Boomerang 3

I lowered my head and we locked lips. I tried to pull away but she pulled me in the more. I smiled and disengaged myself from her hold.

She looked displeased, "Why did you stop?"

"Ma'am! I don't think this is right", I told her with confidence.

"Why? I have waited and longed for this moment. Or are you the 21st century Joseph who is scared of ......"

"Potiphar,I presume", Chief chipped in as he stepped in unannounced and applauded the witnessed performance.

"Kate Winslet or Jennifer Aniston? I see you make a fine love scene actress", he continued.

"Chief, I.........", I was cut short by a way of his hand.

His eyes burned with fury, he looked at her with utter disdain. "A dog will always remain a dog", he sneered and spat on her face then walked out on us.

Confusion was the only thing I could put my hands on. Madam walked away too and I was left to anticipate what would happen next.

The silent treatment had been employed. Everybody in the house said little or nothing. It was the Ramadan period, Chief and his wife had been wearing a lot of the northern attire probably to felicitate with them and win their support. It was a change that crept in. I had waited for hell to let itself loose since the incident but I was left to feed on my imaginations.
Chief traveled the previous day without me to Sokoto for an engagement.

I sat at my usual spot with Shehu. We both seemed to be occupied with our thoughts. Silence is golden.
I felt a sensation down my thighs, I slipped my fingers in my pocket and brought my phone. It was Geraldine,Chief's wife. I punched the receive key.

"There was a robbery at the shop. Please come and pick me up",she told me.

I didn't need to ask further questions. I drove out without hesitation in the Lexus SUV to pick her up.
The shop was a mess. Blood drew shapes that it deemed fit on the floor. Her driver and two other customers had been shot. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

I drove in silence for a while and thought maybe I was being mean. "I hope you are alright?", I tried to change. She nodded.

We arrived home in good time. She strutted upstairs to relax and relieve herself of the day's event.
I just thought about what it would have meant to Chief if she had been killed. Nothing! Chief knew how to get his women and he always felt with the money, getting any woman was possible. Most women love wealth, pampering and power. Chief had all those weapons in his arsenal.

My phone beeped to reveal a message

'Please could you come upstairs just for few seconds?', it was from madam.

She was really bent on making me a Joseph in Potiphar's mansion. The dust raised by our initial meddling was yet to disperse. I ignored the text and glued my gaze to the television. My Techno phantom buzzed three more times with the same text then a call came through from her. I looked at the phone and slided it back into my pocket.

"I don't mean any harm, all I need is few minutes of your time", she startled me in her demi-goddess pose. Her arms leaned with grace on the verandah of the upper floor.

I stood up with an ounce of reluctance dragging my feet then climbed the stairs.

"Come in! I don't bite", she urged me to come into her room. I walked in like a zombie. Sleeping in a room like her's was likened to sleeping in El dorado. Chandelier lights, a roman king-sized bed covered with pink bed sheets and animal fur duvet, it was perfect for the rainy season. Her dressing table arrayed different bottles of cologne and beauty products.

"Sit!", she tapped her palms on the bed.

"I prefer the couch", I sat on the couch adjacent the dressing mirror.

"I know things have been awkward since the previous incident but I want you to be free around you. You can also throw the Madam tag, please call me Geraldine", she told me.

Haaaa! Madam! It seems you are planning on getting me fired", I almost screamed.

She chuckled. "Tom, I don't mean any harm. I just want you to be free around me"

"I am free around you. It seems you don't get it, you are my boss's wife and I ought to give you that respect", I explained. "You are beautiful and a woman that any man would love to have but you belong to someone",I tried to make her understand.

She smiled. "You mean I am someone's property that was bought so as to settle a long standing debt? That is really what I am?"

"I never meant that! I never said so!", I cried.

"I know but that's what I am. I am the property that was used to pay-off for a long standing debt that my old father owed him. He had threatened to destroy the entire family if I was not given to him", she sighed.

"I just need someone to talk to. I live in hell", she continued then moved to the draped flowered curtains to cover them. She walked like a goddess towards me and dropped her house coat to the floor. She was as bare as Eve in the garden of Eden. She stared at me with teary eyes. Her fair skin had red marks of whips all over.

I looked away then quickly covered her up.

"Those hoodlums did this to you?", I asked in bewilderment. She smiled despite her tear-stained cheeks and shook her head.

"Who then?"

"Chief!", she whimpered. "I get it often. When I refuse him sex or act against his desires", she cried.

"This is callousness!", I drew her into my arms as her sobs convulsed through her body.


 "The story of beauty and the beast does not happen often, you know.... I feel so lonely. Money is not everything, the age difference between us is sickening too",she sniffed

Compassion stirred up in my heart for her.

"I can't marry you or have any form sexual relations with you. I am like a sojourner who must not look at distractions, else he 'd miss his focus but what can I do for you", I inquired.

"Help me elope!"

It struck like thunder. She had to be kidding. Help her elope? Chief would kill me.

"Its too huge a thing to ask besides he might go after you family too", I replied.

"Its the only way I can leave this misery behind or else I would be tempted to find happiness by having my head hanged against a rope..... I am tired of all this",she said to me with teary-eyes.

"Hmmmmm! This is gross, I need time to think about this", I muttered and exhaled.


