It was morning, that time of the day when the sun has come up but you wouldn’t want to leave the bed because sleep has a way of caressing your eyes after dawn. The sun had forced its way through the window blinds and Udo could feel the warmth of the morning even though he was trapped between sleep and wakefulness. He jumped out of bed and glanced at the clock on the wooden wall of his one room apartment; it was 8:07am. “O boy, I don late. I hope say this woman never carry another person go work o,” he muttered as he dragged himself to the door. Udo is a taxi driver. He doesn’t just drive a taxi, he uses his Wagon to transport illegally refined petroleum products for willing customers. He was billed to transport some jerry cans of ‘kpofire’ kerosene from the jetty at Nembe Waterfront to other retail distributors at Mile 1, Diobu in Port Harcourt. A customer had booked him the previous day, and they had agreed that 7:00am was the best time to move the products. At that time, security agents, especially the Police officers who had worked all night, would likely be off the road to take a rest from their night’s work. (more…)
