INSIDE THE AIRPORT

By three thirty P.M, we succumbed to Maria's cry for food. Eric walked to the boot and picked out three bottles of Fanta and three Gala sausages. He entered the car, dumping the drinks and the sausages on Tolu's lap. He closed the door and picked a sausage and a bottle of Fanta and stretched them to Tolu. Tolu took them, a sly look covering his eyes. Eric picked the second sausage and the drink and handed them over to me with a deliberate, easy movement. I took the bottle and the sausage and glanced at Maria. Her eyes stretched wide in an expression of wonder. 

'I thought ladies are supposed to be first?' she asked.

Eric turned to her. 'If you make another sound, you will not eat. Do you understand?'

Maria glared at him. Eric held the bottle of Fanta in one hand and the sausage in the other. 'I dare you to make another sound.' 

Maria said nothing and Eric remained with the drink and the sausage in his hands—just out of her reach. Several seconds crawled by before his hands moved forward. 'Take. Take, and let your pestering stop.'

Maria snatched the drink and the sausage out of his hands. 'I wonder why you didn't buy real food instead of this junk food.'

'Give it back!' Eric said. 'Hand it over if it's not real food.'

Maria kept the drink and sausage out of his reach. Tolu chuckled and I chewed my sausages and sipped from the bottle. 

Maria twisted the neck of the Fanta and pulled away the cover. She squeezed the sausage out of its wrap and struggled to hold the bottle in one hand and the sausage in the other.

'I will manage this,' Maria said. 'But I will give myself a treat in Dubai the moment I lay my hands on my portion of the money. You can remain here and eat this junk if you like.'

Eric turned around to look at her again. 'Focus on the present and eat the best lunch there is. But if you don't want it, hand it over.'

 Maria hissed. 'Losers.'

 'Losers?' Eric asked, his voice stacked with wonder. 'Who got a second degree when she had not made use of the first? You are the loser; you wasted money and time to earn a master's degree and both degrees have not helped you. Tell me, who is the loser?'

Maria waited until the drink in her mouth slid down her throat and into her stomach. 'At least I have a second degree. If we are employed in the same organization, I will be your boss.'

'Sure,' Eric said. 'I don't mind kowtowing to you, your majesty; but let's get the jobs first. Until then, I see no reason why you got a second degree when the first got you nowhere.'

Maria sipped from the bottle. 

'We should get ready,' I said, seeing that this argument wasn't helping, enjoyable as it was. 'We have fifteen minutes before the plane lands.'

'We have more, actually,' Tolu said. 'It will take an extra hour before the target gets out of the airport. Passing through customs and immigration is like walking through a den of lions. I heard even the cleaners in the toilet would ask you for money if you were stupid enough to greet or smile at them.'

'Okay,' Eric said. 'Tolu, let's get close to the arrival entrance and see the outlay. I don't want any surprises. Maria and Paul, you wait in the car. Be alert.'

'I will not wait in the car,' Maria said. 'I want to be there. I want to see the target when he comes out of the airport. I want to see my cash.'

Eric stared at her. 'You wait here, did you hear me? I don't want the man to get suspicious for a minute, and he would if he sees so many of us waiting to pick him up.'

'Eric is right,' Tolu said. 'I am the only one who's supposed to pick him. He might get suspicious if there are many of us.'

I nodded. 'But what happens when he comes to the car and sees the rest of us?'

'We will swim over the river when we get there,' Eric said. 'If he can follow us back here our job would have been done. Just stay in the car though, in case the plan goes out of hand, and we need to make a quick getaway.'

'Do you think we will be caught?' Tolu asked. 'I don't want—'

'We will be fine,' Eric countered. 'I am just saying it so they won't let down their guard. Let's go.'

Eric and Tolu snapped their doors opened and stepped out. I came out too while Maria struggled to open her door. By the time she came out, Eric and Tolu were halfway out of the parking lot.

The roar of another plane's engine forced me to look upward, and I saw a jumbo jet descending from afar. My heart leaped and began another race, and I felt sweat sliding down the sides of my ribs. The plane got close, and I saw the marking of Delta Airlines by its side. It cruised slowly downward, the massive wings sprayed out like the wings of a gargantuan, flying dinosaur. 

'Is that it?' Maria asked when the roar from the plane's engine subsided. 'Is that BA?'

'No,' I said. 'It's Delta Airlines.'

'That's the one I would be taking to America,' she said, and her face lit up with a smile. 'I heard they are good too, and it will be first class, of course.' She batted her eyelashes at me. 'I will take Qatar Airline when I travel to Asia. I heard they are superb.'

I smiled with her. 

'What are you going to do with your portion of the ransom?' Maria asked.

'Please don't use the word ransom loudly,' I said. 'A security agent in plain clothes could hear you and that will be the end.'

'Okay, okay. So, what will you do with your share?'

'I don't know yet,' I said. 'I haven't thought much about it.'

Maria chuckled. 'I think about mine every damn minute. In fact, it's the only thing I think about since yesterday. Let it get into my hands and I am off; I won't stay a day more in this country. Not one day more.'

'Where will you go?' 

'To America, of course; where else?' Her expression demanded if I was okay to have asked such a question. 'From there, I will travel all over the world. I will see the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower and all the other wonders of the world.'

'Your will exhaust the money on travelling,' I observed. 

