11– Get Genesis

I could see their big white jet. I could see them drinking and laughing in their jet. I looked at Yoké.

"You sure about this?" He asked me.

I took a deep breath and nodded. He led the way, and I walked behind him. We got to the jet, and it took the men a while to notice us standing there.

They all looked shocked as they stepped out of the jet one after another.

"Genesis?" One of them asked, he was the tallest and had brown hair. They were dressed so funny.

Their skin was as light as mine. Their hair were different colours. One's hair was brown, the other blonde and the other black.

"Hi..." I spoke.

"You are alive?" The tall one asked me, brown hair.

I nodded.

"Those people told me that you left from here... He..." He looked at Yoké. "You were there. Why didn't you tell us she's alive?"

"It's not his fault." I said.

"Oh my, you've been here all by yourself surrounded by all these weird people." The tall one said. "Are you even okay? You've lost so much weight."

He put the back of his hand to my forehead and left it there for a while and then he suddenly hugged me. "I'm so glad you are alive."

Why was he just hugging me like this? What if the villagers came back and saw us like this?

I pushed him off me and then looked at Yoké. Yoké just looked at the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked me. "Why aren't you happy to see us?"

"Can you please take me to my family? I would like to see them once." I told them.

The tall one looked confused. He exchanged looks with the other men.

"Genesis," he said. "Don't you remember me?"

I shook my head slowly.

"What?" He looked thrown aback.

"I'm captain Brian O'Ryan." The blonde head said and took off his cap. "We've been looking for you for so long."

"I'm Malcomore Smith. Your father will be so happy to see you." The black head said and also removed his cap.

The brown head, the tallest, spoke. "I'm Francis, your cousin."

Brian and Malcomore were holding their hats to their chests. That was so weird.

"Ma'am, you are alive..." Brian said.

"She's alive alright, stop repeating it." Malcomore told him.

"She looks so..." Brian murmured the rest of the words so I didn't hear them.

Malcomore elbowed Brian.

"I'm sorry but I do not remember any of you. Can you please take me to my family?"

"I am family." Francis said. "I am your father's brother's child. We lived in the same house even, before you decided to get your own apartment."

"Where is my father and mother?" I asked him.

"Back home."

"Home where?"

"Duran. Genesis you really need to go home and get help. Let's go. You could be sick already. You're even barefoot, look at you."

"I'm fine but I would like to see my family."

"Shall we then?" Francis asked me. He stepped aside so that I could get in the jet.

I turned towards Yoké and took his hand and when I was about to put my foot on the step Francis stopped me.

"Where are you taking this guy?"

"He is coming with me to see my family and then we will come back."

Francis' mouth fell open.

"Are you losing your mind?" He asked me.

How could he ask me that?

"You can't bring this... this... jungle man to Duran! Are you crazy? Where will he stay?"

"He is not a jungle man, besides we won't stay, we will just see my family."

"She's lost it." Francis held his head and took a step back. "So what? You got yourself a boyfriend here too?"

"Sir," Brian said to him. "It's clear that she has lost her memory. That is why she is behaving like this. It’s probably due to a concussion due to the plane crash."

"Explains it." Francis said.

I didn't like the way they were all treating me. They were so mean.

"Malcomore please explain to her. I don't seem to have the patience." Francis said. "What a disappointment, the whole country is speaking about her but look, she seems to have lost all civilization. How ironic for a teacher."

"Madam," Malcomore began. "The whole of Duran would be shocked to see your return. The newspapers reported you dead already a few days after the plane crash. We have to go now, and you cannot take that... that man with you."

"We won't stay-"

"You can't not stay, madam." Brian told me. "You belong in Duran. You were born and raised in Duran. You are not a... villager."

"You really want to come back to this worm-hole?" Francis asked me. "When you were back home you use to have a pedicure and manicure every second week. Here you are walking barefoot. Did you see the living conditions? The hut of that so-called chief. How does someone even breathe well in there?"

"The hut is beautiful and clean. Gamu cleans it every morning." I told Francis.

"And who in world is Gamu?" Francis looked exasperated.

"She's my-"

"I don't give a damn what a Gamu is or who a Gamu are. My problem is that this character from Jungle Book cannot come with us. He doesn't even own a birth certificate."

"Then I will not come with you. It's fine. You can leave." I told them firmly.

"Do you want to die back here just because of this nobody?" Francis asked me.

"Madam, we can't leave you back here. Your father would kill us." Brian said. "And we can't take him because he would need some identification, which I'm guessing he doesn't have."

"Yoké let's go." I said and took his hand. We were about to turn to leave but then Francis jerked me back by my hand.

"Hey!" Yoké shouted at him. "Don't they teach you in your country to never touch a woman?"

"Who in the hell are you?" Francis asked him. "Just because Jane taught Tarzan how to speak English that didn't make him any less of a caveman."

"I'm not a caveman." Yoké told him. "I'm a teacher. I'm a very respected man in this village."

"Oh, sorry teacher. Excuse me for my understatement. Just because Genesis taught you how to speak English that doesn't make you any less of an imbecile."

"I've never seen such people who do not know how to speak! Yoké let's go."

"You are not going anywhere except in this jet and back home." Francis said grabbing my arm. "Gentleman, take her by force. I don't care if she gets to Duran without an arm or leg. Do what you must. I can't keep dragging myself in places like this each time just to please my uncle."

