The Chase

Sent in by Echemunor Seun         

              ########
It was an informal and unplanned gathering of all Kanturu NYSC cds members. Sitting upstairs on a long wooden bench, we enjoyed the view of the main – tarred – road from the balcony. While relishing the evening breeze, we also took on each other in jokes, and sometimes furtively ‘stroked’ the passersby. Village life you’d say.

“Deborah, go cook food for Nnadi.” Ufuoma said aloud.
Laughing. “What concerns you?” Deborah replied.
“Don’t mind her – Ufuoma what is your business?” Nnadi added.

Ebullient Ufuoma was reminding Deborah of her “duties” as Nnadi’s corper “wife.” Quite naturally, some corps members had “paired” up, and Deborah and Nnadi had formed a distinct, platonic, ‘male-female’ pair. It was amidst such conviviality that the chase started; the chase I’d share with you – dear reader – shortly.

          ########
“Corpers good evening O!” An unfamiliar male voice sounded moments later.

All voices seized, with all of us trying to assimilate the new addition. All our necks turned in unison toward the direction of the voice and behold, there stood a slightly built, middle aged, dark complexioned man.

He continued. “My name is Dimeji, I am a son of the soil.”
Temporary silence. I think I heard one of my colleagues clear his throat in anticipation.
“I am a graduate of Agricultural Engineering from the University of Ilorin and currently, I am doing my Masters…”

The “show- off” introduction of the young man made all of us visibly uneasy. I remember that Deborah pinched me and gave me look as if to say, “Is this guy trying to sell himself to us?" This man later became the ‘chaser’ and I the ‘wild goose’ – read on.

               ########
I never did anticipate that my stress level would rise so much because of him. Had I known, I would have entered my room moments before he came. Already, the stress of resuming work at my Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was taking its toll on me being further exacerbated by the fact that I was now living in a village. The detached bungalow accommodation that my employer had given me was far removed from town so I had decided to stay a while with the other corps members while I got myself acclimatized to the environment of Kanturu.
Just days before, I had to sweep, mop and dry every square inch of space at the house, and my arms were yet to recover from the activity. I considered Kanturu a cool place. At least, it was safe, and the temperatures were almost always low. Besides, the friendly demeanor of the other corps members had, in no small measure, helped me settle in quickly. These were blessings that I forever thank God for.

########
Several days later, I was sitting at the same balcony, but this time, all alone playing the “Zuma” game on my phone. I heard the groan of a car engine parking. I looked up from my phone and noticed the same gentleman trying to get out of the car. In trying to avoid having a Solo encounter with him, I got up to walk into the house.
“Hello.” He called out after me, but I pretended not to have heard him.
I walked into Chucks’s room to take refuge there, and to alert him on the presence of “his friend.” The last time he came to visit, he and Chucks had gotten into a short chitchat, and so, I considered them friends.
Chucks, wanting to create the impression that he was asleep, got up to bolt the door to his room, but before he could do this, there was a knock on the door. It was Dimeji again, this time in Chucks’s room, with me present.
He politely asked for our names and from there we all got talking. By this time, I could sense his objective with accuracy.
Following a brief and awkward silence after the “introductions,” Chucks decided to make the “meeting” more business-like. He told Dimeji about a project the corps members were planning to execute in the community and asked for his assistance in getting a list of names of members of the community who could help financially in carrying out the project.

A smile broke out on his face, it this was like a door he had been struggling with suddenly opened. He immediately promised to help, and asked Chucks and I for our phone numbers, in order to enable him update us on his progress on the issue.

Armed with these two phone numbers, of which only one was of importance to him, Dimeji walked out of the lodge. This is to be his last visit to the lodge, but the chase continued.

             ########
The updates started coming in, as calls, and he began to ‘update’ me, rather than update Chucks, on his feelings and attraction to me.

Beep Beep.
I checked my phone and saw “Talk Kanturu” – the caller’s ID. “Talk Kanturu” is the name I used in storing Dimeji’s phone number because of his loud nature.
I picked up the phone.

“Hello, How are u doing?” He said.
“I am fine, thank you.”
“I just called to know how you are doing. By the way, how can I see you?”
Pause.
“See me? Why not come over to the corpers’ lodge?”
“Nope, I wanna see you privately, so we can have time to talk”
“Why privately?”

“See, since that first night I came over to your lodge, I noticed you and I said to myself, “this corper is tight.” Besides, this town is boring and I realized that with someone like you, I could have much fun.”

“Tight? What do you mean by – ?”

“ – I mean you are beautiful.” He cut in.
Hmmmm! Quite daring
“I have got to sleep, ok?”
“Ok, sleep tight”
“Yeah”

[Reader, if you were in my shoes what would you do? What would be your reaction? Your comments are highly welcome.]