The loud bang on the door startled my roommate and I.
“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked my roommate.
“No. Are you?” She asked.
“Of course not.”
“So who could it be?”
“How do you expect me to know? I barked as I was pissed that my sleep was interrupted.
“Wongi! It's me. Anthony. Please open the door.” a voice called out.
“Anthony? What are you doing here by this time?” I asked, my door still locked.
“Please open the door. I would explain everything to you.”
Slowly, I peeped through the side window and it was indeed Anthony, standing by my door around 3am.
I opened the door to let him in and Anthony looked like a shadow of himself. I watched as Anthony was all jittery that night. He was alerted at every slight sound and I couldn't help but stay awake with him throughout the remaining part of the night.
Anthony was one of my good friends. A very vibrant and easygoing young man. He wasn't the type to go searching for trouble and so when he narrated to my roommate and I how he almost got robbed, I got a bit emotional.
“I was returning from my regular outing and for some reason , no cars were around. I decided to walk a little bit further because I thought I may see a bus a few meters away..” Anthony started narrating immediately as he sat on the sofa.
“You know you can narrate this story once you feel better.” I chirped in.
“I would rather just complete it now.” Anthony said, clenching tightly to the blanket that my roommate offered him.
“After walking for about ten minutes, I finally saw a vehicle approaching in high speed and my first instinct was to try and flag down the vehicle.”
“So you flagged down a speeding vehicle Anthony?”
“I had to. The road was dry, dark and lonely. Flagging down the vehicle only seemed right.” He paused for a few seconds before continuing. “The vehicle stopped and two men were inside.”
“One of them offered to give me a ride and I happily accepted. I told the driver my location and he asserted that he was going to take me to my destination.”
“Let me guess, they weren't as good as they appeared?” My roommate chirped in, interrupting the flow of the story.
“Would you just let him finish? He's already struggling with the narration” I blurted.
“Fine, no need to yell.” She responded.
“Please go ahead Anthony” I said. My facial expression was quite keen as I was attaintively listening.
“The man at the passenger seat brought out a machete from under his seat and I could feel my heart stop. He asked me to give him my phone but I wasn't ready to let go of the new phone I just bought. Luckily, the car doors weren't locked and so I opened the door and rolled out of the vehicle.”
“No you didn't!” I yelped.
“Yes I did. Sadly, there was nowhere to run to so the man came after me and it was a tussle. We kept going back and forth but all this while, I held my phone tightly.”
“You're kidding. A random man was threatening you with a machete and you held on to your phone like you had an extra life in your back pocket?” My roommate asked.
“Like I said, I wasn't ready to let go of my new phone.” Anthony said. “Eventually, other vehicles started approaching and the people probably got a hint as to what was happening. Just like that, the man who was actively threatening me got back into the vehicle and they both zoomed off.”
“Such luck” I said under my breath.
“And to think that staying out that late was something normal to me. I felt I looked rugged enough to wade away thieves but I guess this was a wake up call” he said. “Anyways, I knew I wasn't going to get home even if I trekked all night because I was miles away from home, but, I remembered that you lived around and so I decided to stop by just for the night.”
“It's a good thing you stopped by Anthony.” I uttered. “ I still can't believe that this happened close to my house. And here I thought that my area was one of the safest in the world” I concluded.
“The men probably weren't from here so you can still stick with that thought.” Anthony responded, trying to lighten the mood.
After Anthony's narration, we all sat in silence as it was barely an hour to sunrise. Although he was still startled, he tried to keep calm. This was an experience I personally never wish to experience but if I were in his shoes, I would have let go of the phone the very minute I was asked to. But like they say, men are probably woven from a different type of fabric.
Love🤍