Attai Episdode 4

9 years ago

Attai Episdode 4

TITLE: Attai
EPISODE: 4

Having retrieved the bag from the house I quickly
made my way to the destination of my call. A
primary school field that looks like a mini-market in
the night operated by only red glows of fire flies that
only goes up and down and an erie white cloud that
seems to hangover but clears when morning comes. I dropped from the bike a few meters to my
destination, some of this bikemen cannot be trusted.
They might be secret informants to the police that
usually raids there once in a while, arresting us but
latter releasing the dealers who compensates them
with money and a few wraps of weed while the smokers are made to sleep in cells until the morrow
where they bail themselves with 2 thousand naira
each. A thriving business for the police while the
dealers come back peacefully to continue their
business like nothing happened.

As soon as I stepped into the ghost town, made my
way to my favourite sitting spot, Godwin appeared
from nowhere. ''O boy, na wa oh. Abi you wan take off day today?
You know say most of this boyz believe the weed
wey you dey carry come'' I noded my head but did not reply. As a dealer, I'm
not supposed to exchange lots of words with a
customer no matter how close we are outside the
ghost town. ''How many wraps you want'' This must have caught him by surprise as he
stuttered before telling me he had no money on him.
He was going to pay me the next day. ''Then go house till tomorrow na, must you smoke
this night'' I replied, making my voice slurry and stressing on
each word.
As a dealer, never sell your weed on
credit to your friends, they will never pay you.
''Haba A...a...ttai, na me far. Na your g...g...guy na im
I be''
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He stuttered. ''Goddy, dey go house abeg. Leave make other
customers come buy jor'' I told him off. This he did promptly as it saved him
the stress that night. Business progressed that night as I made sales
bountifully. Those that wanted to sit round and
smoke passed weed to me which I collected
graciously, getting high in the process but making
sure my head is clear enough. This weed smokers
could be funny sometimes. ''O boy, me fall that guy hand today na for
workshop. The way I carry spanner club am eh, him
no go ever disrespect me again'' I shook my head at the uncoming smokers, you don't
shout in ghost town. This guys must high one
something stronger than weed, maybe alomo or
dogon yaro. You never can tell what these
mechanics take.

They approached a dealer for weed, but he acted
like he did not hear them because they were
shouting and laughing out loud at their jokes which
was dumb enough to make an onion cry. Getting
tired after being ignored for some time, they
approached me, where I sat down, my head leaning on the wall behind me but taking note of everything
that went on round me. ''Oga yellow, abeg we fit get igbo, all men wan high'' I looked at them. Acted like I did not hear them but
collected a lighted weed that was passed to me. ''Oga yellow, abeg na'' The begged. I flared up, my anger rising as I stood to
my feet landing a slap on the face of the guy who
had begged. As a dealer, never sell weed to loud
mouthed people. The jungle is termed ''holy''
therefore silence is maintained. The guy staggered
backwards holding his face. ''You slap me, you slap me'' His companions stood watching for they knew better
than to act. He charged towards me but was
restricted by the smokers while I resumed my sitting
position. Him and his friends were bundled out,
amidst shouts and hurling of abusive languages.
Having gotten them safely out of the way business resumed as usual. I was still selling but had stopped
smoking when all of a sudden:

