ONE CHANCE by ucsmile

Hello Hi,

I hope you are doing great. It's been a short while, school-work! Today, I have an interesting story written by the talented doctor and writer - 'ucsmile' who still chooses to remain anonymous.

Please leave your comments behind and share with your friends. Thank you. Enjoy:

One Chance

photocredit: www.garda.com

It happened on a Good Friday, and I didn't go to church that day. I was rushing to get back to Ajah from Badagry and was feeling very awkward standing on the road and flagging down cars after a long while. It stemmed from a bad decision to leave my car back in Lagos and I was now paying for it.

One of the cars pulled over and the driver asked, "Mile 2?" I was quick to reply in the affirmative; luck doesn't shine on you twice!

"Mile 2 #250" he said, in their typical way of asking for more. "#200", I replied, and he opened the door for me to enter.

As I entered the car, I felt uneasy. Normal taxi drivers would have insisted on that fare. I quickly assessed the situation. The driver had red shot eyes and the driving mirror had a rosary hanging from it. There was just a single passenger sitting behind me, while I was on the passenger seat. That means that the driver should be looking for more passengers but he  wasn't enthusiastic in his search for more passengers. He sped past waiting passengers, making half hearted attempts at picking them. At some point, he stopped for a man and the whole drama of haggling was repeated with him settling for #200 again and the passenger entered.

At this point, I put my hand into my pocket and brought out my rosary which was never far from my side. That singular action made the driver cast a sharp look at me which I pretended not to notice. I kept a calm exterior while the inside was riotous. Stories of assualt and robbery along that route kept going through my head. Even at that, I didn't stop praying the rosary; I knew it was only God that could save me from the situation.

As we approached Ibereku Barracks, he hesitated a bit, and then drove on to some short distance and suddenly stopped the car.

"Oga were you tell me say you dey stop? No be Ibereku barracks?", the Driver asked in pidgin English.

The first paasenger replied, "Na Ibereku barracks. We don reach?"

"Na im we just pass o!"

"Ahh! I tell you say I no know the place. You for tell me on time. Make I come down. Open your boot make I take my bag."

At this point, I heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe I was being paranoid after all. But my relief was shortlived.

"Oga, you get bag for inside my boot?", the driver asked again.

"Yes na!"

"Oga, you bin dey this car when those women dey come down and I dey ask who get the bag and you no talk. Wetin dey inside the bag?"

"Na just my clothes and personal effects."

"Oga, no be you get the bag. Make you enter the car back."

As he got into the car, the driver moved off again at a low speed and at the same time, ...into a narrative directed at me.

"Bros see e, I carry this man with some women all the way from Seme. E no tell me wetin im carry. As the women dey come down for Badagry, one of their zips come hook im bag, and the bag open. Na so so dollar and foreign currency wey full the bag!" Oga tell me, how you get the money? Tell me the truth!"

At that moment, one thing was on my mind: How do I get down from this car?! The new passenger was nodding vigorously and was very eager to make his own contribution to the conversation. I had just confirmed my worst fears: they were all in this together!

The 'accused' stuttered, "Okay. I go talk true. Alhaji go Mecca, leave im wife. Im wife come die. I come carry all the gold and money waka. Abeg, make una no report me."

"Oga, we go carry you go our park. Na there we go talk waiting we go do you".

Park? This was the moment they were all waiting for; the moment I will choose to either go along with them, or drop. I wasn't interested in knowing what would become of the "dollars". All I was interested in was getting out of the car as fast as possible!

I spoke up, "Please, can I drop here?"

"Okay bros".

And he stopped the vehicle, and I, clutching my rosary tightly, scampered down. They zoomed off immediately, probably to look for the next greedy prey.

This time around, I waited for a yellow painted city bus and flagged it down.

"Mile 2?"

"Mile 2 #200."

And with relief, I hopped in quickly!

Thank you for reading, please share your experiences in the comment section. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did; I always laugh when I hear about these "one chance" stories. Fortunately I have never encountered any. I hear they are a lot in Abuja and Lagos so please always be careful wherever you stay. Have a great week. Cheers!

Twitter @vivio_cao . Instagram: Ugochiukah

HAPPY NEW YEAR. IT'S 2015 – TURN UP!

Hello Hi,

Happy New Year. I'd like to thank all of you for ever visiting my blog. I started this blog last March, 2014 and it already has over 11,000 views. It means a lot to me as I know it takes a lot of patience and commitment to read through a story, so thank you, thank you, thank you! :) I wish you the very best this year and like my dad would say "Last year has come and gone, we are grateful to God and we pray for a better year." So please my dear friends, no matter what you go through, remain hopeful for a better tomorrow.

