Ade turn and watched his friends who were still laughing especially Tems as i could hear her laughing out loud like the humming of a generator grinding mill, I was sober as I felt vulnerable.
Then bent over to see my cute face covered with dust in the reflection of the river, watched for a moment and scooped some water with my hand to rinse off the dirt on my face which wasn't looking any different from heavy make ups only that my eye brows and lips weren't spared. I couldn't resist the coolness of the water on my skin, then i decided to have a bath....
"A minute, two, ten is passed and Ade is no where to be found" Tems said. Ade! Ade!! Ade!!!, they called out, no response as fear began setting in, "He fell off the valley and now he disappeared into the river, why is it only Ade?" Sayo said placing her hand on her waist and muttering some words inaudibly....
Then Ade showed up laughing at Sayo and others who stood at the river bank, water dripping allover him, seem like he just had a lot of fun... "What are you scared of?" Ade said still laughing, "You think your prank is funny?" Sayo yelled back "Ee ma depkere" speaking in Ijebu Ife language, showing no courtesy to keep the angry grin off her face as she walked away from the river bank.
Wale, Joseph and others soon joined in the fun as we spent about an hour and half swimming and playing. I got bored and exit the river with victor and Abiola already out few minutes before me, I could see others follow one after the other.
We were about getting all dressed when Wale noticed a creature swimming close to the bank as he rushed back into the river "What are you doing half dressed in the river" we yelled at him but he didn't seem concerned, didn't even look back at us... "I saw something like a fish whitish with blue design glowing" , wait ooo where is it, Wale said speaking to himself.
Few minutes later he got hold of something he just described and screamed "Come see" he said with a shaky and fainty voice, then I knew something had gone wrong, to our greatest surprise, it was indeed such a beautiful fish worth holding but Wale was getting electrocuted by his cute buddy looking so fragile and delicate like a nuke.
We rushed at him to release the fish and spare him the agony of the live current running through his veins. "Wale drop the fish na" Joseph yelled but Wale insisted saying he has made so much effort to catch the fish but the fish wants to kill him and before it does he is gonna kill it first. We struggled to get the fish off his hands but he pressed his finger on the side of the fish under its fin, off the fish slipped into the river and was gone. Wale hisses and kicked at the water then turn to leave the river when the fish returned but this time glowing like its got a thousand watts bulb powered by an independent source, we marveled as it wiggled its tail fiercely with it mouth wide open.
Then a liquid substance like lightening sparked into the river, Wale began gnashing his teeth getting electrocuted again because he was the only one still in the river this time without holding or touching the fishlike creature, we rushed to pull him out of the river, now I could feel the strong current running through my veins as watts of electricity enough to power an industry.
We were all groaning in the river, seem to me like I was gonna explode, then there came saving grace ; Sayo, Temi and Khadijat came running throwing stones at the creature who swam away, we came out staggering as though we were mobbed by angry citizens whose funds is been squandered.
We continued our adventure crossing the river with a pedestrian bridge to find a suitable spot to settle for the night.
To be continued...