Lost But Satisfied - Episode 9

 

The light went off again, without giving Jerry the opportunity to see who it was.

Jerry held his breathe, wishing the person was the beautiful thief, hoping she had come to give him a chance to love her forever.

 ‘Shhh’, the voice said near him.

He jumped. That was her voice- silky, hair-raising, and tinkling- filtering through his ear.  And then, electricity was restored, the old fan reporting to duty as it squeaked continuously.

‘Whoa...You scared me.', he said as he turned to see her frame . Indeed, it was his beautiful night thief. His heart skipped a beat as he saw her. The last time he saw, she was desperate to escape her attackers but today she was not desperate to escape any attacker. Instead, she was at home and that gave her a queenly look. Olivia's beauty be damned. This was pure beauty. The beautiful night thief was wearing a black top and black jean trousers and her hair was packed, giving her a sultry look. ‘Hello, Jerry'.

‘Hello, my night visitor', he said as he stretched his hand to take her handshake.

 She giggled when she saw the way he responded to her touch, he himself didn’t know what happened but he felt his body vibrating when she touched him as if her touch was electrifying.

‘Night visitor!’ She said amusingly as she went across the room to the seat he brought back inside the room and sat on it.

 Jerry also sat, looking at her intently as he tried to fathom why his body vibrated when their hands met the other time. He imagined how it would be to feel her touch again, to feel her hands on his body, to hear her raspy voice talk to him one more time

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. His heart warmed at the thought of that.

‘You know you should consider moving to a bigger place, where you can have chairs and the rest', she said as she played with her hair and kept staring at him.

‘So how has it been with you?’ He asked, with the hope of striking a good conversation between them.

 She smiled, loosened her hair, and shook her head gently as her hair graciously rested on her shoulders.

 ‘How has it been? Well, it had been as usual. Living as a fugitive, running from here to there, not being able to stay in one place like Satan. It's hard. Especially these days that people now wonder if the thief they have been chasing was actually a thin boy or a woman. But, I don’t allow the thought of being caught hit my little beating heart. So, I have been here and there and as usual I mistakenly…'She smiled broadly when she said this,' yes... mistakenly stole this phone'. She brought out a phone.

The phone! Jerry's was stunned by the sight of the only phone that connected him to the dead man.

‘Ah...How...How did you get that?' Jerry said, batting his eyes, as he rose from his bed to meet her.

 He dragged it out of her hand as she pointed it at him. Quickly, he scrolled to the gallery and saw his picture as he moved backward.

‘Your picture made me save the phone from the eyes of the man that was staring at it', the night visitor continued.’ He kept staring at it like you stared at me that night’.

 Jerry mouthed a word and allowed it die.

'Since, the picture was yours, I figured the phone might be yours too, so I stole it, but after I stole it, I discovered that the phone was not yours neither was it the man's, but I felt you need to know about the man that was staring at your picture'.

 She brought out another android phone and showed him the picture: a picture of the policeman that came to his place in the afternoon.

‘So, what up between the two of you?’

‘Nothing much’, he said, scowling as he deleted his picture from the phone and sat on the bed, happy with himself, happy that he was free from whatever allegation they might want to hold against him. All he needed to do was to go through the phone for any information that might help him.

‘Or are you people gay?’

‘What?’ Jerry shouted, his voice resounding in the dark cold night. ‘Me… Gay? God forbid…’ He said, shaking his head vigorously. There was nothing worth chasing on the guy's phone.

‘Good’.

Her expertise as a thief had saved him from further investigation of the police. He decided to tell her part of the truth.

‘Someone took my picture and was later found dead. So, they thought I might be involved. Now that you have freed me. How I can repay you?’ Jerry said coming to the edge of the bed.

 ‘Can’t you keep on living with me? Do you have to continue being a fugitive? I live here alone, no friend or…’ He stopped himself from talking. She shouldn’t be aware of all this information until they have had a good relationship. People play others when they have such information. He didn’t want to be a victim of such.

She laughed heartily, her voice mixing with the swirling, the squeaking and the ‘whee’ sound of the fan.

‘Keep living with you? There is always a new thing in every new place; more so, I will stop moving all about when I’m sure the wind of life will truly come as a breeze and not a storm. I guess we are at par. I've repaid you for the last time. I can’t live with you for many reasons... Now,’ she said as she moved to the door like a model.

 Jerry wondered what she was up to as she locked it. She turned to him graciously, removed her t-shirt, took her hand to the zip of her trouser, let it slip off her body gently, switched off the light, and before Jerry could see clearly, she planted a kiss on his lips.

           ***

 When Jerry woke up the next morning, she was gone.

‘Again’, he muttered as he used his head to hit the bed in despair, angry that he had allowed sleep to overcome him again. She must be so good at entering and breaking because of the way she moved. He rolled off the bed the moment he saw a letter on the bed. Like the other day, she had replaced herself with a letter.

