Today I entered one-chance. And I'm not even joking.
This is how it happened.
I came out of First Bank along Stadium Road. And just as I did, this green cab cleared in front of me and the driver said "Along?"
I nodded. He tried to open the back door for me, but I got into the front sit instead. There was no one else in the cab. As soon as I sat down I knew something was off.
As a rule, I always walk a few blocks away from a bank or ATM point before boarding a vehicle. It's a security measure my sisters and I use. But I got distracted today and did otherwise. I knew I had fumbled but I tried to relax anyway.
I couldn't relax. The alarm clocks had already gone off in my head. I started looking around. The vehicle was unmarked, like a personal vehicle used occasionally as a taxi. The driver was dressed like a regular cab driver though, faded brown shorts and an old T-shirt. There were 50, 20 and 10 naira notes in that usual place they keep cash.
Driver kept saying, "Hope you get change o? Change dey worry me today." Then he asked if I would get to the Stadium and I said no.
At this point, someone flanked down the cab. Driver stopped and he got in. The new passenger was a middle-aged man in black plain trousers and a green flowery shirt. He was very light skinned, almost like an albino. He sat in the back and I kept watching him through the mirror. Something just didn't feel right.
Before we even got to the next junction, Mr Almost Albino told Driver, "I go stop here." So Driver stopped and he got out. He paid Driver and turned to walk away. I looked at Driver's hand and noticed he was not holding a naira note.
Just then he said, "Oga come o, you don make mistake." When Almost Albino came back to the door, he waved the money in the air very briefly. "You give me $100."
I'm like, what the flip!?
"Na only Dollars I carry o." Almost Albino says, looking from Driver to me, "You fit carry me go where I go change am? Abi Una go change for me?"
And that was my que. Time to bail. Who wanted to disappear and appear in a Dollar Shack?
Before either of them knew what was up, I jerked the car door open with all my small strength, shoving Almost Albino in the process. And then I was running for my life, leaving the two men to their Dollar trade.
It's not like my Mumsy has any real gold they would have asked me to go and bring for them o. But that money I queued for hours in the sun to withdraw, no one was going to take it from me.
Nonsense and Dollars.
What will be your reaction, if you are Christiana? Have your say.
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