AFRICAN PLACES: A day in Sahad Store

Lambe-Rohi Bethel-Gold
@bethelgoldayodele308287
1 year ago

I remember the first time I visited a shopping mall in Abuja ‘was my first time in Abuja’. There was some family issue going on then, I was eight or nine at the time and my mum took some days off both from her work ‘she’s self-employed’ and from our school so we can attend to such issue.

I mentioned earlier that it was my first time in Abuja and the journey there was tedious, we travelled by road and would take breaks at intervals. I was little then and wasn’t that knowledgeable about the route we passed through. Anyways, we arrived in Abuja quite late, we left Lagos early in the morning and arrived late evening.

My dad who’s still in the military had a small apartment there since that was his place of assignment at the time, we settled with him and you know since it was late night, we didn’t go anywhere. Just rested from the long trip, ate what was available and anticipate what the next day held.

Morning came and dad said he wanted to take us out, we all were excited but mum couldn’t come because she took ill. It was cold I think but she just couldn’t come with us. We prepared and prayed before setting out with dad. Dad had this old wine-colored Toyota Camry he used to transport us to this store called ‘Sahad Stores’.

We’ve been to several stores before but arriving at this particular store felt foreign. It was like a mega store, has the down floor and the top floor [Can’t remember how tall it was]. Variety of food, snacks, accessories and anything you could buy in a store were displayed there. Dad gave us a budget each to use for that day and he said we should behave ourselves but he didn’t need to tell us that because we knew how to behave outside.

I think when we wanted to get to the top floor, dad wanted us to use the stairs but we have watched lots of movies and I read a few books where I see people getting into this elevator. The feeling of going up and down inside the elevator wasn’t expressed and we wanted to know the thrill attached to this adventure as we pictured it.

Omo, it was the first time entering an elevator and I don’t know how my siblings felt but when dad pressed the button to go up, it felt like my chest was floating in the air and my body was rooted to the floor. There was a rush of adrenaline but as exciting as it felt, I was scared to the bones. If you saw me then, you’ll think I saw a ghost or something lol because I held on to the bright golden walls with eyes wide opened and unmoving legs stuck to the floor.

It was exciting and at the same time scary.
We arrived upstairs and we did the rest of our shopping. When we passed the budget given to us, dad made us return some of the things we wanted and we instead went below the budget [like he initially wanted] lol.
Anyways, the same thrill I had while going up in the elevator, I had the same when we used the elevator to go downstairs. I wanted to grab unto someone and never let go. I didn’t know if anyone noticed the scared little girl trying not to freak out lol but that’s that. I mean, you can feel scared and excited at the same time. Those feelings tend to make your heart race faster than you can imagine and imagine feeling them at the same time. That was eight-year-old me.

So yeah, I think I shared the most of the story.

Also, I think I didn’t buy anything for myself but something [like fruit and other things my mum liked] that mum can eat when we got back to the apartment. I enjoyed that day at the store even scare-excitement feeling made my day. It was something I could talk about to my friends when we got back to Lagos, you know and jut share your experience.

Till this day, whenever I enter an elevator, I still get that feeling and also the fear of getting trapped [due to the many movies I watched] clutches me like a leach to the skin. I still want to use an elevator and don’t want to use it. Weird but that’s that.

I really do hope you guys loved my mini story about a place I visited and the experience I had riding the elevator for the first time.

Till we see in my upcoming stories, remain healthy and blessed.

#NircleStories #Neighborhoodveiled #AfricanUnveiled

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@bornfaithgodstime910173 @ucheuzodinma @bethelgoldayodele308287