Forlorn Ecstasy

CHAPTER 3

When we reached a junction, Ken wanted to swerve left but Dad quickly interrupted.
"Take right. Both roads will get you to the same destination but the road on the right is better."
Dad gave Ken a daring look. Silently telling him to challenge him. Ken shook his head and obliged, taking the road on the right.

Ken suddenly increased his speed. He drove very fast, making the vegetation go past us in seconds.
As I enjoyed the breeze that came from the speed increase, I wondered what had actually made him to increase his speed. If it was done out of the anger he felt or if driving this fast helped him calm his bottled up nerves.

"You are driving too fast!" Dad shouted.

"I know what I am doing" Ken replied.

"You certainly don't, because driving like this can get us killed"

Ken ignored his comment and drove till he reached a corner of the road and stopped the car abruptly.

He took out the car keys from the ignition and wagged it in Dad's face. "Why don't you drive instead?"

Dad gave him a puzzled look and faced the window. Ken, realizing he might have crossed the line a bit, huffed and kept on driving, still maintaining the same speed.

♡☜☆☞

The sound of moving cars and bustling street activities eased the strange quietness in the car. The raspy sound of Ken's voice when he spoke up diverted my attention.

"I'm hungry" He said to Dad

"You will eat when we get to the village." Dad replied. His voice was cold and spiteful.

Ken turned back and his eyes met mine. He gave me a look. The look.
I immediately knew what it meant and what I had to do.

When we were much younger and a few times now, when ever Ken or BB needed extra things, they cajoled me into telling our parents instead. Sometimes it was Tito.
"Uju, tell Dad you want a football", "Uju, tell Dad you want an Arsenal football club jersey"
"Tito, tell Mum you want to eat Abacha"

Leaning forward, I pressed my body against Dad's chair. I held his upper arm with one hand and used the other to pat his head.
"Dad, I'm really hungry too. Why don't we eat before we get to the village?" I asked, spotting some sprouting grey hair in a sea of dyed black hair as I drew lines on his head.

"Okay. We will stop at Obollo-Afor for some minutes"He said.
Ken fought the urge to control the smile on his lips and I smiled.

We stopped at Obollo-Afor and began to pile out of the car.
Tito went to pee by a corner, BB took out his phone and swapped his SIM cards, complaining about the poor service network while Ken had gone to buy some food from a nearby restaurant.
It had a sign that was supposed to read, "Food is ready" but the outer part was scraped out, so it read, "Food is read"

An Hausa man stood at the far end of the road with a basket of jewelry beside him. He was persuading a woman to buy a golden necklace, the type that rusted within weeks, changing to a dusty brown colour.

The woman looked impatient. Her eyes darted around the road as she constantly looked at her wristwatch,raking her hair with her fingers and a disapproving expression on her face.

She bargained the price for a bit, insisting on having the fake jewelry for a lower amount and when he disagreed, she left him.

The Man seemingly not used to disappointment, followed her around shouting in his thick Hausa accent,
"I habe the ebidence" substituting 'v' for 'b'
He didn't show her the evidence he supposedly had. The woman didn't ask for it either. She still bought the jewelry at the insisted price.

♡☜☆☞
Ken came back with stripped nylon bags holding take-away food plates. The type of plates that the overpopulated guests at wedding events who were sometimes non-family members, were served with.

We were entering the car when the empty car roof caught my eye. The big, blue mattress tied to the car roof was no longer there.
I called on the attention of the others and we began to search for it.
Passengers of small luxury bus that had the words,
"Jojo Nazareth and Son's" inscribed on it gave us weird looks as they drove past us.

"If you didn't drive so fast, it would still be on the roof" Dad said to Ken as he drove off, our search efforts futile.

Ken folded his sleeves up. "The rope BB bought was too tiny to hold the mattress firmly"

Dad shook his head. "That's another problem you have. You never take responsibility for your actions tufia"

BB remained oblivious to the situation in the car. His attention fixated on the plate of food on his laps and the telephone in his hands.

We arrived at the village late at night. An hour to midnight. The chirping of the crickets and the faint noise of the cold breeze trying to get past the palm leaves filled my ears.

Mum stood by the corner, holding a torch light, in her night gown and a wrapper draped over her shoulder.

"Nno,Welcome" She said as we all rushed to hug her. I held unto her a bit longer, inhaling her faint talcum scent.
As she joined us in offloading items from the car trunk, she kept on saying, "Thank God for journey mercies."

Tito would sleep with Dad and Mum while I would share a room with Ken and BB due to some renovations. The room was almost a wide empty space if not for an old mattress on the bare floor, a wardrobe and a bedside drawer.

Ken and BB were already fast asleep when I came out of the bathroom. I found a little space and crept in, covering myself with a cotton cloth. The warmth emanating from their bodies made a smile find its way to my lips.

"It's a good thing we lost that mattress" I muttered, embracing the outstretched hands of sleep.