 I cannot mention names of all the people who have supported me in this writing journey as you are so many but please know that I appreciate your support always. Special thanks to my eldest brother for making me start this blog; before now, I just used to write stories and send via emails to a few friends bugging them to read (hee hee, you know yourselves). Shout out and many thanks also to my younger sister, Odi and happy birthday too (New year baby :)). She says she is my biggest fan/AC :p.

Anyway, for today's story I did something I loved to do but I have not done since secondary school. I wrote this story using titles, words or phrases from other sources (this time around, the sources were all the published stories of mine). So where ever you see a highlight in the story, it is got from a different story to which I have the link attached. I hope you enjoy it and it brings back memories from the previous stories for you, just as it did for me. Once again, happy New Year and here is the story:

Adaobi sat down in the restaurant waiting for her boyfriend, Emeka. They had been dating for nearly three years now and most of her friends who had begun their relationships after hers were already married or at least engaged. She had just received a wedding invitation from her friend Blessing and her boo Effiong and even though she was not particularly happy for anybody at the moment, she had sent a “Happy Anniversary” text to her other friend Ije, who was celebrating her first wedding anniversary. Why could it not have been her sending out wedding invitations? She wondered. She had shared her concerns with her grandmother when she travelled to the village for Christmas and Mama had tried to comfort her saying “Oh Nwa'm, don’t worry. You will marry soon.”

“But what is stopping him? He has a good job and I’m not getting any younger!” Adaobi was not convinced.

“You’re looking at things from only one angle; you need to see things from different vantage points. He might be waiting for other things besides a job” Mama said.

“What is he waiting for? What if he never asks me to marry him? What if...?” Adaobi blurted out the voices within her mind bitterly. Her grandmother held her hands and shook her head “Never say never. It will happen in God’s time.” Mama spoke with so much assurance that Adaobi was compelled to believe her and relive her hopes once again. A few hours later, Mama prepared her favourite Uha soup to cheer her up which they delightfully ate together with fufu.

Today marked the beginning of a new year and she was certain that Emeka would propose today. She had expected the ring yesterday but it did not come, just the same way it did not come last April when she thought that it had. Instead of a ring in the box that he had handed to her as a present, she received a brooch inscribed with ‘Happy Easter’. She forced a smile at him as she muttered “Many thanks” even though she knew instantly that she would never wear it. Whilst she waited for Emeka at the restaurant, she reminisced about how they had first met. It was on a Sunday morning, to be precise on Palm Sunday. She had just resigned from her work place and moved back to Nigeria from the UK after living most her life there. Recently heart-broken from a tumultuous relationship with her ex-boyfriend whom she had thought would be that 'special someone' for her, her grandmother had advised her to come back home. She had been away from Nigeria for so long that it had been challenging for her to cope with the environment and she had hated returning at first. She was slowly adapting to the country after having a few hitches and colloquial mishaps. Looking on the greener side, relocating had been very useful in finding her African roots as she got to meet some relatives that she never even knew existed. In fact, she was beginning to enjoy the country except for the terrible traffic in the city. That day, she arrived late to church as usual and had forgotten to bring her palm leaves along. She rushed to a nearby palm tree in the church compound and tried to get herself some for the procession ceremony. That was when Emeka saw her; he came to her and offered her some of his leaves and after that, they became good friends. They shared similar interests and morals about life and it did not take long before they started dating.

Adaobi was awakened from her thoughts when a waitress served her a bottle of Fanta. “It’s on the house” she said with a smile and walked away. Adaobi looked towards the counter and saw the other waiters and waitresses looking her. She felt slightly embarrassed and wondered what was going on inside their minds. She hoped that they did not get it twisted and think that she sat there hoping to meet a stranger or to get free drinks. Emeka was taking too long to show up; she checked her phone to make sure that it was on melody so that she would not miss his call in case of any changed plans. She did not want to call him because she was already getting inpatient about the present matter and she feared that she might use a tone over the phone that would eventually make the conversation a dreaded dialogue.

He strolled in happily fifteen minutes later without giving any reasons for making her wait for over an hour at the restaurant. They quickly ordered some food and ate mostly in silence. By the time they had finished their meals, he had neither offered an apology for his lateness nor a ring to soothe her. As he drove to her house to drop her off, Adaobi was very upset; she wondered if she had been wasting her time with him for the past three years. When they got to her place, she quickly opened the door to get out of the car without saying a word to him. He caught hold of her arm and asked “Sho’ry, why are you looking so down? This is a New Year, 2015! Turn up!” His act of ignorance felt like a slap on her face and she got angrier. Just as she opened her mouth to tell him that she needed a break from their relationship, he had brought out a ring and this time, he popped the question.

The End

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Twitter:@vivio_gogo IG: @ugochiukah

*Uha and fufu are some native foods