The black Prado Land cruiser finally pulled up by the beach in Quepos. Afua, Dami, Deji and Samuel piled out of the jeep. As they stretched their legs from their long journey, they were met by the locals of the small beach town who immediately tried to sell them everything from jewellery to tour guides. But they were preoccupied by other thoughts. They waited some 15 minutes but there was no sign of Daniel, Brenda and Belinda in the silver Honda. They had taken a wrong turn soon after they left San José on the four hour trip to Quepos. Deji pulled out his cell phone and checked it. He had reception. He dialled Daniel’s number...
The date was 07/07/07. The seven friends had flown to Costa Rica on a Boeing 777 and the boys were staying in room 777 at the San José Marriott. They had risen at 7am that morning and paid $77.70 for gas for the trip to Quepos. While they may have ordinarily dismissed the recurrence of the number seven as freak coincidences, they could not dismiss the fact that Afua had a dream the night before predicting doom if they did not solve “the riddle” by 7pm. And Afua never dreamt amiss. Well, almost never.
Daniel picked up the call. “Hello?”
“Hi Daniel, its Deji. Where are you guys?”
“Well, we got lost. It took us almost 2 hours to get back on the road to Quepos. When we got to the mountains, Brenda and Belinda insisted we turn back! We’ve been hanging out in San José since.”
“Okay, please do me a favour – can you find a Bible and check what Judges 7:7 says?”
“Why? What do you need that for?”
“I’ll explain later. Please can you just check it and call me back?”
“Sure, will do.”
Samuel looked at his watch. 12 noon. They had exactly seven hours to find the scripture and figure out what it meant. Samuel spoke to a few of the locals in Spanish to find out where they could find a Bible. Afua, Dami and Deji tried their best to be useful – they went round to anyone they thought might understand their Spanglish saying “Biblia?” while holding out their hands in a book shape! Eventually Samuel came back to them. “Guys, I think we’re in luck, one of the tour guides said there is a church down the road”
The friends got back into the land cruiser and before long they had whisked themselves down the road, along the full stretch of the beach and to the bottom of a hill where they found a small church. They walked into the small brick building with a thatched roof. It seemed deserted. They couldn’t find a soul inside but they did find a few Bibles scattered on the benches not very far from the pulpit. Samuel picked one up to flick straight to Judges, but to his dismay, it had only the New Testament! He checked one after the other – they were all New Testament only. They went back to the beach but tried as they may, they couldn’t put the day’s events out of their minds and enjoy themselves.
“I just tried calling Daniel back, but there was no response,” Deji said, as they lay on their towels a few metres away from the sea shore.
“Let’s start getting back,” Samuel responded, “it’s obvious that’s all we’re going to be thinking about all day!”
It was unanimously agreed that Samuel would drive back, even though Dami had driven them to Quepos, given the dangerous nature of the mountain roads which they had to face once again. Samuel was the far more experienced driver and nobody wanted a repeat of the widespread panic that Dami had exhibited behind the wheel at 10,000 feet! Samuel sped down the highway towards the mountains as quickly as they could. They knew that navigating the mountain roads when it started getting dark was a proposition that none of them wanted to face.
It took them less than an hour to get close to the mountains. However as they approached they suddenly heard sirens behind them. Samuel looked in his rear view mirror and could see what looked like a police vehicle fast approaching them.
“It looks like they’re asking us to pull over,” Afua said, “what should we do?”
“Pull over of course,” Dami said, “it’s not like we’ve done anything wrong. Just remain calm and we’ll be fine. Samuel, you do the talking!”
Samuel pulled the Jeep over and the police car stopped a few metres behind them. Two men emerged from the vehicle wearing uniforms that likened them more to army officers than policemen. One stayed by their vehicle, while the other, hand near his hip, approached the land cruiser cautiously. Samuel wound down his window as the officer approached. The others looked on in silence as a conversation with the officer in Spanish ensued. After a couple of minutes Samuel reached for the globe compartment and handed the man some documents.
“What did he say?” Afua asked as the man walked back to his vehicle, “I hope everything is OK?”
“He said we were speeding. I tried to explain we were trying to get back to San José before dark. Anyway, he’s checking my driver’s license now.”
“Will they accept your UK license here?” Dami asked.
“They should do,” Deji replied, “I guess we’re about to find out.”
When the man returned his conversation with Samuel was much briefer. He didn’t hand Samuel back his papers, and the look on Samuel’s face worried his friends.
“What’s the matter?” Afua asked.
“Well, they’re not satisfied with my UK license; they want us to come down to the station!”
Samuel started the car and followed the police to a quaint little town called Jacó. When they arrived at the police station, they were surprised by how run down it looked. They were led through the front door and into the reception where they were motioned to sit on benches packed with dozens of other people who seemed to be waiting their turn to report or resolve one altercation or another. On the right of the room towards the back, there was a corridor leading jail cells which were visible from the reception – they could tell they were packed with prisoners and very noisy too. It appeared no one here could speak English. Samuel was left to do all the talking. He had a few words with an officer by the counter while the others were seated. At this point the group was fully dependent on him to get them out of this mess!
Afua shifted uncomfortably on the bench, sandwiched between a woman twice her size and a man sweating through his pores like he was in a sauna. She needed any excuse to leave the bench. “Samuel, I need to go to the bathroom. Can you ask them where it is?”
After Samuel said a few words to the man behind the counter, he motioned towards and open door on the left of the room which led to a long corridor. She found the bathroom at the end of the corridor on the left. There was no door, just a large entrance where a double door should have been. She was sure that she must have walked into the gents because all she could see were three urinals lined up next to each other against the wall. She checked again but there seemed to be no ladies room. Perhaps no female inmates, she thought. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved by that or terrified! She was still deep in thought when she heard a noise from the other side of the restroom. She noticed a small crack in the wall so she went to take a look.
She peered through the crack in the wall to see a hidden room, and there were lots of people. At first she couldn’t make out what they were doing but then suddenly it became startlingly clear to her. Oh my goodness, she thought as she ran as fast as she could back to the reception.
“Guys, we need to get out of here. I don’t think this is a police station at all...”
“Of course this isn’t a police station,” she was interrupted by a husky deep voice.
Silence descended on the room as a tall man walked into the room from the corridor Afua had just fled. He was dressed in a sharp grey pin striped suit and red tie, had a visibly deep scar running all the way across his left cheek to his lower jawbone, and towered above almost everyone in the room. He was intimidating to say the least, and he spoke perfect English, though in a deep Hispanic accent.
“Samuel, I’m disappointed,” he said, breaking the brief silence his entrance and profound revelation had caused. “I thought you would have figured that much out by now.”
The friends were dumbfounded. Samuel startled. How did this man know his name?
“Okay, I don’t know what type of sick game this is,” Samuel said, “but it needs to end now!”
“Of course this is a game – and it’s only the beginning. And the four of you are my little helpless pawns in this game!”
He motioned to the people sitting on the packed bench and they got up, picked up their belongings and hurriedly left. He spoke to his “policemen” who grabbed Deji and Samuel, handcuffed them and started to take them away.
“I saw what you’re really doing back there,” Afua shouted, “You’re not going to get away with it!”
“In case you didn’t realise,” he retorted, “I already have, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it!”
“Drug trafficking is a serious crime,” Afua shot back, “and now you’re about to add kidnapping to your list of offences! Look, we’re British citizens. Our government will find us and then your petty drug peddling is going to be shut down!”
“Actually,” Dami tried to speak to Afua with a whisper, “Deji and I are not red passport holders; we only have the green of Nigeria!”
Ouch, Deji thought as he was being led away. He could see the headlines on the morning news back home – ‘Two Britons have been kidnapped in Costa Rica, The British consulate is doing everything in its power to negotiate the release of its citizens. They’re being held with an unknown number of other hostages whose nationalities have not been identified!’
Samuel wanted to shout to the girls not to worry and that everything would be fine, but of course he didn’t know if that was true. Two men who were big enough to be sumo wrestlers, yet built enough to be bouncers, took Deji and Samuel to an empty cell, threw them in and locked the door behind them. They were locked up for a while so they had time to contemplate their dire situation.
After conversing for an hour or so Deji said “So how do you think this will play out?”
“I have no idea,” Samuel responded. “This is absolutely crazy! Do you think this has anything to do with the July 7 bombings in London?”
