'The Traffic Defaulter' by Janyl Benyl

The tee junction at Isolo was busy as usual, slammed by rush hour torrent of home going humanity, the traffic warden sweated profusely as he struggled to restore some orderliness to the slightly congested artery. *Boom* The sound from the collision startled all and sundry.

A car crashed into another one and the sight was ghastly. The traffic warden bolted from his post to get a closer picture of the scene.

“Oga, I asked you to stop, I did”. He lamented as he tried to examine the extent of damage.

“Come, so you will see this small girl and ask me to wait for her. “ Chief Wole screamed incongruously.

“What are you talking about?” Yewande retorted with vehemence.

“You see what you’ve caused?” Chief Wole disregarded Yewande on purpose and turned his question and attention on the traffic warden.

“You flaunted my signal and drove into this lady’s car and you dare try to deflect that and turn the blame on me? The traffic lights have been out all and everyone has adjusted accordingly, I don’t see –“

“Why should I wait for small Yewande of yesterday?” Chief Wole cut him short.

Yewande was immediately startled at the mention of her name. She wasn’t sure how he knew her name.

Chief Wole recounted Yewande’s history, making sure to amplify the gap in age between them. He had seen her grow up as they lived on the street about a decade ago. He was furious to see that she drove a car that he considered luxurious when he dared to compare it to his Toyota Sienna, and he could not hide his displeasure.

“E jor E ma binu,” Yewande begged while the traffic warden watched in astonishment. He thought Chief Wole needed to be reprimanded, but when Yewande swiftly knelt on the floor to beg Chief Wole, he sensed that she may be in trouble for doing something he may not have been able to readily comprehend. He tweaked his grimaced face into that of remorse, and joined in begging Chief Wole desperately.

Chief Wole reluctantly dashed into his car and sped off, still hurling insults at Yewande.

Out of curiosity, the Traffic Warden turned to Yewande to ascertain if there was anywhere she had offended him previously.

“You know these people can be so interesting. You cannot be too sure where he’d table this issue and claim I disrespected him. I do not want to deal with him.”

“What you are jibbing at, I cannot understand. You mean you let that traffic defaulter get away with it just because you are scared of nothing you are sure you did?”

“E ma binu,” Yewande resorted to begging fastidiously.

Janyl Benyl is a global-Health advocate, Pro-African, and a citizen of the world. Read her short stories on www.jbshares.com and follow her on Twitter @Janyl Benyl.

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