Must Read: Glitches - Season 1 - Episode 7

7 years ago

Must Read: Glitches - Season 1 - Episode 7

It had been one week since Jeremy made the decision to leave the shores of the country.

Michael had encountered some hitches so the journey had been postponed till everything was sorted out. The enthusiasm Jeremy was basking in ended abruptly when he learnt of his mode of transport.

Ship? He had asked rhetorically that morning

.Whatever happened to Planes?

Jeremy couldn’t believe the reply he had gotten, it sounded like a roughly cooked up lie.

Ships are the safest means of transport.

Moreover, I’d be transporting some export Goods that wouldn’t be accommodated on planes.

Jeremy had a bad hunch about the whole set up but waved it off. After all, he wouldn’t be the first person travelling by water. Many people had done it before him and many would still do it after him. All he had to do was be patient, he was going to enjoy the journey if he eased up. He was going to see the sea. He was going to be a sailor.

Jeremy the modern Jack Sparrow. He laughed at that. His first laugh since the day began. Not that he liked frowning, he just had this feeling he was already missing home. His guys, his babes and even though he hated it, his mum. Okay you think his dad should be part of it right? You’ll lose a lot of money if you bet on that.

The port of Apapa was nothing like he had imagined. He had expected to see trucks of goods with the label ‘contraband’ on it filing out of the port but instead he had seen a few containers waiting for loading and a few cargos being offloaded. Michael brought out his phone and called someone Jeremy had no interest whatsoever in knowing. He was possibly Michael’s partner in crime.

‘’We don show o, where you dey?’’ Michael asked the recipient.

Wasn’t this the same Michael with a British accent? Jeremy had reasoned. Or was his grammar only accentuated in the presence of his previous friends and family?

Michael informed him that their guardian was waiting for them when he got off the phone.

The term guardian gave Jeremy a mental picture of an angel, someone with shining wings who would lead them to Europe, perhaps by teleporting.

‘Over there!’’ Michael pointed.

Jeremy turned instinctively to see who it was Michael was pointing at. Okay truthfully speaking, he wasn’t expecting an angel but the amount of deviation this fellow had from his somewhat myopic definition of a guardian was seemingly overwhelming.

He had a tattered singlet on a big trouser which ended just about an inch above his rugged boots.

An angel with this kind of boots. Jeremy scoffed at the thought.

‘’Dele my man, how fan na?’’ Michael shook hands with the ‘guardian’.

Jeremy just gave a smile, atleast to hide his inward hostility.

‘’Na him be dis?’’ Dele, the guardian asked.

‘’Na him. Him name na Jeremy.’’

Dele inspected him as if to check if any of his body parts were missing. When he was obviously done with his inspection, he asked.

‘’you don yarn am the koko?”

‘’I sure say him no go Bleep up’’
Dele raised his eyebrow at that. In their line of business, such risks were not worth taking.

Many a time, new conscriptees had been given lackadaisical orientations without revealing the main role they were to play aboard the ship.

Some of these ignoramuses had expected to somehow be with the crew of sailors.

Dele drew Michael to one corner from whence Jeremy watched them speak in hush tones.

Dele was carrying a look of disappointment in his eyes.

‘’you suppose know as e dey be na, this guy na jew and e fit cast anytime.’’

Dele looked at Jeremy and smiled. Jeremy didn’t know why he smiled but if it was meant to reassure him then it did one hell of an awful job.

‘’this guy fit think say na him wan ride this ship, him no go know say na inside container we wan chook am.’’

Whatever it was they were discussing, Jeremy could see it had been concluded and even though Dele still carried his face like he had been given chloroquine to chew, he knew the journey would go on as planned.

Why was this Dele of a guy even acting like a neanderthal? By now he was supposed to be seated comfortably on that ship, gisting with his fellow sailors and probably eating smoked fish.

One thing Jeremy hated with all this agberos was that, they could scream their lungs out, do all sorts of things but just a little cash on their palm was all that was needed to keep them quite.

Michael understood this language very well as he could be seen greasing the palm of dele who was only happy to lead them ahead. One thing that piqued Jeremy’s interest though was the way they were moving like criminals. They had to duck behind a container when a custom officer was coming. It didn’t just seem right.

The three men rigmaroled and walked clandestinely until they got to a container with a few uniformed men standing in front of it.

‘’give me the bar’’ Dele motioned at Michael who brought out a bundle of cash and handed it to Dele.

He gave the bundle of cash to the uniform men who counted it to make sure it was complete.

‘’Na which of una dey travel’’ one of the men asked.

Michael dragged jeremy who was clutching his backpack to the front and handed him to the officer.

The officer opened the container and shoved Jeremy inside. Jeremy was still trying to get his head around what just happened when he heard the voice of Michael.

‘’See you in Europe.’’

He looked around, he was surrounded by bags of groundnut. He wasn’t sure what ‘’see you in Europe’’ was supposed to mean but it didn’t sound good.

‘’your food, bed and everything you would need are inside this container’’ he heard the officer saying.

The container was closed, revealing the darkness of its inside to Jeremy. Only then did reality dawn on Jeremy – he was been illegally shipped abroad.

Few days after his show of disgrace in front of Stella following his state of drunken stupor, Aaron had succeeded in letting the events of that day slide and had focused on the future. There were many things he wished to quickly forget, top on the list was that jezebel of a girl. She had come as a savior who had wanted to put him out of his relationship misery. Okay she had succeeded a bit in loosening him when she led him to the dancefloor.

