A STITCH IN TIME - A TALE WITH A LESSON

We never actually can tell where or when we'd have a life changing experience. It may be good or bad but in the end, I think it's important we take something away from these encounters

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It was dark that night, as it always was on nights when the moon hid her face from us. I had to go get a book from a friend on the other side of school for a very important test the next day. I had heard stories about boys who laid in wait for innocent people in the dead of night to rob them of their possessions and belongings, stories of girls who were nearly defiled by these criminals that sought to terrorize the night life of students in my university. I always felt I was going to be one of those lucky people that never got to encounter these set of people. How wrong I was !!!

I had successfully collected the books from a friend. The time was 12.30 am and I was told by all my friends to sleep over and read with them for the test but like the adamant human I was, I bluntly refused and told them that nothing would happen to me, that I was immune to attacks. Now I look back and think about some of the things I said that night, I can’t help but feel like I was stupid.

I strolled into the night, casually whistling and bouncing like I had no care in the world. I looked around and saw no one. Besides the Cyndi Lauper I listened to and a few street lights that occasionally blinked on and off at intervals, I was alone. Source

‘Nothing could possibly happen to me’, I told myself, and besides the journey was almost complete, I was almost at my place where I could jump and bask in the comfort of my king sized bed and study for my test the next morning. What could possibly go wrong?

I had crossed the road and was about to enter the street to my house when I saw them, three scrawny looking dudes with clothes that had obviously gone out of style. They stood at a distance of about twenty feet away from me. I felt they were fellow residents that wanted to take a walk until they started walking towards me. ‘They probably live on this street too’ I told myself, but I changed my mind when I saw one of them wielding a knife. Source

They walked towards me menacingly and I tried to maintain a straight face while I walked towards them. My first instinct was to run in the other direction but I had a feeling that I was going to be caught and besides I was no Usain Bolt. So I kept walking with my head up and with a straight face. My heartbeat had obviously doubled by now but I kept a Denzel Washington smirk on my face.

I had entered my street now and they were behind me. My pace had increased and as I was taller than any of them, I felt the gap would widen. But that wasn’t the case, they caught up with me and surrounded me. The tallest of them tapped me on my shoulders and requested for my wallet. My wallet was of course empty, or so I thought. I had forgotten that I placed the school fees of a friend for that session in the inner part of the wallet. It wasn’t going to be hard for them to find it if they searched it thoroughly. I definitely had no money to pay someone’s fees and I had just acquired a new phone the previous week. ‘Why did this have to happen right now’ I thought to myself. There was no simple way I was going to escape from this easily.

I glanced in the direction of the nearest security post. It seems my mind was being read by them as a second knife materialized out of nowhere, along with a promise of leaving that knife in my stomach if I attempted to shout or make a run for it. I had no time to consider other options as thoughts of being stabbed in the gut and dying in the process kept running through my mind. I was twenty one, and I had not done a lot with my short life so far. I had to decide in a nano second if I was willing to lose my life because of some money.

I eventually had that decision made for me as my wallet was grabbed from my pocket before I could even blink. I tried to utter a complaint but received a slap on my face. I quickly resigned myself to my fate and quickly handed my mobile phone to my attackers.
It seemed like they weren’t in a hurry as I was led further into the street to a spot they could sit. What more did they possibly want from me?? I could see my house from where I stood, its lights were still on just as I had left them. My assailants requested for my automated teller machine card pins as they wanted to transfer all I had in my bank account. They hadn’t yet found the money hidden in the inner compartment of the wallet so they assumed it was empty. I secretly prayed they would be angry enough to leave the wallet on the floor as they left me so I could at least salvage something from this already bad situation. Thankfully, I had emptied my accounts the previous day in a bid to help someone that needed the money more than I did.

They seem to have seen my account balance as they all looked at me like it was going to be my last day on earth. I was ordered to sit on the floor and put my hands on my head. I was about to lower myself to the ground when it hit me.
Source

It didn’t just hit me, it hit all of us. The light coming from the head lamps of a truck passing the street shone on all our faces and we were all stunned for a moment. As it hit me first, I was the first to recover from the shock. I pushed one of them to the ground and grabbed my wallet that had now fallen to the ground. I would have done the same for my mobile phone but this story may not have a happy ending for me if I tried that. I picked up the wallet and ran all the way to the end of the street. I scaled the fence easily and didn’t stop running till I got into the house.

I wasn’t chased by them. They were probably still dazed by all that had transpired. I fell on my bed and waited for close to an hour before I was sure that I wasn’t pursued, then I waited another hour before my pulse came down to normal before I drifted off to sleep. The test could go to hell for all I cared, and the books I had borrowed were nowhere to be found.

I never saw those guys again. A part of kept feeling that I would be sought out by them and gutted. I moved from my place to a friend’s place for the rest of the semester. I am pretty sure they laid in wait for me for several nights but gave up when I never showed up.


Till this day my love for head lamps can not be understood by my friends.