The Last Bus Stop - Part II [a short story by Tha Naija POET]

Advisory Content:

This poem contains some strong language.

Just as he was about to speak, her eyelids slammed shut

And her head began to move from left to right like a child hurriedly trying to say no without using words

The only difference was that her head was moving a lot faster

“Baby, are you okay?”

Lanre asked the question

But he already knew the answer

Lanre was trying very hard not to panic

He didn’t understand any bit of what he was seeing

And then just as suddenly as she had began shaking her head

She suddenly stopped

Her head, shoulders and arms were now covered in beads of sweat

And then

She screamed

And began shaking her head very fast again

Fast enough to shatter the bolts of self control holding Lanre together

Finally

Lanre was seized in a wave of panic

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

There was no response to his query

And at this point, the commercial bus grounded to a halt

Just a trekking distance from the last bus stop

There was a lot of murmuring all around Lanre

The passengers in the bus began to get out of the vehicle

The conductor, driver and other concerned passengers were all as shocked as Lanre

They had no idea what was happening

“Is she sick?” asked a concerned passenger

“Which hospital dey around here,” said another

There was a lot of commotion now and some of the passengers helped Lanre get his wife out of the bus

Lanre was now close to shedding tears but he steeled himself to remain focused

He didn’t understand why his wife would suddenly go into a state of shock

Or whatever state of mind it was that she was in

Her eyes were still slammed shut

And she was still sweating profusely

But was no longer screaming

Lanre knew for a fact that she was not epileptic

Neither had he ever seen her experience anything like this before

He was as confused as a man trying to navigate a Nokia 3310 by tapping its screen

Different people made different suggestions as to how to handle the situation

But their voices seemed to come from a distant place

And Lanre knew that he was gradually breaking down psychologically

He was about to lift his wife off the floor and carry her to the closest hospital

When her eyes suddenly shot open

She looked straight into Lanre’s eyes

Lanre looked back straight into her eyes

But he was afraid at what he saw

The warmness in her eyes were gone

It was replaced by a very strange gaze

There was nothing familiar about the eyes he was looking at

“Baby, what happened to you…”

This was all Lanre could ask before his wife shot up like a woman standing on hot coal

She suddenly broke into a run

And her speed shocked not just Lanre but everyone present

Save the timely interception of some men who were about 10 feet away

Lanre wondered how far he would have had to chase her

The men successfully stopped her

She struggled to break free from their hold

But the men held her down

Yet she continued to struggle and curse at the men

Suddenly, she sat still again and then began to roughen up her hair

Lanre was distraught

And then he asked himself:

“Is my wife going insane?”

He knew the answer to the question even before he asked

And at that very moment, his wife began to speak

The fact that she was talking should have been comforting

But when the implication of her words dawned on Lanre

He couldn’t hold back the tears anymore

Tears blinded his eyes

And he just stood there helplessly as the tears flowed down his face

“1, 2, 3 is my name – Jackie the tailor – Gimme my shoe…

See my pant… I want yam in the boat… Boat is tree and I am big

I can swim… I can laugh oooooooo… Mr. Butterfly, do you like my H.K Princess

UNILAG is a noun... Jonathan, gimme my shoe now... Buy me Gala and fish...

Don’t put salt o – I want to swim to Burundi and fly to Pluto...”

Such was the incoherence of her words and Lanre just walked up to her and held her

This was his wife

A woman he had come to love and respect over the years

And now she was mad

“What is happening,” he asked himself

He could see what was going on but he just didn’t believe it

A crowd had built up by this time and the size had begun to increase

Lanre knew he had to do something and soon too

Just as he was about to ask some of the men around to help him carry her

He saw something that made the hair on his skin stand on end

He saw an old man

This would have been completely normal

Except that this old man was clad in black

And looked disturbingly familiar

From the corner of his eyes

Lanre watched him

Lanre could not afford to look straight at the old man

Lanre was not afraid

Rather

He was extremely terrified

Fear gripped him like the hands of a drowning man

And Lanre still couldn’t bring himself to look straight at the man

Yet he knew he had to

He knew he just had to look at the man

When he eventually looked at the man

His eyes made contact with those of the old man

He had expected to see something scary

Rather, he sensed fear in the old man’s eyes

And then, he saw something else

Something that looked like guilt

But at that very moment

The man broke the eye contact

Slowly turned around

And began to move away

Lanre did not understand why the old man had been watching him like that

He looked odd

Lanre was almost tempted to think that he looked suspicious

But then, he heard the men and women around trying to talk to him

Like a bolt from the hands of Zeus

Lanre tried to recollect his wife’s sane moments before everything had gone awry

He remembered talking to her

He remembered the sweet and loving look in her bright eyes

He remembered how she had taken her time to compose and send him an SMS

He remembered reading her message

He remembered how he had wanted to reply her message

He remembered how the conductor’s voice had broken his concentration

He remembered how passengers in the bus had began to pay their fares

He remembered how his wife had given the conductor a N200 note

He remembered how other passengers at the back seats had tried to pay the conductor

Lanre tried to remember the last thing his wife physically did before things went wrong

He tried hard to remember but just couldn’t

And then suddenly

He remembered!

