A kì í dàgbà fún ohun tí a kò bá mọ̀.

One is never too old to learn what one does not know.

Odion liked Ala's mode of transportation way better than Eshu's. It made him feel less disoriented and more energetic, though being enclosed in earth was making him feel claustrophobic. His ears were clogged by the sounds of the earth rumbling all around him, making him near deaf. He tried to peer into the darkness but to no avail, he couldn't see anything but he could feel lots of tiny little clumps passing his skin. He also felt a few insects crawling on his skin and he gritted his teeth when he realised he couldn't brush them off with his hands. His arms were locked by his side and he opened his mouth to breathe in deep for a moment and dirt clumps flew into his mouth. Okay, he thought, don't do that again. His breathing was starting to become erratic and he could feel the asthma attack coming up, creeping round the corner, ready to take his breath away. He wiggled his arms back and forth to try and create more space but it was to no avail, the space was just replaced by more dirt. He was patting down his pockets checking if maybe an inhaler had magically appeared in his pockets. No such luck.

Odion was having serious second thoughts about Ala's form of teleportation.

He was feeling cramped and he could feel the panic attack rising from his chest. He wanted to get out and he needed air. He was fidgeting now, struggling against the earth, trying to make space to allow more air in. And just as soon as it began, the earth around him seemed to slow down. He was rising slowly, the earth was in smaller clumps now.

Then suddenly, he erupted from the ground, head first. He almost laughed at the feeling of fresh air on his face. The air on his face felt so good that he momentarily realised a not so small issue.

Only half his body had made it out of the ground.

Twenty minutes.

It took him twenty whole minutes to dig himself out of the earth. He was happy but not shocked that his clothes came out unstained. He had come to expect strange things nowadays. Throughout his whole digging experience, not one person came to help him. In fact, nobody even spared him a glance. It was like he was invisible. He wondered if it was an enchantment but then he thought again and remembered his past encounters with the gods. It was like the normal people couldn't even process the supernatural so their brains just filtered it out, making it appear to be normal. Either that or people just didn't like his face. He had a sneaking suspicion on which was the right answer.

He paused to appreciate just how messed up his life had become. He expected strange things to happen to him now. After the past few days he had just had, he didn't think that anything could shock him anymore. It was like his brain had been stretched to the absolute maximum that if anything even close to more surprising came along, it's initial reaction was, meh.

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He had to move in order to avoid being bumping into people rushing along the street. One thing was clear, though: Ala had not sent him to the statue of Sango. He looked around to see if maybe he had missed a giant statue of a Yoruba god but he didn't find anything.

He was really starting to get frustrated by these gods.

He craned his neck to look at the top of a UBA bank branch that was situated in Marina. Odion didn't see many tall buildings in Lagos but he definitely saw a lot now. He decided that he'd just go to the bank and find shade at the entrance so he could figure out his next move. On the way, he passed an old woman selling fruits by the street who was being shouted at by a much younger and much bigger woman. The people around saw the situation but they just looked away, as if they could ignore the problem away. Odion moved closer and found that the woman was pricing the elderly woman's fruits down to less than half the price. Odion saw the look on the old woman's face, she wasn't selling these fruits because she had an interest in the marketing of agricultural goods. This was her way of livelihood and probably her only way. This new government was hitting everyone hard.

The fruit seller, seeing no other option, agreed to the woman's price and sold her fruits to her. Odion watched this whole thing play and he couldn't even process the emotions he was feeling? Sadness? Pity?

He walked up to the old woman and asked her for an 'Agbalumo,' what the locals called a kind of cherry. He didn't even ask her how much it was, as soon as she handed him the black nylon bag, he gave her a one thousand Naira note that he brought out from the wad of cash (courtesy of Ala). She collected the money and was frantically looking for change when Odion walked backwards waving at her. "It's fine, keep the change." He walked away as he heard her shouting blessings for him and his offspring in Yoruba. He wasn't particularly religious and yet he found himself muttering, 'amin'.

Everyone was struggling. Now more than ever, it made more sense to help one another. His mother always drove the importance of love and community to his head and now as he grew older, he understood it better. Nothing worked if it didn't work for everyone. We were all in this together, for better or worse.

Odion walked to the bank building and sat down at the stairs leading to the entrance much to annoyance of the apathetic security guard who looked over and continued listening to his radio. Odion opened the bag and remembered that he actually hated agbalumo, the taste made him cringe in disgust. But he was thirsty and hungry and had already bought it, so he decided to eat it anyway.

He hated staying still and after about twenty minutes of it, he decided he couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and brushed the seeds of the fruit off his clothes. Maybe he could ask some people around where the statue was. Or maybe there was even a sign that led to it.

He was already walking to ask the old fruit seller when he felt a warm feeling from the waistband of his jeans. He patted it with his fingers and realised that it was coming from Sango's dagger. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought as he walked the backwards and then towards the open street, the dagger's warmth immediately died down. He moved back to his original position and walked forward and it was almost imperceptible but the dagger got warmer. It seemed to be pointing him towards the inner market surrounded by seemingly hundreds of shops.

Odion whistled appreciatively. "Well, lead the way, then, dagger." He would later question his sanity as he talked to a dagger that once belonged to an ancient god.