Laughter in the Midst of Pressure (Page 4)

continue dey love.... lover boy...

THIS IS A TRUE LIFE STORY!!
Late in 1999, an 87 year old great grand father passed on in a village close to Amai, Kwale, Delta State .
The late man's grand son by name Ufiaka (26 years old and fairly educated) was given some money and asked to travel to Agbor and buy a fine Casket for his grand pa's burial. Ufiaka left base early and arrived Agbor in good time to purchase the Casket and make the return journey same day. He was fortunate to get an open back white coloured Peugeot 404 pickup heading for Amai. He, however, had to ride in the back of the pickup with the Casket because two market women travelling to Amai were already seated in front with the driver.

On the home journey, they ran into a heavy rain storm close to Uronigbe and Ufiaka quickly opened the Casket, lay himself nicely in the well padded interior, covered the lid and used the folded newspaper he had with him to leave a small opening between the lid and the main body of the white Casket to ensure adequate ventilation. The interior of the Casket was very comfortable and Ufiaka fell into a very deep sleep.

The rain had subsided at the time the pickup van arrived at Umutu and during a brief stop there, two men travelling to Amai entered the vehicle at the back and the same happened at Ubiaruku where a man and a woman travelling also to Amai entered the vehicle.

All this while, Ufiaka was enjoying his beauty sleep inside the Casket completely unaware of the new passengers who boarded at Umutu and Ubiaruku.

The pickup van arrived Amai just after 5 PM and the driver,  who was now very hungry, stopped in front of a busy bukataria to have a quick bite before proceeding to the next village.

The sudden stoppage and reving of the pickup's engine woke Ufiaka who then opened the lid of the Casket and rose up.

Trouble come start!

The passengers in the back of the pickup jumped out of the vehicle from various points and took to their heels in various directions.

The people eating in open type bukataria (including the mama-put and her service girls) who saw the white Casket open and a 'ghost' step out, ran off all over the place some with balls of eba and akpu in their hands.

Ufiaka, seeing people running 'helter skelta' was convinced that armed robbers were operating and decided to take-off in the direction three of the passengers, including the woman, were running. When the three passengers realised that Ufiaka was running
towards them, they increased speed and shouted ghost ghost and to further worsen the situation, Ufiaka was dressed in white up and down with white shoes to match that day.

With the shouting of ghost, other people in their homes came out to see what was going on and on seeing people running at high speed all over they joined in the race for dear life and the number just swelled.

The driver and the two market women were the only people who knew what was going and they had a hell of a time calming the people down.

He just needed shelter, while it was raining.