"She said she's not going, so leave her alone." Yoké told Francis.

Francis shoved Yoké at that instant. "You stay out of it, caveman! "

Brian grabbed me by my arm and Yoké grabbed the other one.

"Let me go!" I started kicking at Brian.

Malcomore just stood next to the opened door of the jet and waited.

"Brian, you can't even beat a cave dweller at tug of war? You eat healthier than him." Francis said and tried to intervene.

Yoké suddenly punched him in his face. Brian then let go of me and stared at Francis in shock.

Yoké grabbed my hand, and we started running.

"Sir, are you okay?" I heard Malcomore ask him.

"Forget about me, get Genesis!" Francis yelled at them.

Brian and Malcomore started after us. I held onto Yoké's hand tightly and we ran into the forest.

We kept running, we could hear them shouting and calling after us.

Yoké then halted. I also stopped. My heart was beating fast, I was scared.

"Why are we stopping Yoké? They are getting close."

"Come here."

He took me behind a tree, and we crouched down beside it.

"Shh..." he told me.

I sat still, in his arms. We were breathing heavily. My chest was burning. I heard their footsteps come close. I heard them panting. I held my breath.

"Brian let it be. We won't find them." I heard Malcomore. His voice sounded like it was getting closer to the tree where we were hiding behind.

"We have to find her." Brian said.

"This is their village. They have caves and hideouts in every corner. We will never find them. We might even end up getting lost ourselves. Do you think that good-for-nothing Francis will come looking for us?"

"You are right. Let's just rest for a while here and then we will run back and say they fell over a cliff or something."

Malcomore laughed, and as he laughed, he coughed bad. "He will never believe us."

I could feel that they were just sitting on the other side of the tree we were at.

"Jokes aside Malcom," Brian started. "I know that Francis just wants to bring the boss, madam Genesis' dead body. He just wants to confirm her death. So even if Genesis comes with us, she won't get to Duran alive."

"I know Brian. You should have seen his face when that prehistoric human told us that she left the village. He didn't want us to find her. And as long as she's here, she'll remain alive. That's why he reported her dead when we reported seeing the plane. If you hadn't mentioned that we only saw 7 people in the plane, they would have all forgotten about madam by now."

"Yeah. The man has been fighting for that chair for a long time now."

Malcomore laughed. "The boss is not even dead yet. He is forgetting to eliminate the king first before going for the knight."

"Plus the queen is also there."

"Nah, Mrs. Roseburg is not throne hungry. She just wants the companies to keep doing well."

"She doesn't know that the companies will always be in danger with that lion roaming around. Her so called nephew." Brian scoffed.

I didn't understand what they were going on about. Companies, lions and thrones... and why were they saying that Francis wants to bring my dead body to the boss? Who was the boss?

"Rich people..." I heard Malcomore sigh.

"With rich problems." Brian added.

"Do you have a cigarette?"

"I think I left it in the jet."

Malcomore groaned. "Let's go now. Don't forget to pant loudly when we get there. Don't just speak, stutter so that it looks realistic."

"I know. I am paid to pretend."

They started laughing. I could hear them struggle to stand up and then walk away slowly.

"That was close." Yoké said once their footsteps completely disappeared.

"I'm so sorry. Sorry for getting us into this mess-"

Yoké put his finger to my lip. "Don't apologize. You didn't know this was going to happen. Just promise me that you will never leave me. You give me purpose and reason to wake up every morning. If you go, I don't know what I will do here all alone."

"Shh Yoké." I told him. "I will never leave you. Never. You are my world. I can't get into another world without you. What will I do there?"

"I'm scared Genesis. I was acting strong saying that I'm prepared for your departure but I'm not. I will never be." Yoké shook his head. "I don't want you to leave me too."

"I have nothing to leave you for my love. You are all I know."

I saw a tear fall down his cheek. It was the first time I was seeing him cry. It broke my heart. I kneeled in front of him and wiped his tear.

"Yoké, I will never leave you. You are my love's potion. You are my Imagbo Fure."

He smiled and looked away. "That's really sweet of you, teacher."

"What?" I smiled. "You are the teacher."

"Turns out you are a teacher too. Didn't you hear France or whatever his name was?"

"OH... So, I taught children? Like you?"

"Maybe... By the way, do you know that it's night time already?"

I looked around, it was dark.

"Where are we sleeping tonight?"

"We?" I asked him laughing.

"I'm supposed to take care of you, I don't have a choice." He shrugged.

"Really funny." I said. "Here's the plan. You will take me back to the cave, and then you will go back to your hut. See you tomorrow morning."

"I don't think so. Those men will probably leave tomorrow morning if not tonight, which means things will get back to normal and we will start hiding from Abu again. So, I don't know when next I will have such an opportunity to hold you close to me." He pulled me into his arms, and he held me tight.

We sighed simultaneously, and then we laughed at the coincidence.

"Today was a long day..." I said.

"Really."

"I found out that my name is Genesis and that I'm a teacher. I also found out that I belong to a village filled with people who do not know how to speak or behave. I don't ever want to go there."

Yoké didn't respond. I looked up at him and his eyes were closed. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes too. Just there in his arms, I felt safe. I felt at peace.