The Runs Girl

Episode 17

As I ran, I turned back to see Flow running not
from only one person but from 50 people.

All the
Northerners in the area had joined in the pursuit
just for some little change I had picked out of the
bag of the call-maker. I increased the velocity of
my race but discovered Flow catching up with me. My head was definitely pulling me backward.

This was the first time I knew my head was an
obstacle.
“Attai, tear if not them go tear you”
Flow said as he passed me like Usain Bolt. The
recharge card seller was right there her hand outstretched to catch me. She had outrun the
other chasers. I still held unto the money because
my very life depended on it.

Apart from the drinks
and weed we had kept in the almost completed
building, nothing was on us apart from the
money paid to us by Engineer.

“Gbosa!!!”
I heard a huge fall prompting me to look back
and see our very own “chioma” rolling on the
ground like a sack of potatoes. She had tripped.
“God, if I escape, I promise not to pick pocket
again o” I prayed in my heart as I strove to catch up with
Flow.

The prayer was more like asking to stop
breathing, swimming is to fish as picking pocket
is to me.
“Make we stop to dey run, dem don stop to chase
us.” Flow slowed down as I said that. Of a truth, they
all stopped as their supposed leader crashed like
a rickety vehicle and had to help her up. All this I
saw by constantly turning behind me.
“O boy, no go kill us like fowl o.”
Flow said pushing me on my chest. I smacked his head.
“Na wetin make you run pass me? You wan make
na only me them go kill?”
I said to him forming anger.
“Na me send you?”
He asked hissing. “What are friends for na? Haba, you self no be
better friend. Your head suppose follow my own
go down na”
I said to him laughing.

He just hissed and
continued walking. There was no way we could
stop and catch our breath in the process. It had to be done walking.
“Flow, na wetin Dumelo say na?”
I asked him after we had settled down in
“Kankana Drinking Spot”. He drank his favourite
Udeme while I settled for Alomo. Beer was not my
thing since I was trying to keep fit and rid my body of unnecessary fat that had gathered. Weed
burns fat, that at least I knew.
“Him say make we look for somewhere sleep o,
say Alhaji give us tomorrow and him tomorrow na
tomorrow.”

Flow answered much to my disappointment. “Na where we go sleep na?”
I asked a question that sounded both wise and
silly at the same time.
“Na for mama house we go go sleep”
Flow answered stupidly.
“How you go take know the value of Mama since your own don kpeme tay tay”
I said trying to get back at him.
“No talk about my mama like that”
Flow warned. I knew he was not joking because I
sensed the venom in his voice.

“No vex na, what are friends for?” I stated the obvious. More like a rhetorical
question.

---

“How much be all night?”
I heard Flow asking a commercial s*x worker that
had called him.

We both concluded to go and spend the night in a brothel since it was already
late and the girls there would be looking for extra
money.

The girls don’t usually allow all night
when the business was still bubbling but the
moment 12:00am reaches, they would accept
even a token for an all night.

This is how homeless boys get a pillow to sleep on at night and since
we were both homeless, we decided to do same.

A night which we came to regret!!!