Friday
I just got back from work that afternoon, extremely tired. Needing
to rest and relax my nerves. I got in the shower first and let the cold water
wash away the stress of the day from my body and soul. I stood there for quite
a while. I didn’t want to leave. But it wasn’t a bath-tub...where you could fall
asleep in and even drown if you were a careless mofo. I grudgingly turned off
the shower and grabbed a towel to clean up my wet body. I was hungry like a
starving Somali child. I grubbed on what I had left over in the fridge, drank a
cup of juice and headed straight to bed. I checked the clock on my phone to
know the time and set the alarm to wake me up by 7:00PM so I could go drink the
rest of the day out with a few pals. Just as I lay my weary head on the pillow
and closed my eyes...the call came in. My phone rang. It was beside me there on
the bed but I refused to pick it. But I
figured it could be somebody important, so i checked the missed call and found
out it was just another strange number. I dropped the phone on the bed and
closed my eyes. And just as I began to drift...the phone started ringing once
more. i cursed the devil. I reached for the phone, picked it up and answered
the call. It was a female voice at the other end. She asked if it was i on the
line...I said yes. I asked who she was. She said I wouldn’t know her. Then I
asked her what she wanted. She said she wanted to see me. I wondered who it
could be, wanting to see me. I wanted to question her further but i was too
tired to think of the right questions. I just went on to arrange the time and
place. We’d meet later that evening, at a Big-Shot bar. It was not a place for
small children to hang out, I remember. So this lady must be one of substance. I
was still wondering what it was that she wanted to see me about when I dived
into the dark abyss that is deep slumber.
My alarm woke me up at 7 o’clock exactly. I grumbled and got off the bed to go wash my
face in the bathroom. Then I freshened up and put on jean trousers, a Polo
shirt and Sebago footwear. I got out my apartment feeling all fly and ready to
have much fun that night until the earliest hours of tomorrow. I called a
cabbie and told him to take me to the bar. I had never been to the bar before
and I didn’t know exactly how to get in there. I was hoping my mystery lady
would be there waiting. I dialled the number she’d called me with. She told me she
was already there waiting. I told her I was almost there. She asked if I was
driving and I told her yes. Well, fcuk it. She didn’t have to know I was
car-less. A few minutes later I was walking towards the bar, with two ‘don’t
mess with me, punk’ type of bouncers standing at the entrance and wiping folks
with that Garett metal detecting machine. I walked up to them, a mean look on my
face and made to enter like I was a regular at the place. One of them put this
massive arm in front of me and returned my mean look with a meaner one of his. My
mean look disappeared quickly and I was all smiling and telling them that I’m
being expected there. By who? The other one asked...his voice all scruffy and
coarse. I didn’t know my mystery lady’s name yet. But I loved surprises and
wanted to see who she was when I looked upon her. I called her to let her know
the guards wouldn’t let me in. I noticed Mr Mean-Look had a scowl on his face
when I called them guards. Mr Scruff-voice just stared at me like he wanted to
eat me. She told me to hand the phone over to them. I gave the phone to Mr Scruff-voice
and he listened for a few seconds then grunted his approval, held my phone in
his hand, staring at it like he was looking at the greatest invention ever made
by man. He handed it over to me and nodded at me to go in. I just grinned at
both of them and made my way in, leaving the two suckers to sulk till eternity.
The place was dark, but for the dimmed lights and the other
colourful ones that every bar or night club usually had. I didn't know exactly
where to find her...the place was already bubbling with slow music and the
usual banter and laughter that Friday evenings were made of. I walked up to the
bar and tried to order the cheapest drink they had there. While I sat there
sipping it slowly, I scanned the place for her. I checked all the tables. There
were no tables of a lady sitting lonely and waiting. It was either guys sitting
and drinking or a dude sitting with a lady. I asked the bar attendant if there
were any VIP rooms in the place. He still had that look of disgust on his face,
like I was the only guy that had bought the cheapest drink from that bar for
the whole year or something. He replied and told me there were VIP rooms, but
none of the VIPs had come that evening. So if she wasn’t sitting at a table in
the general section and was not in VIP, where the feck was she?
Just then, a lady walked into the bar. I observed this lady
as she walked. And I decided within myself that she wasn’t the one. This lady
was too young to be my Mystery Caller. But just as I sat there, slowly sipping
my expensive cheap drink...this young lady walked up to the bar and sat just
beside me. I pretended to be busy with my phone, but I felt her eyes on me. Then
when she ordered a bottle of one of the most expensive drinks they had
there...i looked at her for two reasons. One was to gaze upon this lady who had
ordered a bottle of such an expensive drink and wondering why the heck she
would do such a thing, and the other reason was because I recognized her voice.
It was my mystery caller alright.
“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting” she finally said.
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