Black Widow - Episode 1

 

@MRS MOJISOLA OLATEJU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU AND YOUR SON, THIS YEAR WILL BE FULL OF GREAT TESTIMONIES INSHA-ALLAH!@PEESAM, I HOPE THE CAKE WILL BE BIG ENOUGH FOR US ALL, LOL, IN ADVANCE SIS!

Shelby checked her wristwatch, it was already some minutes past 12pm, the party would start by 4pm and thankfully she still has enough time to get things ready. The balloons were already blown and left to be tied up . She hoped Michael would be back soon to help her with the rest of things.  Being the only Black in the neighborhood had been really challenging but hopefully, the birthday party they were throwing for her six months old baby would give them the recognition they needed in the suburb.

“Honey, we don’t need these people to like us.” Michael had said to her when they had moved here some weeks back.

She knew that was a lie. The hostile glare she received anytime she took a walk down the road or at the shopping mall was just more than she could handle right now. She needed Tracy to grow up in a friendly environment where she would not be scared of being an African. Michael of course hadn’t seen it as a big deal so she had brilliantly brought up the idea of a birthday party and had invited some of their neighbors. Hopefully, some would show up.

She was tying the last ribbon around one of the balloons when her laptop chimed

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/black-widow

. A quick glance at where the laptop lay and she found Michael’s blue inhaler beside it.

He has forgotten his inhaler. Why did he always do that? She might need to tie a rope around it and attach to his neck one of these days, maybe by so doing; he would never leave it behind again. Probably he was the one who sent a message to her right now-

She clicked the ‘enter’ button on the keyboard but to her surprise, her friend’s face popped up on the Skype messenger. “Hello Nicholas.” She said with a little enthusiasm. He was one of her  friends at the IT department of where she worked.

“Hey Shel, how are you doing girl?”

“I’m good. Whatssup?” She replied, now taking another balloon to her lips.

Nicholas brows were raised. “Wow! Quite a job you get there. What about Michael?”

“He went to the store with Tracy, should be back any minute.” She was tying one end of a green balloon to the end of another. “Where are you at?”

“Well, you know, nothing much, just working as you know, some of us need to work during weekends to keep this place floating.” He said, slouching comfortably .

Shelby smiled. “Your pride will be the end of you one day. So are you coming over?”

“Oh sure! What will I not give for a free food.” He replied. “So have any of your neighbors brought anything yet?”

She shrugged. “No. I think it’s a little early, they will soon start showing up by three thereabouts.”She was sitting down and starring at the screen now.

Nicholas smiled. “I love your courage. Does Michael understand why you are doing this?” He asked.

“Well, I think he does.” She replied and continued. “He hasn’t really been bothered whether our neighbors liked us or not. I believe we need to show the white folks that not all Nigerians are Boko-Harams besides, I believe that Nigerians are the victims. I don’t know why they have to,…” She stopped as Nicholas burst into laughter. She could see his bulging Adam’s apple as he raked with laughter.

“I’m serious Nick. Stop laughing, you have no idea how staying here has been.”

“I’m sorry…sincerely.” He apologized, now smiling. “You guys don’t look like terrorists; I wonder what they would do when they see me. Actually, maybe I should come with my head wrapped in a turban with my beards…” He started laughing again. His head slightly bent as he went  through the phone he held in his hand.

“Don’t you even try it Nick, else, I will be the one to call the cops for you. Staying here for almost five years with my husband, you would have expected me to have gotten used to this but...this East-End just makes things worse and every day the bombing continues back in Nigeria and we all have to suffer for it here. It’s so not fair, what if Tracey grows up…” She stopped as she realized that Nick was no longer paying any attention to her. Instead, his eyes and mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise.

“Nicholas! What happened? Are you okay?”

He stared at her blankly. “D..did you say Michael went to—the store?”

“Yes..yes, that’s right. So?”

“Oh God! This is happening again.” He whimpered.

“What is it Nicholas?” She demanded more curios now.

Nicholas shut his eyes tight and shook his head sorrowfully.

“Nick, for God’s sake, what is it? What has happened to Michael?” Just then she received a video from Nicholas and she played it immediately.

The scene was a bit shaky at first and slightly bent sideways, as if whoever was recording the video was trying not to be caught.  She saw the white men in uniforms, whose faces where a little blur, there  were two of them confronting a man in a familiar T-shirt and Jean.  The sound wasn’t audible enough for her to understand what was going on.   

However, Michael seemed to be protesting against something. He soon spread his arms out, frantically waving some papers  at the uniformed man who held handcuffs in his hand.

