Greetings!
Staying out late at night is one of those things that I don't really like right from my childhood days and this is mostly because of the terror of the night. The night as we have heard in the stories is full of unpleasant things and for this reasons, going out at night is always something I don't really like talkless of staying out late in the night.
While growing up, I didn't really like going out at night and anytime my mum sent me on an errand to get her something, I would almost be scared to the heart thinking of unpleasant thing to happen on my way, there's a day I was sent on an errand at night and while coming from where i was sent to get the stuff, a dog was barking and I was all alone with no one coming behind nor anyone from the front. So, I was scared and as I was running from the dog, the dog kept on chasing, and I fell on my face, so, as the dog was about to get to me, I stood up and ran towards where I could see people, but thank God, I ran into an old man coming from the opposite end who rescued me and told me not to be scared at night or even when a dog barked at me. He said anytime a dog barked at me, I should just calm myself or better still throw stone at the dog and that the dog will run away from me.
So, going out at night is not something I like at all, and i always like being at home early. I don't like staying out late. But there was a night that I could not forget in a haste in my life. Then I was working with a construction company. This company is into the manufacturing of concrete poles and I was their truck manager. So, on this fateful day, we went to the quarry as usual just to get the material to be used for the construction which is the granite and the stone dust. So, we traveled to Ibadan the capital city of oyo state in the south western part of Nigeria. Thank God we got to the quarry very early, so, when we got to the quarry, we were able to scale out truck and we went in straight on time to load the truck which we did successfully and scaled out.
So, we left the quarry very at about 12 in the noon. But on our way back to the company at osogbo, our tipper truck broke down with a mechanical fault on the expressway. This was around 1:30pm, so, when we observed this, we looked for a road side mechanic to fix the truck for us and afterwards we left the place for our destination, but before we could a little mile, the truck broke down again, but this time around, it was the tyre that got busted and there's no spare tyre, so we called the company to come to our aid, but all to no avail. They promised to come the following day as time has gone. The time was around 7:45 in the night.
Hmmm, this was where the problem started, I that didn't like staying out late at night because of the unpleasant things I have heard about the night even while I was growing up, so, I walked straight to the driver to know the next action to take, on getting to the driver, I asked him if there's any solution to the situation, but the man said no, I told him we are at the middle of the road where no one stays and bush all around. He said there's nothing to do than to enter into the truck and sleep. And before then, I have heard series of bad occurrences that used to happen on the highways where arm robbers, rob, kill, kidnap and rape their victims. So, remembering this, I was so terrified and afraid. But I have no choice than to enter into the truck and sleep, but before then, I called my dad that I would not be coming home and narrated everything to him, since there's nothing he can do, he prayed for me that nothing would happen to me. So, I took the situation as my fate that night..while in the truck and trying to sleep, I couldn't find the sleep, as it was not coming just because of the terror of the night and more so, mosquitoes would not even allow me to sleep. The mosquito was too much that I could not close my eye with their sound and my clapping to their being the order of the day. Not only that, their bites were so harsh on me, but I took to fate.
Lo and behold, as I could not sleep throughout the night, the new day broke and I was happy to have survived the terror of the night and the bite of the mosquitoes. So, when we woke up, I quickly called the company to send us a spare tyre which they did without delay and we were able to kickstart our journey back home with any further delay. Though we got home safely, but the memories lingers in my heart.
Thanks for reading.
All images are mine.