ZUHRAH LEAVES HOUSE...
CHAPTER 2
Kofi continued, “If you want to run away from your owner, you have to brace yourself for anything because the real world isn’t rosy, and it is not what you see or act on television. Only the fittest make it to the end, especially when everyone and everything around you wants to eat you. If you decide to follow your animal instincts by running away, know that my doors are open to receive you when the going gets too tough for you to handle. Oh! I just remembered something. I have no doors, so you are welcome any day, anytime.”
“I’ve thought long about it. I’m getting bigger, so I’ll stop fitting through the gate very soon, and I can’t imagine what would happen to me if I reach that stage. The sooner I stop thinking and start making plans on how to run away, the better. Kofi, it’s time I got a better owner,” Zuhrah said with a tone of maturity that she’d never heard herself sound like.
“I see your mind is made up then. When do you intend executing Operation Escape?” Kofi said, standing on all fours, walking in a circle around Zuhrah.
“Ah-ah! Immediately I leave your place!” Zuhrah said, strutting like the police dog she was.
“Be on your way then. The very important thing is not to lose the scent of this place, so that it would be easy for you to track me when you need help. Bye. It was nice knowing you,” Kofi said, waving a paw.
Zuhrah left Kofi’s trash house, stood outside in the drizzle and gave it one last look. She looked up, left, right and down. “I really hope that I made the right decision this time around,” she said, shaking off some more water from her fur.
Zuhrah had no specific place or route in mind to go, so she was going to depend on her animal instincts. She walked a bit to the T-junction, looked back at the refuse dump, she waved a paw and she said, “Bye.” The rain had stopped, but the streets were wet. She had to act fast. Zuhrah knew she was a police dog, and people were usually afraid of huge dogs like her. The last thing she wanted was to attract the wrong type of attention. The sun had started peeking out, and the streets were becoming busier by the second, although Accra was one city that never slept. Cars honked, shop owners were opening their shops and displaying their wares, some teenage boys had started playing gutter-to-gutter on the field patch across the road and loud music started booming from the shops. Zuhrah tried to cross the road, but people honked their car horns at her, so she got scared and ran back.
She saw an alley on the right side of the refuse dump’s junction that she hadn’t noticed before, and she decided to go through it. It was dark at first, but she still continued to walk through. As she got to the end of the alley, she saw some thugs holding glass bottles of beer, some bickering about Nigerian jollof and Ghanaian jollof, while others were drinking akpeteshie and playing draughts. As soon as they sighted her, they began to chase her, throwing planks and bottles at her. In panic, Zuhrah ran out of the alley and onto the busy street. She ran across the road, barely avoiding being hit by a truck. She shot past the boys playing gutter-to-gutter and she just kept running. When she felt she’d run far away from them, she stopped to pant and look around. The thugs weren’t after her anymore, but there was an even bigger problem. She didn’t even know where she was or how she got there or how she could get out of there. It was a large expanse of land and nothing else. Occasionally, there was a tree here and a small shrub there. It was muddy, and her legs were already stained with mud.
She continued walking, and walking, and walking. As she walked, the landscape started to change. The land was becoming greener, the trees were taller and closer to each other, and the leaves were becoming broader, as if she were entering a forest. As she walked, she stepped on a twig and it snapped. The sound rippled across the open space, and then she froze. Suddenly, she heard a strange sound, and the sound seemed to be coming in her direction.
“Who’s th-there?” Zuhrah stammered in a low voice. Then, her nose started to tingle. She was picking up a scent. She, being a curious creature, started to move towards the sound, using her nose to guide her.
“Who dey there?” she asked again. The strange sound had been replaced by a clucking one. She crouched as she walked towards the sound, ready to jump at anything she saw.
“Na me o. Abeg, just leave me in peace o,” a voice answered. That was a chicken. Kwame.
“Kwame! You almost gave me a heart attack! What are you doing in this forest?” Zuhrah asked, her nose up in the air.
“I came to lay my eggs here and wait until my little chicks hatch out.”
“How can a male chicken lay eggs? Or wait o, Chale! Are you a hen?”
“Exactly.”
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