Before Deji could respond, there was a loud explosion! The cell they were in shook violently, the lights went out, and before they knew it, they could hear gun shots. Machine guns. The rounds of shooting went on for what seemed like an eternity. Samuel and Deji buried their heads under the bed as they could see rounds of fire fly past the door of their cell. After about 10 minutes, there was a brief respite. The shooting stopped. They pulled their heads out from their hiding place to assess the situation but suddenly there was another explosion at the entrance to their cell. It startled them, but it was a more controlled explosion than the first one. The door of the cell flew open, and men, dressed in black commando gear trooped in. Samuel and Deji looked at each other in bewilderment. They were picked up and led out of the room by the men in black!
Look out next week for the next instalment of the 777 saga. Will the friends make it back to San José before 7pm? Will they finally solve the 777 riddle? Who is the scar-faced drug cartel baron and who are the mysterious men in black? Find out next week in 777 – The Final Destination!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
777 - The Road to Quepos
Samuel, Dami and their friends are in the third and final day of their Costa Rican holiday. Based in the capital San José, they’re preparing for a day long trip to the beach in Quepos, a small town about four hours’ drive away. Little did they know they were in for the trip of a lifetime - literally…
It was the 7th of July and deep in the hurricane season in Central America. Samuel was awakened by the loud banging on the door of room 777 of the San José Marriott. He rolled over and looked across him to see Deji and Daniel still lying in bed. He glanced at his wrist watch. 7.07am. He gazed into space as he tried to snooze and seemed deep in thought until he was snapped out of his slumber by the persistent knocking. He lazily dragged himself out of bed, walked to the door and looked through the peep hole. It was Dami. She looks so different from when she’s in her work clothes, he thought. She was a bit of a workaholic so he rarely saw her dressing casually. He couldn’t help but feel that her business wear didn’t do her enough justice. She had an unassuming, subtle beauty which could have easily been lost on a less observant guy. As he reached for the door knob to open it, he realised that he probably didn’t want her to see him in his current state, having just crawled out of bed.
“Who is it?” he called out.
“It’s Dami. Are you still in bed? We’ve been ringing your room for the past hour – aren’t you guys coming anymore?”
“Of course we’re coming, we’re almost ready”, came the easy lie.
“Fine,” Dami paused, “just hurry up okay. We were meant to leave at 7am so we’re already late as it is!”
As Dami walked away, she had to restrain herself from going back and beating the door down with a rain of insults – these guys clearly had no concept of time!
While Dami and the other girls waited in the lobby, Samuel got the other guys up. After briefly contemplating sleeping in and spoiling the party, they eventually got their act together and hurriedly joined the ladies at 7.30. The valet attendants brought their rental cars round and they were ready to leave. While Afua, Dami, Deji and Samuel poured into the black 4X4 Prado Landcruiser, Daniel and twin sisters Brenda and Belinda got into the silver Honda Accord. Dami and Daniel were the designated drivers, though Dami had only gotten the chance to drive after throwing a tantrum about the guys not wanting the girls to drive. That was just sexist, she thought.
“We’re not trying to be sexist,” Samuel said as he climbed into the passenger seat, as if he had read her thoughts in that moment, “you only got your license six months ago so you should be very careful with driving on the right side of the road and on a different continent.”
They made their first stop at the petrol station to fill up their tanks before embarking on their road trip. After pulling in, Dami parked the car by the gas pump and switched off the engine. “Sam, can you do the honours?” she asked turning to him on her right. He looked right back at her wordlessly , almost in silent frustration, then he turned his head and glanced at Deji and Afua in the back seat with their hands clutched together. Heaving a sigh of acceptance, he got out of the car to speak to the attendants filling their tanks up. Being the only Spanish speaker in the group, he’d spent the past three days doing everything for the group. He was just about fed up of this but figured he’d just bear his cross for the final day. After paying the clerk, he pocketed the change and took a look at the receipt as he got back into the jeep. $77.70. He thought there was something peculiar about the bill but dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it had come.
“What’s wrong?” Dami asked him as she started up the car, “You look puzzled.”
“It’s nothing. I thought I noticed something but it was nothing.”
Before long they were on their way out of San José city centre but it didn’t take much longer for the two cars to get separated. Daniel had taken the lead but he missed the exit clearly signed posted to Quepos. Luckily, Dami spotted it just in the nick of time and turned off the dual carriageway. After waiting in vain for a few minutes for the Honda to find them, they realised they had no choice but to go it alone. Their phones were no longer in the coverage area so they had no option but to hope they’d meet their friends at their final destination. As they settled into the road trip, the guys recounted the events of the night before.
“Samuel insisted on checking out the clubs in Costa Rica,” Deji chuckled, “so we went to La Rhumba while you ladies were in the spa.”
“And how was it?” Dami asked.
“It was fine,” Samuel responded swiftly.
“Just fine? Deji shot back, Samuel just left Daniel and I standing there while he went to chat up the Costa Rican ladies in Spanish!”
“So how did that go?” Afua asked giggling.
“Well,” Deji continued, “it was quite funny because he got chatting to and dancing with this J-Lo lookalike. Everything seemed fine until she whispered something in his ear. Before we knew it he grabbed us and we were heading for the exit!”
“What did she say to you?” Dami asked, glancing in Samuel’s direction while keeping one eye on the road.
“She gave me her phone number and then asked if I wanted to go home with her!”
“Okay, so is that why you had to leave the club altogether?”
“Well, if you knew where I was coming from, you’d understand why we had to leave immediately!”
In the past. Samuel had had what he’d call a woman problem. Born to an estranged Equatoguinean father and raised by his Nigerian mother in London, as a teenager he wooed many an unsuspecting girl with his Afro-Latin charm. When he became a Christian, he couldn’t understand why he persisted in many of his old habits so now he made it a point to flee from temptation whenever possible.
As the friends continued on their journey, the road started to narrow and get windier. Also, they hardly realised the slow but steady ascent they were making from ground level. For a while they were bordered by hilly terrain and rocks on either side of the road so they were unable to see their true altitude. When they turned a corner near the peak of their ascent, the terrain suddenly opened up and on either side all they could see for miles were deep valleys on either side of them. There was no hard shoulder, a single narrow lane in either direction and barely a barbed wire fence on either side that would surely not keep anyone who wanted to from making a precipitous dive off the side of the mountain! The mood in the car which had been joyful and playful only moments ago quickly turned to one of sobriety and deep thought. You could hear a pin drop. Their astonishment at the magnificence of the scenery lasted only moments before it was replaced by acute fear and anxiety in the realisation that their lives were on a knife-edge, suspended in mid-air, on a remote mountain road a long way from home. It was like the moment the wily coyote confidently chasing the road runner across the mountains suddenly realised that he could indeed not run on thin air! Samuel saw that Dami was clearly shaken so he broke the brief silence.
“Dami, look straight ahead. Whatever you do, don’t look left or right!”
“Yes,” Deji agreed, “keep your eyes fixed firmly on the road!”
Dami however was fretting. “Can we stop or turn back? Can one of you guys take the wheel? I’m feeling a bit dizzy, I’m not sure I can do this!”
“What?!” Afua panicked, “you want us to stop in mid-air?”
“Calm down,” Samuel cut in, “Dami, it’s a bit late for that now. We can’t stop here and the road is too narrow to do a U-turn. Don’t worry; we’ll get through this...”
“Next time,” Deji muttered under his breath, “You’ll listen to us when we tell you not to drive.”
That’s if there will be a next time, Dami thought.
“Chill out, Deji,” Samuel said, “now is not the time for I told you so’s”
As they continued their passage through the narrow mountain roads, Samuel couldn’t help but spare a thought for their friends who were most certain to encounter the same cliff-hanging roads not far behind them. Their descent from the hills was equally as slow as the ascent, but soon enough they reached the foot of the mountains on the other side. They would soon arrive at their destination. The first notice of the distance to Quepos clearly signposted caught Samuel’s eye. QUEPOS – 77 KILOMETROS.
“That’s interesting.” He was thinking out loud now, “I’ve been seeing the numbers 7 or 77 all day long and I’m beginning to wonder if it is more than just a coincidence.”
“What do you mean?” Deji asked.
“Well, when we filled the tanks up before leaving we paid $77.70 and I just saw a sign saying 77km to Quepos. Oh, and our room number at the hotel is 777. I have a feeling someone is trying to tell us something.”
“Come on,” Dami blurted out, “don’t be absurd! Soon you’ll be telling me that since there are seven of us on this trip, that’s a sign too, or that our flight number to Costa Rica was 777!”
