Basically the story starts out with a priest having come to the city of Lagos to get money and support for his parishes in Niger. Is stalls out in the middle of a riot and a man comes up to help him. The priest thinks that the man is a swindler by the way he eyes the car. He notices a gun in the legosians' pocket and gets frightened. When the Legosian uses a tone like, "Damn it, man, you don't need a fucking mechanic!" the priest is convinced that the Legosian is out to steal his car or his belongings and money. When the car is finally started the Legosian gets in the car with the priest and he realizes that he is being kidnapped. When he tries to stop the car the legosian yells at him. Everyone in the town seems to have a problem with priests because of their status and money. A police officer states, "So? You Nigerian Clerics just want everything free! You flash your status at every chance." The police take his money and threaten him which shows the real out of control state that lagos is in. Many events go on during the men
's drive. They arrive at a mechanic and the priest still thinks that the Legosian is out to steal his car and belongings. Finally the legosian reaches in his pocket that contained the gun and the priest realizes that the gun is actually a hankerchief at all and is relieved he isn't being kidnapped. The Legosian says, "You know, we need to start trusting each other. I'm tired of blaming it all on our leaders--we've become a difficult lot to help. I was praying hard that I'd connect with you somehow" The Legosian was only trying to connect with the priest and speak about the problems going on in the cities. Because of all the chaos, I think that the priest assumed the man was a bad person.
Swindler- to cheat or defraud money or property
absolution- christian forgiveness
