Short Story: Chased By An Angry Madman

It was a Sunday morning and Sumbo was standing at the bus stop. She looked anxiously at her wrist watch and prayed a bus, a tricycle or a bike showed up soon, she was running late for the first service already and it wouldn't do to have to attend the second service which was conducted in Igbo.

Sumbo was new in Nsukka, it was only her second month in the quiet university town in Southeastern Nigeria. It was the compulsory national youth corp scheme that had taken her there and her understanding of the Igbo language was limited to the common greetings. Sumbo lived in an interior part of town where vehicular traffic was low and one always had to wait for a while before getting transportation.

The waiting was usually worse on Sundays, but the options were either to wait it out or take the 10 minute walk to the nearest busy bus stop. Sumbo was wearing stiletto heels and was in no mood to walk on the rough tar that paved the roads. She was still waiting when a local woman walked out to also wait for a bus on the other side of the road from Sumbo. The woman had a baby strapped to her back and two little boys on either side of her. They all waited.

A man in a red shirt showed up shortly on the horizon approaching where Sumbo stood. He was holding a cutlass and Sumbo assumed he was just one of the local farmers who was heading to inspect his farm. When he was close enough for his face to be seen, the woman with the children suddenly looked troubled, she grabbed one of her boys and seized the other's hand and they all hurried along. Sumbo wondered at the strange behavior.

If only she had known the man in red was no ordinary farmer but a village lunatic, maybe she would have immediately followed the woman. As the man in red got closer, he stared hard at Sumbo and started speaking rapid igbo. Sumbo didn't understand the words, but she understood the tone - the man was angry. She ignored him at first, thinking his anger couldn't be directed at her, she didn't know him after all.

The terror seized Sumbo when the man suddenly started brandishing his cutlass and speaking more loudly and rapidly. Sumbo suddenly understood why the other woman had fled. Quickly, Sumbo crossed to the other side of the road, walking as fast as she could and refusing to look back, she didn't want to break into a full run because she knew if it came to a chase, the mad man would catch her in no time. So she walked and she prayed, she hoped the brain of the mad man worked like that of a dog that would not chase you unless you ran.

All the while, the mad man was still behind her, she could hear his loud, angry voice. The few people she met on the road were retreating as they saw him. Sumbo prayed even harder. Zoooooommm, Sumbo heard the sound of an approaching bike, it felt like it was the best sound she had ever heard. As it got close to her, she flagged it down hurriedly,even the bike man had a wary eye on the fast approaching mad man. 

Sumbo jumped on the bike immediately it reached her without even bothering to ask for the fare or tell the rider her destination. The bike rider didn't ask too, he did a quick turn and they were soon speeding away. She looked back and saw the man in red still waving his cutlass and watching them go.

When she got off the bike at the gate of the church a few minutes later, Sumbo could still hear her heart pounding in her chest.