CAUGHT

They came out of the house a couple of minutes later and walked back to the jeep. Dracula slammed his leg on the jeep's front tire when they reached it. 

'I...I...will...will...kill them,' he said, turning round to the driver's side. 'I...I...swear...I will...will...kill them.'

Eric reached the side of the jeep and stopped. He turned and looked at the house. 

 'What's he waiting for?' Mr. Potter said, peeping beside me.

Dracula slammed the door shut. 'Let...let's...go.' 

Eric did not move. He shifted his eyes from the house, and they slowly turned in our direction. I withdrew my head quickly and pulled Mr. Potter's arm, drawing him down with me. We squatted behind the root like children hiding in a hide and seek game. 

'I hope he didn't see you,' I whispered. 

'I don't know.'

'E...ric,' Dracula shouted again. 'Let's...let's go!' 

I raised my body slowly and my head rose above the surface of the root. Eric remained where he stood seconds ago but his eyes had left our direction and turned to the ground in front of him. Then he turned and walked to the passenger's side of the jeep and climbed into it. Dracula backed the car away from the house and climbed the road, moving in the direction we had come. 

'Phew,' Mr. Potter sighed beside me. 'That was close.'

'Let's get out of here,' I said, rising to my feet.

The sound of the jeep was a faint by now. jeep had disappeared at the corner on the road and its sound came from afar now. I dusted off the patches of grass and mud that smeared my trouser and saw red ants climbing my shoes. 

'Red ants,' I said, and climbed over the root. 'Don't let them get into your trouser.'

Mr. Potter looked at his legs and stumped them. He bent and pulled the legs of his trousers up to his knees. The ants roamed rapidly around his legs, and he stomped his legs again. 

'Thank God they are not snakes,' he said and jumped over the root. He landed on his buttocks and the bag on his shoulder fell away from him. 

'Are you okay?' I asked and stretched my arm to him.

He winced.

'I should have gone around the root,' he said. He took my arm, and I pulled him up. 'Let's get out of here.'

He picked the bag and turned to me. We left the tree and walked on the isolated road, heading in the opposite direction Dracula and Eric had taken. We walked on, with no one and no truck in sight, and I thought about Talatu. She seemed so far away now—as if she had gone to London—and I wondered why I was so upset and even agreed to go into kidnapping so I can marry her. The life-threatening love I felt for her was now like a memory of some happy "reunion" that happened years ago. My thought shifted to Maria, and I wondered if she was still at Eric's place or if she had left for Warri. I was glad she didn't come with us. 

'That's good,' Mr. Potter said beside me.

I looked at him. 'Did you say something?'

A smile was on his face. 'I said, 'that's good.'

'What's "good?"'

'You are thinking about her, aren't you?'

I stopped walking. 

Mr. Potter smiled widened. How did he know about Talatu? How could he know?

'She is a fine woman,' he said. 'She needs a lot of polishing, and she is a little thick in the waist, but she is a fine woman nonetheless.'

'What are you talking about?' I said, walking to catch up with him.

'I see the way she looks at you. The problem is you are too engrossed with this kidnapping business to notice it.'

I checked his eyes to see if he had relapsed into the manic state—if it was his manic mind that was speaking—but the look wasn't there. His smile was as genuine as the smile of a baby. 

'What are you talking about?' I asked again.

Mr. Potter walked on without a reply. But the smile remained on his face, and he seemed to be having a good time. He adjusted the bag on his shoulder with a deliberate slowness—as if it had grown heavier.

'You have the brain to get out of tough situations,' he said, 'but you don't have the brain for women, do you?' He walked on. 'Well, that makes two of us; if I knew women, I would have known how to handle my wife, wouldn't I?' 

'I don't have an idea of what you are talking about,' I said. 'Who are you are referring to?'

Mr. Potter allowed us to walk on without a reply; he just kept smiling like a summer sun.

I stopped suddenly. 'Wait. Are you saying Maria has her eyes on me?'

'At last!' he said in an excited voice. 'Her eyes and her heart!'

'What?' I protested. 'She is Eric's girlfriend! How can she have her eyes on me?'

'Eric treats her like thrash,' Mr. Potter said with vehemence. 'Believe me, if she has to choose between the two of you, she will choose you.'

'Well,' I said, walking again. 'She doesn't have to choose between us. She's made her choice already; years before I knew her—and that's settled.'

'Doesn't matter; her eyes and heart are now on you, not on Eric.' 

'Stop,' I shouted. 'She is Eric's girlfriend—'

'Ex-girlfriend.'

'—and I don't have an intention of taking her from him. Maybe that's the way you do things in England, but we don't do that here. Eric is my friend—'

'Was.'

'—and I have no intention of stabbing him in the back. Besides, I am not interested in her and—'

I heard the sound of the jeep again and I turned sharply, looking behind. The jeep sped toward us—about ten meters away.

'Run,' I said and dashed toward the shrubs and the grasses. I ran through the grasses, their blades cutting my skin again, creating a path.

Oh, my God, I thought. They sneaked on us before starting the engine.

 I glanced at my back and stopped. 

Mr. Potter had not moved an inch and the jeep came and parked in front of him.

The jeep's four doors swung opened at once and Dracula, Eric, Joseph and Bayo came out of the doors, each bearing a gun except Eric. They formed a circled around Mr. Potter and Joseph the brute pointed his gun at Mr. Potter's head; then he looked in my direction.

'Come down, or he gets it.'

'Don't come—' Mr. Potter said.

Dracula's hand connected with Mr. Potter's cheek and cut off the remaining words. Mr. Potter staggered back, his hand covering his cheek, his eyes wide in shock.

They stared at me for a long time. I walked back toward the road slowly and they waited for me with the patience of a burning candle. 

This is it, I thought. This is where it all ends.

 'Fi...na...fi...na...finally,' Dracula said and then his hand flew through the air and butt of the gun connected to the side of my face. I fell backward and landed on my back. I felt the flow of warm blood on my cheek. 

'Let's kill the bastard,' Joseph growled, pointing his gun at my chest. 'Let's kill them and stuff his bodies in the woods; no one will find him.'

'Goo...good i...i... idea,' Dracula said and pulled out his gun. He pointed it at my head.

I closed my eyes.