Chapter 2

It was getting late so I called Micky as I packed up my stuff to go home. I didn’t have much; my favourite red bag containing only a wallet a book, a make-up purse and an ipod which I never managed to listened to, and my shawl. I hugged everyone goodbye and left the building in search of Micky who was parked somewhere on the side of the street.

After fifteen minutes of trying to find him in the dark I rang him again
‘Micky, where are you please?’
‘I am here now’ he said. I looked around expecting to see him but I couldn’t.
‘Where for crying out loud?’ I asked in a bit of an agitated tone.
‘Look at me on this side, see me now.’ I looked around frantically.
‘CHUKWUEMEKA, you are on the phone so please say if you are somewhere on my right or on my left.’
‘I am near the tree’ he said, convinced that I knew what he was talking about. Exasperated, I scanned the area with its million trees.
‘Okay stand there make I come meet you,’ he finally volunteered.
‘Yes, I think that would be best,’ I said and a few minutes later he crept up on me from the left. I jumped with a start and almost fell into the gutter and he burst into his usual annoying laughter.
‘its not funny Micky, besides, do you know how many trees there are? You no fit describe oh’
‘I think say you see me now, where your eye glass?’

I ignored his question as we walked towards the car. I was in a pensive mood as I sat on the passenger’s side at the right and watched as we drove through Lekki. It was perfect time to reflect on the event which had just unfolded. Ose was engaged, I thought to myself, and then all of a sudden I felt the shame wash over me for not being as happy as I should have been for her.

Before Ose got into this relationship, she couldn’t have cared less about guys and marriage. Flashbacks of our conversations, when I would tell her I was ready to settle down, came to mind. She would look at me incredulously and ask,
‘What do you want to tie yourself down so early for?’
‘It’s a blessing to be married Ose, God approves of marriage. Besides I want to have my kids early so I can have the energy to cope with them and have fun. I want to be a funky mama.’
‘This girl, you are something else, lets enjoy being single. Marriage will come in good time.’

We both have had a few relationships since then, but my last one ended in disastrous circumstances. At that time I was seriously heartbroken and I wasn’t sure I had anything more to give when it came to love.

The car jolted to a sudden stop and I shot a glance at Micky aka Chukwuemeka, the professional driver.
‘Wetin now? Na him stop too quick’ he said as he made a rude sign at the driver ahead of us while tooting his horn as loudly as he could with the other hand.
‘Move my friend!’ he shouted.

Driving in Lagos is a nightmare. You had to have a strong heart to be able to cope with stress of it all. I wondered why there were no cases of people found slumped over the steering wheel due to a sudden heart attack or intense bursts of rage.

I studied the landscape as we drove along the Lekki Expressway towards Victoria Island as a way of distracting myself from thoughts of failed relationships. The pain was sometimes there, but never as intense as it initially was, just a numb throbbing.

There was hardly any traffic as we passed all the red lights on the way home. Only a mugu would stop for the traffic lights when it was so dark. We came up to a makeshift police checkpoint at Ozumba Mbadiwe and made sure they were actually police men before slowing down. They signaled for Micky to wind his car window down.
‘Bros how you dey?’
‘We are fine, this is a child of the Commissioner of Police’ he said in a rehearsed official tone.
‘Ahhh aunty we hail you oh, safe journey home’
‘Thank you, goodnight’ I said as Micky rolled the window back up.
‘Micky you are such a liar’ I said, laughing.
‘For village, your uncle too na your papa’ he responded defensively
‘Yes but we are in Lagos, besides I wonder how they don’t figure out that you are a liar.’
‘They no like wahala now’ he responded, grinning.

Listening to Dbanj's latest song on the radio, we crossed Falomo bridge and drove through Kingsway road. I checked the time as we approached Osbourne Estate checked again as we pulled into the driveway… 9.40pm, not late enough for my father to give me the ‘Lagos is not safe, these are dangerous times’ speech. Thank God for that because I was tired.