Chapter 17.
“Do you know that it is illegal to urinate in that place? Come! You must follow us to the city council, when you get there, you will have to bail yourself out,” said one of them as he pushed him forward in order to grab him. The others followed suit and they began to pull and drag him.
“What nonsense is all these!” Marco yelled out in aguish, trying seriously to defend himself.
“You will know that when you get to the city council, if you want to save yourself, you better give us what you have now, otherwise, you will end up coughing out thousands at the city council before you can be set free” one of the boy who was the tallest among the three told him rudely.
Marco knew very well that it was silly antics, the boys were employing to obtain money from him, he would have dealt with them were it not for the fact that the bus was billed to take off any moment from then.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.
In fact, if he had been left behind, he would have lost from both ends, He knew quite frankly that would have been catastrophic for him, so to save himself the trouble, he brought out a fifty naira note from his pocket and offered it to them.
The boys, having seen that he had more than that, smartly dipped their hands into his pocket and took away everything and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them.
By the time he ran towards the bus, it had already taken off, he stumbled on a heavy stone and hurt his right foot, he had to hop along, shouting with exaggerated desperation.
One of the passengers who was sitting at the extreme back noticed that marco was not on his seat, he quickly ordered the driver to stop the vehicle, the driver slowed down almost immediately.
Quickly marco hopped on to the bus, panting heavily.
“What happened to you?” asked one of the passengers who was occupying the seat next to him.
“I was harassed by a group of hoodlums while i was urinating,” he responded and fell back in his seat.
He was overwhelmed by the fact that he did not in anyway cut off that his nose to spite his face, the money the hoodlums extorted from him was nothing compared to the trouble he would have encountered, had it been that the bus left him behind.
Though the boys defeated him but they didn’t succeed in frustrating is innermost desire, thanks to divine providence that he was still left with some extra cash.
He considered the amount he had on him now and concluded that if he should spend a penny out of it, for food or anything else he might have to face some difficulties because the little amount of money on him cannot carry him comfortably to his friend’s house. Based on that, he opted to remain without food till he got to his friend’s place.