“Actually,” Afua responded pensively, “Our plane was a Boeing 777 from Miami. I did think it was unusual to have such a big plane on a short haul flight...”
“Not that I’m superstitious,” Deji added, “but today is the 7th of July 2007. That’s another triple seven right there. Maybe it does mean something. What’s the significance of today’s date?”
“Well,” Dami said, “it’s the two year anniversary of the London bombings, but I can’t see how that’s relevant here. We’re thousands of miles from London and I doubt anything here is going to be a target for terrorists.”
There was a brief silence as they all digested the deluge of information, but Afua soon broke the silence. “I had a dream last night. The details were a bit fuzzy, but there was a man whose face I couldn’t see. He said that something would happen today at 7pm unless we solved the riddle. Obviously it didn’t make any sense to me then but now it is beginning to make perfect sense!”
“Okay,” Dami said, “now you’re starting to freak me out!”
“Afua, assuming that you and Sam are correct,” Deji started in the logical fashion that only he could, “we have a riddle to solve which somehow relates to the number 777 and we have until 7pm today to solve it or else something bad is going to happen?”
“It would appear so,” Samuel responded, “I’ve known Afua for a while and her dreams are known to come to pass...”
“Really,” Dami retorted sarcastically, “what about the dream of the plane crash she had while we were on the plane to Miami? Thank goodness that one didn’t come true!”
As much as Deji didn’t want to believe something he thought to be so farfetched, he knew that his girlfriend was a dreamer – ignore her visions at your peril. He glanced at his watch. 11.07am. “Look guys, let’s not squabble about this. We still have nearly eight hours until 7pm. By that time we’ll be home and dry, back in our hotel rooms and out of harm’s way. Besides, that should be enough time for us to figure out this riddle.”
They continued in relative silence as they racked their brains as to what these cryptic clues could mean. As they approached Quepos, Afua’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Isn’t there something in the Bible about forgiving your brother 77 times?”
Samuel turned to look back at her, paused for a minute, and then responded. “Isn’t that 70 times 7 – so 490 times?”
“It doesn’t matter which one it is,” she continued, “I think we’re all meant to forgive the grudges we hold before the proverbial sun goes down on our anger. So what do you guys need to confess?”
“I don’t know,” Dami started, “perhaps I need to forgive an ex-boyfriend?”
“Where do I start,” Deji added, “there is a long list of people I have issues with!”
“Hold up guys,” Samuel interrupted, “Even if it is 77 times, there is one seven missing. Besides, I think it’s got to be something more specific than that!”
After a long pause, the Landcruiser began to approach a truck in the distance. As they got closer, the small poster sign at the back of the heavy duty vehicle came into focus. It was in English. THE BIBLE HAS THE ANSWERS.
As they overtook the long vehicle, Deji and Samuel exclaimed almost simultaneously, “What if it’s a verse in the Bible?”
“So you guys think its verse 7 of chapter 7 of a book in the Bible?” Dami tried to contain her excitement as she spoke. If this was the X-Files, she’d definitely be Scully! “What’s the 7th book in the Bible?”
Afua counted with her fingers for a few seconds before responding. “It’s got to be Joshua. No wait...actually it’s Judges, I’m pretty certain about that.”
“Okay, so who has a Bible?” asked Deji, “What does Judges 7:7 say?”
“Come on, who takes a Bible on a road trip?” Dami responded, “We’ll have to find one when we get to the beach.”
They could now see Quepos in the distance. Dami put her foot on the gas to get there as quickly as possible. They were very close to finding the answers they were looking for. They could just feel it.
Will our four friends find what they are looking for in Quepos? Will they be reunited with their other friends? Will they make it back safely across the death defying mountain roads to San José? And will they solve the riddle before 7pm? Find out all this and more, next week , in the 777 - The Return to Quepos!
It was the 7th of July and deep in the hurricane season in Central America. Samuel was awakened by the loud banging on the door of room 777 of the San José Marriott. He rolled over and looked across him to see Deji and Daniel still lying in bed. He glanced at his wrist watch. 7.07am. He gazed into space as he tried to snooze and seemed deep in thought until he was snapped out of his slumber by the persistent knocking. He lazily dragged himself out of bed, walked to the door and looked through the peep hole. It was Dami. She looks so different from when she’s in her work clothes, he thought. She was a bit of a workaholic so he rarely saw her dressing casually. He couldn’t help but feel that her business wear didn’t do her enough justice. She had an unassuming, subtle beauty which could have easily been lost on a less observant guy. As he reached for the door knob to open it, he realised that he probably didn’t want her to see him in his current state, having just crawled out of bed.
“Who is it?” he called out.
“It’s Dami. Are you still in bed? We’ve been ringing your room for the past hour – aren’t you guys coming anymore?”
“Of course we’re coming, we’re almost ready”, came the easy lie.
“Fine,” Dami paused, “just hurry up okay. We were meant to leave at 7am so we’re already late as it is!”
As Dami walked away, she had to restrain herself from going back and beating the door down with a rain of insults – these guys clearly had no concept of time!
While Dami and the other girls waited in the lobby, Samuel got the other guys up. After briefly contemplating sleeping in and spoiling the party, they eventually got their act together and hurriedly joined the ladies at 7.30. The valet attendants brought their rental cars round and they were ready to leave. While Afua, Dami, Deji and Samuel poured into the black 4X4 Prado Landcruiser, Daniel and twin sisters Brenda and Belinda got into the silver Honda Accord. Dami and Daniel were the designated drivers, though Dami had only gotten the chance to drive after throwing a tantrum about the guys not wanting the girls to drive. That was just sexist, she thought.
“We’re not trying to be sexist,” Samuel said as he climbed into the passenger seat, as if he had read her thoughts in that moment, “you only got your license six months ago so you should be very careful with driving on the right side of the road and on a different continent.”
They made their first stop at the petrol station to fill up their tanks before embarking on their road trip. After pulling in, Dami parked the car by the gas pump and switched off the engine. “Sam, can you do the honours?” she asked turning to him on her right. He looked right back at her wordlessly , almost in silent frustration, then he turned his head and glanced at Deji and Afua in the back seat with their hands clutched together. Heaving a sigh of acceptance, he got out of the car to speak to the attendants filling their tanks up. Being the only Spanish speaker in the group, he’d spent the past three days doing everything for the group. He was just about fed up of this but figured he’d just bear his cross for the final day. After paying the clerk, he pocketed the change and took a look at the receipt as he got back into the jeep. $77.70. He thought there was something peculiar about the bill but dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it had come.
“What’s wrong?” Dami asked him as she started up the car, “You look puzzled.”
“It’s nothing. I thought I noticed something but it was nothing.”
Before long they were on their way out of San José city centre but it didn’t take much longer for the two cars to get separated. Daniel had taken the lead but he missed the exit clearly signed posted to Quepos. Luckily, Dami spotted it just in the nick of time and turned off the dual carriageway. After waiting in vain for a few minutes for the Honda to find them, they realised they had no choice but to go it alone. Their phones were no longer in the coverage area so they had no option but to hope they’d meet their friends at their final destination. As they settled into the road trip, the guys recounted the events of the night before.
“Samuel insisted on checking out the clubs in Costa Rica,” Deji chuckled, “so we went to La Rhumba while you ladies were in the spa.”
“And how was it?” Dami asked.
“It was fine,” Samuel responded swiftly.
“Just fine? Deji shot back, Samuel just left Daniel and I standing there while he went to chat up the Costa Rican ladies in Spanish!”
“So how did that go?” Afua asked giggling.
“Well,” Deji continued, “it was quite funny because he got chatting to and dancing with this J-Lo lookalike. Everything seemed fine until she whispered something in his ear. Before we knew it he grabbed us and we were heading for the exit!”
“What did she say to you?” Dami asked, glancing in Samuel’s direction while keeping one eye on the road.
“She gave me her phone number and then asked if I wanted to go home with her!”
“Okay, so is that why you had to leave the club altogether?”
“Well, if you knew where I was coming from, you’d understand why we had to leave immediately!”
In the past. Samuel had had what he’d call a woman problem. Born to an estranged Equatoguinean father and raised by his Nigerian mother in London, as a teenager he wooed many an unsuspecting girl with his Afro-Latin charm. When he became a Christian, he couldn’t understand why he persisted in many of his old habits so now he made it a point to flee from temptation whenever possible.
