The road trip from hell

“Take me away,” I begged. “Take me anywhere you want!” That was me making one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Dan and I have been on and off friends and this should be clue enough to be wary of him but when have I ever been known to be cautious?

He is the sort of person you would fail to describe. We met through mutual friends and have gone out to have drinks but never without the company of someone else. I liked him because he is different but I was drawn to his sarcastic brutally mean side. He is the only person not afraid to make fat people jokes to a fat person or point out a defect that everyone else is trying to ignore.

On this particular day, he called and although the usual plan would be to hang out with friends, I begged him to pick me up and just keep driving until we found somewhere to settle. He laughed at the absurdity of it but for days I had been feeling like I was living in a maze - from one drunken moment to another.

I know it is the “season of happiness” but I had stretched it and it was starting to have a toll on my body. An hour or so later, Dan was parked outside my house and we started driving in the direction of Jinja. On the way, he kept slapping me jokingly for standing him up once or twice before and that should have been my warning signal.

The ride was exactly what I needed. We stopped for drinks and talked more than we had ever in the year that I have known him. We exchanged stories on first love, first kiss and our individual ideas on relationships at younger ages. I was enjoying myself especially since we were in his extremely cool car.

A friend once teased me that she wasn’t sure who I got along more with; Dan or his car. It was already getting dark by the time we were in Mukono and we both agreed that going all the way would be a waste of time especially since we intended to come back after a few drinks. He suggested we stop over in Lugazi and I agreed; my other mistake.

We were still having a good time when things started to change around the third beer. A group of about seven or eight men started yelling at me to put out my cigarette. I had seen them brewing for a fight and chosen to ignore them altogether.

The reason that we were outside the bar was so I could smoke but I think they were taking more offence to the fact that I was female. While the waitress got our bill, they (cowardly and foul smelling) walked up to us with raised voices. Dan, rather than asking them to calm down, was trying to pry the cigarette from my hand and urgently whispering that they may break his windscreen.

One thing I learnt from one of my good friends is to never back down from a group of cowardly men. I refused to stab out the cigarette and explained that I was getting my bill and that we would be on our way. They yelled, I smirked and eventually they started to call me names.

When the cigarette was out, I walked up to them to apologise. I figured they were villagers and maybe I was wrong not to stab the cigarette out. Imagine my shock when the ugliest of them got up and shoved me. I yelled, warned him and had to be pulled away by a cowardly Dan. Once we got in the car, I started to ask Dan why he had cowered and he promised to hit me in the process. He tried to reason with me but I was mad and got out my phone to text my other friends.

Dan suddenly yanked the phone out of my hands, raised his voice and showed me the violent side to him. In the scuffle for my phone, he even managed to elbow and slap me, shocking me to tears. He wouldn’t let me pee when I begged him to stop and he sang along with the radio as if nothing had happened. I was in so much shock that I decided to end the relationship with him and his car.

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