm not feeling well,' he replied matter-of-factly. 'I've been having this nagging back ache since morning. I’ve take some drugs but the pain is yet to go.'

'Back ache?' She looked at him curiously. 'Did you sleep with another man's wife?'

As innocent as the question appeared to be, it struck a chord in his mind. Aishat had guessed right by the fact that he indeed slept with another man's wife. But could that act be responsible for the terrible ache he had been having?

'What do you mean by that?' he asked in a way to brow-beat her and to assert his non culpability.

'Well, I've heard about a man who slept with another person's wife. Soon after the action, he started to complain about back and chest pain.

He took all sorts of drugs, but the pain and the ache continued. By the following day, he was taken to hospital. The pain defied all treatment. He died on the third day.'

Guba's heart skipped a beat. Was that true? Could what Aishat had told him be the truth? But he would not be shaken by that. Rather he shook his head dismissively and laughed it off.

'Oh, Aishat. You like to dramatize issues. What has sleeping with a woman got to do with all these things?'

'But it is true,' she said vehemently. 'It really happened and ...'

'Alright, alright. Enough of that. Let's talk about other matters.'

There was a brief silence. 'I've come to collect the money you promised,' she said.
Guba was instantly on the offensive. 'Which money?'

She looked surprised. 'Ah, ah. Have you forgotten you asked me to come for the money you said you would give me for my birthday, today?'

He sighed and nodded. Even without her reminding him, he knew very well that he had given her that promise.

'Alright, but I don't really have much on me right now.'

'Just give me what you have,' she said.

Guba nodded, stood up and went to one the trousers he wore to work. There was money in there. He did not bring out the whole lot, but removed some. He counted the naira notes he had brought and handed them to her.

'Here, take this.'

Aishat did not bother to count the money. She opened her hand purse and tucked the money inside. 'Thank you,' she said.

She was surprised he did not ask for sexual gratification as he used to do. The pain must be very serious, she thought, for him not to make a sexual advance. She stayed with him for several minutes before she finally left.

The sleep he had that night was a fitful one. The pain prevented him from having a good sleep. By dawn, he was convinced without doubt that he had to do something exigent about it. He had to seek professional or medical treatment.


Fear No More:

Nice one

Interesting

He handed money to Mukaila. 'Just as you used to buy it. Tell her to add ponmo, this time. Then, go to that chemist shop and buy panadol extra. There's this nagging back ache I must deal with.'

Mukaila nodded and set forth to get what his boss had asked him to get.

* * *

By few minutes after four, Madam Kashi asked one of her sales girl to tell Sam that she was ready to leave. Sam went to the jeep, and just then, the madam too came to the car.

'We're going back home, now,' she announced.

'Yes, ma'am,' he replied, started the car and drove to the exit.

He beeped the horn as he neared the exit, waved at the security man and drove out of the premises. He would take the Opebi link Road to Maryland. The traffic had started building up, but was not yet terrible.

'How did you find your first day at work?' Madam Kashi asked.

It was terrible, his mind said. He however smiled.

'It was a nice experience, ma'am,' he said.

She nodded. She did not expect any other answer. About forty minutes later, he drove inside the compound at Magodo Estate and parked the car.

'Let me have the car key,' she said. Sam handed it to her.

'Well, you can close for the day. See you tomorrow. Remember that you're to report here by eight in the morning.'

'Yes, madam. Goodnight, ma'am.'

'Good night.'

Sam sighed as he left the gate of the house. What a boring job! Why did the chief give him this kind of task?

He, Sam, was an action man that loved taking action. How could the chief saddle him with the responsibility of driving his wife around and monitoring her?

Sam shrugged. Well, if that was what chief wanted, no problem. Now, he would have to call him and give him the feedback of how the work went.

He decided that rather than taking a bus to the main gate of the estate, he would walk. While he walked, he called Chief Kashi and gave reports of how the day went.

'Good,' the chief said. 'Continue with the work.'

The line was disconnected. Sam chuckled and nodded to himself. At the gate of the estate, he took one of the kekes to Ketu. From there he took Ikorodu bus.

At Ikorodu round about, he took another bus to Igbogbo. When he got home, Jenni was already at home.

'Hello, love,' she greeted him excitedly. 'How was the office today?'

He grinned. Sam was not going to tell her that he had another task of driving Mrs. Kashi around.

'Office was fine,' he replied. 'How was your school too?'

'Fine. Everything went well.'

She gave him a short welcome kiss.

'I saw your car parked in the compound,' she said. 'Initially I thought you were in the house. Why didn't you go out with it?'

Sam had to think fast. 'It has some faults,' he said.

'Oh, let me rush to the kitchen and see what I'm preparing.'

She dashed out of the sitting-room. In the kitchen, the white rice she was cooking was about to be fully cooked. She added some salts.

Earlier, she had prepared some vegetable soup and stew with cow beef.

'The food will soon be done,' she told him as soon as she re-entered the sitting-room.

'What're you cooking?'

'White rice. We'll take it with stew.'

Sam nodded. The food was one of his favorite.

He remained in the car for about two hours and even dozed of for some time before the madam came out of the store.

She settled herself in her favorite seat.

