In July 1993, a Lagos city police detective is ordered by his superior to travel to the faraway city of Enugu to assist the local police over there with their investigations. He is reluctant to go to Enugu because of the trauma that he suffered there as child during the Nigerian Civil War(1967-1970).
This short story chronicles the frustration that Detective-Inspector Ikenna Kodilinye is undergoing while stuck in the notorious Lagos city traffic enroute to the airport from where he is scheduled to fly to Enugu.
Between an annoyingly talkative taxi driver, the chaotic gridlock outside and the emotional turmoil brought on by the reawakening of repressed childhood memories, the frustrated detective struggles inside his taxicab to keep himself cool under the sweltering citywide heatwave. Then he relieves his childhood trauma from decades past, and comes to the realization that his superior’s order to travel to Enugu was serendipitous? a chance to finally experience catharsis.
