The Thorny Path to Europe - Episode 10

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The next morning, they were woken by a loud noise. Tunde wished for more time because he had kept a vigil because he feared the people would pick the lock of their room just to get to the drunken Cecilia. Normally, that would have bothered him but she was by his side. With no doubt, he would be a victim of circumstances.

Whoever thought of the object making noise did a great job because even a deaf person could hear the incessant and boisterous siren sound. And that brought him back to reality . Curled up to him, Cecilia laid like a log of wood. The sight of her sleeping like a baby sent vibes down his spine. No matter how hard one restricted the hot Cecilia, the sight of her sleeping innocently did its job. He wheezed and grabbed the bed to avoid kissing her.

Realizing the volatile position he met himself, he touched his zip to be sure she didn’t take advantage of him. He shook her and she moaned. Immediately, the noise increased and this time, she roused out of her sleep.

'What's that?'

He gently pushed her off his body and sat up. 'I don't know the message they are trying to pass with this crazy noise but they... I'm assuming it's to get ready'.

Within a few minutes, the noise became audible. 'Get out here before 8 pm'.

'Get down there before 8? That's fair', Tunde said as he rolled over to pick his phone

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. 'What? We have forty minutes left. How can... They... Get up, and get going to the bathroom'.

 

'Yes. Daddy…’ She m*aned and rolled towards him.

With her arm stretched, she tried to hug and kiss him. He pushed off him, wondering how he hadn't taken up any emotional defence against this girl. The little things she did was getting to him, drawing him to her and he hated it. They were likely to part ways. Giggling, she climbed the bed and removed her bump short in front of him. Tunde was outdone there. Luckily for him, she walked away.

'There's a guy here', Tunde complained as he ransacked his back to pick his sponge and soap and towel. She stopped the door of the bathroom and spun towards him.

'You're too gentle and that's unnerving'.

'That's because I know my worth'.

'Probably…' She said and stood at the door of the bathroom. 'You might probably be impotent'.

'The bathroom', he shouted and scurried out of the bed.

She rushed into the bathroom and rushed out soon. Not taking a moment to sip her beauty, he jumped inside and was also out within a few minutes. They dressed in silence.

As they were about to leave the room, dressed casually, he turned to her. 'Did you remember most of what happened yesternight?'

'Of course'.

'Good'.

'I remember everything perfectly well especially your expression when I told you I expected you to sleep with me'.

Tunde smacked his face, disgusted. 'Common. I was talking about the thing I heard'.

'Gentleman, I remember and how you told me to be careful. I remember'.

When they got out, Jude was standing on the coaster bus that brought them the previous day. How he got there, Tunde couldn't tell, but he knew one thing: Jude loved power and would always wield the little he had.

'Where have you been?' Ade asked and winked at Cecilia, who smiled and waved coyly at him. Tunde understood the deep meaning of what Ade was insinuating.

'Me? No. No.', he said and lowered his voice. 'Since your Lizzy refused to have sex with me and instead became your Lizzy, I've made sure this thing under would be strictly for only women that I trust. No offence meant'.

'None taken. By the way, you didn't ask her for sex. You asked her to be your Lizzy'.

'I know. But I asked for s*x. She would have just been a fling. It just pained me that she refused me today and the next two weeks she is becoming your Lizzy'.

Ade looked away and tapped Lizzy, who was chatting happily with Cecilia. 'Let's hear what he has to say'.

The two ladies turned towards the bus as Jude continually shouted at the top of his voice for calm.

'After all the cover-up, I know you're lying. How was it?' Ade mumbled to Tunde as he kept staring at Jude.

'Seriously. I mean it. I didn't do anything with her'.

'Wow. With this beauty', Ade said and started singing Tu face's song again about how he could say she was finer than his mother. Tunde shook his head and gave him a grim look that excited laughter from him.

'I heard my name', Lizzy said and rested her head on Ade's shoulder.

'Yes. I said you're a beauty'.

'Aww, awwwnn... You're lying. You're talking about other girls'.

'Me? Other girls? Impossible. When you are here'

'I hope', she whispered as calm had finally settled on the ground.

Jude looked as if he would soon cry. He turned to someone and barked for order again when he saw the person whispering. 'The plan is simple. We will take a 22-hour journey from Edo to Agadez. You will rest, I will advise you to really rest this time because that's the last sweet rest you'll get till you get to Italy. And from there we will enter the van that will push us to the Sahara Desert, where we will use a maximum of one and a half day'.

Someone murmured.

'What again?'

'Why?'

'What do you mean?'

'Why are we spending so many days on the desert?'

'You're high on palm wine. You should have asked us to jump the desert because of you. Please, my people, let's talk about something. From the desert, I'll control money for people that will allow us to enter Libya and our boat will enter the sea. And from there we will enter Italy. Italy people will catch you but the UN will save you and they will sustain and help you get the real Italy visa. All of you will be given your passport now'.

'That one is hard o', another person said.

'Your brain is leaking. Do you think life is easy? So, go and pack your load. By 8:30, we will leave anybody that isn't ready. That for that. The test result has returned, the following people should see me now at that end', Jude said and pointed towards a place. He called out the names of five people.

