My Car on Fire!
A car is, to me, what a horse must have been to the legendary Hausa warrior, Iliya Ɗan Maiƙarfi, who became invincible fighting wars and battles on his horse, using his sword. He loved his horse so much so that he used to eulogize it saying, "Ƙwalele ɗokin Iliya, ba ni saida kai ba ni ba da aron ka", meaning Ƙwalele, Iliya's horse, I can neither sell nor lend you to anyone else. So it is between me and my car. I can't even allow my children to drive it unless I'm inside.
Probably that's why my late cousin's (Aminu Mu'azu) wife, nicknamed my car, "Kin-fi-rai", meaning, it's more valuable than a soul. It's hyperbolic, of course, but it goes to show you that some people have noticed how valuable a car is to me. In short, a car is my second home because I love traveling. Traveling is one of my hobbies. The only other thing I love more than a car is my phone. Almost everything I need is in my phone. I'd be lost without a phone. So, these two: my car and my phone, are my most valuable possessions which I cherish so much that I can't do without, if I can help it.
So, yesterday, on my way back from Kaduna, I stopped over in Zaria to greet my aunt, Hajiya Indo Muhammad, OFR, a two time principal at FGGC Bakori and Zaria, a former Commissioner, Katsina State and a Queen's College Ilorin graduate, as well as a 1977 graduate of ABU Zaria, who graduated with a second class upper division and topped it up with a Master's at Nottingham University in the UK and another Master's at her Alma Mater, ABU, Zaria.
Gwaggo Indo, as we fondly call her, has always been my role model and she influenced my decision to study English at the university, even though I was a science student. And coincidentally, her project supervisor, at undergraduate level, Dr. David Williams, from Barbados, also taught me at ABU. I remember when I went to his office with her project to seek for clarification because I saw that he had quoted from her project in one of his books, he actually stood up and shouted, "Indo!". He told me she was one of his best students. He remembered her more than ten years after she had graduated. So whenever I felt like intellectual stimulation, I visited my aunt for a chat.
It was while we were exchanging pleasantries that some kids ran into the house and shouted that my car was on fire. We both rushed out and saw flames coming out of the hood. I immediately rushed towards the car mechanically and yanked the door open. I pulled the lever that opened the bonnet and simultaneously reached for the fire extinguishers that I always kept under my seat. To my horror, both failed to work when I needed them most. I turned around helplessly only to find that my aunt's neighbors were pouring water and sand into the fire to douse it. Some mixed water with detergents and continued to pour it until they succeeded in quenching the fire completely. The next thing I did was remove my belongings from the car, just in case.
That was how the car was saved, thank God.