The Wife ESCAPED!

Running low and barefoot through the deep gutter, she was able to evade the soldiers stationed on the street. It was night already and she tramped in the direction where she knew there would be more people and traffic.

The unrelenting evening breeze was chilly and she could feel the cold all over her exposed arms. She had no choice but to hug herself as she walked. Having spent so much time behind closed doors, living the good life and being able to regulate the temperature of her surroundings, she had almost lost touch with Mother nature. The elements were affecting her more than they had ever done before in all her life. She was never one to feel cold from contact with such mild breeze, but here she was, shaking like a marionette in action. Before long, her teeth would begin to chatter like castanets and being alone in such a condition was quite risky. She had to get to a busy area and she had to get there fast.

Her entire body had begun to crawl with goosebumps from the cold when Caro finally sighted lights on a main road ahead. It was night market by the roadside and most of the female sellers were clad in thick sweaters and long skirts, gowns or wrappers. It was good to know that the cold was biting and merciless enough to affect such a hardy people. Caro could now take it a little easy on herself. She wasn’t doing that bad, was she?

Making her way over to the road, she walked in front of the sellers, slowly and leisurely, so that the heat from their lamps, stoves and coal pots could warm her up. There were calls to buy this or buy that, but she ignored them and strolled on. But no matter how slow she moved, she would surely get to the part where there was no light or heat. Retracing her steps back to where she started in order to get more heat would look suspicious and attract attention to her. An almost chubby girl with still developing breasts, wearing only an evening gown and walking about unaccompanied at this time of the night… even her impressive run of luck against rapists would fail her this time.

To be sure, she could see that just a few metres ahead, there were no lights or sellers, just a dark cold night. As fearless as she was, Caro would rather attract attention to herself than walk one inch into that darkness. But just as she was about to turn around, she caught sight of a Mallam and his suya (barbeque) grill.

As was normal, not far from him was a bench where customers could sit and wait. At the moment, the only person seated there was a man whose eyes were glued to his phone. Without thinking any further, Caro made straight for the bench and sat down at one end, as far away from the man as possible.

Neither the man nor the Mallam acted like they noticed her presence which was exactly what she wanted. She had no intention or means to buy any suya, she just wanted the heat which was coming in waves from the barbeque grill.

She was about to feel comfortable when suddenly, other men began coming in to chat with the Mallam and see how the meat was coming along in terms of readiness. Some of the characters looked unfriendly and rough and Caro felt quite unsafe. Many of them gave her more than a passing glance while others stared intently at her before sitting briefly on the bench and then going away. She knew she was outnumbered by older, stronger men, so she had to find a way to not look vulnerable and out of place.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

She crossed her legs and then stiffened her back with a not-so-happy expression on her face. Focusing intently on the Mallam and his grill, from the semi-dark area where she was seated, she looked the perfect image of an impatient married female customer who lived nearby and had just strolled over to have a taste of some suya.

As she remained in this position, she could see that it was very effective. She now only received passing glances and sometimes, no glance at all. But there was a price to pay. Within minutes, her back was beginning to hurt like hell! But she maintained her position like a statue, knowing fully well that it could be the only thin difference between safety and danger for her.

**

Caro stayed in the Mallam’s barbeque stand hour after hour. Somehow, by sheer force of will, she managed to stay awake and visible, and also invisible when necessary. Luckily for her, the Mallam never paid any attention to her or even look in her direction, but by the time he was about to close up for the night, she was already beginning to feel a little drowsy. Somehow, she managed to drag herself to a standing position before he could come for the bench. Where would she go now? She pondered this as she made her way back, past the line of sellers, some of whom had already closed and left for home.

She was feeling really sleepy now and though she had no way of knowing the time, she knew that she had come a long way from being the child of her parents. The Caro of old never slept before midnight and sometimes slept only an hour or two before the compulsory wake-up time at 4am. But the new Caro was here tottering along like a drunkard who was looking for a gutter to rest himself.

She saw a closed shop that had a sheltered little verandah and she staggered over and slumped down on the cold, hard and dirty floor. Her intention was to rest a little before continuing the journey to nowhere in particular, but within a few minutes, she dozed off to sleep.