As the friends continued on their journey, the road started to narrow and get windier. Also, they hardly realised the slow but steady ascent they were making from ground level. For a while they were bordered by hilly terrain and rocks on either side of the road so they were unable to see their true altitude. When they turned a corner near the peak of their ascent, the terrain suddenly opened up and on either side all they could see for miles were deep valleys on either side of them. There was no hard shoulder, a single narrow lane in either direction and barely a barbed wire fence on either side that would surely not keep anyone who wanted to from making a precipitous dive off the side of the mountain! The mood in the car which had been joyful and playful only moments ago quickly turned to one of sobriety and deep thought. You could hear a pin drop. Their astonishment at the magnificence of the scenery lasted only moments before it was replaced by acute fear and anxiety in the realisation that their lives were on a knife-edge, suspended in mid-air, on a remote mountain road a long way from home. It was like the moment the wily coyote confidently chasing the road runner across the mountains suddenly realised that he could indeed not run on thin air! Samuel saw that Dami was clearly shaken so he broke the brief silence.
“Dami, look straight ahead. Whatever you do, don’t look left or right!”
“Yes,” Deji agreed, “keep your eyes fixed firmly on the road!”
Dami however was fretting. “Can we stop or turn back? Can one of you guys take the wheel? I’m feeling a bit dizzy, I’m not sure I can do this!”
“What?!” Afua panicked, “you want us to stop in mid-air?”
“Calm down,” Samuel cut in, “Dami, it’s a bit late for that now. We can’t stop here and the road is too narrow to do a U-turn. Don’t worry; we’ll get through this...”
“Next time,” Deji muttered under his breath, “You’ll listen to us when we tell you not to drive.”
That’s if there will be a next time, Dami thought.
“Chill out, Deji,” Samuel said, “now is not the time for I told you so’s”
As they continued their passage through the narrow mountain roads, Samuel couldn’t help but spare a thought for their friends who were most certain to encounter the same cliff-hanging roads not far behind them. Their descent from the hills was equally as slow as the ascent, but soon enough they reached the foot of the mountains on the other side. They would soon arrive at their destination. The first notice of the distance to Quepos clearly signposted caught Samuel’s eye. QUEPOS – 77 KILOMETROS.
“That’s interesting.” He was thinking out loud now, “I’ve been seeing the numbers 7 or 77 all day long and I’m beginning to wonder if it is more than just a coincidence.”
“What do you mean?” Deji asked.
“Well, when we filled the tanks up before leaving we paid $77.70 and I just saw a sign saying 77km to Quepos. Oh, and our room number at the hotel is 777. I have a feeling someone is trying to tell us something.”
“Come on,” Dami blurted out, “don’t be absurd! Soon you’ll be telling me that since there are seven of us on this trip, that’s a sign too, or that our flight number to Costa Rica was 777!”
“Actually,” Afua responded pensively, “Our plane was a Boeing 777 from Miami. I did think it was unusual to have such a big plane on a short haul flight...”
“Not that I’m superstitious,” Deji added, “but today is the 7th of July 2007. That’s another triple seven right there. Maybe it does mean something. What’s the significance of today’s date?”
“Well,” Dami said, “it’s the two year anniversary of the London bombings, but I can’t see how that’s relevant here. We’re thousands of miles from London and I doubt anything here is going to be a target for terrorists.”
There was a brief silence as they all digested the deluge of information, but Afua soon broke the silence. “I had a dream last night. The details were a bit fuzzy, but there was a man whose face I couldn’t see. He said that something would happen today at 7pm unless we solved the riddle. Obviously it didn’t make any sense to me then but now it is beginning to make perfect sense!”
“Okay,” Dami said, “now you’re starting to freak me out!”
“Afua, assuming that you and Sam are correct,” Deji started in the logical fashion that only he could, “we have a riddle to solve which somehow relates to the number 777 and we have until 7pm today to solve it or else something bad is going to happen?”
“It would appear so,” Samuel responded, “I’ve known Afua for a while and her dreams are known to come to pass...”
“Really,” Dami retorted sarcastically, “what about the dream of the plane crash she had while we were on the plane to Miami? Thank goodness that one didn’t come true!”
As much as Deji didn’t want to believe something he thought to be so farfetched, he knew that his girlfriend was a dreamer – ignore her visions at your peril. He glanced at his watch. 11.07am. “Look guys, let’s not squabble about this. We still have nearly eight hours until 7pm. By that time we’ll be home and dry, back in our hotel rooms and out of harm’s way. Besides, that should be enough time for us to figure out this riddle.”
They continued in relative silence as they racked their brains as to what these cryptic clues could mean. As they approached Quepos, Afua’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Isn’t there something in the Bible about forgiving your brother 77 times?”
Samuel turned to look back at her, paused for a minute, and then responded. “Isn’t that 70 times 7 – so 490 times?”
“It doesn’t matter which one it is,” she continued, “I think we’re all meant to forgive the grudges we hold before the proverbial sun goes down on our anger. So what do you guys need to confess?”
“I don’t know,” Dami started, “perhaps I need to forgive an ex-boyfriend?”
“Where do I start,” Deji added, “there is a long list of people I have issues with!”
“Hold up guys,” Samuel interrupted, “Even if it is 77 times, there is one seven missing. Besides, I think it’s got to be something more specific than that!”
After a long pause, the Landcruiser began to approach a truck in the distance. As they got closer, the small poster sign at the back of the heavy duty vehicle came into focus. It was in English. THE BIBLE HAS THE ANSWERS.
As they overtook the long vehicle, Deji and Samuel exclaimed almost simultaneously, “What if it’s a verse in the Bible?”
“So you guys think its verse 7 of chapter 7 of a book in the Bible?” Dami tried to contain her excitement as she spoke. If this was the X-Files, she’d definitely be Scully! “What’s the 7th book in the Bible?”
Afua counted with her fingers for a few seconds before responding. “It’s got to be Joshua. No wait...actually it’s Judges, I’m pretty certain about that.”
“Okay, so who has a Bible?” asked Deji, “What does Judges 7:7 say?”
“Come on, who takes a Bible on a road trip?” Dami responded, “We’ll have to find one when we get to the beach.”
They could now see Quepos in the distance. Dami put her foot on the gas to get there as quickly as possible. They were very close to finding the answers they were looking for. They could just feel it.
Will our four friends find what they are looking for in Quepos? Will they be reunited with their other friends? Will they make it back safely across the death defying mountain roads to San José? And will they solve the riddle before 7pm? Find out all this and more, next week , in the 777 - The Return to Quepos!
777 - The Saga Begins...
Hi All!
Welcome back to my blog! It's been hibernation for a while, but consider this the ressurection! While you may have previously been accustomed to receiving travel journals from me, I got a bit bored of writing them (and I'm sure you got a bit tired of reading the A,B,C's of what I did on holiday), so about six months ago, I decided to try my hand at fiction! After a crazy group holiday in Costa Rica (there was about 16 of us!), I thought why not fictionalise the events that transpired and see where it leads? Well, the story has since grown wings of it's own, so now I present to you 777 - The Saga Begins...
So what's this story about exactly? Well, keep visiting my blog to find out! Starting today, I will be posting 1 part of the Quintology every week on Sunday! I must warn you, one of my television staple foods is the show "Lost", and I would say my approach to this story is very similar to the story-telling approach used in Lost - as the story unravels, there are generally more questions posed to you than the answers to previous mysteries that you'd be searching for! Some of my other influences from TV include shows like Alias, Heroes, and 24, so also watch out for similar themes in the 777 tale as the saga unravels...
4 parts of the 5-part story have already been published in the January to April editions of Outflow, the monthly magazine for Jesus House. For my Outflow readers, who would surely be logging on today to catch the final part, please be patient! Come back in a month when the final part will be released (expected release date 11May08)! In the meantime, join us on the ride if you missed any parts, and please feel free to post your comments after each posting here. (NO SPOILERS ON FUTURE EDITIONS PLEASE!)
For everyone else, please fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride!!! 777 will form the basis of a book idea I've love to explore in the future, so please drop your comments as we go along - your feedback would be invaluable!
Welcome back to my blog! It's been hibernation for a while, but consider this the ressurection! While you may have previously been accustomed to receiving travel journals from me, I got a bit bored of writing them (and I'm sure you got a bit tired of reading the A,B,C's of what I did on holiday), so about six months ago, I decided to try my hand at fiction! After a crazy group holiday in Costa Rica (there was about 16 of us!), I thought why not fictionalise the events that transpired and see where it leads? Well, the story has since grown wings of it's own, so now I present to you 777 - The Saga Begins...
