Bubblegum Universe

CHAPTER 8

"Why did you do it?" I asked Chimamanda. I was limping beside her as we kept on walking to our destination. I had woken up with a sore neck, and a throbbing leg but that had been the least of my problems. What had bothered me was the realisation that everything was real and that I might not ever get to see my home again. It scared me. As we walked, Kenneth had asked me more than a thousand times to let him carry me but the stubborn child I am, I refused even when I knew that I was slowing them down. He said that I missed the stars at night that they were more beautiful and looked much more closer to earth than they did at home almost like you could reach for them and grab one. He said he wished he had done so, so he would give me a beautiful star. I mentally rolled my eyes at that,  he never did, only wished. I didn't care though it didn't really matter,  nothing seemed to matter because all I managed to think about was home.
"Do what?" She asked even when she knew exactly what I meant. I gave her an amused look and she acted unfazed
"I didn't mean to okay?" She started when she saw that I wasn't giving up and that my stare wasn't wavering.

"It just happened and I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you are meant to be apologising to."

"Well you make it seem like it."

"Wow for a guilty person you sure have a big ego." I say referring to the fact that she acts like I'm the one at fault.

"I know." She blinked like a thousand times trying to push back unwanted tears.

"You actually admitted that your ego is huge this world keeps showing me it's true colors every time."

"No."

"You said it, you can't take it back." We were now talking as if we knew each other for so long.

"I mean that I know who I am supposed to be apologising to."

My mouth formed a big O in realisation, I knew it was too good to be true. I looked up at her face and it was just too distraught.

"Listen,  if your Tonia is anything like me, then I'm sure she would love to have her best friend and accomplice back. Just tell her how sorry you are and throw in some chocolate cake and it will be all good. She gave me a light smile and nodded her head. Something told me that she didn't believe me, and she wasn't going to do anything even when she didn't say it. We walked in an awkward silence, my head thinking really hard on any appropriate topic at all that I could bring up to drive the silence away,  but nothing came through.

"Sooo" she started,  drawing my attention back to her. She gestured towards Kenneth who was at the back with a curt nod.

"So nothing." I shrugged

"You like him don't you? And he likes you too." She said it like some kind of love goddess.

"He doesn't like me, he is just looking for someone at his disposal to toy with their feelings and that person just so happens to be me." I didn't want to talk about it anymore, I gave her that message but she just did not seem to grasp it. It was just a topic too sensitive for me to talk about.  She was about to speak again probably to my irritation but luckily for me, Kenneth interrupted.
   
" Don't mean to interrupt oh" he said.
"But I think we are being followed." I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand at that thought. I was too scared to turn around, but Chimamanda decided to take a peek.

"Run!!" The sprinting began at Amanda's simple order. She was running really fast leading the way, leaving us to follow her trail which was good seeing as we had no idea where to go. I was behind, limping and hopping trying my best to keep up as they gained on me. Kenneth looked back, probably to check how far they were from us. He shook his head and turned around, 180° running toward me. Was he stupid or something? I thought to myself,  what was he doing? He was supposed to be running away from them, not to them. I felt myself get swept off of my feet and there I was, running or moving with the wind. The stubborn pain I had felt under my feet while I was running was now gone, kissed better by the wind.

"Put me down!!" I banged on his back, "let me go." I yelled.

"Shut up!!" he yelled back at me as he kept running. "You want me to drop you so that you will die abi?" He asked in a thick Nigerian accent that made me want to laugh but I didn't. In fact, as he kept on blabbing,  I didn't listen to what he said anymore. We had cut into a very weird looking forest. The trees were what made it weird. Their stems were very thin and red and so were their branches. Their leaves were not green,  they were white foam rubber; the kind that were used for padding furniture. I thought they had to be mango trees because I saw mangoes on some of the trees but then, the farther we went, the more I realised that each tree had it's own specific kind of fruit. They were of the same structure, but some bore mangoes, some oranges and some, fruits I knew nothing about. I looked up to see that apparently all of the people that had been chasing us had turned around, only two men were still persistent on getting to us. Unlike this world, my world and it's people were different. In my world, the  people were usually much more determined when it came to delivering jungle justice. They would readily get their cutlasses,  tyres,  matches and fuel to hack the person who had committed a crime to death or even worse, to burn him or her alive.
       But again I thought, maybe they weren't worried because they knew that wherever we went, we were being watched, that we would be caught at a point. I didn't want to know what they thought, I didn't want to care what they believed. I was determined to go home and nothing was going to stop me.

     "Put me down Kenneth." I had come back to my senses, I wanted to to walk and run on my own. I could get away from the men on my own.
"Put me down, we are slowing down." I stated arrogantly, not willing to accept that I worried for his own sake.

"I can't put you down." He said as he panted. My first guess was that I leave him be, that it wasn't the right time to start a tantrum. My brain shouted at me to just be quiet, but me being me,  I did not pay any heed. I tugged on his shirt, urging him to set me down on my feet. And then within a second, we were on the floor. My back was on the hard ground and he was resting on me. Soon, his two hands were on each side of my head, as he tried to stand  up. We had tripped. What happened next wasn't like a scene from a romantic movie or a Soap Opera, we didn't get lost in each other's eyes neither did we feel very much tempted to kiss each other because of the heat radiating from both our bodies.
 
"Sheybi una sabi run?" That was the first time I heard one of the non anti-universes speak bad English. I didn't even get the chance to let that sink in, when I felt a trickle of blood run down my face.

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'Abi' in this context  means right?
"Sheybi una sabi run?" It means you guys can run right?

Sabi is run
Una is you guys. Pronounced or-na
Sheybi also means right.