The Double Mixup.

Hi guys! Wow. It has really been long here. I checked the date of my last post and that was like 2 months ago. I am so so sorry about that. To make up for the long absence, I am going to post a short story I wrote some days back and maybe disappear again 😅. It was meant to be an entry for a literature contest but I came up with another story for that and if it doesn't win, I get to repost and possibly do a spin-off of it here too.

Oh and don't forget, leave comments in the comment box. Reading your comments are like drinking refreshing water while trekking in a desert-like land. They are encouraging. Give me feedback so that I can know how to serve you better.
Anyways, let me get straight to it. Enjoy.

THE DOUBLE MIXUP.

Hypothetically, there are about six people who bear an uncanny resemblance to you, six doppelgangers of you on earth. You must have likely heard or read that somewhere. Awesome right? Chika would probably have thought so too, until one fateful Saturday.

It had been a sunny Saturday afternoon. She was back on holiday in Nigeria. She was hanging out with a group of friends at the famous Ikeja City Mall and someone brought up the idea of playing a truth or dare game. It was all fun and games till Chika was dared by one of them to go into the Pep Store at the mall and steal any item of her choice.

She walked into the store while they stood outside waiting for her. Chika looked through a couple of displays wondering what she would pick. After looking for a while, in order not to look suspicious, she decided to settle for a pack of kiddies’ hairclips. It was risky thing to do. Her parents hadn’t raised her to be a thief and that was exactly what she was going to become if she succeeded.

She started thinking about what could happen if she got caught. Her palms had started sweating, beads of sweat were beginning to form on her forehead, her armpit was soaked but she didn’t want to chicken out at this point. The jeering would be too much for her to bear because she had made it sound like it was not a big deal. She picked the hairclips pack and picked a maxi dress to take into the dressing room to try on. The dress was an excuse to use the dressing room so that she could put the pack of clips into her bag. When she was done, she walked out of the dressing shaking her head as if she didn’t like it and started heading out the door.

She might have gotten away with it, if one of the sales attendants at the store hadn’t noticed on the store monitor that she didn’t return the pack of clips that she took.

“Oh my goodness! I totally forgot. I had just kept it there while trying on the dress. I am really sorry.” She had said quickly not even knowing how such a lie had popped into her head and turned to returned it to the display. While she was talking, she noticed that the other sales person was looking at her in an odd manner but she had just felt that was because she didn’t believe in her lie and Chika couldn’t really blame her though.

She returned the clips to its position in the aisle and accepted her fate; she was going to be the laughing stock of the group. She could see them giggling in her mind’s eye already from where they were standing from the door. As she got closer to the entrance of the store, she noticed that some security guards were standing at the door, one of them was particularly tall and they talking with that sales lady that had been looking at her oddly. They were talking in whispers, looking at a phone and looking at her. When she finally got to the door, they still stood at the entrance, it even seemed like they were trying to prevent her from walking out.

“Uhmm. Excuse me. I want to pass through. You’re in my way” She said.

“Sorry ma. You can’t leave here at this moment.” The tall security guard said.

“And why is that?” She asked.

The guy looked at her, looked at the phone, then looked back at her and showed her what they were looking at. Lo and behold she saw a picture of a wanted person. She was shocked. Looking at the picture, it felt as if she was looking at one of her own pictures. The person in the picture looked just exactly like her but it definitely wasn’t her. Chika knew she was not the one in that picture. It couldn’t be her, Chika thought to herself. It was definitely not her. But the resemblance was so uncanny she was freaked out herself.

She wondered what they could possibly be hunting this lady down for that warranted a wanted picture with a prize money on her head and realized that it could be a very heinous crime. She then recalled that earlier on, several people had been giving her odd stares when she was walking with her friends round the mall. She had wondered why and even told her friend Stacy who laughed it off and said it was because they hadn’t seen a girl as fine as she was. Now it made sense. She looked like some lady who was on a wanted poster.

She returned the phone back to the guy and asked,

“So what’s going to happen now? I am not the one in that picture. I can bring my friends to confirm that for you.”

“Sorry. We already called the police.”

“How can you call the police when you aren’t even sure that’s me in the picture? Is it because of the prize money or what? What is with wrong you Nigerian people?” She said exasperatedly.

“We’re really sorry ma. We were given orders.” Another security guy said.

“What is that lady in the picture wanted for?” She asked after calming down.

“Murder.”

At that moment, she realized she was in a very difficult situation. She started calling her parents to inform them of the situation on ground. She skimmed out the detail of her trying to carry out a shoplifting dare and covered it up by saying she has wanted to get some undies. She couldn’t complicated matters further by getting into a tight spot with her parents especially at this point she needed them. Her mum was mad, her dad furious. He assured her he was going to call his lawyer, one of the biggest in the state.

She had then called her friend Stacy next. They were still outside waiting for her. At this point they had seen the exchange and were wondering what was going on. She had even gotten a text from her while she was still trying to figure out why the guards were detaining her. She explained the situation to her who in turn told the rest. They barged in the store and tried to convince the guards that they had the wrong person. While they were still trying to convince them, the police arrived. They said they were from the Police Station at the Alausa Division.

“You are under arrest for the murder of Alhaji Adewale Waheed. You are to remain silent or anything you say will be used against you in the court of law.” They ranted in the comical manner usual to them.

If she wasn’t in a tight spot at that moment, Chika realized she might have even laughed. They wanted to put handcuffs on her but her friends insisted they shouldn’t.

“Don’t dare put cuffs on her.” Stacy had said angrily.

They whisked her off quietly and she got into their van and was driven to the police station.

That was about three weeks ago. She was still in police custody till now. The conditions were terrible. She was growing lean. Her mother cried every time she came to see her. The case was a tough one and the victim was a very powerful personality in Lagos.

Her doppelganger, the real murderer was caught on camera snuffing life out of the Alhaji while he slept with a pillow about a month ago. There had been a manhunt for her and in place of her, Chika was taken instead. Even though her dad’s lawyer had in many ways tried to get the police to release her, hammering on the fact that it was a case of mistaken identity, the evidence was damning. The murderer’s face had been caught on camera and Chika was the exact replica of the murderer. Unless the murderer stepped up and confessed to her crime, Chika was going to be tried in court for murder and the odds she was going to be discharged and acquitted were very minute. That trial was holding today.

It was to begin in some minutes. It had been very much publicized since it was a high profile case and attracted a crowd. The media houses were all there to get firsthand information. Chika was driven from the police station to the court house in a Black Maria. All she could think of was how her life was almost ending during that ride. She was going to be sentenced to death if she was found guilty as the punishment for murder is the death penalty. They arrived at the court and she was taken to seat with her defense counsel.

“All rise!” The court clerk said when the judge entered the courtroom.

For Chika, a showdown of the beginning of the end had started.