So what's this story about exactly? Well, keep visiting my blog to find out! Starting today, I will be posting 1 part of the Quintology every week on Sunday! I must warn you, one of my television staple foods is the show "Lost", and I would say my approach to this story is very similar to the story-telling approach used in Lost - as the story unravels, there are generally more questions posed to you than the answers to previous mysteries that you'd be searching for! Some of my other influences from TV include shows like Alias, Heroes, and 24, so also watch out for similar themes in the 777 tale as the saga unravels...
4 parts of the 5-part story have already been published in the January to April editions of Outflow, the monthly magazine for Jesus House. For my Outflow readers, who would surely be logging on today to catch the final part, please be patient! Come back in a month when the final part will be released (expected release date 11May08)! In the meantime, join us on the ride if you missed any parts, and please feel free to post your comments after each posting here. (NO SPOILERS ON FUTURE EDITIONS PLEASE!)
For everyone else, please fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride!!! 777 will form the basis of a book idea I've love to explore in the future, so please drop your comments as we go along - your feedback would be invaluable!
Final Destination (published Nov07)
Turbulence. Every flyer’s hidden fear. Well, not exactly. The real fear flyers have is falling out of the sky and not being able to do anything about it. In other words, the fear of meeting one’s abrupt, untimely demise. On a recent trip to Costa Rica via Miami on holiday with friends, Deji and Afua are forced to confront their fear of flying head on, on a flight which may well be their final one....
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the characters depicted and real people or similarities between the events that transpire and real life events are purely coincidental…
Deji scrambled out of bed at the sound of his alarm. He had barely gotten two hours of sleep but he was very alert – he knew that he had a plane to catch. After aimlessly throwing clothes in and out of his suitcase, he called for a cab to pick him up and before long he was on his way to Dami’s house, where his friends were meeting up to make their way to the airport.
“Hi Dami, its Deji here.”
“Where are you? Don’t you realise that we need to be at Heathrow by 7am?”
“I know, I know. I’m already on my way. How about Afua and Samuel, are they ready?”
“Yes, don’t worry about them, just get your butt over here already.”
“Chill out okay, I’ll be there in 15 minutes”
“Don’t tell me to chill out, everyone is ready and our taxi will be here in 10 minutes! If you’re not here on time we will...”
‘That Deji guy can be real annoying sometimes,’ Dami thought, ’How dare he just hang up on me like that!’. She got over it very quickly and went back about her business of making sure everyone else was ready and everything was set.
As soon as Deji arrived, they hurled his luggage into their taxi and set off for the airport. On the way they recounted the events of the night before:
“Afua, G Factor was fantastic, you guys did a great job,” Samuel said.
“Yes,” Deji agreed, “your team did a good job, though I really think that Chidinma should have won!”
“Well, I think Wanda really deserved to win,” Dami interjected, “but I wish that guy had won, he was so hot!”
Afua was a leader in their single’s ministry at Christ’s Chapel. She had just successfully organised their first ever gospel talent show the previous evening. She used to be a well known glamour model on the London scene, so it caused quite a storm when she converted and decided to cut short her promising modelling career. She now worked for a charity dedicated to providing for needy children in Africa but it seemed like everything she touched in church turned to gold. Many a guy had come to church because of her and ended up finding Christ instead! Most of these guys decided to move on when she started dating Deji a few months back.
They arrived at the airport soon enough. It was while they were at the gate waiting to board the plane that Afua raised her fears about flying.
“Guys, can we say a short prayer before we board the plane? I haven’t been on a plane in four years and I’m a bit nervous about it...”
“Okay,” Deji said reluctantly. He felt that it wasn’t the time to start voicing fears about flying. “Do you want to lead us in prayer?”
“Fine, can we join hands? Lord our heavenly Father, we thank you that we are alive today;You have the whole world in your hands. You keep the planes in the sky. We pray for journey mercies...”
On she went for a couple of minutes. And then suddenly it happened.
“Ba ka ra shey ma ti fah rah ka la, rah ta ka rah ta ka rah ta ka...”
Deji looked up with raised eyebrows. Everyone else had their eyes firmly shut and focused on the prayer. He remained calm until she finished but determined to ask her privately about the exuberance of her prayer before they boarded.
“I thought that you didn’t have any issues with speaking in tongues?”
“Yes I know, but do you have to do it so loudly in public?” he responded, almost whispering.
“Why not? Is it something that we should be ashamed about?”
“Okay, I know it isn’t, but you shouldn’t start scaring other passengers about to board.”
“Why are you being so insensitive about this?”
“I’m not. Besides, it is just a plane. People fly everyday. It’s unreasonable for you to think that something will happen to the one plane you’re getting on!”
Deji used to be quite blunt, brash and insensitive. Though he had been delivered from this, he still had some momentary relapses. Besides, he reckoned that despite being a Christian he needed to retain the ruthless streak that helped him snap up a job as a high-flying city trader with Goldman Sachs. And even though he didn’t mind hyper-spiritual, tongue-speaking Christians, he just felt that wasn’t for him. He was much too logical for that!
Nevertheless, this particular relapse cost him his seat next to her on the flight. She opted to sit with Dami, leaving him next to Samuel..
As they took their seats in the middle section of the plane, a gentleman already seated in front of them was flicking through the Sunday Times magazine. Deji was quick to notice one particular page, which had the title “Speaking in Different Tongues” spread across in bold letters. As much as he tried to dismiss this obvious coincidence, he couldn’t help pondering upon what the article said and he spent the early part of the flight wondering if it would be rude to lean over and ask for the magazine once the gentleman was done.
“So what do you do you do for a living?” he said, turning to Samuel.
“Well, I’m into photography,” Samuel replied. “I do mostly freelance stuff. In fact I knew Afua from her modelling days, which is how she ended up drafting me into G Factor to help with the photo shoots.”
“Yeah, she tells me that you’re our Spanish meal ticket when we get to Costa Rica. How did you learn the language?”
“My father is actually from Equatorial Guinea. I spent a few years there before moving with my mum to Nigeria.”
“They speak Spanish over there?”
“Yes. Actually it’s the only African country where Spanish is spoken....”
As Deji’s Afro-Spanish education continued, Afua tried to calm her frazzled nerves. She had given up trying to make conversation with Dami, who was deeply engrossed in her copy of the Financial Times, so she passed the time listening to her iPod and flicking through the movies on the in-flight entertainment. The flight was relatively uneventful until they ran into turbulence about an hour before arriving in Miami, their first stop-off point.
The plane began to jolt up and down violently, and Afua clutched onto her seat tightly. She started getting that horrible sinking feeling that she used to get whenever she was on a roller coaster. She looked over at Dami but her friend seemed more concerned about the financial stock listings.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t unusual,” Dami said with barely a glance in Afua’s direction. “I’m always flying with work, after a while you get used to these minor bouts of turbulence.”
Further ahead in the cabin Deji noticed that the onset of the turbulence coincided with their passage over the Bermuda Islands and this brought to his mind the urban myths about disappearing ships and planes in the Bermuda triangle. All of a sudden his hard-as-nails macho front was tested to its limit. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the intensity of the turbulence began to increase, and their trays started vibrating like they were in an earthquake quickly growing in ferocity. When their cups and plates started sliding unto the floor, Deji and Samuel looked at each other and just laughed. That was all they felt they could do, not that anything was actually funny.
After about half an hour, the captain eventually came on over the loudspeakers.
“Apologies for the slight turbulence we’re experiencing at the moment. At 38,000 feet we’re just on top of the clouds and flying through some air pockets. We’re going to reduce our altitude to 30,000 feet and from then on it should be plain sailing.”
As reassuring as the captain tried to sound, Deji knew that their situation was direr than he was letting on. He had been on enough flights to know that this was out of the ordinary. As he contemplated his helplessness, he remembered the article he had caught a glimpse of in the Sunday Times and realised that now was a good time as ever to find out what it said about speaking in tongues. A surprised Samuel looked on as he leaned forward to have a few words with the man in front of him, and before long he was hurriedly fumbling through the magazine as if the words of that article would have some kind redemptive power to save them from any harm. To his dismay, he had to read a full three page spread about Bruce Springsteen before he could find any relevance to the title which had caught his attention in the first place. The final sentence of the piece read, “And a line from his upcoming single Radio Nowhere reads ‘I want a million different voices speaking in tongues!’”
