The loud banging on his door woke Akpan. It must be Edet, he thought. He stretched lazily and looked at the time. It was 12 PM. He sighed. There goes my nap, he thought as he let one leg slide off the bed, then the other. He wore over-sized pyjamas made of cotton fabric. He still felt drowsy as he stood awkwardly from the uncomfortable couch where he accidentally slept off in.
"Hey Edet, it's just 12, did you not travel to Portharcourt like you said you would?" He grumbled as he walked towards his door to open it. Just as he stretched his hand to grasp the door handle, he heard the loud bang again. Yes, there was the sound again. It was not a knock at his door. The noise sounded like it originated from a distant gunshot but in reality, it was the sound of one metal banging on another metal. He froze and listened. The banging got louder. He figured that it must have come from the gate of the house except that it sounded like it was coming from the back of the house. He opened his window facing the gate, and he could hear angry voices. In the midst of everyone talking at once, he could pick up snatches of words and phrases like "kill," "mad," "let it come out," etc.
He lived upstairs, that gave him a vantage view to the apartment's gate. He looked through the window, careful not to give away his presence. He parted his curtain ever so slightly to look outside. What he saw made him even more uncomfortable. He saw about seven young men armed with long machetes, half of them were shirtless. They were about twenty people standing with the half-naked men.
He hastily pulled back the curtain and put a call to Edet, his flatmate. True to habit whenever he was driving, he always switched his phone off. He scratched his head. He took another glance out the window again and noticed an increasing number of onlookers. The machete-wielding youths were now threatening to break the gate if no one answered their knocks or bangs on the gates.
He took a deep breath and opened his door. He came out of his room without any incident. But as soon as he stepped outside, somebody must have spied him through a crack in the gate and made the announcement, "Everyone should relax, the owner is coming out."
Owner? Of what? He did not have the luxury of finishing that line of thought when he got to the gate and opened it. He expected them to rush in, but surprisingly all stayed where they were while keeping a wary eye on the gate he just opened.
Everyone started talking at once. Akpan surveyed the crowd. He made a mental note of everything. First, there was a girl, who looked a bit malnourished standing in one corner who did not fit in with the crowd. She was nevertheless looking at him with fearful, big round eyes. The number of adult males with machetes had increased to eight since he first looked through his window. They seemed eager to use it, and that made it odd to watch them standby with their weapons.
Suddenly a middle-aged bald man pushed his way forward and raised his hands in a bid to quieten the crowd. Akpan looked at the futility of his efforts but was surprised when everyone stopped talking and listened to him. The man looked at Akpan and asked, "Do you live here?"
Well, you just saw me open the gate from inside wearing my pyjamas. What do you think?
Instead, Akpan kept the thoughts in his head and nodded in the affirmative.
"Ok, your dog just took a bite off someone's leg ..." his voice trailed off as he turned his head to point at the girl Akpan initially thought appeared out of place in the crowd.
"I do not own a dog, but my neighbour ..."
One of the men wielding machetes interjected, "Where is the dog? We want to kill it. It is in our tradition to kill any dog that bites someone that was minding his or her own business."
Again the bald man raised his hand, and the speaker took a step back. Akpan noticed that he commanded a certain level of respect from the crowd and he suspected that he was some form of a leader. He seemed to be the only level-headed person around. So Akpan faced the bald man and said, "Sir, like I said the dog is not mine. One of my neighbours bought a dog after we got burgled a few times."
The bald man replied, "We were not informed if there was a burglary here."
We? What is this bald man talking about?
"I am Chief Odo, the CSO, chief security officer of this estate. We got reliable intel that a dog here bit the girl."
If not for the volatility of the situation with all the young men brandishing machetes, Akpan would have laughed at the high sounding words from the man.
Akpan's flatmate indeed owned a dog, but the dog was never left to roam off the premises. Even though the dog was not tettered, it was not allowed to go out. How could it bit a girl? As he was about to reply, he saw one of his neighbours driving in. Emmanuel is back early today. That is good, he thought.
The girl suddenly pointed the finger at the incoming car and said, "That's the man that opened the gates for the dog," she looked at the gate.
Well, that makes sense, Akpan thought. Akpan scratched his head and waited for Emmanuel to drive closer to the gate.
Emmanual acknowledged that the dog in his characteristic exuberance ran out of the premises with all the speed of a racehorse as soon as he opened the gates to drive out. The girl had just passed the gate when the dog rushed out with such force. She was scared, tried to run fast, tripped and fell and spilt her wares. As soon as she fell, the dog rushed back inside since Emmanuel was already closing the gates.
But the girl, whose name Akpan later got to know as Essien, insisted she was bitten.
"Ok, let's solve this problem once and for all, I will take Essien to the hospital to get shots of anti-rabies and anti-tetanus." Akpan pleaded.
"No, this is a police case," one of the vigilantes chimed in.
"Police case?" "What crime was committed here?" Akpan wanted to know. "I'd personally bear the cost of her treatment. I think there is no need to involve the police. You and I know the police won't solve this problem."
The bald man gave him a go ahead and two vigilantes, Akpan, and Essien boarded a taxi to the nearest clinic. On getting there, Akpan tried to explain to the doctor that it was not a dog bite, but since the girl insisted otherwise that he should treat it as a dog's bite.
"I'd require you pay before we start anything," the doctor gently reminded Akpan.
"Of course," Akpan fumbled in his pocket and removed a debit card. Within moments, a POS swipe made Akpan's account to be lighter by 27, 000 Naira. He never knew it would cost that much judging by how tiny the wound the girl sustained was. Essien admitted she was yet to eat that day. She couldn't take any medication while hungry. Akpan rushed off to buy her snacks. As she ate, her wounds were cleaned and disinfected. It was at that point that Akpan noticed that the injury was located on her heel and ankle. A nick which may have resulted from her barefoot run on the stone-strewn road which was the environment of their apartment's gate.
Within minutes the girl's wound was cleaned, dressed and she got the first dose of the injection. The doctor gave her a date to come for the second treatment.
"Do not forget the cost of my wares which got damaged as I ran from the dog," Essien reminded Akpan for the second time.
Oh, that. Akpan nearly did not remember.
"How much?" He asked.
"5000 Naira," came the reply. Akpan did some quick calculation. There was no way the local delicacy she was hawking was worth that much. But to avoid further confrontation, sensing the girl was only trying to cash in on the situation, he paid.
Akpan heaved a sigh of relief. He got up and made to go.
"Not so fast young man," one of the vigilante member said. "You'd still follow us to our office to close the case."
Akpan knew that closing the case involved spending more money.
"Hey gentlemen, there is no need for me to come to your office. Don't worry I'd pay for your transport back," Akpan tries to appeal to their conscience.
"Young man, there is nothing we can do. You can see our boss is already aware of this case. You have to follow us back to the office." The taller of the two vigilantes insisted. Akpan saw that he was in between a rock and a hard place, and he followed the duo. They flagged down a taxi and rode in silence back to the so-called office. On reaching there, true to his earlier thoughts they requested for him to pay a "security fee" of 15,000 Naira which was later brought down to 10,000 Naira after much pleading and negotiation.
After he had paid, he was doubly tired. He had spent close to 45,000 Naira, if one adds the transport to the hospital, on a purported dog bite. A claim which was not even true. As he sauntered to where he would get a taxi back home, he envisioned it could have been worse. His flat nearly burnt down a week before due to a gas leak. He got lucky as someone was home and brought it under control with a fire extinguisher. Essien could've died had she fearfully run into oncoming traffic in her attempt to flee from the dog. Oh yes, it was yet another lucky day for him.
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