My gaits were sure and precise as I walked towards Chevron, my phone was ringing again, that would be Maami, I had already told her I would be spending the night with Boda Tayo ìn Ikotun, but trust Maami to always call.
This time, I reached into my bag blindly for my Android phone.
It was indeed Maami.
That was fast. Bus filled already? I looked around to see if I was lucky to be sitting beside a fine young man, who knows, love could happen on a moving bus!
I looked, but there was no fine man sitting beside me, neither was any behind me or in the seat before me. No, there was no fine woman either! I was a lone passenger!
I looked up, and I could spot the bald scalp of the driver far away in front.
“Sir!” I called out….
I heard a grunt that sounded like a response.
“Sir, ẹ gbé èrò ni?”
I wanted to know why he didn’t wait for more passengers, all these government officials who cared only for their own salaries!
The typical “Oga ta, Oga o ta…”
“In front” he replied.
That would delay me, but fine… I dropped my head back to my phone, reading scary tales, praying they wouldn’t happen to me, happy tales, dropping my “God When” comment, I saw a love tale on BellaNaija that moved me to tears and I prayed silently that my love story would make news on Bellanaija one day. I had to make the news, well, if not love, maybe one of my designs someday!
My driver had still not picked any passenger… I was thinking about it when Amina buzzed me, asking where I was, I told her, I also told her that I was alone in the bus… I even made a video which I sent to her. I playfully told her not to tell anyone except something happened to me. We laughed about it…
Even when Aminat told me to alight at the nearest stop, I laughed again.
Of course nothing would happen to me, I serve a living God, I prayed that morning, and this was a BRT sef!
Begone oh Paranoia!
This is a BRT.
I noticed a stop, the door opened to admit three men and a woman… They looked straight in my direction, two of them started walking towards me. I dropped my phone in my bag sharply and held the bag to my chest.
We were on a bridge but my head suddenly stopped working, I didn’t even remember the name of the bridge, I still don’t…
An indescribable fear gripped me, my period, the reason I threw that Always sanitary pad in my bag suddenly flowed, the two men came straight for me.
“O wa o!”
I screamed, telling him I had reached my destination even though I knew I didn’t live on a bridge, I gripped my bag tightly and jumped to my feet as these men reached me, I can’t describe their faces… I can’t… my fear had blinded me.
I looked over their heads at the driver whose scalp I could still see, I also noticed the other man, but I couldn’t register what he was doing… I knew a woman got on the bus too but before I could look in her direction, one of the men had grabbed me!
In that moment I felt my life, not my heart, jump into my mouth, the fear could have killed me…but “I shall not die, but live and…”
I was thrown to the floor of the bus and I screamed! They would rape me! oh no!
“Take my phone!” I screamed before a hand landed on my mouth shutting me up. I tasted pepper, and salt and death.
I tried again but no sounds came…
Until I felt it, my skirt was torn off me, I tried to scream again but the hand; of pepper, salt and death!
My pant came off next, maybe he’d stop, when he sees the blood…
“Yes, the blood, the sign that I must not be touched, the blood…the blood, the sign of the blood”
Then I felt a pain.
I can’t describe it.
Try. Describe it.
No, I can’t.
It was not physical, even though it pierced my body, still it was not physical, it was more. It was HELL. I had landed in hell, even though my destination was Heaven.
I felt him slice my womanhood off, with no surgical precision or finesse!
I wasn’t screaming anymore, the fires of hell had embraced me!
The knife moved again, and he sliced more, deeper, cutting into my soul!
And with every slice, I was pushed deeper into the flames…
I raised my voice in silence as I screamed with a voiceless sound…
“Eloi Eloi Lama Sabach Tani…”
Did you hear?
For in that moment, cut open, half empty, I was kicked off the bus… to continue my journey to heaven.
And there, on that cold slab.
Naked.
With Half of me gone.
I waited till you came to take me home.
I am Bámiṣé.
The one who passed through Hell on her way to Heaven.
BRT ni mo wọ̀
