Tales on Wheels – Ghost Stories

 

Have you ever been on a ride that was supposed to take 20 mins but ended up being the longest 2 hours of your life? Even if you have, you probably can’t relate to what I’m about to say. You see this case was different. It wasn’t the traffic that bothered me, it was the talkative driver that made it feel so long.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind having a short ‘convo,’ or small talk, with a driver, but this was past the usual: stories of ghosts in the marketplace, the dangers of buying at night… I mean, come on! Do people still believe these things?

Anyways, no need for long talk, here’s how it happened:

I was on a trip from VI to Ikoyi, exhausted from the long work day when I requested an Uber. He greeted me warmly, even opened the door for me and I sat in comfortably. I normally don’t engage them in conversation but he had been so kind that I felt I had to say something nice. “How’s work going?” “Fine thank you”. There was a long pause.

Just as I was about to drift to sleep, I heard “Don’t buy anything from the market at night, it’s usually ghosts that sell.” In my mind I was like “is this guy serious?” Then he went on to talk about seeing ghosts in his secondary school days and how his former colleagues at a hospital confirmed to have seen ghosts as well. With the way he spoke and looked around, you’d have thought a spirit would pop in at any moment.

After what seemed like eternity, I reached my destination. He told me a polite good night and “hope to drive you again” I smiled and said thank you but in my head I was like “Naaa, never again.”

I guess drivers feel lonely and driving alone constantly can be boring so it probably helps to be able to talk to someone. However if you’re not in the mood, would you engage to make the driver happy? Plus, what if he starts to say stuff that you do not find interesting or believe is even real? How would you end the conversation? Looking back, it was an interesting tall tale (lol). What do you think?