The Final Day (Part 2)

On arrival at the airport, they both hurried towards the Customs unit. Seun was almost running while Gloria tried to keep up with him. She had been with him for 3 years but had never seen him so excited and impatient about anything before. They got to the desk just under a sign which read “CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT” hanging from the ceiling. Seun was panting as he tried to explain why he was there.  He told the uniformed lady sitting at the desk about a Mr Patrick who had called him. She picked up her desk phone, dialled a number and inquired about this appointment. After a few seconds pf speaking in a hushed tone, she replaced the receiver and told them to follow her. She went in through a door behind her, and they were in a dimly lit passage way. They walked about ten feet before they turned right and stepped into a room. The room was deserted but for the table and a few chairs. The uniformed lady told them to sit down and wait for Mr Patrick. Seun and Gloria exchanged glances, and then he asked the lady why they were waiting. She told them not to worry, and left.

Seun was getting more impatient than ever after he had waited 30 minutes and yet they hadn’t attended to them yet. He was pacing, and fuming almost. Gloria was getting worried, as well. She wondered what they could be waiting for. Even by Nigerian standards, this was too much of a wait.

“Do you think something is wrong?” she asked Seun

“What could possibly go wrong?” he replied. “They were the ones who told me to hurry over here so that the charges for clearing the parcels will not increase”

“But Seun, do you really mean it when you say you don’t know who sent you the parcels?”

He stopped pacing and looked at her. “I’m being totally honest with you, Gloria. I have no idea. But God works in mysterious ways dear. And I’m not about to have second thoughts about this”

“Hmm, I’m not saying you should. It’s just strange, that’s all”

“Yes dear. God is strange.” He said, looking at the ceiling, maybe having a silent communion with the Most High.

Just then, a man in a suit walked into the room, and with him were two officers, with guns.

“Hello.” He said, smiling and looked at Seun. “You must be Mr Alako.” He shook Seun’s hand strongly, then he looked at Gloria and said “This must be your wife”

Seun and Gloria said the “No” together. The man looked at them both and introduced himself as Mr Patrick; then he went on to explain that he just had to ask them a few questions before they proceeded with claiming the parcels. Seun was confused. What questions did they need to be asked? Let them just claim their property and get the hell out of there!

“Mr Alako, or can I call you Seun?”

Seun nodded.

“How long have you been dealing with illegal drugs?”

Seun’s eyes widened. “Wh…WHAT?!” he exclaimed.

“I asked you a question. You cannot reply a question with a question, Mr Alako.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about” Seun told him. He was quite bemused. Gloria just looked at both of them, mouth agape.

Mr Patrick, observed them for a few seconds, sighed and folded his hands. He had surely been through cases of denial like this before, but at the end of it all they were always guilty.

“Seun, we found five kilograms of cocaine in one of those parcels. Very well hidden, and impossible to find by our guys. But we had our dogs sniff at it, and they found it...”

Seun was aghast. He wanted to just vanish from this place. His world was spinning with him sitting at that the centre of it. They were speaking but he wasn’t hearing them. He clenched his fists…then stumped them on the table as he got on his feet and yelled!

“FUCK THIS! I WILL NOT BE FRAMED FOR SOMETHING I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT!”

The two armed officers standing just by the door tightened their grips on their weapons and became more alert. The frown on their faces was menacing. Gloria was startled by Seun’s outburst. She was confused more than ever. What could be happening? How had she gotten herself into such a situation? She was rubbing her palms together and pleading to God to save her from this.

“Calm down, Mr Alako. There is no need to raise your voice” Mr Patrick was still sitting; hands still folded and with the calmest of looks on his face.

“HOW CAN I NOT RAISE MY VOICE WHEN YOU’RE TELLING ME THIS?” Seun paused…

Mr Patrick, let me tell you the truth. I know nothing about those parcels. I have nobody living in the UK who could have sent those things. You were the one who called me, and sent me the pictures. I don’t know how this has happened but we live in a fucked up world so I guess shit which shouldn’t have, must have happened. Please, just allow me to go and I will be on my way right this very minute and pretend all this never happened.”

Mr Patrick smiled again, then he shook his head and leaned on the table with his arms.

“There is no way we can let you leave. This is an interrogation, and we are not done yet. Please, Seun, Sit down and let us finish. You…”

“I SHOULD SIT DOWN?” Seun interrupted him, “WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I SIT DOWN WHEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS. I CAN’T!”

Seun glanced at Gloria, and in that moment, she saw all the wrath of the world in his eyes.

“Gloria, let’s go” he told her and made to leave. Just as he reached the door one of the officers stood in his way and ordered him to go back to his seat. Gloria stood just three feet away, observing. Mr Patrick still sat down, arms still folded, and chuckling. At that moment…Seun clenched his fists again. He was angry beyond words. He’d had a very bad day, and now these morons were trying to be the icing on a cake that was his miserable life.

“Get out of my way, you idiot. Or I’m going to push you out” Seun spat out those words, right in the officers face. 

“Seun please, just sit down and answer the questions. I’m sure they’ll let us go when they are through with us. Please…”

“Listen to the woman, Mr Alako. Do as she says” Mr Patrick said.

“SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!  SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTHS. I AM NOT GOING TO STAY HERE AND BE REDUCED TO THE LEVEL OF A COMMON CRIMINAL. IF YOU WANT TO ARREST ME, I AM SURE YOU KNOW MY ADDRESS.”

