47 - Dordan Hotel

As soon as my eyes sighted the mirror in the toilet my body shuddered as if cold water had been poured on me suddenly. My legs were no longer strong on the floor. It was as if I was catching fever. I tried to unzip my trousers so that I could urinate and then go back to the room and undress completely. But my hands became very unsteady as if I had Parkinson disease all of a sudden. Thereafter I heard a sound like the voice of a little girl screaming behind me in the room.
As I turned and looked back I saw no one then a house-fly flew across my face and wanted to perch on my neck and I tried to use my left hand to block it but I couldn’t raise it. The fly swiftly flew away and disappeared from my eyes. Then the coldness disappeared and I became steady on the floor. After I had urinated I looked into the mirror to check my face , it was blurred so I took some tissue papers from the roll and wiped a spot to see my face, suddenly the voice echoed behind me again as if a little child was in the room I paid for. As I did not close the toilet door when I entered so I looked but I did not see any one but my jacket that was lying on the bed.
The digital clock on the bed side table was showing 23:45. I was very tired and worn out and the rain had been falling heavily for 6 hours leaving the road totally covered with flood. I began to imagine what I would be doing in the rain by that time if I had not made the move to look for a roadside hotel rather than and sleeping inside the car.
I managed to get to a hotel after a motorcyclist I saw had directed me to the nearest one. Very kindly the motorcyclist and the man he was carrying requested to assist me and push the car down the hill so that I could roll it gradually till I had gotten to the foot of the hill where I could find the hotel.
While it was rolling I still tried to kick-start it but it was not giving me a good sign so I surrendered and began to fight for shelter and security for my life as the place I had found my self was not a motor-busy area.
I was booked online for a trip to take 2 ladies to their home town from the Owerri. The trip was not as smooth as I used to have as a cab driver. A journey I was supposed to be laughing to the bank after completing the contract turned to a night mare. Midway into their community which was a narrow tarred road of about 200 km to the main village, the Unforeseen rain began to fall and the road was rough and flooded and I had to take the several diverts as they were directing me to take. It was a lonely road but few kilometres apart, one might find a motorcyclists carrying up to 3 passengers on it. I had dropped them and was on my way back to the city and had driven half way when I had a flat tyre. It was about 6 p.m. I managed to get it done and zoomed off. The rain became heavier and steady that I was unable to see clearly and the flood uncontrollable. That was why I was speeding on my way back so that I could pass over the bad areas on time. While I was driving in the rain a tree fell and almost hit my bonnet and the engine stopped. As I managed to roll it away from the area with all my body soaked as I was in the rain, then there came the cyclist with a passenger and they assisted me and advised me to get a nearby hotel and sleep over. So as I followed their direction I found the road we did not take as I was coming with the two ladies from Owerri. That was the road to the hotel. It was still down the hill and the car was still rolling while I was inside it. As I sighted a roof I said to myself “that’s the place”. I could not roll beyond the entrance of the hotel because they used cement bags to stack sand at the entrance to prevent flood. I got down and pushed it over. My car was a small Toyota corolla which could be easily pushed by one person. So I walked over to the building. It had a shape of a school building with long corridor connecting the houses. You could walk along without being touched by rain. I looked up and saw the reception. I walked through the door and was attended to by haggard looking lady in her mid-40s. I said to myself “just a few hours I’ll be away”.
In the room, I had taken my bath and re-dressed the bed. It was a one-man bed with just one pillow covered with a red bed sheet and red pillow cover. There was no electricity as at the time I lodged in but the attendant had already lighted 2 lamps. I had my travellers rechargeable torch that I usually use when I go on a trip like this. i would have slept inside the car if the hotel had a fence and gate. But it was open. I did not see any car parked but about 4 motorcycles. When I climbed the bed and turned down the light low, i didn’t know when I slept off as I took a bottle of dry gin to combat the cold weather.
The rain refused to cease and it was as if I was in the dream and it was still raining and a little girl came calling my name but each time I turn I would not see any one. I remembered that I was wearing a necklace with cross so I held my cross.
Still in that dream I saw myself woke from the same sleep I was still sleeping physically. When I woke in the dream ,I found out that the lamps were lying on the floor with their bottom facing each other. I walked to the point to pick it up and heard a sound of water in the toilet. I left the lamps and took my rechargeable torch and flashed it around. I found out that the toilet tap and shower were open but no one was inside the toilet. I turned them off and went to the lamps and took them up and put out the light.
I was still holding the cross on my necklace as I was doing all that. I flashed torch around and checked under the bed. I tried to open the door and call the attendant’s attention but the doorknob pulled out. It looked as if I was stuck inside . I hit the door to alert the other people but no one responded. All I could hear was snoring sound and night birds. It was then that the voice came again and it was as if the person was standing behind me and the voice said that I would have been dead if not the cross on my neck. As soon as the voice stopped I woke from the sleep physically and it was 3.45 a.m. I checked my neck and found the cross there and looked down and saw the lamps on the floor lying with their sides but bottom facing each other. Suddenly the bathroom water began to flow. My body began to shake. Suddenly I heard a heavy knock on the doors next to mine and male voices talking. They did as if they wanted to quarrel and later I heard a voice that shouted “let’s go” and the male voices ceased. But I heard footsteps walking away. I could not sleep again but I turned on my torch and placed it on the table to give light since the lamps had gone off. I began to wait for morning to come fast so that I could run away. I could not make any noise while I was hearing those voices because I had wanted to know who they were first. It would be better for me to fight the little scaring voice in the room that could not harm me than going out to meet robbers. I had been awake till 4.45 a.m and didn’t know when I suddenly slept off. I woke up and found myself being surrounded by sympathisers who surrounded me beside a bush path and I could not explain how I found myself there lying in the flood. It has been a great trauma each time I remember DORDAN HOTEL, the name of the Hotel.

• Written by Patrick Njoku