“Just watch the road and reduce your speed, if you kill yourself now, who
will win that prize?”
At 150kph, my fears were confirmed. Tearing up the incline of the
bridge with its old engine screaming for mercy, the Datsun shuddered
violently like an old man trying to shake off an evil premonition. Peter
Nwokedi was unperturbed; he remained crouched defiantly over the steering
wheel, pressing his foot further on the throttle. I remember the old man in
front scream, a piece of kola nut falling out of his mouth as the Datsun flew off
the bridge. My companion to the left stiffened suddenly. The fellow with the
head phones had his eyes popping out. Peter Nwokedi was unperturbed still.
He turned back and gave me a huge grin as he punched a peculiar sequence on
a console of buttons I never knew existed on the dash board.
“I told you...I’m the greatest!”
The Datsun gave one last shudder and then settled to a smooth rhythm
for a moment. Peter Nwokedi punched one last button and there was an
amazing thrust of power from the engine as we shot off sky wards all of a
sudden. Somehow, I knew a plasma drive had been activated. I took one last
glance earthwards as the windows began to take on a grey tint to counter the
solar glare. I saw the mad sprawl of Obalende, locked in its tangled web of
bridges for what I knew would be the last time. I heard Peter Nwokedi faintly
over the building pressure in my eardrums even though I knew he must have
been screaming.
“Hang on tight!”
And we his privileged passengers? We were as silent as ancient
Egyptian mummies, trapped with their stories in unyielding funeral chambers,
as Peter Nwokedi’s ungainly shuttle hurtled towards the sun...pathetic relics
to another lost world.
steven felgate
(Steven Felgate)
#1