With that, he turned and pushed the Officer standing in his way. The uniformed man hit his back against the door, and in that same moment…pulled the trigger on his rifle. A single shot was heard. The smell of gunfire filled the air. Mr Patrick jumped from where he sat and shot a frightened look at the officer. Gloria screamed, her shrill voice rent the air and her hands were raised up.

Seun staggered a bit, his hands clutching his abdomen. The pain was beyond explanation. He had never been shot before, had never experienced such pain before. He felt the warm trickle of his blood as it spilled from the gaping wound. He took one last look at his shooter, and fell to the ground.

He was dead before Gloria hurried to kneel beside him.

THE END.

The Terrible Five Days

My story began on Monday.

It was the first day of the week. My alarm rang at 5:30. I was being my usual lazy self and refused to get up from the bed. My body felt too heavy, and I didn’t have the strength of mind to lift my being up from where it comfortably lay. I snoozed the alarm ad closed my eyes. Just a few more minutes, please, I begged no one in particular. Maybe I was speaking to the alarm clock.

The next time I heard the alarm it was 6:30 am. The speed at which I threw myself out of that bed and jumped in the bathroom, showered, dressed up and got ready for work all before 7:00am is still a mystery to me till this day. I was in my car and driving to work. Well, I was driving until I got to the inevitable traffic congestion at Richard Mansel Drive, which was just five minutes away from my office if the traffic wasn’t so awful. I was late already, and the idiotic traffic warden whose job it was to direct the free flow of vehicles was doing very poorly. I cursed and sighed and cursed again. By the time I had manoeuvred through that quagmire of machine and carbon mono-oxide, the time was 8:!5.

I sped past cars and pedestrians as I drove into the office complex and found an empty spot to park my Accord. My Accord grumbled a bit before its engine finally quenched. It needed maintenance, but I had no money for that yet. I rushed into the 8 storey building that was Omega Oil Servicing Co. and took the elevator to the fifth floor. During the elevator ride, I brought my tie out from my pocket and knotted it as best as I could before I arrived at my floor. A few eyes observed me as I did this but I didn’t care about them. I was more concerned about the scornful look I was expecting to see on Mr Odimuya’s face as I stepped into the Senior Staff meeting in his office.

Mr Odimuya was smiling when he saw me. He beamed even and offered me a “Hello, James. We have been expecting you.” His grin was quite unusual. His teeth glistened more than it should. He was in a grey suit with a red tie. Mr Odimuya never wore red ties. But then I got to realize that he did that for the rest of the week, because to him, red signified love (not danger?) and we were in a season of love. Then I remembered that Valentine’s day was coming up on Thursday. So I wasn’t getting a tongue lashing for being late today, I guess. I allowed myself a smile of my own as I sat down in a vacant seat and enjoyed the rest of the morning.

The valentine talk filled my ears from all lips at work that morning. I couldn’t get enough of it. And just as I sat down in my office minding my own business, then walks in Susan. She was one colleague I’d known for three years and have never liked. Reason being that she loved to talk - a lot - about nothing that made much interest to me.

“so who’s your lucky girl this Thursday, Jamie?” she asked even without bothering to exchange pleasantries.

I stopped what I was doing, and looked at her. We exchanged that look for a few seconds before I looked back at my PC and continued typing.

“Hey, come on… don’t go all blank on me like that. You’re a cute guy. You’re not gay…well if you are I wouldn’t know, and I don’t really care though, maybe I would find it funny and look at you in a certain way from now on. But that’s all crap, we both know you aren’t, and that means you love to stick it in a vajayjay. So whose is it gonna be on Thursday, Jamie?”

Usually, I don’t get angry at work. I’m the cool, calm, collected guy who’s always polite to everybody and likes to move along with my colleagues. I do not search for the troubles of others, and pray all the time that theirs would never find me. But at that very moment, when Susan had just finished speaking and was looking at me in that very disgusting way that she does, I stood up…and just like it was in slow motion, I hit her across the face with the back of my hand. Susan spun and hit the wall first before falling to the ground…and stayed there, unmoving.

***********

The next day was Tuesday. It was 9:15am and I lay in my bed looking at the ceiling. I had been suspended for a week, without pay. It was the most sickening thing that 2013 had thrown at me yet. Susan had survived my back-hand slap. Well, it was more than a slap, since she actually fainted. She lost consciousness for almost five minutes. I had stood there for a minute or so, first confused, thinking she was faking it, and then bending over her to check her pulse, maybe even considering CPR. A lot of junk went through my head at that moment…before I reached for my phone and called the office medics.

When Mr Odimuya heard of my actions, he called me to his office to hear what I had to say. No matter what I had said, having such physical confrontations in the office usually led to being sacked. My whole existence was shivering as I stood before Mr Odimuya. He was with a calmness I had never seen of him before, in grey suit and red tie, glasses sparkling in the bright light above us, and telling me that i was to be suspended. I could have jubilated, until he mentioned the part that I wasn’t going to get paid for the period I would be absent and my salary could be slashed as more punishment.

Susan deserved what she got though, I told myself as I lay there, thinking about my life. Still, it was wrong to have hit her. But the pain and anger all mushed into one within me had erupted that Monday morning. I gritted my teeth and wondered how I was going to survive with a slashed salary. If only Susan had stayed at her damned desk instead of coming to find out who I would be ‘painting the town red’ with on Valentine’s day. And even when I thought about it, there was no body I had in mind of going out with on Thursday; and especially not now that I didn’t have any money for such.

By Wednesday, I had become extremely restless. I couldn’t stay around the house an