'Now, we'll go to the second store,' she announced.

Sam nodded. She directed him to Opebi where the second store was. This one was bigger than the first. Just like the first, there were two sales girls that ran this store. It also had a bigger parking space.

Besides, there was a security post at the entry where Sam could stay for the while.

Upon realizing that he was Madam Kashi's new driver, the security man offered him a plastic chair, close to his own. That was where Sam was for about another three hours.

* * *

Guba was fixing the last nuts on the Honda car he was working on. He had been working on the car since the previous day, but he had almost completed the task now.

After screwing the nuts, he went to the driver seat to start the engine again. The car roared into life. Guba revved the engine up until the plosive noise filled the whole place.

He was satisfied with what he had done. He remained on the driver seat for another couple of minutes while the engine purred normally. He shifted a bit on the seat and winced.

For the past two hours or so, he had been experiencing a back ache. Could it be the nature of his work that caused that? Or could it be as a result of the sexual position he had taken when he had Bose, the bread seller?

It shouldn't be the latter because he had used that same 'doggy' style with different women in the past and had not experienced this kind of pain.

He revved the engine one more time and stopped it. The owner would soon come for it and pay his balance.

'Mukaila!' Guba called out. Mukaila was one of the apprentices in the mechanic workshop.

'Sah!' Mukaila replied and emerged from underneath a Toyota bus he was trying to fix. He came to meet his boss.

'You will buy food for me,' Guba told him and dipped his hand in the right pocket of his trousers.

'Buy fufu from that woman.' He handed money to Mukaila. 'Just as you used to buy it. Tell her to add ponmo, this time. Then, go to that chemist shop and buy panadol extra. There's this nagging back ache I must deal with.'

Mukaila nodded and set forth to get what his boss had asked him to get.

Sam remained at the gate while the guy went inside the building. Within a minute, he was back to open the pedestrian side of the gate.

'Come in.' The guy pointed at the main building.

'That is the main entrance. Go and knock at the door. They will attend to you.'

'Thank you.' Sam was no stranger to the house, but in a moment like this, he had to put up the act. The maid ushered him to the large and exquisitely furnished sitting-room.

'Madam dey come,' she said.

Sam nodded and sat on one of the seats. After a couple of minutes, Mrs. Dupe Kashi came to the sitting-room.

'Good morning, madam.' Sam rose to greet her.

'Are you the new driver?' the woman asked haughtily.

'Yes, madam.'

'What took you so long? Look at the time, it's almost eleven o'clock. Is this the time for you to resume work?'

'I'm sorry, madam. I wasn't told on time that I would be resuming today.'

The woman looked at him all over. For about a year that Sam had been working for Chief Kashi, he had only met the woman once and he wondered if she would recognize him. Thankfully, she did not.

'If you will be resuming late like this, then you can't work for me,' she said.

'I'm sorry, ma'am, it won't happen again.'

'What's your name?'

'Sam, madam.'

She nodded. 'Can you drive well? Can you drive a jeep?'

He nearly laughed at her questions. Was there any car he could not drive?

'I can drive any car, ma'am,' he said.

'Have you driven SUV before? Can you handle cars with automatic gears?'

Again, he felt like laughing it off but suppressed it.

'Yes, I have, and I can handle cars whether automatic or manual.'

She regarded him briefly and smiled. 'Okay. You seem to be a smooth talker. We'll see how smooth you are as time goes on. Now, let's go.'

Sam nodded and followed her out of the living-room to the outside of the building. By the left side were arrays of cars.

'Here,' she handed a car key holder to him. 'We're going out with the silver color CR-V.'

Sam took the keys from her and went to the car.

He could see that it was already washed. He started the engine and revved it up a bit.
The madam entered the car and took the rear back seat.

'We will first go to Ikeja,' she said. 'I have a boutique at Allen Avenue.'

'Yes, ma'am,' he replied, moving the jeep towards the gate. The security guy quickly opened the gate as he saw the approaching jeep.

He drove from the residence to the Magodo estate main gate.

'You seem to be good in handling the car,' she said.

Sam grinned. 'I'll try my best, madam.'

'And your English is good. Tell me your level of education.'

'I got to tertiary level, ma'am.'

'Oh, really? That's good. Which school did you go and what did you study?'

Again, Sam grinned. 'Yaba Tech. HND Public Admin.'

She nodded. 'Why did you opt for driving job?'

She knew what the answer would most likely be, but she asked all the same.

'It's the situation in the country,' Sam replied.

She nodded meaningfully. She spent the next few minutes to receive and make calls. When they got to Allen, she directed him to the shop. It was a big shop in a shopping plaza.

Sam had no doubt that she must have invested huge sums of money to have a place like this. She had two sales girls that ran the store.

'I'll be here for some time before we go to my second store,' she said. 'You have to stay in the car.'

Stay in the car! His mind screamed at him. How boring that would be. He was beginning to detest the assignment after all.

The woman went to the store while Sam remained in the jeep. He opened his own side door so that he could take fresh breeze. To kill boredom, he switched on the radio.

He remained in the car for about two hours and even dozed of for some time before the madam came out of the store. She settled herself in her favorite seat.

'Now, we'll go to the second store,' she announced.