The Rescue
The winds are stronger than I anticipated. Right now, I am like a grasshopper trying to hop against the force of a hurricane. Not very…
Author: Splendour Ani
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The winds are stronger than I anticipated. Right now, I am like a grasshopper trying to hop against the force of a hurricane. Not very…
The winds are stronger than I anticipated. Right now, I am like a grasshopper trying to hop against the force of a hurricane. Not very favourable odds at all. The debris pelts my face, filthy satchets of pure water and crackling dead leaves getting caught in my hair. I frantically shield my face with one hand, while holding on tightly to one of the beams of the Third Mainland Bridge with the other.
I came here to kill myself, and goodness knows it’ll be me that’s going to throw myself off this bridge, not this useless wind. The odd thing is that the moon is still quite full and sending down enough light for me to see quite clearly.
I have finally manaeuvered myself around so that the wind is whipping against my back, and I can see more clearly. As I survey the area, I suddenly notice a pinprick of light coming closer from along the pedestrian walkway.
Is it possible that the police chose this night - of all nights - to patrol the bridge? I had scoped out this spot on the longest bridge in West Africa for three weeks, and not once had I encountered another soul by this ungodly hour of the morning.
I flatten myself against the beam and fervently pray that the person will just jejely move on. I don’t have the energy to attempt suicide again if this plan is foiled.
As seconds pass and the wind dies down, the light suddenly disappears.
What now?, I wonder.
I count to ten, then gingerly peer around the beam. I am immediately greeted by a pair of curious eyes partly shielded by a face cap. Those eyes were like an optical illusion, twirling slowly and drawing me in to explore their depths.
I scream and nearly lose my grip on the beam, but the stranger grabs my shirt front and yanks me forward.
Before I can blink, I’ve tumbled over the barricade and lie astride the stranger on the ground.
In the few minutes it takes for me to reorient myself and understand what just happened, anger boils up within me. I can’t even do a simple suicide well!
I scramble off the body and jump to my feet, tugging down my only decent little black dress I had picked specially for the occasion.
I scan the stranger and quickly ascertain it’s a ‘he’, and he’s not a member of the police force. I subconsciously label him Mr Stranger, as I’m wont to Then I yell at him; “What do you think you’re doing?”
He props himself up on one elbow and pushes the brim of his cap off his face. The idiotic part of my brain registers that he’s a looker.
“I could ask you the same question, ma’am.”
Mtcheww, I hiss. Then I turn around abruptly, wrap one hand around my waist and the other I use to shield my eyes, and try to walk into the wind.
“Don’t let me interrupt you, ma’am.” I hear him call out, “Go right ahead with what you were doing.”
I chance a glance back at him and notice that he is resting his back against the barricade, one knee bent as he unwraps what looks like chewing gum.
I turn back around and keep moving.
“You should know, up ahead, the street cleaners are setting up. They’ll be here in about… an hour.”
“Darn!” I grind out, and a flying insect chooses that moment to find shelter in my oesophagus. As I cough and splutter, I feel the stranger wrap his hands around my waist and squeeze. After the third squeeze, the insect is dislodged and I fall to my knees, spitting out watery globs containing wings and antennas.
“Sorry, ma’am. You’ll be alright, just breathe in slowly.” He murmurs as he gently rubs my back.
I twist suddenly and slap his hands off. Then I get to my feet and glare up at him.
“Why are you here? Weren’t you just passing through?” I query. “Well, move on then!”
He looks behind him, then over my shoulder, then back down at me.
“I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
“Screw you!” I exclaim. Not caring anymore, and very conscious that I had precious few minutes of semi-darkness left, I walk to the barricade again and hoist myself over it.
Poised at the edge, I intentionally block out everything else and remind myself why this must end tonight:
Because I screwed up; falling in love with a man who had sick, sexual fantasies - even enjoying it for awhile.
Because I broke my mother’s heart; eloping with the monster she could see, but I couldn’t. Effectively ending my chances of studying Medicine in the UK like we had planned.
Because I failed my best friend; losing concentration for just one moment, and that was all it took for her two-year old daughter in my care to swallow pellets of rat poison I had hidden behind the sofa. She was dead before she got to the hospital, her lifeless body limp in my hands as I screamed and screamed.
Because I dodged a bullet I should have let hit me square in the chest. My ‘best friend’ wanted to press charges. Her husband refused. And because I had dated him six months before they met, she was convinced we were having an affair. It drove her crazy - literally, not figuratively.
Because society had labelled me a witch, an agent of darkness blinded by envy and sent to ruin the happiness of my so-called best friend.
There’s more, I’m sure there is. But my anguished mind is too tortured to dig them all up. These reasons alone were solid enough for me to take the leap and plunge into whatever awaits me in the afterlife. Hell or purgatory, at least it would be a change from this hell I’m already experiencing.
Just then, I hear a pop behind me. Reluctantly, I look back and see the stranger, seated again on the ground, looking for all the world like I had gone to take a piss and he was on the lookout, patiently waiting for me.
He glanced up and saw me watching him, and he smiled.
“Never mind me, ma’am. Go right ahead.”
“What is wrong with you? Just go away, please!”
“Sorry, but I can’t.”
“What do you mean ‘you can’t’?”
He twists more towards me and replies, “You see, this is my night-time spot. I come here often.”
“That’s a bloody lie!” I retort. “I’ve been by this place almost every night for the past three weeks, at this same time, and I have never seen you here. Not once!”
He shrugs, “I did say I come here often. Not all the time.”
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then look down at him pleadingly.
“Now, I’m begging you, just go. Please. Or you can even just move away a little to another area for your hangout or whatever. Please.”
He looks at me steadily for a few minutes.
“Alright ma’am. I’ll do that. I’m in a benevolent mood tonight. But on one condition.”
I hiss at him again. “Oya, stay now! I’ll move.” I begin to do just that when he says, “If you go forward, you’ll encounter the road cleaners. If you head back, you run into a camera crew that’s shooting a scene for a movie.”
I groan and throw my head back against the beam, muttering curses at him under my breath.
He laughs. The nonsense man has the guts to laugh!
“Ok, look. I promise on my mother’s grave, may she rest in peace, that I will leave you alone to do your business, as soon as you come sit with me for a moment and chat.”
I look at home incredulously. This idiot can’t be serious.
“You can’t possibly be serious.”
“Oh, but I am. Dead serious, no pun intended.”
...to be continued...
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