“Attention please.”

Sam heard the announcement that the South African flight had arrived.He looked at his watch. The time was 8.55am. The flight was early. Hewas glad he came on time. He quickly finished his tea, took thecardboard and got up. He went to stand with the crowd in front of thearrival hall.

About twenty minutes later, the passengers on the flight began tocome out. He held up the cardboard when he saw a young ladyapproaching, but an elderly couple from the crowd called her and shewent to them. As more people came out, Sam kept the cardboard up,hoping he would get Ann easily.

From the way Mr. Noah had spoken about Ann, Sam assumed she would bebetween twenty and twenty six years of age. Mr. Noah had also saidshe was light in complexion.

Sam concentrated on light-complexioned young ladies. If he saw oneapproaching, he would hold the cardboard up in her direction, for herto see.

A fair young lady who limped, approached, pushing her cart. She waslooking at the card boards people held up.

Could it be Ann? Sam wondered. But Mr. Noah hadn’t told him shelimped, he thought as he kept the cardboard up. The lady looked at itand walked past him. It wasn’t Ann.

Another approached, scanning the faces of the people standing. Samsaw her look in his direction. Ann? The lady suddenly squealedwith delight, left her luggage cart and raced toward him. Wonderingat the show of emotion from a stranger, he plastered a smile on hisface and waited for her to come but she ran past him into the arms ofa thin man beside him.

So, where’s Ann? What’s keeping her? He wondered. Morethan fifty passengers had come out and many of the people he wasstanding with had left having seen the persons they were waiting for.

**********

Pulling her hand luggage behind her, Ann cleared the immigrationsection and followed the other passengers to the luggage claim area.She looked around and saw some luggage carts arranged in a corner.Walking over, she tried to pull one.

“Hey, madam!” Someone shouted from behind her.

She stopped and looked back. A man in green uniform came to her.

“You have to pay one hundred naira!” The man said.

“Oh, okay.” She said. “I don’t have naira notes though. Doyou accept dollars?”

“Yes.”

“How much for a cart?”

“One dollar.”

Opening her purse, she brought a dollar bill out. “Here, take.”

“Go there and pay.” The man said roughly, pointing in anotherdirection.

Taking a breath to calm down, Ann left for the other place. As sheawaited her turn to pay for a cart, she removed her jacket. Theweather was very hot. She looked around and saw some of the otherpassengers also holding their jackets in their hands while some hadtheirs tied round their waists. If she had had any doubt of beingback in Nigeria, it was now gone. This is indeed Nigeria!

Soon, she paid , got a receipt and went back to where the other manwas, giving him the receipt of  payment. He perforated it, gave itback to her and pulled a cart out. Dropping her hand luggage on thecart, she pushed it to the carousel and stood with other passengers.People were making calls on their cell phones to inform theirfamilies and friends of their arrival. She didn’t have a phone shecould use. She could only hope that Sam, the driver her uncle saidwould pick her up would be waiting for her so she would not stay longat the airport. If she didn’t see him though, she might have tolook for a phone to use to call her uncle.

Soon, one of her three suitcases came out and she put it on the cart.Shortly after, another one came out and she took it. It remained one.When she had not seen the third suitcase ten minutes after, she beganto worry. Could something have happened to it? She asked one of themen standing beside her.

The man shook his head. “I don’t think so. They don’t tamperwith bags here. You’ll soon see it.”

Suddenly, she spotted it coming.

“Oh, there it is!” She said and let out a sigh of relief.

The man laughed. “I told you.”

She got it, put it on the cart as well and left, pushing the cart.

When she emerged outside the arrival hall with the cart, she saw manypeople. Some were holding white papers and card-boards on which nameswere written. As she made her way forward slowly, a fair-skinnedyoung man approached her.

“Beautiful girl, do you need a cab?”

Tightening her grip on her purse which contained her internationalpassport, Ann shook her head to decline.

“Hey, madam, do you need help?” Another man asked her.

“No.” Ann answered.

She hadn’t remembered to ask her uncle how she would  identify thedriver he said would pick her.

She scanned the crowd. The driver should be a middle-aged man andmost likely dark in complexion. He might also have facial marks, shethought. With this in mind, she began to move slowly, looking at thenames written on the papers and card boards, and also looking atpeople whom she thought might be drivers. She looked at them closelyand a little longer than necessary, in case one of them wouldrecognize her or call her name.

Still pushing the cart forward slowly, she saw a man who seemed to match her description. He wore a brown uniform, and held a cardboard.She squinted her eyes to read the name onthe paper. It was Hauwa Baba.