*************************

Money takes you places. Chief had been nominated for an award by a top national daily. We had flew in from Lagos to Abuja that evening.

He relaxed on a reclining sofa with his pot belly playing hide and seek to the rhythm of his breathing. He sipped from his glass as he awaited his 'escorts'. Along the corridors of power and among the mighty men, contracted prostitutes are referred to as' escorts'.

His sight disgusted me. A man who preached peace according to the belief of Ghandi, hands out his philanthropic hand to the poor then mauls his wife behind closed doors.

"Hey! Tony, the day is still young. It seems we came in a bit too early. Let's play a game of chess", he invited me to a game.

Few minutes through the game and four of my pawns had gone down. Re-strategize! Re-strategize! That was all my alter ego yelled at me. Good thought! I clinched his knights,rooks and queen. His king was in distress. He kept trying to change his playing pattern to save his endangered king.

Two steps! .....and his empire crumbled like rubble.

"Good game for you and a bad one for me", Chief conceded defeat.

"Yes boss!", I relished my victory.

His phone rang. "Tom, excuse me while I receive a call", I heard him say.

Few steps away was alright, I thought.

 The lights went off. The entire house was in a black out, a deadening silence took a stroll around the house, a dark sinister smell replaced the ambient one.

I heard Chief yell, "Tom! Tom!" Yet silence filled the atmosphere. The sound of a metal hit something that sounded like bones. They cracked and Chief let out a howl. Sounds of muffled speech soon replaced the howl.

The fluorescent light flickered and the lights came on. Chief sat with his legs and hands tied to a steel chair. He had large balls of sweat all over his face and his mouth sealed with a black cello tape.

I grabbed a chair and sat right across my boss. Chief's eyes widened in confusion and surprise. His eyebrows drew the right arc to describe what he felt.

I brought out a pack of St. Moritz from my pocket, picked a stick and placed it properly between my lips. A flicker of my lighter sent the stick burning. I unstrapped the tape from his mouth.

"Tom! What's going on?", his fear riddled voice asked.

A mischievous grin danced on my features. "Isn't it obvious that the game is over?", I retorted.
"Your king was defeated meaning your pay back time is now.... Do you remember what I said about men who can't be bought, negotiated with or pacified?"

He nodded.

'I belong to that wolf pack", I blurted and moved to the window to have a good survey of the environment.

"Tom! Please, I have done nothing wrong to you. Don't hurt me, I am your boss."

I swirled and landed a punch below his nose.

"Boss, my feet! Do you remember the Adesanya 4?", I yelled at me.

"T...t...t..they are dead", he stuttered.

"So, you thought monster! So you thought but its pay back time. Olufemi Adesanya the son of Gbenga Adesanya still lives", I jerked him by the collar and spat in his face.

He looked stunned. "I...I...I am sorry. It was the devil"

I sighed. "Your greed for wealth made you massacre a whole family. Your sorcerers are fake, they should have told you that you had your doom as a body guard"

"Tom, please forgive me", he pleaded.

"You have caused people a lot of pain. Its needful that you go and meet all those you have hurt and apologize... I am only here as a forerunner to hasten the journey for you",I said gently.

"For the Adesanya's... Good night,Chief", I whispered.

I uncorked the canister, threw it on the floor and scampered out of the room. I closed the glass door and watched him struggle for air as the poisonous air took the place of oxygen in his lungs.

The gateman was a moron. He 'd never earn a pass mark in the area of security conciousness. I drove to the gate and honked. He opened the gate with a smile and even bid me farewell. Slimy chicken brain!

I drove for hours, driving was the best option. Taking a flight would spring up suspicion that I was not ready for.

The best option was driving down to Lagos and getting across the Seme border. I sped past Okene filled with hope to get to Auchi.
I whistled as I sped down the pot-hole riddled road. I had to rest for a while but I was bent on getting to Auchi first. I dozed then my subconscious reminded me that I was driving.

"Thwack! Thwack!" I slapped myself to get the devil-induced sleep out of my eyes. By now Chief would have been stone dead. It served him right.

My eyes were fully opened now to be wary of the hoodlums who often kidnapped and robbed people on the Lokoja-Okene road. The only distraction one had driving past the ominous road was the fear of the 'takers' and the lush vegetation watching all the drivers as we drove past it.

It came like a thief again. Slow eye-lid closure and head nodding then my droopy eyes fluttered and I was on the Niger bridge. I was supposed to be at Auchi. How in the heavens did I get here? I panicked.
In such a short time! I was here of all places. The Niger bridge!

I heard a large thud and lost control of the steering. The car slided down the bridge in free motion. Another thud and the bridge collapsed in the middle. The other cars in front of me caved into the green Niger river. I opened the car door from inside but it was stuck. My car was sliding down the collapsed bridge. My tremulous hands pulled out a revolver and fired at the car door panel yet the dumb thing won't open. I was doomed and shaky

Thud! I watched my car slide off the bridge into the waiting arms of the river. "Lord,receive me", I muttered.

I jerked up with my pyjamas drenched in my perspiration. My duvet sprawled on the floor. I touched my skin and looked around in fear.

"I always tell you that too much action movies are not good for you. If you want to die, die alone! And if you want to have nightmares, have them alone!", my alter ego Fisayo hissed.

Dreams! Stupid dreams!



THE END