I was feeling uncomfortable already seeing Joan pacing around the bunk room as she is doing right now. Of course, the bunk room is for every worker but she has never been here before, at least since I came. And if you know her as I do, you would be more worried for me than I am right now. She is always full of surprises. Like a chameleon, you can hardly predict what she has in store for you.
“What is she doing in my space?” I asked, not that I own the room all to myself, but I normally feel in charge whenever I’m here.
“Going somewhere?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the cloth I am holding.
“Yes!”
“Hmm!” she remained silent for a while.
I wish I could just walk out and get going but I was afraid she would tell on me. And my guess was right because she said, “You just got to work after spending almost half of your wo
“Don’t you see I was working on something before you walked in?” Mr. Edwards concluded.Wait a minute, did this old man just call me a dumb ass? What a fuck!He looked unmoved, yet to even look up at me, his hand holding a pen so tight like someone was coming to snatch it from him.The sound of his voice was terrifying. He sounded like someone that is highly offended and looking for the perfect time to explode.“I’m sorry Mr. Edwards!” I apologized.“You should be sorry because what you just did can get you fired.”He looked up at me for the first time and lifts one of the files he was working on and pointed it at me.“Do you see this paper that looks ordinary, it can buy you, your brother, and all that your parents left behind for you.”He returned the paper
“I am going to end up like my stupid father?” I repeated what he said to myself in my head. But is my father stupid?Of course not. My father was a genius. He was such a genius decades after his death, people are looking for the paper he wrote. Come what may, I am going to get my hands on that paper so I could prove to that old man that he was wrong about my dad.Stupid old man!“How can he say I will end up like my dad? Whatever that means, I won’t end up like my dad,” I muttered to myself.What he said seemed to mean more than what I heard. But I was so engrossed with getting to the police station on time before they found out what I was hiding on their own. That could make them not trust me.Does Mr. Edwards even have a faint idea of what happened already? Damn!Whoever gave him the information might have some evid
I could hear murmuring all around the room as I walked out of Steve’s office earlier but I paid no attention to any. They had the right to murmur. I have been a frequent visitor to the station lately.I know Sophia was running after me. I could hear her footsteps thumping lightly on the floor as she runs after me. But I kept moving. Tears wear already forming around my eyes and any little word from my mouth make them come pouring out.I wanted to avoid that, especially so I keep moving as fast as my legs could carry me. The moment I got out I wasted no time stopping a taxi.“Debby please wait!” came her voice calling out to me but she was too late. I was already seated in the taxi.The taxi driver was a young, handsome man of Africa American descent, well-built. He is the type that likes flirting with their customers but I don’t have much time. He kept talking and teasing me.
Sophia must have anticipated everything I was doing. She was unmoved, maybe playing along to avoid creating a public scene. I took her hand and said, “I have a perfect place to give you a special treat!” I lied. No one knew what was going on except the two of us. Quickly, we walked out of the cafeteria hand in hand. In about a minute and a few seconds, we were right in the bunk room. I shut the door securely behind us to avoid anyone barging on us because I know we will quarrel, the first since we met. I was waiting for her to explain herself but she was just looking at me. I wasn’t ready to say anything either so I allowed the silence to prevail. I have nowhere to go in the meantime. Lucky for me, I have been excused from the ongoing surgery already. I folded my hands across my chest watching her. She chuckled and shook her head almost at the same time.
Sophia got the upper hand with what she just said. I became timid all of a sudden, tamed by the thought of Leo being a murderer, not just a thief.“Since you are the only person that has had a close encounter with him, the police wanted to invite you over to see what they could get off you. I was there not as your lawyer but as your friend to persuade Officer Steve to leave you out of it and I will help them as much as I could,” Sophia ended her words.I wanted to ask her what got her in between Officer Steve’s legs and if that was all she went there to do but my mouth was already too heavy to utter any word.She seemed to have read my mind. She said, “I discovered he had eyes on me. That was why I took advantage of it and sat where you saw my work on his emotions. Things we do for a friend, the same friend that is judging me right now,” she finishes and off she went out of the room.
When you need help desperately, it makes you vulnerable. That’s exactly what I am feeling right now. I might be causing a problem for myself by seeking to solve the current problem I have using Joan as a means.But what do you expect me to do? Just fold my hands and do nothing when all the walls around me are tumbling down already? Hell no!Joan definitely knows things that might help me. I don’t care if she has been a foe from school days. So I gave her the best possible attention that I can.But instead of speaking further, she was just looking. I thought I was the one she was looking at until I discovered that she was not looking at me at all.“I think you have been summoned again,” she said.“Summoned? By who?”Signaling with her head at the oncoming guy behind me, she said, “Look behind you.”
In my rage I turned to the wall, strategizing on how to react. I could still hear them arguing but I could not make out what they were saying because my mind was preoccupied with different thoughts.I don’t understand why they both are trying to ridicule me.Just when I turned to give them a piece of myself, Kathy was no longer where she was earlier. I didn’t notice her walking out of the room so I was surprised.I turned to the door and was quick enough to catch her back as she walked out in a rage, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.“You are lucky you got out on time,” I said to myself.I could, to an extent tolerate Lucas's excesses because he is a Halloway, my boss. But Kathy? Hell no. whoever she thinks she makes no difference to me.I returned to Lucas who was fuming with rage. It was as if he wanted to burst. Though
“Jakes cannot be moving like that,” I thought. “This must be an intruder.”I stopped the shower to listen, and the person that opened the door also seemed to stop moving. My heart skipped several beats, wondering who it could be that is walking into my room.“Could it be Bale? Maybe he has come back to finish what Sebastian could not allow him to finish. Unfortunately for me, Sebastian is not here to defend me today.”A thousand and one thoughts were flashing through my mind. If I had listened to Walter, I wouldn’t be home by today. But where do I go? Sophia’s house is already out until I know what is truly going on. I could not reach Sebastian, my defender.“Oh my God! I would have gone to my former hospital to spend the night there with whoever was on the night shift. Or maybe go to the medical director’s house since he was a very good fri