THE NAIJA HUSTLE

FIVE

The words papa said still rang like a bell in my ears " you have to leave, they are coming". I looked at Papa before helping my mother to pick him up from the floor. As we carried him inside, I wondered what could make a grown up man like papa this scared, running in the middle of the night shouting. Papa I knew most times was a harsh disciplinarian but when he was not discipling us he was always smiling.

I was still thinking about it when we entered the house while we tended to Papa who apparently was bleeding on his left leg which soiled the white chinos trouser he was wearing. Mama was crying and wailing in one corner with Chinedu and Chidi's mother trying to console her telling "Ozugo Ozugo'' it's ok, your husband will be fine" while the men in the house which happened to be Chidi and Chinedu's father's where treating the wound on papa's leg.

Once Papa had stopped shouting from the pain, every one looked at him expecting an explanation to what had just happened. Papa slowly returned to a sitting posture, at this point we all expected him to narrate what happened to him but instead he said " You have leave, they are coming" this time saying it in a calm tone. Then he abruptly stood up left, talking but this time he said " I'm going to call someone now to take you to the motor park immediately"

Mama told me to go and prepare myself, at this point nobody wanted to talk about papa's strange behaviour even mama his own wife so I went in and had my bath as quickly as possible and then came out to dress up, then while I was wearing the black trouser and blue long sleeve shirt I planned to wear to travel, I heard papa shouting my name telling me to go and enter the car.

I immediately carried my bag outside and saw the car. It had the shape of a Volkswagen but had the Toyota logo in the front. I couldn't really tell the colour of the car because it was dark. Then I went to put my bags in the boot of the car and joined Chinedu and Chinedu who were already in the car. 

The driver then said " Boys listen to me clearly, you know it's night so what I'm going to do is drop you at the God is good motor park and from there you enter a bus. Don't give your bags to anyone too because they will steal your things". "OK sir" we answered in unison. Then I thought the voice of our driver was very familiar before it occurred to me that it was Papa Ndjideka. The father of the girl responsible for the hatred Emenike had for us. I wanted to ask how she was because regardless of what we were going through she was still a friend but I didn't think Chidi would like that so I kept quiet.

Then as he started reversing the car, I saw our Chidi and Chinedu's father waving us luck while as expected papa was nowhere to be found. Our mothers were crying like someone died or something. I wondered why mothers did that. I had seen it in films and wondered if it had any significance or was it just pure drama.

As we drove out of our compound my thought drifted to many things. First I thought about why our mothers were crying when we were going to work hard so they could live the life they deserved. Then I thought about my father. I was seriously worried about him. He was acting really strange. Before now he was the kind of person that never hid anything from the family but now he was different. 

I was so deep in my thoughts I didn't realise we had gone far. I looked around and all I could see was green bushes either side of the car. I wondered how long it will take us to get to the park and as if the driver knew what I was thinking said

" It will take us about thirty minutes to get to the park and from there you are on your own oo" Then suddenly the car started jerking and stopped. Papa Njideka came down from the car and opened the bonnet, then after a few minutes shouted " Ngwa you people should come and push this car while I try to start it oya oya come out we don't have time". We came out of the car and after pushing the car for what felt like forever the car made this "kiki kiki" sound and started.

We quickly got into the car and the remainder of the journey was in silence. 

When we finally got to the park, Papa Njideka instructed us to carry our things from the boot which we did, then in the blink of an eye he was gone like he thought something bad would happen if he stayed any longer. "Chidi, Chinedu, where should we go from here? Should we go now" I asked.

They both shrugged their shoulders and Chidi said something but the crowd made it almost impossible to hear him and then the igbo songs over loudspeakers were not helping matters. We decided to find someone to ask for help. After asking a lot of people we finally found the bus going to Abuja and proceeded to board, but that was after we paid for the bus of course. We got into the bus and just when the conductor was about closing the door some men with guns stopped him from closing it. "Oya make una cumot una phones, una wallet, in fact anything you have that is valuable". The thief said 

Everybody brought out their valuables except Chinedu. "What are you doing, respecting yourself now and bring out your phone" I said. Just when I finished talking he brought out all the money which we intended to start life in Abuja with and what he did next surprised me. He divided the money into three bundles, put one in his left shoe, one in his right and the remaining in his underwear. Then he said to me "Bro, see bah I'm not giving them anything. If I give them this money and phone, how will we survive in Abuja. Don't worry though I have a plan". 

At that moment I remembered why we decided that he kept the money in the first place, it was because he had a stubborn mindset and in times of pressure and difficulty he could endure. 

Just then the thieves realised that they had collected things from everyone except Chinedu. Then the first thief asked Chinedu for his phone and money. Chinedu said he didn't have a phone and he didn't have money either. As Chinedu was still talking the thief gave him a serious slap to the face, brought him down from the bus tearing a piece of his shirt in the process. Then they gave Chinedu a serious beating. As the thief was about to stab him, we heard a gunshot. 

My heart stopped " They have shot him too" I thought to myself. I turned to see Chidi already crying silently. Then we suddenly heard " Oya put your hands on your head or else we will shoot you ". Then I looked through the window and saw and saw four police officers, no one was injured so I guessed that they shot a bullet in the air to scare the thieves. That was probably the only time I was happy to see the Nigerian police in my life.

Chinedu climbed back into the bus and said nothing. I couldn't blame him personally if I was beaten the way he was, I would have done worse. 

Soon the driver of the bus came, started the bus and drove the bus out of the park like nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then Chinedu now said "I think I now understand why papa Njideka drove off quickly" talking like he had not just been beaten blue and black. Then from there we were on our way to Abuja to begin a new life. I just hope what happened today will not be a sign of things to come.

Finally they are on their way to Abuja. What do you think will happen?

You can comment and guess. I would love to see who comes close.

But the only way you can really know if you're close is to read the next chapter.

See you then. Once again thank you for reading your chapter😁😁