Michael, what did you do? Shelby thought to herself, her breathing becoming rapid now.

Michael looked more furious, he seemed not to be complying. He could be stubborn at times,only when he knows his right.

Rose knew what would happen next if he loses his nerves…he would need his inhaler…the inhaler he had left behind… Now, he was searching his pockets and at the same time tapping his chest with the other hand gently, continuously.

She clasped a hand to her mouth as she kept watching…She knew her husband was running out of air…

One of the men, the one that was more built with a double-stubble chin was talking to him.  His cheeks kept bouncing up and down and his brows bumping into each other as he poked his index finger at Michael’s broad chest several times.

Michael  stood-arms akimbo, his eyes were shut,  his head was slightly bent  while beating his lower lip. Just as the man stopped talking, he attempted to walk away and immediately, the other strangled him from behind, with his arms around Michael’s neck. The first joined and together, they pulled Michael to his knees.

While doing this, they laughed…

Michael was pinned down to the ground now, he was lying on the ground, faced down and his hands were already cuffed behind him. He seemed to be saying something…she could see fear in his eyes but they laughed on…

The same man placed his leg on Michael’s  back pressing him firmly to the ground. He took a puff from a lit cigar which dangled at the corner of his chapped lips and bending down, close to where Michel writhed in pain, he snorted the smoke out of a flaring nostril into Michael’s face. Then he grinned, revealing his nicotine stained teeth.

Michael squinted, and began to jerk. He kept jerking continuously, his eyes widened in horror. Both men were talking now, they were trying to talk to Michael at the same time, the camera zoomed in to Michael’s face, making the video more blurry, but he  was no longer jerking, he seemed to have grown limp and his eyes were wide open, unblinking, his mouth agape.The one that was smoking took the cigar from his lips and exchanged glances with the other. Then second one suspended a hand over his nose and then Rose caught the movement of his lips as he said. “He’s dead.”  The other gasped.

She felt the panic begin like a cluster of spark plugs in her abdomen…her heart was beginning to race like a rabbit trying to jump out of its skin…

“Dear Lord! Please let this not be real…”

There was a rapid movement and the scene bent in a 45. angle.  Debby recognized the interior of her Toyota Corolla, the one Michael had driven to the store. She could see the back view of the police, the one who was smoking, he seemed to be searching for something at the driver’s seat, then he directed his attention to the back seat and that was where Tracey lay, in her seat, her tiny baby eyes were wide open-unblinking, her neck was a little slanted to the back which was unusual for she seemed to be starring at the roof of the car, her lips were open,  she was still and there was a little swell around her neck. Her small left palm had painting from a pen and on the seat lay the spring and the tube of a ballpoint pen.  The rest of the seat were filled with bags from O’mac stores.

Michael had gone to O’mac to get souvenirs for the party.

The cigar dropped from his lips and he left the scene, then he came back with his other partner and immediately, their voices could be heard.

“She dead too?”

“I think so”

“She is a baby, baby don’t die”

“Think she choked on that pen right there.”

“We should call 911?”

“No need, she is gone to meet her father. What a loss or a reunion as the case may be.”

She stood up, unable to watch anylonger.

Something was terribly wrong.

Read " When A Woman Wants.. " by the same author ( Tobi Loba )

. Someone was definitely playing joke on her. She quickly took her phone and dialed Michael’s number, it wasn’t reachable. No ..no,,no! She needed to calm down, why was the house spinning…everyone and everything should just calm down!

It was like a hurricane starting from deep within her, shutting her brain out like a machine gun. She was immediately covered in sweat, She felt like her body was covered in another hot body like a bin bag and she knew she was going to explode.

Suddenly,she began to feel a deluge of ice water surrounding her every limb, until it passed her mouth and nose, causing her to lose her grip and she dropped to the floor, curled up in a foetal position. She wanted to scream, to cry, to run. She wanted to freeze…she wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

Just then, the door suddenly burst open and Nicholas ran to her side. Holding her. He was saying something but she couldn’t hear a single word.

“My baby is cold, Michael needs his inhaler, please Nick, my baby, my baby can’t die. Nick…Michael must not die…my baby..Michael….”

She felt paralysed as Nicholas lifted her in his arms and was carrying her out of the house.

“My baby…can..not breathe”  She said finally, before the agony enveloped every part of her consciousness.

***** *****

SINCERELY, THIS IS THE ONLY CHAPTER I HAVE WRITTEN, ONCE IM STUCK, THAT IS WHEN IT IS YOUR TURN TO GET CREATIVE. I WILL MAKE IT EASY WITH QUESTIONS. STARTING FROM THE NEXT EPISODE

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