Part One of the story

"Hello? Is that Nat?"

"Yeah - is that you, Joy?"

"Yes it is. Nat, I need your help."

"Sure. What's the problem?"

Joy breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that Nat was very accommodating; in fact, of all of Ade's friends, for her, he was the most approachable. Still, she didn't want to take undue advantage.

"Well, it's Ade..." she began.

"Hm! What has that my hot-headed friend been up to now?"

"Oh, he's not that hot-headed... at least, not compared to your other friend, Zack."

Nat whistled. "That's true o! Usually, when both of them are in the same room, we have to stand by with fire extinguishers."

Joy laughed, and then became sombre once more. "Well, I need you to get some information from him for me."

"Not that I would have a problem doing that, but why don't you call him yourself?"

"Well... erm, you see", Joy shifted around uncomfortably on the chair she was sitting on, "we have had a bit of a fight, so I don't think that he would be ready to listen to me right now."

"Fight? Surely not - you guys get on so well. What caused this?"

"Well..." Joy began, and she told him the whole story about how Ade came to be stranded in the middle of nowhere as he listened intently. "So what I want you to do is to call him and find out where he is, and then we can go and pick him." she added.

Nat was incredulous. "You want me to pick him? I would have thought that you would want him to stew for a while."

"Come on, now. You want me to spell it out? Of course I care about him, and I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

"So call him yourself and tell him so. Kai - both of you are so strong-headed!"

"It's not like that now", Joy wheedled. "If I call him, he won't listen - he'll only be thinking about the argument we had. But if it's you, then it'll be different."

At the other end, Nat nodded in agreement. "You have a point. OK, let me come round to your place, then I'll call him, and we can both go and pick him up."

"But Nat..."

"Yes, Joy?"

"Please check to make sure that there are no earthquakes and fires before you set out. I already feel bad about Ade's situation...I don't know how I could rest easy if I was the cause of both of you people being stranded!". And as she heard Nat's laughter at the other end, Joy bade him goodbye and ended the call.

*****

"Hello?"

"Hi Ade, this is Nat here." He had just arrived at Joy's place, and they were both sitting in his car as the engine idled.

"Hello??"

"Ade, it's Nat... can you hear me?"

Ade tutted in frustration and shouted again into the phone. "Did you say 'cashew ear-rings'??? I can't hear you... the noise of this bus is too loud!!"

Nat sighed. "OK, I'll call you back."

"Wait... don't go! I can hear you now. What's up?"

"Joy called me earlier. She was worried about you and wanted to know where exactly you were."

"It's OK... I'm on a bus heading for home."

"Where exactly is the bus stopping off at?"

"It will drop me at Church Junction, then I'll take another bus to Olowu Road, and from there I should be able to make my way home from there. Honestly, I will just be happy to put this day behind-" and the line went dead.

"What happened?" Joy asked.

"The line cut. Maybe his battery ran flat. But he said that he would be getting off at Church Junction."

"I'm not too OK with leaving him like that. I think we should go and meet him."

Nat shook his head. "The sense I get is that he's OK. There's no need to intervene; he should be fine. In any case, it'll be difficult locating him at the bus stop. I'll start making my way back home now, Joy."

*****

The twilight sky was already darkening when the bus pulled into Church Junction. Ade breathed a sigh of relief - thank heavens this journey had been uneventful. All he had to do was to get the bus to Olowu Road, and this nightmare would be over.

He disembarked from the bus and wandered around the bus stop, looking for buses that might be going his way. Eventually, he stopped to ask someone.

"Olowu Road?" The person scratched his head. "Ah - you will find it hard to get a bus going there at this time."

Ade immediately became tense. "Why not?"

"There are too many potholes on the road, so it takes the drivers too long to make the journey. Most people who are going that way just take okadas."

Over my dead body, Ade thought. No way do I want to be stranded at night in an unknown place. "So where do I wait?"

"Over there", the person gestured, to where a crowd of people were waiting.

Ade waited for about ten minutes, then to his surprise and delight, a bus pulled into the stop with the conductor shouting "Olowu Road! Olowu Road! Enter with your change o!" Immediately there was a rush for the bus which Ade enthusiastically joined. He was just getting a foothold on the bus when he felt a tug in his pocket.

"Thief! Thief! Hey, stop there!" Ade pulled himself out from the crowd and began to chase the slim figure who was running away with his wallet. He would never have considered himself a natural sprinter, but desperation and the fear of being stuck in the middle of nowhere lent him an extra measure of energy. The thief glanced round and seeing Ade was catching up with him, he quickly hurled the wallet away and sped on into the darkness without a backwards glance.

Ade stopped to catch his breath, and went to pick up the wallet. but his relief at retrieving it turned to dismay when he realised that the thief had taken all the money in it.

"What am I going to do now?" He thought of calling various people, but remembered that his battery was dead. He trudged back to the bus stop and stood there, dazed and confused. His mind was still whirling with thoughts when he felt someone grab him from behind.

"AAAAHHH!" He jumped and turned round to see Joy beaming at him.

"W-what are you doing here?" he said.

"You don't sound very happy to see me", Joy said, still grinning.

"No - on the contrary, I am VERY happy to see you! But I'm just surprised..."

"Well, don't be, because your very persuasive girlfriend is the reason that I'm here too", said Nat, showing up out of the darkness. "I was going to head home after our conversation, but she persuaded me to come out here. You're lucky to have someone who loves you that much", he added, winking.

"Yes... I know. Darling", he said, turning to Joy, "I'm sorry about the harsh words earlier."

"And I'm sorry I wasn't more sympathetic to your plight. But thank God nothing else happened to you after the okada incident."

"Nothing? You don't know the half of it! After I got down from the bus, I was attacked by three machete-wielding area boys..." And Ade continued to regale them with the rest of his day's adventures as they made their way back to Nat's car.

Robot  # 1 | 28.09.2009 00:36

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