I always escaped severe occurrences by the skin of my teeth

It wasn't the first time. I turned back to look at the retreating lights of the tricycle that I just alighted from and struggled to steady my trembling frame as I found a spot to sit down so I could call someone on my contact list to get me out of the unknown dark, scary street where I found myself.

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Jane wasn't picking up, and neither was Amara, my best friend so I opted to call Jude. That loud guy who had been trying to get me to go out with him since I first stepped foot in his photo studio. He was very annoying but was my last option, especially because he had a car.

He picked up on the third ring.

“Jude, could you please come pick me up? I'm stranded in an unknown place”

“Ah Nne!” He began in his loud, Igbo intonation “What are you doing on the road by this time? And you're even stranded. How come?”

“Ohhhhh Jude!” My voice had increased by twice its normal volume, “If you're coming to pick me then come. Don't ask me yeye questions!”

I heard him grunt that he was coming at the other end of the line then I hung up. Jude arrived at Cosmic Lane, just before the street I was hiding and I went out to meet him. It was a few minutes to 9 pm and it just began to drizzle.

“You want me to take you home and make you tea?” He asked when he noticed that I was trembling.

“I'm not cold, Jude,” I told him. I was scared, but I didn't say that. Jude wasn't the right person to talk to about what I had just experienced. I allowed him to drop me in front of my gate even when I wasn't comfortable with letting him know my house. The kind of person Jude was, he could show up unannounced at my house simply because he was privileged to know where I stayed.

My Amara called him a painful boil.

Just as I dropped off Jude's car, Amara returned my call. I made sure I locked my compound gate before taking her call.

“Where on planet earth have you been ma?” I asked her as I walked to my apartment.

“I was sleeping, sorry. I saw 6 missed calls from you”

Amara could sleep even when her house was on fire without perceiving the fumes. I constantly prayed that her deep sleeping habit would not allow her to meet misfortune one day.

“I just got delivered from kidnappers….” I knew she wouldn't let me finish my sentence. She was up and running to my house immediately when she heard that. She arrived in 20 minutes.

“What happened to you?” She spun me around to check every part of my body before thrusting the nylon of avocado pears she brought me into my hands and sat me on my bed.

“I'm not handicapped madam,” I chided her as I rose to get a tray and small knife for the pear. “I got into a Keke with 2 guys and shortly afterwards, another guy joined in. I didn't think it was weird or anything until we drove through an unfamiliar route” I sliced one of the pears into two and offered Amara one along with a spoon she could use to scoop the flesh out.

“I asked the driver where we were and he asked me to shut up. That was when I knew I was in trouble”

Amara didn't touch the part of the pear I gave to her, she was gradually tearing up but I knew I had to finish up the story.

“I asked the driver to drop me and he didn't say anything, he just kept driving. The man seated next to me asked me to hand over my phone and money. I told him I had only 200 naira on me and that I wasn't with my phone. My phone was in my bag, I was praying hard that it wouldn't ring. It seemed when they realized they couldn't get anything from me, they decided to drop me off”

Amara put her arms around me and finally wept like a baby. She was muttering a lot of things but I could only catch “Thank you, Jesus”. I allowed her to exhaust the tears she had gathered and then finished up my story.

“Surprisingly, those people asked me where they could drop me off and all I could say was ‘anywhere’. I mean, I didn't even know where I was, talk more of knowing where I should be dropped. Eventually, they dropped me on a street along Cosmic Lane. I had to call Jude since you were not picking up”

“Wow….” Amara wiped stray tears from her cheeks. I knew why she was so emotional. Her older sister got robbed at gunpoint in a similar incident the previous year and even that was a miracle because no bodily harm came to her. Not to talk of me who didn't lose anything at all.

“Thank God for you o. You seem to have an angel on your shoulder because no matter the danger, nothing bad happens to you” she said. She was referring to the other time when I was drugged in a taxi and before I could be harmed, police rounded up the accomplices. It was my first time in the city and she barely knew me well then.

I didn't know if to agree with her but I always escaped severe occurrences by the skin of my teeth.

I allowed Amara to wrap her hands around me again as my eyes became heavy, giving in to sleep knowing that I was finally safe.