Damn!

That body.

The way she wiggled and whined didn’t only loosen him, it also reminded him of the days he was bad. All that changed since he met Stella as
she completely stole his heart away. He became a good boy or at least he pretended to be.

The jezebel had succeeded in bringing out his true colour. The colour he had been trying to conceal. The colour of the beast in him. He started to play with her b0s0m like he would have done when he was bad but stopped after a while.

She did everything she could to arouse him and even though he wanted it, he was fighting against it. Even though he knew he was fighting a lost battle, he just had to fight. Atleast to convince his conscience he tried. Then she had said those words.

‘’It’s getting hot in here, would you like to chill outside? I have a car.’’

Aaron knew what she meant but was having a war of morals going on in his mind.

He shouldn’t be doing this, not with a stranger.

As if sensing that he was having second thoughts, the jezebel did some magic. She came very close to him that her breasts were pressing hard on his chest and whispered some seductive jargons to his ear.

Chai!

He wasn’t sure what her words were exactly but he was sure there were enchanted as he started following her like a lamb been led to the slaughter. The next chain of events that unfolded was what he wasn’t really proud of, it ended with him collapsing on his couch and Stella telling him something he thought sounded like ‘’I’ve changed my mind, we’re going forest camping together’’. He didn’t care, he just drifted.

All those happened about a week ago and he was now driving with Stella, heading to Ogbanike hills, hoping to give her the best treat of her life.

He owed her that much. He could even tell her what went on at the club and beg for her forgiveness. He was sure she would forgive him.

‘’you’re not talking’’ Stella snapped him out of his thoughts.

‘’erm.. sorry.. excuse me.’’ Aaron mumbled. ‘’what was it you were saying again?’’
Stella eyed him suspiciously. She had sensed a change in his demeanor ever since he had come home about a week ago in a drunken state.

‘’What happened at the club?’’ She asked. ‘’You didn’t go with me and ever since you’ve been acting strange.’’

Aaron wished she hadn’t mention the club.

He always went with her to the club and even though his friends had strong objections, he didn’t mind.

‘’I was just angry, that’s all’’ he said the only thing that came to his brain at that moment.

‘’o www..’’ Stella felt guilty.

‘’Stella, we don’t have to talk about that now. What matters is that you are here with me and we are going to have fun.’’

‘’you’re right’’ she said in surrender and leaned back, relaxing completely on the seat.

They drove in silence for the next 20minutes before Stella raised her eyebrow as if suddenly remembering something.

‘’We didn’t even come with camping equipments, how are we going to survive?’’
‘’You’d be surprised.’’

‘’you’re feeling mysterious right?’’ She asked.

‘’Mysterious doesn’t describe me and you know it’’ Aaron bragged. ‘’I’m more than that.’’

Stella kept quite. She didn’t know what to say, she wasn’t about to spoil Aaron’s mind so she didn’t have to go back and front with her several arguments.

‘’I present to you, OGBANIKE HILLS.’’ Aaron stepped on the brake to allow Stella feed her eyes a little.

She raised her head to see the most magnificent sign post she’d ever seen. It was so large that it prevented her from seeing the structure behind.

WELCOME TO OGBANIKE HILLS.

‘’waoh!!’’ she could only exclaim.

The picture below was of a neat and lush environment.

Aaron stepped on the accelerator but not before she caught a post script at the end of the sign post.

THE FIRST FOREST CAMP IN NIGERIA.

She stared at Aaron who gave a knowing smirk.

He was enjoying himself. They drove some few metres more before they met a large security barricade, Aaron slowed down and came to a halt. He came down and walked to a small building on the right were a uniformed man was standing. He showed his tickets and the bar was raised. He drove in and parked his car while the uniform man ran to catch up, this time with a middle aged tuxedoed man.

‘’Welcome to ogbanike hills, the first forest camp in Nigeria.’’ He welcomed them.

‘’’Thank you.’’ Aaron replied with a warm smile. He wasn’t sure of his next line of action so he kept the smile on his face.

The uniform man sensing his reluctance to step out of the car spoke.

‘’you won’t be needing the car from here.’’ He informed them. ‘’Alex here is your camp guide and he will be taking you to your camping area.’’

Aaron came down from the car, rushed to the passenger side and opened the door for Stella.

The camp guide smiled.

What a romantic pair.
‘’If you don’t mind sir, your trolley is over here.’’ He pointed to a golf cart parked at their left hand side.

They followed him as he ushered them into the cart while he drove them. Stella couldn’t help but notice the serenity of the environment. It was surely a trip to witness nature at its purest. She brought out her phone and started taking some pictures. Before long, they got to the spot reserved for them. It was neatly cleared with some tall trees sparsely scattered. They all came down.

‘’Have it in your minds that this is like a hotel, we offer you services such as feeding, security and others. Be sure to ring us any time you have a problem. Our numbers are saved on the phone we would be giving you’’ The guide read out their entitlements. ‘’first I’ll help you fix your tent’’
Stella was awed by what she was seeing. She was admiring the environment and taking pictures. She didn’t know when she left the camp guide and Aaron and started tracing the trees. They spanned deep into the forest.

Tall, elegant and green, she walked a few metres before realizing how far she’s gone. She was about turning back when she saw it. A cave.

Her curiosity got the better of her. she wanted to know what it was that was inside. She walked gently. As if been remoted, she walked into the cave. Her eyes brightened at what she saw.