Blog - April 12, 2018

Episode 11 : Fiction20. Getting Clarity

“Steady now” Udo-Samuel said as he helped me into the car. He had successfully staged the room with the dummy to fool the people that were after me of my death. But we both knew they would not be fooled for long. Fear gripped me as I climbed into the car, and the way Udo- no Samuel- kept talking in whispers into a phone as we walked the short distance to the car didn’t do anything to ease my worries. I settled into the back seat of the car with my heart in my throat, and udo got into the Driver’s seat and started to drive. My head was pounding. I cradled my bump, thankful that my child was still living and safe and felt tears threaten my eyelids. Udo-Samuel did not say anything after he started to drive but I could feel him constantly looking at me through the rear view mirror. The tears flowed down my eyes now freely and my throat hurt from trying to stifle my sobs. My Jaleel, my husband, my everything was dead by my hands even as his child grew inside me. I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of all the events that unfolded in these past few days but my head was still foggy, probably from all the drugs. My husband killed my parents. I killed my husband. Udo was not a lowly gateman. I was been drugged all my marriage. My marriage was a sham. I had been sleeping with the enemy. I was paying for my parents sins. It all felt and sounded like a sick and twisted nightmare and I pinched myself to wake up from it. Nothing. I pinched myself again, opened my eyes. Nothing. Nothing was different, this was not a nightmare, I was still at the back of the car going somewhere I don’t know. Udo-Samuel was still behind the wheels, my husband was still dead and my life was still an upside down mess. What in the world is going on? What day was it? How did my life get here? I was scared, and confused and I didn’t know what was happening anymore. I thought of I had come to be here, how I had seen the piece of paper that led to my grand discovery and ultimately the beginning of the end of my life. I remembered the last time I saw him, my husband, the fear that had glinted in his eyes when he realized I knew his secrets. “Hey dear, I’m home” he had screamed from the living room, I heard him but did not answer. I stood in a corner where he could not see me and watched him as he walked into our room, his steps so sure, his mood so cheerful and yet this was not my husband. He suddenly looked like a stranger to me, someone I did not know, someone capable of doing all the despicable things I read from the files in his safe. Someone capable of killing my own parents and our children even before they stepped into the world. I did not hear this stranger even as he called my name. He searched for something from inside the box on the bed, did not notice the pile on the ground beside the bed. He was too busy looking for his office papers to notice I had broken his safe and I had all the evidence spread out on our bedroom floor. The old photos of my parents and his parents, old newspapers clippings of my family business, hundreds of letters and the secret phone he used in communicating with someone named Jaja. All the texts they had been exchanging, all their plans to ruin my life and leave me to die a miserable death. I had seen everything and my head was in an erratic state. “Armani…” he called, I heard him and yet I could not hear him. “Armani …” I heard him close the box and returned it. And just as he was stepping out of the room, I stepped out in front of him, I looked up at the man I loved and when I saw the fear in his eyes, I knew all I had read was true. Right then I felt my soul leave my body and my heart convulsed inside my chest and I plunged my knife into his belly. “Armani!!” Udo-Samuel’s sharp voice brought me back to my current reality. The car had stopped moving, it seemed we had arrived at wherever was the hideout, Udo-Samuel was standing outside with the car door open for me. “Armani, we are here.” He said as he tried to help me out of the car. The place he called here, where I would be supposedly safe. It was in the middle of nowhere, we were surrounded by bushes and trees and there was a mansion right in the middle of it all. I stared at my surroundings for a good minute before I found my voice.. “where are we? Where is this?” “It’s not safe for us to stand out here. Let’s get you inside” he said, smiling reassuringly and trying to nudge me into the building. Still I was not convinced. “No, please tell me where we are..” I said, refusing to move, I could feel tears starting to form in my throat. “Armani, it’s okay, you are safe now. Once we get inside, everything will be clearer, there’s someone inside waiting to explain everything to you….” Writer : Salmah Abdulsalam  . Blog   Previous Episode