'I won't mind,' she said. 'But for sure I won't return to this country. What am I returning to? Travelling will help me forget all these years of joblessness and frustrations. Do you know I have gotten to a point of using my old clothes as pads during my cycle?'

'Maria!' I said, aghast. 'Do you have to reveal such private information?'

She twisted her lips at me. 'I am letting you know how I have suffered in this country. Not as an undergraduate, but as the owner of two degrees. Can you imagine that? With our leaders' minds clouded with ethnic, religious and greedy thoughts, how will they have space in their minds to provide jobs for the youth?'' She dipped her hand inside the bag and checked for only-God-knows-what. 'God, what a country! I will travel out to forget all that I have suffered in this country.'

I looked at my phone: 3:55 P.M appeared on the screen. Has the plane landed? I thought. What's Eric and Tolu doing? Out loud I said: 'Lay your hands on the money first before you make all these plans.' 

Maria laughed. 'I have planned what to do; execution is the next thing once the money gets into my hands.'

The roar of another plane drew nearer and obliterated Maria's voice. She looked upward, searching for the plane. 'Can you see it?'

'No. But it's probably the one.' I looked at my phone. 'It's two minutes to four. 'It must be the one.'

Maria looked at me, her eyes wider than a pregnant woman's navel. 'This is it. This is the point of no return.' She paused. 'This is freedom or jail; there is no middle ground from here onward.'

My heart was pounding. 'Let's get back into the car,' I said. My voice sounded shriveled and frightened. I looked at Maria to see if she heard that aspect of my voice, but her eyes followed a passing car until it parked a couple of steps from us. 

'What's the rush?' she asked. Her voice was as calm as the waves of the Pacific. 'They won't be here for another hour for all we know. Besides, we can see them when they are coming.'

'It's better to prepare ahead,' I said and opened the car's door.

Maria got into the car. 'You fret too much,' she said. 'I hope you are not one of those guys who tell their wives not to wear trousers, are you?'

I stared at her, wondering how we got to this aspect of the conversation. 

'I don't have a wife,' I said. 'Please hand me the Fanta bottles; I will keep them in the trunk.'

She handed over the empty Fanta bottles and the sausage wrappers. I picked the ones Tolu dropped and got out of the car. I got to the trunk and dropped the trash on the floor. I twisted the key in the keyhole and the trunk snapped opened. I bent to pack the waste and saw one of the bottles rolling away, blown away by the evening breeze. I picked the two bottles and ran after the third.

I reached the bottle and bend to catch it when I saw the combat boots standing in front of me. I came to an abrupt stop and my heart fluttered. Slowly, my eyes followed the big boots and found the thick legs that dropped into them, and then they climbed onto the thicker and muscular thighs. My eyes climbed further and found the stomach and gorilla's chest and then they settled finally on the face containing the body. I saw the unsmiling face of the biggest mobile policeman I had ever seen. 

He bent and picked the empty bottle and stretched his left hand toward me. I stretched out my hand to collect the bottle from him and it shook as if an electric current was passing through it.

'Keep the street clean,' the policeman said. 

'Yes,' I said. 'Yes...officer.' 

I collected the bottle and was glad to drop the shaking hand by my side. He looked at me with mild interest, his bulging eyes sweeping over my face. 'The trash can is over there,' he said and pointed. 

I followed the direction of his hands and nodded. I wanted to thank him, and opened my mouth to do so, but my voice ricocheted and fell into my stomach. I turned my face away from him, feeling the sweat running down. I glanced at him over my shoulder and saw him still looking at me. 

'Are you okay?' he asked. 

'He gets tongue-tied from time to time, officer,' Maria said and came out of the car. 'He has a disorder.'

'A disorder,' the policeman said, his eyes now on Maria. 'What kind of disorder?'

'Oh, he is okay,' Maria said, standing beside me by now. She placed her right arm around my shoulders. 'Just that he gets really nervous when he is around new people.' She looked into my eyes. 'Say hello to the officer.'

I glared at her, hating the baby treatments she was giving me. 'Hello,' I said.

'What's the name of the disorder?' he asked as if he did not hear me.

Maria turned to me. 'What's the name of your disorder?'

I looked back at her. She laughed. 'He doesn't like saying it.' She moved closer to the policeman and whispered, 'He stammers. A lot. '

'So, who are you, his mouthpiece?' the policeman asked and walked away without waiting for an answer. 

'I am his girlfriend, officer,' Maria said brightly after him. 'Who else with put up with his slow speech?'

The policeman did not look back. Maria and I stared at his massive back and the gun swaying by his side until he got out of the parking lot.

'Get a hold of yourself,' Maria said, her voice filled with anger. 'You have guilt written all over your body when you haven't even committed the crime!'

'He... shocked...me,' I stammered. 'It was like seeing a ghost.'

'Get a hold of yourself or you will give us all away. You are a man; show it.'

I walked back to the car and dropped the empty Fanta bottles into the boot and closed it. I got into the driver's seat. My mouth was dry, and I felt giddy.

'Let's watch out for them from the gate,' Maria said. 'I am tired of waiting in the car.'

I looked at her. 'Eric said we should stay in the car.'

She turned to me. 'Is Eric your mother?'

She opened the back door and pulled out her bag before I could say, 'Wole Soyinka. 

'Let's go,' she said and strapped the bag on her shoulders. I turned the ignition and raised the glass on the windows and locked the car. We walked toward the gate, with Maria looking as bright in the red T-shirt as blood spread over a white rug.