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!