He remembered his wife slowly turning around to help an old man with his fare

She had turned around in her seat

Had stretched her hand backwards

And had collected the money from the old man

And then given it to the conductor

At this precise moment, something suddenly dawned on Lanre

And he screamed:

“Stop that old bastard!”

At first nobody understood what Lanre had just said

But Lanre had screamed so loud that even the old man had heard him scream out those words

Lanre noticed that the moment he screamed those words

The old man’s steps faltered

And then he had quickened his steps

As if on reflex, Lanre broke into a run

He dashed in the man’s direction

His eyes wild and unpredictable

When the old man looked back and saw Lanre coming

He tried to run but it was a futile attempt

He was slow

Lanre on the other hand was driven like a demented spirit

His steps were fierce, furious and ferociously fast

Before the man covered any meaningful distance

Lanre was already behind him and he lashed out with a slap to the back of the man’s head

To the old man, it felt like a straight punch from a boxer

But to Lanre, this was merely an introductory contact

The man lost his footing and staggered badly

Lanre grabbed hold of the collar of his shirt and pulled him backwards

The old man was now facing him

Lanre looked straight into his eyes and said:

“Did you think you would get away with this?”

The old man feigned ignorance but the look on his face gave him away

“Wetin I do? Ahan? Wetin i…”

Lanre cut him off when he screamed:

“Shut the fuck up before I break your bloody neck!”

By this time, the crowd had begun to relocate to where Lanre and the old man stood

And of course, they brought Lanre’s wife along

Even as she continued to struggle to break free

“What is going on here,” a number of people asked simultaneously

Before they could get an answer

Lanre raised his right hand into the air

And when it came down

It sent a blinding slap across the face of the old man

When a tooth flew out of the old man’s mouth

One of the men close to Lanre quickly held his hand before it could go up again

“This man is responsible for my wife’s condition. He is a witchdoctor,” Lanre screamed

To this, people in the crowd began to mumur

The old man suddenly spoke out:

“God forbid! This man sef don mad like him wife o. Abeg make una no let am kill me here o”

At his words, Lanre saw men and women in the crowd exchanged curious glances

Lanre knew how bad things could turn if he wasn’t wise and cautious

And so he began to speak:

“First of all, I want to be sure if those who were in the bus with us are still here with us

Wasn’t this the old man who stretched his money from the back to the conductor?

And if you all remember, who collected this man’s money from him to give to the conductor?”

When Lanre asked the question, at first there was silence in the crowd and then about five people spoke at different times

“The man is correct,” said one woman

“Yes! His wife collected money from this old man,” said another lady

“I was sitting beside the old man and it’s true,” said a young man

Just as Lanre was trying to decide what next to say

A young lady stepped to his right, moved her lips close to his ears and began to whisper

“Sir, I was also sitting next to the old man in the bus and you might want to check his bag

His bag never stopped moving and I don’t like the way he was looking at me in the bus.”

Lanre turned to look at the lady, thanked her, turned to face the old man squarely and said:

“Old man, kindly hand over your black bag”

At the mention of the bag, Lanre saw the old man flinch

His eyes opened a little wider and Lanre took a step towards him and stretched his hand to collect the bag

The man was however, more than reluctant to release the bag

Before the man saw it coming, another horizontal slap sent him staggering to the right

And then another sent him crashing into the crowd

The bag fell out of his hand and before Lanre could pick it up, six Agama lizards scampered out of the bag

The crowd scattered like gazelles sighting a predator

The fact that the lizards were without tails did not help matters

A lot of people in the crowd ran as if they were being chased by headless demons

Many were just running away and screaming at the same time

Majority of them fall and then quickly getting up and kept running

The lizards darted in different directions and everyone present did the same

Only two people remained exactly where they were

The old man

And Lanre

Even the men holding Lanre’s wife had temporarily left her

And she had blended into the crowd

Soon, the lizards were almost out of sight

But the black bag lay there like a sleeping lion

The bag just lay on the floor

Lanre’s eyes were fixed on the bag

And a permanent frown sat on Lanre’s face

Slowly, Lanre’s eyes moved from the bag to the old man

The old man stood about 7 feet away from Lanre

And Lanre observed him as he wiped blood from his nostril and lips

At this point in time, the dispersed crowd was beginning to come together again

But it was a very slow process

Men, women and children looking all around the floor

As if they expected evil spirits to spring out of the ground

The circle began to close again as the men and women began to come together once again

Lanre could see his wife still being held by the men who were previously holding her

He cast his eyes on the old man and said to him:

“Pick up the bag!”

The man just stood there grinning like a Demon with an Ace up its sleeve

For the very first time in his life, Lanre felt like taking a man’s life

He had never thought he could be capable of such a thing

He was even more surprised when the old man spoke:

“Now, you suddenly feel like killing me, don’t you?

Something you would never have thought possible half an hour ago...”

Lanre was shocked at the clarity of his English

“What did you just say?” he asked the old

And the man replied:

“I no talk anything o...”

