Jaja and Normani: Death On The 101st

The 101st

Oke-bola, Ibadan.
Wednesday, May 01, 2019.

If there's one thing that could be worse than CA tests, it was waiting on the roadside for a bus in a scorching, Nigerian afternoon. Normani Truth sighed tiredly for the hundredth time.

"God knows where all these buses go during the day!" Jaja, her twin brother, complained, slamming his foot on the ground to emphasize his impatience. "Why don't we move closer to that bench over there, Norm?" he peered pointedly past her at the canopied roadside bench.

"Yeah, we should. My legs hurt, and this sun too," she answered. " I just hope we see the bus before it passes us by."

The two trotted towards the bench and just before they were about to sit, the shuttle bus they've so long waited for, appeared along a corner in the distant road. They raced back to their previous position, flagging the bus vehemently as it drew nearer to them.

"Hey! Wait o!" Jaja shouted. The bus slowed down and the front door was opened.

"Thank goodness," Normani whispered happily as she trudged up the bus, her brother in tow. Jaja traced his finger along the identification number boldly imprinted on the bus side.

"One hundred and one..." he whispered, just before he got in. He passed by several people-some looking at him and his sister with curious eyes, others without a care in the world-as he followed Normani towards the back of the bus. Normani always loved to get a seat as close to the back as possible where she could just sit incognito and plug in her earphones to her ears.

She passed beside a bespatacled, old man reading a newspaper and greeted him. He didn't respond to her. She was about to slap him mentally when she noticed the slight jut of a hearing aid in his right ear. She sat on the very last seat beside the back left window, plugged her earphones in, and played her Billie Eilish collection. Adjacent to her, a couple of National Youth Service Corps chatted animatedly. A soldier sat silently in the seat before hers. Jaja plonked beside her, grinning sheepishly.

"So tell me my sleuth sister, have you taken note of all the passengers?" he was jesting but he knew she took little things like jests serious.

"Yes, little brother," she pointedly replied. "In fact, including us and the driver, there are a total of twelve people on this bus."

The bus lurched forward after a man who had apparently being running in pursuit got in. The man was tall and had on black jeans, boots and a hood with the hat drawn up. There was something shifty about him that Normani didn't like. He moved towards the back and sat beside a woman that seems to be a photographer. The seat was in front of the chatting corps and behind that of a mustached man checking his wristwatch impatiently, with a briefcase stationed at his feet. He looked very much like a businessman, which Normani was guessing he probably was. There was a very attractive lady seated beside him.

"Now there are thirteen people," Normani continued.

"I'm not your little brother. We are a twin," he argued in a low tone.

"I came five minutes before you. Of course I'm older," she bantered.

"That doesn't matter. Don't call me your little brother again or I won't help you with your coding practice," he warned.

"If so, then don't call me sleuth and make it sound like slut. Maybe then I'll let us stay as mates."

And so the shuttle bus left Oke-bola that afternoon. If Normani was a believer in superstition like her brother, she would've pointed out to him that thirteen people on a bus was an unlucky number and that something bad was going to happen, but he was too pissed to answer so she didn't bother. She laid her head against the sun-warmed glass and stared at the outside world as it blurred past. Outside, on a giant electronic billboard, she saw the time was four thirty-five pm. She counted her fingers to match the beat of the song she was listening to. On her second song the bus began to slow into a stop. No one indicated a drop yet so she wondered what could've happened.

Just then it occurred to her that Jaja and she were the only students on the bus.