Followed by the loud hooting of an owl. They are
here, there powerful beamlight everywhere while
they chased high guys everywhere. Some were
caught and others not. I escaped successfully having
jumped into a compound, then climbed the fence of
three more compounds which were not high. The occupants are already used to it so they let me be. I came out through the last compound's main gate
and made my way home. I sighted the guys being
driven away in a pickup which stopped momentarily
on the way to let two guys come down. I shook my head. My money and wraps of weed are
too dear to me to risk being caught and trading them
for my freedom. I will instead go to jail. All this thoughts rang through my head as I made
my way home to the comfort of my bed having
gathered enough money to refill the envelope of
weed and do some fineboy with. The ghost town was unusually busy that night as the
number of dancing fire flies increased, the white
hanging over the town at its thickest that if one
should spread bullet up, he will reap dividends of
heavenly weeds. I was sitted right in my favourite
spot, my head resting on the wall behind me. A stick of white London dangled between my lips and on
my left hand was a small plastic bottle of Alomo. In
between my legs, held tightly was the brown
envelope. Business was good and I was feeling so fly
and even laughed a bit as conversations filled with
crazy experiences was shared by one of my numerous customers. ''Na so the babe cut cut (poso) leg carry tear my bed
sheet like razor o, chei, only one round wey I do, I
just lost bed sheet of N2,500'' He lamented. This drew laughter from us. I was soon
done with the stick of cigarette and decided to
participate in the weed smoking. This I topped with
enough alomo that my head started reeling in the
clouds but I still had my eyes intact as I held more
firmly to the brown envelope. Laughter rang out one more time. This time because
on of the boys (a novice) held his ear shut and was
screaming: ''I no go pull my clothes, heat no dey catch me. Na lie
o, no body dey come, I no go run'' This even made us more amused as we laughed
louder, our laughter fueled by the weed. What a
night. The fun was really intense and the number of
flies increased that it gave the ghost town a ghoulish
look as you could see light from the thick clouds.
Customers were trooping in in twos and threes, very unusual I noticed but was too high to reason.

''EVAPORATE, EVAPORATE!!!'' A voice was screaming followed by a blast of the
owl hoot. ''Phreeeee--reeeee'' It registered in my brain as I jumped up with the
brown envelope and enough cash in my pocket. I
was surprised to see the lamenting guy wrestling
one of my customer to the ground while the novice
going crazy had already dived on someone. I took
all this in as I broke into a run, aiming for my favourite spot. My escape is a rehearsed one. I glanced behind me after landing on the other side
of the fence to see two people struggling over it,
screaming at me with powerful torchlights pointed
at my face. I turned and ran. Scaled the other fence,
ran for the next and saw the one the fence of the
first house I had entered. I jumped down quickly, climed a third one which I had not done before since
there was no need. I landed on the other side, paused and listened. I
heard the guys fumbling with the gate of the
previous compound. Surely, someone had snitched
on me I concluded as I proceeded to climb yet into
another compound. As I jumped gallantly from the
fence having carefully hidden my weed inside a hole, I discovered I did not land at the usual time.
Water broke my fall. I had jumped into a well. ''Help me oooo... Make una help me oooo'' I screamed as my eyes cleared and I held unto an
iron bar affixed to the wall of the well. ''Na who dey there'' A voice said, followed by a powerful beam of
torchlight. ''Hahahahaha, na that guy wey dey climb fence like
monkey ooo, make we leave am here jor'' Another voice said. Most likely the two men chasing
after me. ''Abeg, make una arrest me, just help me comot
from this well. Money full my pocket''

I pleaded desperately. The torchlight moved from
the well a bit, probably they were considering my
proposal. Soon, a ''guga'' (used for fetching water)
entered into the well. ''Put the money inside here, but no enter. Make we
see how much dey first'' A voice commanded me. This I did without thinking
twice. The ''guga'' went up. ''Chei, na 25k dey here o, this guys dey hammer
here'' Then directed at me. ''We go leave you here, if you fit comot, you are free
to go'' I was still asking my self why I had parted with a lot
on my first arrest when I heard their words. I
screamed: ''Abeg, make una help me ooo'' I kept screaming but nobody responded. Apparently,
I had been left to drown there or stay till morning
until the owners of the compound discovers me. I felt a chill up my spine as something brushed my
legs. I struggled from that part to another part of the
well. And slowly my eyes got used to the well.
Heads, and then faces and then hands all stretched
towards me, the water turning colder as they
advanced. They held unto me as I let out a blood curling scream. I woke up with a start, all bathed in sweat, felt round
the darkness, touched the brown envelope. I had
fallen asleep after escaping being caught in ghost
town when I reached home. I wanted to go back to
sleep when I sensed the presence of someone in the
room. I felt around again quickly and found my Nokia torch. I flashed the light and saw Ekaite standing at the foot
of the bed and looking at me. Watchout for episode 5