Ann continued to walk down slowly, hoping she wouldn’t have a hardtime getting the driver.

Suddenly, she saw her name! She stopped to look at the name on thecardboard again. It was her name, no doubt. She looked at the personholding it. The dark, tall man was nothing like she had expected. Hewas a young man in his twenties and handsome. He wore a white T.Shirt on a pair of blue jeans, and white snickers. Then the manlooked at her and she raised her left hand slightly in greeting.

**********

Sam saw two young ladies coming. One of them was light in complexionand they seemed to be looking for someone. He raised thename-cardboard in their direction. As they walked past him, hethought one of them looked familiar. Was she an actress or a singer?He wasn’t sure of where he’d seen the face before.

He looked away from them and found another light-complexionedslender lady, of an average height, looking directly at him!

She wore a light pink blouse that had a plunging neckline on deeppink trousers, and held in her right hand a jacket which matched thetrousers. Her hair was long. Her left hand which was restingon the handle of the cart had two rings, one on the index finger andthe other on the middle finger. Could it be Ann? Would she come inhis direction?

She raised her left hand slightly, then began to push her cart in hisdirection.

She must be the one. Sam moved immediately and went to her.

“Hello. Are you Ann Lola Sankey?” He asked, his eyes going to herlips that shimmered with pink lipstick and gloss.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Noah asked me to pick you up.”

“Thank you. Are you Sam?” She expected him to say no.

He nodded and smiled broadly, “Yes. You’re welcome back toNigeria.” He shook hands with her.

“Thank you.”

“I’ll help you with that.” He said.

“Thank you.” She repeated and stepped back.

Sam took the handle of the cart. “Let’s go. The car is at theparking lot.”

“Okay.”

Then he looked down at her shoes. The open-toe pink shoes were veryhigh. He also noticed that her toe nails were painted pink.

“Er … can you walk far with your shoes or would you rather waitsomewhere, for me to bring the car?” He asked.

She shrugged. “My shoes are not a problem.”

He pushed the cart away from where people were and stopped.

He took his phone and pressed some buttons. “Hello sir – yes –yes – she’s here with me. Hold on for her.”

He held the phone out to Ann, “Your uncle.”

She took it and soon began to talk and laugh. Sam was looking at herand thought, she’s beautiful.

When she was through, she returned the phone to him. “Thank you.”

He began to push the cart and she walked beside him.

“How was the flight?”

“Oh, I guess it was okay. Thanks.”

“How many hours was it?”

She told him.

After walking a little distance, he told her to wait with the cart. “The park is still a little distance from here. I’ll bring the car to you.”

“Okay, thanks.”

He left and briskly walked to the park. About eight minutes after, hegot to where she was standing and flashed the lights at her.

She peeped and recognized him behind the wheel.

Sam parked the car and got down, loading her suitcases into the bootof the car.

Ann entered the passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt. Soon theywere on their way.

“Please, could I use your phone briefly? I need to call myparents.”

He gave his phone to her. Once again, he heard her laughing as shetalked.

As she returned the phone some minutes later, she asked, “Will myuncle be at home?”

“No, he’s at work.”

“Okay.”

She turned to look out the window and began to talk about herobservations as Sam sped on.

When she stopped talking, he asked, “How is South Africa?”

She turned to look at him. “SA is an interesting place. It’s aplace you should go.”

Sam smiled, “Some of my friends have told me that.”

“Where do they live in SA?”

“Some of them are in Pretoria.”

“If you go there, they should take you to Menlyn Mall, Sandton CityMall, Eastgate Mall.”

As she continued to mention the names of places of interest inPretoria, Sam exclaimed, “Wow!”

“And if you happen to be in Johannesburg, one of the places youshould visit is Montecatsino.”

She proceeded to tell him about the place.

“It appears you have fallen in love with the country.”

She laughed. “Maybe. I hope I will be able to cope with life inNigeria again.”

“Why have you returned?”

“My uncle encouraged me to come back.” She said.

“When was your last time in Nigeria?”

“I traveled three years ago, after I graduated from university.”

He was surprised. “You graduated three years ago?” He lookedsideways at her briefly.

She nodded.

“Wow! That’s great. You look very young.”

“Not so young though. I’m twenty four, well … almost twentyfour.”

He laughed a little, “When will you be twenty four?”

“In about five months.”

Hmm, that meant he was nine months older than her. She had graduatedthree years ago while he was still in university, he thought andsmiled.