'Jerry,

          Sweet. God, you are good. I hope we have the chance to meet again. Did you watch the film I asked you to watch? No. If Yes, I’m not sure you have seen what I wanted you see. The questions you should ask yourself: What is the most essential thing after air, water, and food? What is the word which when the first and the last letter is remove means unity? Someday, this hide and seek period will be gone- Night Visitor.

 The last sentence baffled Jerry. He sat up. What is unity?

Accord…Harmony…Consensus…One. One?

What is the essential thing of life except those things she listed below? Jerry shook his head when the thought of shelter crept into his mind, and used his hand to ward off an imaginary object registered in his mind. The light was still on. So, he scrambled out of the bed to plug his laptop and all other gadgets. He decided that he would watch the film, Jack Ryan, again. Then, he settled down to be sure he wasn't missing anything. As he was watching the movie, he got it. He got it. He threw his fists into the air and tumbled on the bed. He got it.

          ‘Whoa! Oh! My God!’

 Quickly, as if he was on fire, Jerry rushed out of the bed and got dressed. Then, he rushed to the landlord’s apartment.  The thin man came out after he relayed a message to the landlord’s wife that he wanted to see the landlord.

‘Good morning, Mr. Jerry’, the landlord said with a strong Yoruba accent, extending his hand for a shake.

‘Good morning sir’, Jerry said, taking the landlord’s handshake half-heartedly.

‘I hope all is well?’

‘Yes sir. Please, I want to ask…’ Jerry said, wondering how he would post this question at the landlord. ‘Please sir, I can’t remember, but I’m not sure you have given me any receipt since I got here because I can’t find any in my room’.

‘Oh! I’m sorry, I should have sent Bimpe, that my short beautiful daughter, to you, but I always forget’, the landlord said. 'But, Mr. Jerry, don’t worry I will send someone to you’.

‘Okay sir’, Jerry said as he left for his room, wondering how this was connected to what he watched in the movie.Then, he wondered why he didn’t tell the landlord to give him there, that he wasn't busy, that he could wait for him to write and sign the receipt. So, he turned back and returned to the landlord’s room and as he was about to knock, he heard,

‘Hello! The boy is already asking questions’.

 His night thief was right: follow the money and the money will guide your path.

              ***

 Yemi James was prepared to meet her, he was already up, but Grace Adeotiasked him to come around 9 0’clock that morning. He searched his pocket for the phone, but he didn’t find it.

‘What?’ He mouthed. Then, he remembered the beautiful lady that was sitting beside him, she nearly fell on him as she was about to get out of the bus.

‘Foolish thieves’, he muttered as soon as the clock struck 8:30, he stood and left for Grace’s place, happy that she trusted him with her life. They were almost family because their lives were almost intertwined. Every year, something brought them together almost.

 Her home was at Damola estate, which was a stone throw from the hotel he settled in.When he got there, she entertained him with gladness. He wondered how she still kept her beauty in check; her trimmed curvy beautiful body still in shape; her fair skin still shining; her hair still long; and her face that looked like Angelina Jolie’s still well structured.

‘Thank you. I’m sorry I came to disturb you’.

‘Officer Yemi, disturb me?’ She said with a bright smile as if that was a permanent feature of her face.

‘Thank you’, he said he sipped the drink before him, ‘please, when last did you hear from Bidemi… You know the Bidemi I’m talking about right’.

 Grace nodded, her bright smile still lingering on her lips as she looked at him.

‘It’s almost seven months now’.

‘Oh!’ Yemi gasped, and sighed heavily,'I thought you would help me get in touch with him, because I need to get some information from him. So what happened? Did you people not end up…? You know… Married?’

‘Yes. Yes.

Read " Don't! Look Closer " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. We married’, she said, ‘and the foolish boy decided to leave me’.

‘Oh! You divorced?’

‘No. He ran away from home, as if he was trying to divert the attention of something bad. He left me and the next day, his body… No… His headless body was found… Dead, stone cold dead’.

                      ***

Rachael, the beautiful thief, was happy with herself, with her achievement. Although she knew the implication, she loved it. How would it be that the guy she had spent most of her life crushing upon would die without sleeping with her?

She had planned it well and fate helped her. Her plan was simple: she waited for that period when it was most unsafe to have any sexual intercourse with any manand slept with Leech, now known as Jerry. Jasper was the fate that played into the scene. She would have dumped his body into the river but she allowed his body lay beside the river. She followed the policeman until it was safe to steal the phone. Then, she wondered when Leech, her most beloved, would stop being careless.

 Racheal gently rubbed her stomach as she hoped her stomach wouldn’t shoot out before her second plan came into play. She hoped Leech understood her letter.