On the opposite page he found a review of a song, “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” by Gavin Bryars, and after reading and meditating on this for a few minutes, he began to pray silently. He soon realised he could not find the words to express himself. “Sha ka sha ka sha ka...” he continued under his breath, making sure that even Samuel would not hear him!
‘Okay, I’ve learnt my lesson,’ he thought, as he continued his prayer. ‘I’d better apologise properly to Afua when this plane lands safely!’
Though the last thing she could remember was trying to fall asleep as the turbulence began Afua was now feeling more nauseated with each second that passed. She pulled the sick bag out of the pouch in front of her in readiness to hurl back the tikka masala meal she had just been served. There was a thunderous clap and the plane dropped what must have been about 5,000 feet within a second! Everyone started screaming hysterically as the airbags popped out from above their seats. Afua hurriedly grabbed hers and as she fumbled it on she wished she had paid more attention to the safety video at the start of the flight. As sirens started going off and red and white lights started flashing, she looked over to Dami, who calmly fitted her own airbag over her face and went back to her broadsheet like nothing was wrong!
“This is your captain. We’ve been hit by a bolt of lightning. The right wing is badly damaged and we’re losing altitude very quickly. We’re going to attempt to land the plane safely as we’re only a few minutes away from the Florida coastline. Please assume the crash landing position!”
The captain’s words were in vain, and as the plane began to nosedive towards the ocean, Afua couldn’t help but feeling that that which she had greatly feared was about to come upon her. She let out a piercing scream which she was sure would be her last and then shut her eyes tightly in acceptance of their impending fate. Suddenly, she felt Dami tap her strongly on the shoulder and when she opened her eyes, the plane wasn’t freefalling into the sea. And it seemed like every passenger in the cabin was staring in her direction. You could literally hear a pin drop.
“Are you OK?” Dami asked. “You were asleep then you suddenly started screaming!”
She had only been dreaming. She wanted the ground to open up, or at least the emergency exit next to her so she could just disappear into the clouds! Still, though she was quite embarrassed, her overriding emotion was relief that they were still cruising at 30,000 feet.
A safe landing in Miami and a few uncompromisingly difficult US immigrations and customs officers later, they were met at the airport by friends from another church, Trinity House, who were also in Miami on holiday. As they recounted their experiences from the flight, Afua spoke about her bad dream. When she asked Deji how his flight was, he merely said, “It was cool, I told you there was nothing to worry about!” The apology failed to materialise.
The next morning, as they prepared to catch their flight to Costa Rica, their final destination, Deji and Samuel turned on their hotel room TV and the local weather forecast made for frightening reading. “Heavy rains in downtown Miami and tropical storms in the Florida Keys area are making both road and air travel very dangerous at the moment. Gale force winds exceeding 60mph means that we have a category one storm on our hands. Our advice is, if you don’t need to go out anywhere today, stay at home!”
“Next time,” Samuel muttered with dripping sarcasm, “it would be wise for us not to schedule a Caribbean holiday bang in the middle of the hurricane season!”
Deji agreed, and as they headed to the airport he wondered whether this flight would be their final one, and he prayed for a sign – anything – that would give them good reason not to board the plane to Costa Rica!
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the characters depicted and real people or similarities between the events that transpire and real life events are purely coincidental…
Deji scrambled out of bed at the sound of his alarm. He had barely gotten two hours of sleep but he was very alert – he knew that he had a plane to catch. After aimlessly throwing clothes in and out of his suitcase, he called for a cab to pick him up and before long he was on his way to Dami’s house, where his friends were meeting up to make their way to the airport.
“Hi Dami, its Deji here.”
“Where are you? Don’t you realise that we need to be at Heathrow by 7am?”
“I know, I know. I’m already on my way. How about Afua and Samuel, are they ready?”
“Yes, don’t worry about them, just get your butt over here already.”
“Chill out okay, I’ll be there in 15 minutes”
“Don’t tell me to chill out, everyone is ready and our taxi will be here in 10 minutes! If you’re not here on time we will...”
‘That Deji guy can be real annoying sometimes,’ Dami thought, ’How dare he just hang up on me like that!’. She got over it very quickly and went back about her business of making sure everyone else was ready and everything was set.
As soon as Deji arrived, they hurled his luggage into their taxi and set off for the airport. On the way they recounted the events of the night before:
“Afua, G Factor was fantastic, you guys did a great job,” Samuel said.
“Yes,” Deji agreed, “your team did a good job, though I really think that Chidinma should have won!”
“Well, I think Wanda really deserved to win,” Dami interjected, “but I wish that guy had won, he was so hot!”
Afua was a leader in their single’s ministry at Christ’s Chapel. She had just successfully organised their first ever gospel talent show the previous evening. She used to be a well known glamour model on the London scene, so it caused quite a storm when she converted and decided to cut short her promising modelling career. She now worked for a charity dedicated to providing for needy children in Africa but it seemed like everything she touched in church turned to gold. Many a guy had come to church because of her and ended up finding Christ instead! Most of these guys decided to move on when she started dating Deji a few months back.
They arrived at the airport soon enough. It was while they were at the gate waiting to board the plane that Afua raised her fears about flying.
“Guys, can we say a short prayer before we board the plane? I haven’t been on a plane in four years and I’m a bit nervous about it...”
“Okay,” Deji said reluctantly. He felt that it wasn’t the time to start voicing fears about flying. “Do you want to lead us in prayer?”
“Fine, can we join hands? Lord our heavenly Father, we thank you that we are alive today;You have the whole world in your hands. You keep the planes in the sky. We pray for journey mercies...”
On she went for a couple of minutes. And then suddenly it happened.
“Ba ka ra shey ma ti fah rah ka la, rah ta ka rah ta ka rah ta ka...”
Deji looked up with raised eyebrows. Everyone else had their eyes firmly shut and focused on the prayer. He remained calm until she finished but determined to ask her privately about the exuberance of her prayer before they boarded.
“I thought that you didn’t have any issues with speaking in tongues?”
“Yes I know, but do you have to do it so loudly in public?” he responded, almost whispering.
“Why not? Is it something that we should be ashamed about?”
“Okay, I know it isn’t, but you shouldn’t start scaring other passengers about to board.”
“Why are you being so insensitive about this?”
“I’m not. Besides, it is just a plane. People fly everyday. It’s unreasonable for you to think that something will happen to the one plane you’re getting on!”
Deji used to be quite blunt, brash and insensitive. Though he had been delivered from this, he still had some momentary relapses. Besides, he reckoned that despite being a Christian he needed to retain the ruthless streak that helped him snap up a job as a high-flying city trader with Goldman Sachs. And even though he didn’t mind hyper-spiritual, tongue-speaking Christians, he just felt that wasn’t for him. He was much too logical for that!
Nevertheless, this particular relapse cost him his seat next to her on the flight. She opted to sit with Dami, leaving him next to Samuel..
As they took their seats in the middle section of the plane, a gentleman already seated in front of them was flicking through the Sunday Times magazine. Deji was quick to notice one particular page, which had the title “Speaking in Different Tongues” spread across in bold letters. As much as he tried to dismiss this obvious coincidence, he couldn’t help pondering upon what the article said and he spent the early part of the flight wondering if it would be rude to lean over and ask for the magazine once the gentleman was done.
“So what do you do you do for a living?” he said, turning to Samuel.
“Well, I’m into photography,” Samuel replied. “I do mostly freelance stuff. In fact I knew Afua from her modelling days, which is how she ended up drafting me into G Factor to help with the photo shoots.”
“Yeah, she tells me that you’re our Spanish meal ticket when we get to Costa Rica. How did you learn the language?”
“My father is actually from Equatorial Guinea. I spent a few years there before moving with my mum to Nigeria.”
“They speak Spanish over there?”
“Yes. Actually it’s the only African country where Spanish is spoken....”
As Deji’s Afro-Spanish education continued, Afua tried to calm her frazzled nerves. She had given up trying to make conversation with Dami, who was deeply engrossed in her copy of the Financial Times, so she passed the time listening to her iPod and flicking through the movies on the in-flight entertainment. The flight was relatively uneventful until they ran into turbulence about an hour before arriving in Miami, their first stop-off point.
The plane began to jolt up and down violently, and Afua clutched onto her seat tightly. She started getting that horrible sinking feeling that she used to get whenever she was on a roller coaster. She looked over at Dami but her friend seemed more concerned about the financial stock listings.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t unusual,” Dami said with barely a glance in Afua’s direction. “I’m always flying with work, after a while you get used to these minor bouts of turbulence.”
