succession. At that instant, we all froze and looked at one another
quizzically...myself, the old fellow in the front seat, the one in the back seat
and the young chap with the head phones who had just joined me at the door;
all of us save the retro-driver who looked on with some sort of bemusement as
we proceeded to grapple with our clothing to fish out our different mobile
phones. The two old timers in the Datsun shrugged in unison as they stared
blankly into their phones’ screens.
“Na so-so flash-flash....na so-so unknown number” grunted the young
chap with the head phones as he returned his phone to his pocket. The time
was 12 noon. My own phone had also recorded a missed call from an
‘unknown number’. International calls usually read as ‘unknown numbers’. I
did not know what to make of it, but as I looked up, I knew something
monumental was in the offing. For exactly three seconds, the whole
environment took on a monochrome tinge. Faded brown, like the ancient
photos of Lagos in the 50’s I once saw at an exhibition... an old black and
white print turned brown. I cannot be sure if the others felt it, but it had all
the elements of a time warp as a Hollywood sci-fi movie might have depicted it.
We exchanged glances and then the driver broke the trance.
“Ikoyi? Are you going? Fifty Naira!”
I scrambled quickly into the back seat, followed by my mate with the head
phones.
The driver still continued calling for passengers.
“Ikoyi! Ikoyi!”
The old man in the front seat grunted, “Where you wan put am?”,
irritably, as he chewed on his kola nut. The driver was unfazed.
“Listen to me old man; I told you, I always carry two passengers in
the front seat. If you don’t like it, you can vex and go and buy your own car.
This is my taxi. I will use it as I please.”
Their old argument was resumed. The driver would not shift
ground. At a point, he told the old man point blank to stop spraying him all
over with spit. Not even the old man’s threat of spraying him with a curse
instead (spiced with the potency of the kola nuts he had been chewing, I