'Can we enter the bus now?' Tunde asked.

'Yes'

Immediately noise erupted as people returned to their rooms. Tunde and his crew had their bags with them.

'Let's all sit together', Ade suggested. Tunde knew they wouldn't actually be together because he and Cecilia couldn't possibly be together. Tunde sat at the extreme end of the back seat. The petrol kegs were now gone. Cecilia squeezed herself beside him while Lizzy sat between Ade and Cecilia. Everyone returned to their seats. The slim lady too made sure she picked a seat near them. Despite the fact he saw her on the stairs, he couldn't actually conclude the voice he heard was hers. Yet, she was their prime suspect.

The journey started slowly on the rough roads and soon they were plying the expressway. Ade and Lizzy started talking about things. Cecilia removed her earpiece from her pocket to listen to music. Tunde had no other option than to bring out his phone to read. Despite the desire to smell the sweetness of the hardcover books, he wanted to read some particular books that weren't in print yet. He read for hours unending.

Some hours later, Cecilia turned to him, raised a topic as she kept referring to people as Tunde's family members. Then, she later turned to Lizzy and they talked and Lizzy turned to Ade and soon the conversation became what every one of them contributed to until Ade began to sing 'See You Again' by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. Tunde smiled.

'Shut your croaky voice'.

But Ade didn't. Instead, he kept singing with a vigour that made other passengers looked back as if they were trying to test his mental state. When the song was about to die, someone from the front joined him. The person started the song again and some other people joined them. Within seconds, a whole lot of people on the bus were singing it.

Tunde smiled sheepishly and blinked back tears. He would surely miss his parent and he was so sure that he couldn't just return without doing something for his life. He would miss Emeka. His mind flashed back to the way his hand was dipped into Emeka's chest and the way Emeka took his last breath.

They slept and woke again and restarted the process of conversation. Only this time, when Ade wanted to sing another song, Cecilia shouted, 'Stop all this rubbish, we're not in Disneyland'.

Everyone around, who heard her, laughed or snorted. They stopped the bus for a while to buy food and Jude could be seen strutting about, reminding them he was treating them well. Tunde frowned at him. 'What's he feeling like?'

'Like the boss. He bought us a plate of rice and meat...' Cecilia said, irritated.

'Add the drink', Ade said from their table as he dropped the bottle of drinks.

'Yes, Ade. The drink', Tunde said.

'What about the plate and the spoons', Lizzy chipped in. Tunde wished she could face her own table. The place was set to accommodate only two people at a time. So, he wanted her to face her side of the table.

'Are you whining?' Cecilia said, amused.

'The plate and spoon. Such men are always known to swoon about, carrying about the grandeur of whatever they have done for us'.

 They laughed, faced their food and Tunde coughed the same time the thin lady coughed. Tunde frowned at her and sighed desperately.

'Can't your wife put off her glasses?' Cecilia said.

'My w...?' He began to ask but when he followed her eyes, he smirked. 'I'm beginning to think some nuts are loosed in your head'.

'It takes one to know one'.

'Well, we're mirrors'.

'Indeed. I can see you in her', she said and tapped his chin. Tunde felt himself about to burst with laughter.

'She might be blind'.

'Oh God', Tunde replied with pity as it occurred to him for the first time that she might truly be blind and he had allowed himself to joke about her.

'See your life. How can she be blind?' Cecilia whispered and bent nearer. 'She is having big eyes'.

'Big eyes? Where are these ideas popping from?'

'From my head. Or where is my mouth again', she said and touched her mouth and touched her head as if she was looking for her head.

'What are you doing?'

'I'm looking for my head and my mouth'.

Tunde stared at her for a while and laughed at her. Ade and Lizzy turned to look at them. Tunde nodded.

'So, back to your wife...' Cecilia said.

'No, back to your seat in the bus...'

'So soon?'

'We're not going to spend three years here'.

'We're not'.

They moved out of the canteen and returned to their bus, where they spent the remaining journey trying to sleep. However, they eventually spent it talking. The next few hours were spent in anticipation of the end of the journey. Tunde looked forward as if the road was a fence and he could see their destination if he stretched his neck.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bus reduced its pace at a place that had the representation of a park because a lot of people were also getting down from other busses.

'But I thought he said we would seat in a van', Cecilia noted.

'I thought so too’.

Lizzy, still staring at the end of the road said, 'let's hope'.

 

The number of people getting down from other buses scared Tunde, making him wonder if the travelling happened daily and if it did, how many able men would be in Nigeria. They stood there for about thirty minutes. From the buses, people began to call their different pusher-man. Some people were shouting terribly at their pusher-men and were telling them to come for them. Others were celebrating their arrival with their parents or relatives or friends over the phone.

'What's with all these ones?' Cecilia said. 'See how they are making calls as if they are back. Or are these one just returning from Europe?'

'Are you fighting them?'

'In what sense?'

'In the sense that you can ask them yourself'.

She hissed and scoffed. In a few minutes, people from their own bus began to agitate about the whereabouts of Jude. Some of them placed a call to him and Tunde could see the frustration on their face as if it was a mask that couldn't come off easily.