Further ahead in the cabin Deji noticed that the onset of the turbulence coincided with their passage over the Bermuda Islands and this brought to his mind the urban myths about disappearing ships and planes in the Bermuda triangle. All of a sudden his hard-as-nails macho front was tested to its limit. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the intensity of the turbulence began to increase, and their trays started vibrating like they were in an earthquake quickly growing in ferocity. When their cups and plates started sliding unto the floor, Deji and Samuel looked at each other and just laughed. That was all they felt they could do, not that anything was actually funny.
After about half an hour, the captain eventually came on over the loudspeakers.
“Apologies for the slight turbulence we’re experiencing at the moment. At 38,000 feet we’re just on top of the clouds and flying through some air pockets. We’re going to reduce our altitude to 30,000 feet and from then on it should be plain sailing.”
As reassuring as the captain tried to sound, Deji knew that their situation was direr than he was letting on. He had been on enough flights to know that this was out of the ordinary. As he contemplated his helplessness, he remembered the article he had caught a glimpse of in the Sunday Times and realised that now was a good time as ever to find out what it said about speaking in tongues. A surprised Samuel looked on as he leaned forward to have a few words with the man in front of him, and before long he was hurriedly fumbling through the magazine as if the words of that article would have some kind redemptive power to save them from any harm. To his dismay, he had to read a full three page spread about Bruce Springsteen before he could find any relevance to the title which had caught his attention in the first place. The final sentence of the piece read, “And a line from his upcoming single Radio Nowhere reads ‘I want a million different voices speaking in tongues!’”
On the opposite page he found a review of a song, “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” by Gavin Bryars, and after reading and meditating on this for a few minutes, he began to pray silently. He soon realised he could not find the words to express himself. “Sha ka sha ka sha ka...” he continued under his breath, making sure that even Samuel would not hear him!
‘Okay, I’ve learnt my lesson,’ he thought, as he continued his prayer. ‘I’d better apologise properly to Afua when this plane lands safely!’
Though the last thing she could remember was trying to fall asleep as the turbulence began Afua was now feeling more nauseated with each second that passed. She pulled the sick bag out of the pouch in front of her in readiness to hurl back the tikka masala meal she had just been served. There was a thunderous clap and the plane dropped what must have been about 5,000 feet within a second! Everyone started screaming hysterically as the airbags popped out from above their seats. Afua hurriedly grabbed hers and as she fumbled it on she wished she had paid more attention to the safety video at the start of the flight. As sirens started going off and red and white lights started flashing, she looked over to Dami, who calmly fitted her own airbag over her face and went back to her broadsheet like nothing was wrong!
“This is your captain. We’ve been hit by a bolt of lightning. The right wing is badly damaged and we’re losing altitude very quickly. We’re going to attempt to land the plane safely as we’re only a few minutes away from the Florida coastline. Please assume the crash landing position!”
The captain’s words were in vain, and as the plane began to nosedive towards the ocean, Afua couldn’t help but feeling that that which she had greatly feared was about to come upon her. She let out a piercing scream which she was sure would be her last and then shut her eyes tightly in acceptance of their impending fate. Suddenly, she felt Dami tap her strongly on the shoulder and when she opened her eyes, the plane wasn’t freefalling into the sea. And it seemed like every passenger in the cabin was staring in her direction. You could literally hear a pin drop.
“Are you OK?” Dami asked. “You were asleep then you suddenly started screaming!”
She had only been dreaming. She wanted the ground to open up, or at least the emergency exit next to her so she could just disappear into the clouds! Still, though she was quite embarrassed, her overriding emotion was relief that they were still cruising at 30,000 feet.
A safe landing in Miami and a few uncompromisingly difficult US immigrations and customs officers later, they were met at the airport by friends from another church, Trinity House, who were also in Miami on holiday. As they recounted their experiences from the flight, Afua spoke about her bad dream. When she asked Deji how his flight was, he merely said, “It was cool, I told you there was nothing to worry about!” The apology failed to materialise.
The next morning, as they prepared to catch their flight to Costa Rica, their final destination, Deji and Samuel turned on their hotel room TV and the local weather forecast made for frightening reading. “Heavy rains in downtown Miami and tropical storms in the Florida Keys area are making both road and air travel very dangerous at the moment. Gale force winds exceeding 60mph means that we have a category one storm on our hands. Our advice is, if you don’t need to go out anywhere today, stay at home!”
“Next time,” Samuel muttered with dripping sarcasm, “it would be wise for us not to schedule a Caribbean holiday bang in the middle of the hurricane season!”
Deji agreed, and as they headed to the airport he wondered whether this flight would be their final one, and he prayed for a sign – anything – that would give them good reason not to board the plane to Costa Rica!
How to Miss a Flight in Madrid! (published Dec07)
After the last debacle in which you nearly missed your flight to Madrid, one would have thought that you had definitely learnt your lesson, but on the evidence of the following, there’s certainly no stopping you....
Air France Flight 4190 from Barajas Madrid to London City – ETD 7.05pm
4.00pm – After having a typical Spanish lunch of tapas with colleagues, they advise you to leave for the airport by 4.30pm. Though it only takes 30 minutes on the metro to get there, it’s a Friday so you can’t take any chances. They remind you to go to terminal 4 for flights back to London.
4.05pm – There’s no way you’re visiting Madrid without popping into Zara. The £ sign on each price tag is simply replaced by a € sign, so we understand your excitement.
4.10pm – You’ve told yourself you only need 10 minutes to do your thing. You know which coat you’re after and a friend has asked you to get something similar for her.
4.16pm – You’ve found your coat but not in the right size, so you decide to pick out another one. After all, you can’t go back to London empty-handed.
4.30pm – Decisions, decisions. You’ve picked out three other coats you like but you don’t know which one to choose. You’re thinking about closing your eyes, pulling out the credit card and buying all three.
4.35pm – Meanwhile, you realise you haven’t picked out your friend’s coat. You rush to the women’s section to find something suitable.
4.45pm – You find a couple but there’s always something wrong. If it’s not the right size that’s missing, it’s a button that’s loose and you refuse to pay for damaged goods without getting a discount. Not that you have the time to get out the phrase book and start haggling in Spanish!
4.55pm – By this time, you’re frantically combing the store with the help of at least three attendants, bent on making sure your trip to Zara hasn’t been wasted.
5.05pm – You’re at the till now with seven jackets in tow. With the clock ticking, you remind yourself that unplanned purchases cost more than they are worth. You stick to your guns and pay for the two items you came for.
5.12pm – You’re running to the metro station to catch the train to the airport.
5.16pm – This has to be the number one thing NOT to do when you’re trying to catch a plane abroad – stop to ask a cab driver whose taxi you’re about to jump into whether it’s quicker to get to the airport by road or by metro.
5.20pm – Despite your driver’s assurances that there won’t be traffic, you quickly realise that you may have made the wrong choice jumping into his cab in rush hour!
5.45pm – Luckily for you, the congestion clears up once you’ve left the city centre and you’re glad to find that his promises of getting to the airport in 20 minutes weren’t totally empty! You head straight to terminal 4 to check in.
5.50pm – You can’t find your flight anywhere on the screens and your heart starts pounding when you realise that it may have been at 17:10 hours and not 7.10pm as you had thought!
5.51pm – You tell yourself to remain calm as a more likely explanation is that you’re in the wrong terminal. You confirm at the nearest information point that you need to be in terminal 2! Why you didn’t check this yourself online is beyond me!
5.55pm – You’re boarding the shuttle bus to terminal 2 ten minutes away. Incidentally, you had driven past it on the way to terminal 4.
6.05pm – You eventually find the Air France check-in and join the long queue. With an hour left till your flight, you’re cutting it really fine!
6.20pm – The unthinkable happens. You get to the front of the queue and you’re told that your flight has been cancelled! How on earth will you be back in London for the whole weekend – you have plans! You’re asked to join yet another queue to consider your options...
6.35pm – After patiently waiting, it’s finally your turn and you’re put on an Iberia flight to Heathrow, instead of your original destination, London City. At least you’ll be back in London tonight.
And guess what terminal your new flight leaves from? Yep, that’s right – terminal 4! And so the race against missing your flight begins once again...
Iberia Flight 1871 from Barajas Madrid to London Heathrow – ETD 7.55pm
6.50pm – You’ve taken the shuttle bus once again to get back to terminal 4 and you head straight to the Iberia check-in.
6.55pm – You get to the front of the queue and after handing your passport and new ticket to the attendant, he inputs your details into his system and seems to indicate that there is a problem.