By now, the crowd converged behind Lanre

All eyes present shuffled between the bag and the old man

Others simply locked their eyes on Lanre

Lanre took three steps towards the old man

And just as he was within the distance of a handshake

The old man took a step backwards and whispered:

“There are 2 kinds of evil Lanre – those you can see and those you cannot see”

For the second time, Lanre had heard this man speak good English

But when he looked staraight into the man’s eyes, the man said aloud:

“Oga, i take God beg you – No kill me o – I be old man...”

This time, Lanre struck out with a straight punch to the man’s face

He saw two of his incisors break and fly out of the man’s mouth

This was accompanied by a mixture of blood and saliva

“What did you do to my wife you old dirty bastard?”

Lanre was in a blood rage

Before he could strike the man again, some men in the crowd held him back

While three others moved towards the old man and held him

One of the men holding Lanre spoke out:

“Oga, let us look for a solution to this problem

If you kill this man here, it does not solve the problem o.”

At this point, Lanre calmed down a little and his eyes darted to his wife

She had ceased struggling now

And just stood there with a blank look in her eyes

She had her eyes in the direction of where her husband and the old man stood

But instead of looking at them

She appeared to be looking through them

Physically present

Yet mentally lost

Lanre walked over to her and he held her hand

But she didn’t respond the way she normally would

She just stood there like a flexible human-sized robot

He walked her to where the old man stood

And said to the old man:

“What else do you have inside that bag?”

The old man’s countenance suddenly changed

He now appeared sober and remorseful

He then said:

“I go talk o – Abeg no blow me again...

Calabash dey inside, tongue dey inside, cowries dey inside, handkerchief dey inside and black powder dey inside too”

“Bring them out,” Lanre said to him

At first, the old man hesitated

But when he cast his eyes at Lanre

He knew he would only be more than eager to beat him to death

And so he began to bring out the content of the bag

For Lanre, it was a slow process

So, slow, he felt it was happening in a dream and he was watching it

The old man pulled out what clearly looked like a dry tongue

And then he pulled out a black handkerchief

Suddenly, Lanre screamed:

“Stop!”

He felt every eyes present fall on him

And then he spoke again

His words were directed at the old man:

“What was the first thing you brought out of that bag?”

The man looked around at the faces in the crowd

He could tell that while many of them just stood there

The slightest sudden movement was capable of causing them to disperse

On their faces stood different shades of emotions

He saw anger

Fear

And uncertainty

The old man knew which of those emotions had the strongest hold on them

He was not afraid of anyone in the crowd

With the exception of Lanre

When he looked into Lanre’s face and eyes

He saw a man on the brink of madness

Madness born out of frustration, anger and unadulterated fury

“Speak up,” Lanre’s voice thundered out

“Na tongue!”

Lanre did not let himself get distracted by the murmuring crowd

“Blood of Jesus,” said a woman carrying a yellow bag

“Alahu Akbar!” said a man with a beard and wearing a caftan

“Ha!”, “Yeeee!”, “Osanobua,” “Olorun oba o” were the words many others were able to utter”

Lanre remained unaffected by the crowd’s reaction

Instead

He remained focused on the old man

“Tongue of what?”

He asked the old man

Lanre was not surprised when the old man did not answer the question

He could tell this man was an agent of darkness

And he knew time was not on his side

And so he knew what to do

As he made to take a step towards the old man

The man opened his bloodied lips and began to speak

“Na human being tongue,” he swiftly answered

And Lanre held back his step towards the man

He knew this man was not stupid

Far from it

Lanre looked straight into his eyes again

And he saw the intelligence that came with knowledge and old age

He also saw something else

On another day

The look could have forced Lanre’s heart to beat faster out of fear

But not this day

Not this moment

An elderly man in the crowed stepped forward from behind Lanre

And said:

“Old man, you will continue to bring out the remaining objects from your bag

And as you bring them out, you will mention what they are

Do you understand,” the man asked

“Oga mi – I hear you,” came the old man’s reply

Lanre simply stayed quiet but remained very tense

The elderly man added:

“If you waste our time, we will allow this man do what he pleases with you.”

At this, the old man looked straight at Lanre

Clearly understanding the implication of what the elderly man had just said

The old man slowly dipped his hand into the black bag

And brought out a handful of cowries and dropped them on the floor

“Cowries,” said the old man

The circle of the crowd grew slightly larger

And Lanre knew why

Majority of them were clearly still afraid of this old man

And what he might be capable of

He couldn’t blame them

But Lanre knew that anger, if allowed to rise towards the gates of insanity

Had the potential to tear down the barricade of fear

The man dipped his hand into the bag again

And brought out a calabash

“This na calabash”

What Lanre did next came as a surprise to everyone...

The final chapter of this thrilling sequel gets posted tomorrow

Hope you all enjoyed it? If you did, join us tomorrow night as we bring you 'The Last Bus Stop III'

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @ThaNaijaPOET for exciting short stories, poems, modeling/acting auditions, artworks, photos, interviews, reviews, jokes, quotes and other entertaining content | BB pin: 267F2633