Her Father's Wife

Chapter 50

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Two days later,Maxwell started making preparations to go back to Owerri. With the money he got from the Nwokeforo's, he bought more drums of oil from the village. His business has grown such that he now buys palm oil in drums not in rubbers. He has also made an arrangement with a lorry driver that carries them for him from the village to Owerri. There is no gain saying that he was able to achieve all these from the money he has been collecting from the Nwokeforo's. Early that morning, Maxwell and some of the young men he moves with loaded the drum of palm oil in the lorry. One of the young men begged for a lift to Anara, the next town, Maxwell obliged him. The young man wanted to sit at the back, but Maxwell will not hear of it. He wanted that honour, only car owners sit at the back, so at the back he must sit. Moreover, he needed to be there to protect his drums of oil from tumbling out or worst being stolen. The young man thus sat in the front beside the driver while Maxwell sat on a chair, he put at the back. When the got to Isu, a nearby village, they find out that the rain  that fell the night before has made the road even worst, it wasn't any good to start with, but the road was a death trap after it rains. Worst still, the lorry was what one will call rickety at best. It was also very old and over loaded. It went on its way as best it could rolling like a drunk from one side of the road to the other.  Maxwell, worn out from the exercise of loading the palm oil into the lorry was already asleep at the back  of the lorry. The driver took a diversion to avoid a particular bad spot and ended in a worst one. The front tyre by the right went into a deep pot hole thereby tipping the lorry to the right. The drums of oil rolled to the right. Maxwell woke up with a start at the noise of the rolling drums. He watched in horror as the drums came his way. He was so shocked that he was still wearing the expression when they pulled his body out from under drums of oil later. His head was flattened like a sardine can, while his two frightened eyes were bulging out in fear at whatever that he saw, probably the drums coming to crush the life out of him. The driver and the young man sitting by him did not receive so much as a scratch. Maxwell was the only casualty in that accident. The distance between Ngodo and where the accident happened was not even far apart. A child of six that leaves Ngodo to walk to Isu will get there in a maximum of two hours. News travel fast. The news about the dreadful accident along Isu Anara road soon reached Ngodo. They said blood and oil were flowing like river. What a waste? The man, a young vibrant man in his prime too.