6.56pm – You nod your ahead as if you understand his explanation in Spanish as he walks away with your passport. But you really have no idea what he just said to you.
6.57pm – As he walks away with your passport in hand, he takes a couple of glances back towards you and then as he turns a corner he makes a run for it!
6.58pm – You chuckle as you snap out of your minute-long daydream . That wouldn’t be funny at all.
7.10pm – After nearly 15 minutes, you’re really beginning to get anxious about your passport. You’re about to shout over to one of his colleagues when he finally reappears.
7.11pm – He explains that your e-ticket wasn’t transferred properly by Air France. When you wave your paper ticket at him again, he takes it and disappears again with your passport.
7.15pm – This time, as he returns he gives you a thumbs up, which you’re sure must be a positive signal even in Spanish!
7.16pm – He gives you your boarding pass and as you walk off, he shrugs his shoulders apologetic and appears to say something to the effect of “Well, blame it on the French!”
7.25pm – You’ve safely navigated customs and with half an hour to go you’ve got ample time to spare – or so you think.
7.26pm – As you enter the departure lounge, the first store you see as you look to your left is Zara! It must be fate. Now you can get the coat that you initially wanted.
7.35pm – You’ve found some new styles that you hadn’t seen before and your indecision sets in again as you’re unsure which ones to settle for.
7.40pm – You’re still trying to make up your mind when you realise that with 15 minutes to take off, you still haven’t checked which is your departure gate, or indeed how far away you are from it!
7.41pm – You hear a voice telling you “It’s a trap, leave now, don’t look back!” You realise that you’re not going to make any exchanges and you’re still going to miss your flight.
7.42pm – You drop everything you’re holding and you are hurriedly fleeing the scene as images of Lot’s wife flash through your mind!
7.45pm – You check the big screen and now you’re making a run for it to get to your gate 10 minutes away, unsure of whether it’s even closed already.
7.55pm – You arrive at the gate, certain that you’ll have to beg to be let unto the plane. Luckily for you, boarding hasn’t started and everyone’s still waiting at the gate.
8.20pm – You should be relieved that you’ve made it but instead you’re annoyed because you could have done all the shopping you wanted without hurrying yourself!
As you board the plane which is now nearly an hour late, you’re ushered to your seat in business class – thanks to the gaff you were upgraded. As you enjoy the first class treatment on the flight back home you think that you could get used to this. Just make sure you don’t get too used to nearly missing your flight!
Air France Flight 4190 from Barajas Madrid to London City – ETD 7.05pm
4.00pm – After having a typical Spanish lunch of tapas with colleagues, they advise you to leave for the airport by 4.30pm. Though it only takes 30 minutes on the metro to get there, it’s a Friday so you can’t take any chances. They remind you to go to terminal 4 for flights back to London.
4.05pm – There’s no way you’re visiting Madrid without popping into Zara. The £ sign on each price tag is simply replaced by a € sign, so we understand your excitement.
4.10pm – You’ve told yourself you only need 10 minutes to do your thing. You know which coat you’re after and a friend has asked you to get something similar for her.
4.16pm – You’ve found your coat but not in the right size, so you decide to pick out another one. After all, you can’t go back to London empty-handed.
4.30pm – Decisions, decisions. You’ve picked out three other coats you like but you don’t know which one to choose. You’re thinking about closing your eyes, pulling out the credit card and buying all three.
4.35pm – Meanwhile, you realise you haven’t picked out your friend’s coat. You rush to the women’s section to find something suitable.
4.45pm – You find a couple but there’s always something wrong. If it’s not the right size that’s missing, it’s a button that’s loose and you refuse to pay for damaged goods without getting a discount. Not that you have the time to get out the phrase book and start haggling in Spanish!
4.55pm – By this time, you’re frantically combing the store with the help of at least three attendants, bent on making sure your trip to Zara hasn’t been wasted.
5.05pm – You’re at the till now with seven jackets in tow. With the clock ticking, you remind yourself that unplanned purchases cost more than they are worth. You stick to your guns and pay for the two items you came for.
5.12pm – You’re running to the metro station to catch the train to the airport.
5.16pm – This has to be the number one thing NOT to do when you’re trying to catch a plane abroad – stop to ask a cab driver whose taxi you’re about to jump into whether it’s quicker to get to the airport by road or by metro.
5.20pm – Despite your driver’s assurances that there won’t be traffic, you quickly realise that you may have made the wrong choice jumping into his cab in rush hour!
5.45pm – Luckily for you, the congestion clears up once you’ve left the city centre and you’re glad to find that his promises of getting to the airport in 20 minutes weren’t totally empty! You head straight to terminal 4 to check in.
5.50pm – You can’t find your flight anywhere on the screens and your heart starts pounding when you realise that it may have been at 17:10 hours and not 7.10pm as you had thought!
5.51pm – You tell yourself to remain calm as a more likely explanation is that you’re in the wrong terminal. You confirm at the nearest information point that you need to be in terminal 2! Why you didn’t check this yourself online is beyond me!
5.55pm – You’re boarding the shuttle bus to terminal 2 ten minutes away. Incidentally, you had driven past it on the way to terminal 4.
6.05pm – You eventually find the Air France check-in and join the long queue. With an hour left till your flight, you’re cutting it really fine!
6.20pm – The unthinkable happens. You get to the front of the queue and you’re told that your flight has been cancelled! How on earth will you be back in London for the whole weekend – you have plans! You’re asked to join yet another queue to consider your options...
6.35pm – After patiently waiting, it’s finally your turn and you’re put on an Iberia flight to Heathrow, instead of your original destination, London City. At least you’ll be back in London tonight.
And guess what terminal your new flight leaves from? Yep, that’s right – terminal 4! And so the race against missing your flight begins once again...
Iberia Flight 1871 from Barajas Madrid to London Heathrow – ETD 7.55pm
6.50pm – You’ve taken the shuttle bus once again to get back to terminal 4 and you head straight to the Iberia check-in.
6.55pm – You get to the front of the queue and after handing your passport and new ticket to the attendant, he inputs your details into his system and seems to indicate that there is a problem.
6.56pm – You nod your ahead as if you understand his explanation in Spanish as he walks away with your passport. But you really have no idea what he just said to you.
6.57pm – As he walks away with your passport in hand, he takes a couple of glances back towards you and then as he turns a corner he makes a run for it!
6.58pm – You chuckle as you snap out of your minute-long daydream . That wouldn’t be funny at all.
7.10pm – After nearly 15 minutes, you’re really beginning to get anxious about your passport. You’re about to shout over to one of his colleagues when he finally reappears.
7.11pm – He explains that your e-ticket wasn’t transferred properly by Air France. When you wave your paper ticket at him again, he takes it and disappears again with your passport.
7.15pm – This time, as he returns he gives you a thumbs up, which you’re sure must be a positive signal even in Spanish!
7.16pm – He gives you your boarding pass and as you walk off, he shrugs his shoulders apologetic and appears to say something to the effect of “Well, blame it on the French!”
7.25pm – You’ve safely navigated customs and with half an hour to go you’ve got ample time to spare – or so you think.
7.26pm – As you enter the departure lounge, the first store you see as you look to your left is Zara! It must be fate. Now you can get the coat that you initially wanted.
7.35pm – You’ve found some new styles that you hadn’t seen before and your indecision sets in again as you’re unsure which ones to settle for.
7.40pm – You’re still trying to make up your mind when you realise that with 15 minutes to take off, you still haven’t checked which is your departure gate, or indeed how far away you are from it!
7.41pm – You hear a voice telling you “It’s a trap, leave now, don’t look back!” You realise that you’re not going to make any exchanges and you’re still going to miss your flight.
7.42pm – You drop everything you’re holding and you are hurriedly fleeing the scene as images of Lot’s wife flash through your mind!
7.45pm – You check the big screen and now you’re making a run for it to get to your gate 10 minutes away, unsure of whether it’s even closed already.
7.55pm – You arrive at the gate, certain that you’ll have to beg to be let unto the plane. Luckily for you, boarding hasn’t started and everyone’s still waiting at the gate.
8.20pm – You should be relieved that you’ve made it but instead you’re annoyed because you could have done all the shopping you wanted without hurrying yourself!
As you board the plane which is now nearly an hour late, you’re ushered to your seat in business class – thanks to the gaff you were upgraded. As you enjoy the first class treatment on the flight back home you think that you could get used to this. Just make sure you don’t get too used to nearly missing your flight!
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