An African short story about Samuel who lost his route to the camp and eventually ended up at a village where he learnt about the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah
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AN AFRICAN SHORT STORY
BY :ABDUL WAHAB RAHEEM
Samuel lost sight of the moving bicycle which just passed him by. He started losing faith in getting the right way back to the camp since he couldn't find any of his colleagues or any of his masters who brought them on vacation. It's Barely four days since they got to Dahoma district for a vacation to know more about Africa culture and norms. It seems boring at first but seems really great while getting to know some historical places and their history too. Getting on with the vacation, they decided to play hide and seek and here is Samuel in the wilderness all alone searching for the route back to the camp. Samuel walked as far as he could just to get to any village or town so as to get help or inform the police about his predicament. But he couldn't find any, all he could see was a large land with demolished huts on it, nobody was on the land which he could ask help from. The sun was now waving goodbye to Samuel and everywhere was getting darker gradually. This gave him a lot of concern to worry about, no place to sleep, no food to eat, no water to drink and no shelter to save himself from the troubled winds. He walked a few miles then got to an unknown village with a lot of huts. The road was untidy, rough and full of stones, he wondered if anyone could ever live in such an unpleasant place. He was tired and restless still trying to figure out where he was actually heading too. He heard people's voices afar when he got near those huts, Samuel was really excited to have got to a place where he could finally interact with people and asked for help. He quickly stretched his hands out to an old man riding a bicycle towards him then the old man stopped. The old man was in his late 70s with his face looking squeezed and was wearing a fabric round his waist without putting on cloth to cover his chest and tied a rope in his head while black hair can hardly be seen amidst the thousands of gray hair. “Hello my son.what do you want ? And besides you don't look like one of us”. The old man said with a trembling voice “Yes that is true sir , I lost my way and I couldn't get the route back to our camp" he said with a sad tone “Oh! Sorry for that, maybe you should follow me home to spend the night, so that i could help you find your way back to your camp tomorrow". The old man said with pity. Samuel quickly sat on the bicycle pillion with joy. Hoping to get back to the camp the next day as the old man promised. Samuel was a 15 year old boy who lived an extravagant life with his parents, he lived in a well furnished house in the city including a luxurious car parked in the garage. Samuel was a proud boy who lacks respect, full of pride and feels he is better than any other person he came across. He attends an expensive school where he goes on different vacations in different countries. Samuel goes to one of the best churches in the town and he goes to bible study too. When he goes to church, he mostly reminisces on the sermon on Sodom and Gomorrah and wishes to see a sample of a place like it. “My name is Jacob but my people call me Baba. So what's your name, little one”. the man said, still paddling the bicycle hard. “My name is Samuel but i am called Sam by my friends” he told the man with anxiety. Samuel got down looking from right to left with fear. He never seen people like that nor entered into a hut before but he is trapped in an unknown village and has no choice than to accept his faith.
