Chaos and painkillers

35. Our old friend, death.

Saturday, 1st June, 2019.

"What's wrong?" Silence. "Tafida!"

Sudais hiked his phone with faint voices coming from it as he hadn't ended the call. "Baba..."

Tahir's hands flew in confusion. "Ba-what? What happened!?"

"He is..." Sudais shook his head, raising his wide eyes to his friend. As if he didn't believe he was saying it, he repeated. "He is dead...Dead?"

Tahir's hands flew to his head, "Innalillahi wa'inna'ilaihir raji'un."

Dead?

Dead?

Dead?

Moments of silence slipped. As if a rock had hit his head, Sudais stood up, shaking his head, denial at its peak. "No. No. No. No. Hasbunallahu wani'imal wakil! La'ilaha'illah Muhammadur' rasulullah! Innalillahi wa'inna'ilaihir raji'un. Baba?" He kept repeating, sitting on the edge of the couch, only to stand up, pace, stand erect and stare at the ceiling, shake his head, and repeat.

Heading to his room, he announced as a tear slipped from his left eye. "I'm leaving," and hastily wiped his tear, almost slapping his face, and banged the door open.

"Wait!" Tahir ran to him. "Now? It's 8 pm. How can you leave for Yola right now?"

Whipping to his friend, he yelled. "Me zan zawna inyi anan, Tahir? I have got to go!"

"It is a 22hours journey." Tahir reasoned.

"Abuja zani in daw family na. If there's a flight we can catch or the jet's ready, shike-" he halted, finding reason in his words. "The jet!" He shook an index, barging into the room and throwing a random troll bag on the bed.

"Tafida you can't drive like this."

"I can and i will." He threw clothes he had grabbed from the hanger without removing the clips before turning to Tahir. "So, you can either support your best friend when he has just lost his dad or you can do whatever you want to." He whipped to stare at the bag with gritted teeth before kicking it close. He didn't even need clothes.

He picked the first set of khaki uniform and headed for the bathroom.

His uniform would earn him easier passage, along with his ID.

He came out fully dressed in less than five minutes to meet an equally dressed Tahir in his clothes who was slipping into his shoes . "Let's pass by my house and lock it."

Sudais walked to his friend and stretched his arm. Voice tight, eyes pink, he showed his appreciation. "Thank you, man."

Tahir clasped Sudais' hand, palm to elbow in a hard, reassuring way. "Anytime. Let's go." He patted Sudais' arm as he walked out.

Sudais took a few more minutes to gather himself as he closed his eyes.

"It's going to be alright." He said to himself.

In the car in which he had argued with Tahir about who would drive, he agreed to let Tahir take over the last 5 hours of the 11-hour journey.

He was lying, he wasn't going to.

A few hours into the journey, Sudais held his breath with his phone on speaker as he waited for the call to get picked up. At the 7th ring, he was counting-yes, the call got picked.

He glanced at Tahir who glanced at him almost in sync before returning his gaze to the chilly black night atmosphere he was furiously driving in.

"Big-biggi..." Sudais' feet instinctively stepped on the brakes, harshly before it was on the gas again, his eyes blinking.