I stopped walking when I noticed a middle-aged woman standing at a distance, eyes fixed on me. No one was nearby, just bushes and speeding buses on the highway.
She took hurried steps towards me, my heart lurched but I noticed her tear-stained face.
She held onto my left hand and pointed at the bushes. I tried to free myself but couldn’t.
“H–have you seen my daughter?” Her voice cracked.
I was confused. Why did I wander this far to urinate? She could be a robber or kidnapper.
“N–no, no.” I pried my hands off but she repeated her question over and over as I scampered towards the road and didn’t look back utill I got to the crowded fuel/lunch station half worried and weary.
I carried my chips and soda with shaky hands and approached our bus, everyone was still waiting for the driver.
I leaned on the car bumper facing the scene I had just escaped, my ears picked up some words.
“That bush over there.”
It was one of the girls in our bus talking to another boy with dirty dyed hair as she pointed at the Bush.
“No one goes there anymore, it’s off-limits.”
I turned to her and asked ‘why’ at the same time as the boy who had an unusual expression on his face.
“It’s haunted,”
The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes, dipping hands in his pocket.
“I’m serious though, they said she lost her daughter years ago while they travelled, so she killed herself out of depression.”
I held my breath as she spoke, my left hand twitched in the area she held onto.
“One or two people have seen her, they said she’s always looking for her daughter.”
Read – Jimmy the Great – A Flash Fiction by Olabode Oluwabukola, Nigeria
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