The Wife ESCAPED!

The next day saw Caro resume hawking and though she remembered every word of the woman’s advice, she still hawked into the garage. Despite her not-so-savory experience with the ruffian the previous day, the impulsive nature of her stubbornness steered her into his territory again, but this time she resolved not to pay a dime, no matter what happened.

She was just on her way to attend to someone who had called her over: her third customer of the day, when her ruffian enemy landed from nowhere and blocked her path. She greeted him with a loud, long hiss and an angry stare-down.

“I tell you say make you come see me and you no come, abi? And you still get the liver to come sell for this garage.”

“I ask you, Mr. Man, you be tourist attraction?”, Caro retorted.

“Look, if you try me, I go just beat you anyhow, rape you join,” he threatened hotly.

“Eh?! Wetin you talk? Repeat am make I hear!”, Caro demanded, quickly dropping her tray on the ground and throwing on it her purse and the cloth she used as a head-cushion.

The ruffian hissed, shaking his head mournfully and smiling bitterly. “This girl, e look as if you no like yourself. No try me o. I dey warn you o. I go mess you up just now.”

Then he reached down to grab her purse. She jerked it out of his reach in time, but he went ahead to grab her by the arm. With unexpected force, she pulled it free from his grasp and faced him with eyes full of fury.

“I swear to God Almighty,” she said with fiery passion, bringing her fingers to her lips and then slamming her palm on the ground with a heavy thud. “If you touch me again, I go beat you like cow wey no get owner.”

The ruffian’s eyes widened in astonishment. Beat him like an owner-less cow?? He stared at her open-mouthed, with a shocked smile on his face as if she had just pulled an impossible feat that he was immensely proud of. By now, some of his ruffian colleagues had gathered around him and the very angry-looking Caro who had already taken off her footwear and was focused wholly on him. One of them, seeing the situation, asked what the matter was.

“Na this pikin o!”, he replied, pointing to Caro whose chest was heaving rapidly in fury. “This rat say she go beat me if I touch her again.”

His colleagues burst into laughter. It was more than hillarious! A little girl thinking of beating up a highly experienced thug.

“O girl, wetin you drink this morning? You no like your life?”, one of them asked, gasping with laughter.

But Caro ignored him, her eyes were on her ruffian alone. He was her one and only target.

“Look, I no get time for this nonsense,” he said, moving toward her. “Give me my money. Fast fast fast. No waste my time.”

“Come take am na. The money wey you keep with me. Idiot.”

That insult was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. With fiery eyes, he rushed at her, looking to grab her by the neck, but he received what he least expected: a rapid-fire slap on each cheek!

His colleagues gasped in shock and he also reeled back in disbelief. Caro nodded deliberately as if to confirm that she was the issuer of the slaps. Her legs were set in a battle stance and both hands were on her waist. Her fearlessness further angered her ruffian enemy and without paying attention to suggestions from his colleagues, he whipped out his belt, folded it and went at Caro like a madman.

He whipped her left, right and centre, but she made no attempt to run. Instead, she remained where she stood, covering her head and ears with her arms as the lashes rained down on her. He was sweating profusely, but it was unclear whether it was due to his current exertion or the amount of anger in him. His colleagues were egging him on as he continued to thrash her mercilessly with no intention of stopping. But none of them saw what was coming next.

Like flash, Caro lunged at her attacker, slamming her head into his chest and sending him off his feet with that one strike. He fell on his back on the ground. But before he could think of recovering, she had jumped on him. Straddling his midriff, she attacked him with all her strength and anger, launching heavy blows and punches at his face and the hands he was bringing to protect himself. The other ruffians watched in shock as Caro mauled their colleague as if he was a rag doll.

By now, a large crowd had gathered around the scene and everywhere there were gasps of surprise as the bus-stop’s chief of notorious ruffians received the most savage beating of his life. And from a girl at that! Never in the history of the motorpark had such a thing ever happened!

One of the men in the crowd had had enough of the incident. Rushing forward, he grabbed Caro by her arms and threw her off the soundly assaulted ruffian.

Caro rolled away and quickly gained her feet. But in a move that further shocked everyone, she lunged at the man who had thrown her off, sweeping him off his feet and landing him on his back. After that act, she had no intention of going any further. She left him to escape and went over to where she had dropped her tray and its contents. Surprisingly, everything was intact! Perhaps people had been too busy watching the fight to remember to steal. Dusting the sand off her body and hair with her head cushion, she picked the tray and balanced it on her head.

“Buy your sweet oraaange,” she sang as she resumed her hawking as if nothing had happened. The crowd quickly cleared a wide path for her to pass.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.