He looked at his wrist watch, “6:10am already! I need to get out now!” Dan thinking within himself. He was heading to a conference scheduled to start at eight o’clock that morning and he needed to be at the venue by seven to prepare the audio visual facilities. By 6:15am, Dan was out on the street heading to get his bus. Driving was out of the option for him as he was sceptical about traffic and that morning.
With three different buses to take, and just getting down from one, “Whew!” he sighed, trying not to get more anxious than usual. Now waiting on the road, as if the time wasn’t racing against him enough, his next bus wasn’t coming forth. The more impatient Dan grew, the longer it took for his expected bus to come. Suddenly, “Oshodi! Oshodi!!” the sound came from a distance. Just the words he had been longing to hear. He looked to his left and saw a yellow van with fourteen passenger seats carrying a total of six passengers with the driver and bus conductor making them eight in th bus altogether. As the van moved closer, the voice grew louder. Without any hesitation and with the anxiety of getting to his destination early, Dan jumped into the bus. Little did he know however, about the ordeal he was about to encounter in that bus.
“Funny I’m not seeing any female in this bus”. Dan thought within himself. “But getting down now would mean waiting another fifteen minutes or longer for the next bus to come along”. On that thought, Dan decided to sit and move along with bus hoping all would go well. Two bus stops later, the driver shifted from the service lane into the main express lane and the bus conductor shuts the door at about the same time. “Conductor, can I have my change? I’ll be dropping at the next bus stop” a passenger beside Dan spoke out. “Can you please move inside while I move closer to the door” the same passenger said to Dan. Just as Dan shifted inside for the passenger to sit closer to the door, a hand behind him pulled Dan’s jacket and t-shirt by his neck, another hand held up his left arm, another, his right arm as other hands went straight into his trousers pockets, jacket pocket, pulling Dan’s bag from him as Dan saw a knife held up by a passenger in front of him sitting next to the driver.
“If you make any noise, your life is over” the voice came from the front as he felt all his items slipping away from his body. “Just keep your mouth shut!” was another clear voice Dan could make out amidst all the mid-toned voices on his left, right, back and even front. “Jesus!!!!!!!” was the only word he could whisper at that moment as he realised he had entered the wrong bus”.
By Micheal Tadese
@mtadese