Chronicles Of Willy - Episode 4

We at otwrites.blogspot. com are sorry for the break in transmission of the series. It was all in a bid to serve you better. The series is back so sit back and enjoy.

  My toes felt funny, rough like the soles in harmattan period. It rubbed roughly against my Ankara covercloth and I could feel its coarse surface. Something was up, I turned on my bed and tried to lift my leg up to view. "What an idiot I am". I sat upright and inspected my leg. I didn't play football the day before or hit my leg on a stone, so I didn't understand why my toes felt sore. The surface looked to have been peeled off, and patches of blood were visible here and there. I wondered what could be the cause. I tried to stand up, and then it registered. Faj rats!
     I had to wear a pair of sandals to class, my "rat-eaten" toes were too sore to be fitted into any shoes. Today, I declared a global war on rats in the guise of 9/11. Since it was a Friday, (two days after working in my uncle's office) it was okay to wear casuals which fitted with my sandals. My only class at 1pm didn't hold because the lecturer had to cut his hair; such nonchalance. I met Femi at the venue and we left together and went off campus to Mayfair. He wanted to get clothes from a guy named Shigo around the Ori Olokun roundabout.

We got to Mayfair junction and were about to enter the guy's shop when we were stopped by two Officers. I was confused at the time as to whether they were normal police officers or SARS operatives. " Where una dey go, wey una dress like this?" One of them asked; I was wearing a vintage shirt and shorts with a navy blue cap and sandals while Femi had on a jersey, jeans, a red cap and sandals. I was baffled as to what was up with our dressing so I wasn't even in the right frame to answer. Femi however did "We came here to get clothes" he said. " Gimme your phones!" his partner said. I obliged but I noticed some kind of hesitation in Femi, he fiddled with his phone for a while before handing it over. The officers asked us to unlock the phones and they went through it. I didn't have a lot on my phone so there was nothing for them to see. Femi's case was however different, his phone was full of many pictures taken of wild nights and different strange applications. The officers found a chat app "Bib" and went through Femi's chat with a white lady, both of them smiling like they hit the jackpot. " You be Runs boy abi?" One of them asked, Femi just kept looking. "Settle us" the other officer said. " I no get any money " Femi replied. "Oya, make una follow us go station then, una no get money just to settle us abi?, You go sleep cell today" the first officer said. " Excuse me sir, there's nothing on my own phone!" I tried to explain. "Shebi na una two be friend abi?, na two of you we dey carry go station. I stared at Femi, he smiled at me and signalled for me to be calm. I had always known he'd be into something of this nature but I was not so certain. Now that I was in this mess, I had to find my way out. " Officers, how much do you want?" I asked. "Bring just #50k" , the taller one between the two said. It seemed I did not hear right. I guess we just had to go with them.
   
     They put us in the back of their van and drove to their station at Moore. We got there and they put us behind the counter. Femi was relaxed and he told me, we'd come out by paying less if we stalled. I tried to believe him and we sat in silence for about an hour. The officers did not return our phones so there was absolutely nothing to do than read the station walls, that had posters like, "Police is your friend", " Bail is free", " Giant of Africa ". I smiled at the fact that none of all these was true. I mean, the police is nobody's friend, except politicians; bail is only for the rich; and Nigeria is a sleeping giant, if at all it is one, just the other day, a politician named ................ " Two of you, stand up." I heard a voice shout. I was jolted back to reality and I got to my feet quickly. The officer came towards us and told us to move to the cells. I looked at Femi, and he looked at me back, same hopeless look on his face. I wondered how we were going to get out. The officer shoved us inside the cell. There were four guys in the cell already, they were not looking quite friendly, so I and Femi decided to sit quietly. We made to sit but looking at how dirty the floor was, we decided it was best to stand.

"There's no money with me at all" Femi confessed. " I was actually going to get money from Shigo to sustain myself for the weekend, the chat with the woman was a long time ago. I got tired when it wasn't yielding any returns ", " I was hoping we would stall and the officers would eventually let us go when they saw there was no money with us, but I was wrong". " So, you don't have any money on you and none in the bank or anywhere? " I asked. "I'm afraid not Tade". I wouldn't have liked the idea, but part of me wished Femi was joking and he really was a G boy, and probably had money somewhere. Now that I knew he was not, I was relieved that my friend was not a fraudster, but there was still the troubling question. How do we get out??

How do they get out? Do you think Femi is lying or he is being sincere. Send in your comments