'He said he would meet us here', one of them complained. The driver that brought them came forward and said, 'he is coming'.

As if they had been waiting for that statement, a lot of people grumbled and Tunde didn't take a back seat. He laid out his complaint chronologically and ended by letting anyone who cared to know that the problem was because they didn't make their plans well.

Sweating as if he had been under the sun the whole time, Jude ran towards them and pointed at a hotel. 'That's our destination. Follow me'.

 They filed after him.

Cecilia nudged him. 'Welcome to my father's house'.

'Indeed'.

'You're such an unbelievably faithless man'.

'Your father can own this'.

'He does own it'.

Tunde nodded.

'In my imagination, though'.

Tunde laughed, shook his head, walked on, and laughed again. He glanced at her, she winked.

This time, they were four in the room. Tunde, Ade, Cecilia and Lizzy were in the room. They took turn taking their bath. They discussed, argued, joked and slept; with Cecilia cosying up to him. He tried to push her away but she whispered, 'be a gentleman or I'll shout'.

He shook his head and turned his back at her.

'How come you're able to resist me. If you're not impotent, are you an S.U?'

Tunde felt like vomiting, he coughed and grumbled, 'yuck'.

He loved the fact that she was surprised at his ability to hold himself. In the morning, they got ready and were down with their bags. When they got down, they met Jude barking orders at some boys. The boys were spilling water and petrol as they lifted them into a Hilux van. Tunde tried to calculate, how they would seat with the way things were arrange and knew that they would have to squeeze themselves within the van.

'The gala', Cecilia said and Tunde inhaled loudly. Jude had encouraged them to buy more of gala and bread. Within a few minutes, he, Ade, Cecilia and Lizzy were searching for where to get stuff like Bread, Garri, Water, and so many junks that would last them for two days. Cecilia had enough money and she bought extra things. Luckily, she had a backpack. When he asked her why she got extra of everything, she said she would love to eat on the sea.

'At least I'll have something that can't resist me and would surely do what it is meant to'.

When they got back, they met a mechanic working on the van. After a while, he banged the bonnet of the car and turned to face Jude, whose sweaty body made Ade wonder what they must have done when they weren't around.

'Igwe one, this thing is sure'.

'Are you sure?'

'Everything. You trust your boy now. I'm not the regular people you see on the street'.

'Good', Jude brought money from his bulky trousers, counted some parts of it for the man, who left after hailing Jude about being 'Igwe 1'. Jude turned towards a shade, which bent under the weight of the roof.

‘ The place must contain only the dead, yuck!’ Ade mumbled.

‘Leo! Leo!! Let’s push this van’, Jude shouted towards the hut. “ Come drive o”

Immediately, a man, clutching a big bottle of dry gin, staggered towards them. Tunde, who had never fainted in his life, wished he could faint that instance because they were handling their life to a drunk.

'Okay, let's get going', Leo said and staggered towards the car. He pronounced his 'l' like 'r'.

'See your uncle', Cecilia said as she placed her hands on her head. 'We are so finished'.

'Jude', Tunde called, 'we are not following this van, right?'

'You're following'.

'But the driver is drunk'.

'Drunk. He needs something to make him stay alive. We are travelling for two days. Do you think it's easy? In fact', Jude said and strutted towards Leo. He snatched the bottle of gin amidst the drivers' rebellion and gulped it. He inhaled loudly as if he had just woken an evil spirit within himself. 'Arrange yourselves among the bags'.

'That's how we are sitting'.

'Kill us', Tunde exclaimed and he was supported by the murmur of people.

'You still have the chance to go back now'.

Tunde eyed him but they had limited power.

The one that seemed to be a fan of shirt and ties barked instructions at them, and soon they were seated. People now called him Pastor. Some of them were seated, with their legs dangling from the side of the bus. The plan was simple: at their next stop, they would trade place with those seated within the van.

The only person exempted from this was the boy that was among them. The car moved and within ten minutes their van had raised the dust of the desert.

Read " Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. Tunde whooped and squeezed Cecilia's hands.

'Libya, here we come', Ade screamed.

Tunde glanced at Lizzy and wished the only effect she had on his brother was this and not any bad one, but he couldn't trust her. Now, Tunde could smile.

 People around him smiled or stared on indifferently. He couldn’t blame them. Nigerians no longer enough hope or sadness or fear or joy in them. He remembered once when people caught a thief and rallied round to kill through jungle justice, the man sat down looking at them indifferently. At the sight of that, even the man that decorated the man’s neck with a big tyre felt bad. They later took him to a police station.

Pastor rose, when they have moved a bit, steadied himself with the baggage and began to pray loudly and some people became attuned to his piety, while others kept mumbling their 'amen'. They wanted to act as if his prayer meant nothing but had to pretend to hold on to a higher belief. He couldn’t blame them- the system abhors people that didn’t trust in a higher authority.

Tunde knew their smiles, indifference, or prayers weren't because they were deserting their country but was because they were going to a greener pasture, through a thorny path that many had reported to be full of evil. Cars behind them revved and raised dust. Just it became dawn on them that the journey had begun fully, the woman with the child burst into tears and Ade started singing.