Encounters I will Never Forget Part 1

              

                      PART 1- WEIRD DREAM

 

   

When I saw the movie Final Destination, I became vey intrigued and couldn’t wait to see the next part(s). Unfortunately, I only got to watch part five and when I did I was heartbroken especially when Sam and Molly ended up being passengers on the same flight 180 that started the whole cycle. I made up my mind to confront Eric Heisserer (that is, if I ever got the chance to meet him) and get him to do something about it cos that was just unacceptable in my theory of movies. However, nothing prepared me for what happened exactly two years and four months after.

    It was a public holiday and I was in school. I had just eaten an interesting breakfast and I decided to take a nap. I switched off my phone and lay down on my bed. The image of my bookshelf was probably the last thing I saw. The next time I opened my eyes, I was home alone and slouched on the couch. Someone was knocking on the front door; apparently that was why I woke up. I opened the door and a tall, heavy built guy walked in. He had on a brown uniform and he held a bag of tools. My guess was that he fixed things. He went straight into the kitchen and began working on the gas cylinder. I think I was expecting him because I smiled at him and told him to call me if he needed anything and I went back to continue my nap. Suddenly, I felt the urge to use the toilet so I had to drag myself to the bathroom. As I walked past the courtyard, I perceived an all too familiar scent but I was too pressed to give it a second thought. While in the bathroom, I observed the house was quieter than usual and then I remembered the tall guy. In a split second, I raced to the kitchen only to discover the guy was nowhere to be found. I found a small note plastered on the kitchen cabinet saying he rushed back to his workshop to get some things and thought not to wake me up. Well, that explains it-actually that didn’t because there was still the issue of the odor. One quick sniff at the dismantled cylinder told me there was a leakage. The gas cylinder was completely pieced so I had no idea on how to turn it off or trace the point of leakage so I went looking for him out of fear. As I approached the corner of our street, I noticed a traffic build up. That meant I had to take a shortcut to his workshop. Someone was saying that a fuel tanker had broken down just in front of the street gate causing the buildup. How convenient! Some ruffian boys were smoking at an unreasonable distance from the breakdown site. I hissed in disgust and wondered how stupid they were. I mean what if something went wrong and the whole thing just explo- , suddenly I heard a very thunderous bang and I was hit by a force so strong that it threw me into the neighboring street. The next thing I remember was seeing the whole area go up in ranging tongues of fire and that was when I realized, I had spoken too soon.

    “Abby! Wake up.” I fluttered my eyes open and saw all my roommates staring at me with frantic eyes. According to them I had screamed loudly in my sleep. My sleep?, for the first time that day I said a quick prayer and rebuked the dream. Phew! That would have been close. I grinned at the idea that maybe God was trying to punish me for not having my devotion that morning. Well, whatever, it was only just a dream. It couldn’t even happen anyway, I was in school and we didn’t even use gas cylinders at home. Electricity supply was amazing in my area. That weekend, I went home feeling very normal and happy as I was looking forward to the weekend family dinner we always had every Saturday evening. My brother and I would sit with my parents and we would talk and gist about our week so far and then later in the evening, we would have a sumptuous meal courtesy of Mama and me. My mum was very excited to see me and as usual, she cuddled me fondly checking to see if was okay physically and mentally. I noticed the living room was darker than usual and I asked her about it.

“Oh that. The lights have been out for some days now; the transformer is faulty so we might just have to improvise for a while.” She replied. That was odd. Anyway, it was bound to happen sooner or later. We still live in Nigeria and to be honest, we didn’t expect the light to be half as good as it had been over the years. The next day, my brother David and my dad were on their way from the former’s school; he was also coming home although David isn’t exactly the family type, he just wanted to meet up his appointment with the dentist later in the day because he had a throbbing tooth. I went to help my mum in the kitchen but to my dismay, when I got there I saw a rusty looking gas cylinder just by the cooker. I stared at it with so much emotion that everything in me failed at that moment. Still completely shocked, I asked my mum what it was doing there. She looked at me and then at the cylinder and chuckled. “The generator cannot power every appliance in the house and luckily your dad found this fine piece of steel in the store last night. Unbelievable right?” she sounded excited. I nodded strangely and managed myself out of the kitchen. “Shake off the feeling, it’s nothing.” I told myself.

     Things went relatively normal the rest of the morning through afternoon and by evening, my brother was ready to go for his appointment. Dad offered to drop him off and I decided to tag along cos I had to do some shopping. Although deep down inside of me I just wanted to get out of the house; even if something was to happen, it had to start with me alone in the house. Halfway down the street, we could see a pile of cars stuck in what seemed to be a standstill. People left their cars to see what was going on. Dad also did the same and David and I remained in the car making light jokes.”What is wrong?” I asked my dad as soon as he returned. “Nothing serious honey, just a fuel tanker that broke down in front of the street gate but it looks like it’s going to take a while to move it off the road.”

Fuel tanker? Street gate? Pile of cars, traffic build-up? Okay calm down Abby, it’s just a mere coincidence. “Dad look, those ruffians boys must be headed there. Why do they always show up when things are not right?” David pointed out. The moment I saw those boys was when I stopped breathing- literarily and it wasn’t just because they were the same boys I had seen in my dream or because they wore the same clothes I had seen them in, but because two of them had cigarettes in their pockets. Instantly, I blurted out. “Dad! We are all going to die, those boys are going to smoke and the tanker would explode and the gas cylinder-’’ that’s it! Maybe if I could stop the cylinder from leaking I could help prevent this somehow. I yelled on as my dad and David panicked frantically while desperately trying to calm me down but I was no mood to calm down. I explained everything to them in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own. Finally, I was able to get them to understand-not that they believed anyway. We decided to call mum who was home alone to see if there was a problem at home. If there wasn’t then we could accept this as a mere coincidence. As soon as she picked up, she went on to complain about how dinner might be late and that she was frustrated because the gas cylinder was acting up. So she had to call the repair guy and in fact he was already around but just in case we should buy take out from an eatery when coming back and bla, bla, bla.  There is only one word to describe how I felt during those 25 seconds of call conversation and that word doesn’t exist.

    Dad must have believed me then because he set the car in reverse motion and maneuvered his way backwards heading for the house. The thing is, I didn’t even know if how the explosion happened in the dream because I couldn’t understand how the leaky gas affected the tanker which was far away. The tanker wasn’t leaking fuel and I’m not even sure the cylinder had enough gas to go round the house, let alone the whole street.  As soon as we got home, I approached the man while my dad tried to explain things to my mum who was in apparent shock. Funny enough, this man looked nothing like the guy from my dream. We all waited with him as he dismantled and repaired the now popular device called ‘gas cylinder’. Luckily, he finished his job without any impending leakage threat (although, I think my dad hovering around him and the constant scolding did most of the trick). Whatever this thing was, I didn’t have an idea but what mattered most was that we were doing something about it.

    My flood of relief came when David said the tanker had been moved; the road was clearing up and the cars were moving at a faster rate. I had never been happier in my entire life. I even embraced the repair guy who just stared at us in utter confusion, we were probably the most bizarre family he had come across; I wouldn’t blame him though, it was quite a scene at our house. Till today, I still have no idea if there would have been an explosion or not and if the cylinder had anything to do with it (we got rid of the cylinder later some days later), but we were saved, alive and that was all that mattered. By the way, I’ve still not changed my mind about meeting Eric Heisserer and now I have an extra reason to see him…I just witnessed Final Destination 6!

Author: Abby
picture source: http://www.bubblews.com/news/820707-crazy-religious-dream