One of my most favorite times of the year is Christmas. It's a time I always look forward to because I get to reunite with my family and bond over some big family cooking.
As much as I have always had a stress-free Christmas with mobility, all that changed with the removal of fuel subsidy. Due to the price hike in airline tickets, I couldn't fly to my home state where my cousin would have come pick me up directly from the airport. I was used to the easy means of traveling but like they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. I sought for another means so I learned quickly through the internet how to book a bus ticket online. I made my reservations with one of the most reputable transport companies and chose a Sequoia, which happens to be one of their fastest moving cars. Regardless of my downgrade, I was happy because at least the bad roads won't weigh heavily on me as the vehicle is sound.
The day finally came, and I already got a call from home to reconfirm my movement. I had ensured everyone they would be seeing me before nightfall being that I'm starting the journey early and using a sound SUV then of course my siblings and mother quickly made their demands of things that they want from my trip. I bade them farewell and then got on my journey.
We had left the park while dawn seemed very far away despite it being 6:00am, it was pitch black like the early hours of the night. The AC was on, and I had my headphones plus sleeping bands on. The chair was so comfortable that I had become one with it and it felt like I was in the clouds. The ride was a smooth one, the shock absorber was strong as the potholes had no effect on the vehicle.
I was already dreaming of home, the sweet smell of my mommy's banga soup laced with the nose blinding aroma of firewood smoked dried fish. Just as I took a bite of the fish, pairing it nicely with the cassava starch as a swallow, I felt a biting pain at the corner of my tummy and an overwhelming sensation of nausea. Immediately, I was awake, and my eyes were wide open like it was going to pierce through my sleeping band.
Wondering what was wrong and why it felt like we were static, I took off my blind and was horrified by a long queue of cars parked haphazardly as it seemed some of the drivers got stuck while trying to maneuver out of the traffic. As horrified as I was, I tried to console myself that the road will clear off any minute. I kept looking at my time as a distracting technique, so I don't start throwing up from all the motion sickness that I am feeling build up.
At a point, I told the driver to open the vehicle for me to come down so I could shake off the feeling of suffocation that was already overwhelming. Right from when I was a child, I hated traffic jams, as it made me feel capsulated in the car. On getting down, we discovered from other drivers that had been stuck there that a tanker fell, and they've been waiting for means to tow it out of the way for other commuters to gain access to the road.
It will clear off any minute now I reassured myself, but any minute now quickly went to several hours and noon quickly went to dusk. Worst still, we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no network signal and I wasn't the only one frustrated, we all were. It was a day to Christmas and here it seemed like I would be celebrating it with total strangers on the road in such a frustrating situation. I was hungry, cold, dried from the Harmattan breeze, with mosquitoes feasting on me.
Just when I had given up hope and sought to find my way back to our vehicle to lay my head for the night, the towing means finally came at around past 8pm. At this point, it didn't matter what took it so long, we were just happy that the nightmare was over.
Getting back on our journey and reaching the network area, lots of messages started coming in and most of it was from my family who thought something terrible had happened to me. I quickly placed a call across to reassure them that I am fine and was just stuck in traffic. Luckily, the traffic spot was not far from my state and I was almost at the park to alight and progress home.
I was exhausted, famished and even angry but the thought of seeing my family plus spending Christmas with them and not on the road gladdened my heart.
To further make me happy and overwhelmed with love, my cousin texted that he was at the park already with my brother and they were waiting to take me home.
Posted using Neoxian City
