Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening - Episode 3

 

Carl stumbled out of the bush after he had confirmed that the men were gone and that the drone had gone into hiding. He had never seen that type of Uniform before. The men's uniforms had the pattern of a chameleon's skin. Its color changed to that of anything near it. And these men were not only Nigerians, there were also Europeans among them.
The first thing on Carl's mind was to spit the filthy micro card from his mouth. Even the thought of it being there made him feel like puking . He spat it out, and hurriedly wiped his mouth. That man should have given him the choice of accepting it with something neater. Carl dusted his clothes to rid it of any dust or soot he must have encountered in the bush. 
With trepidation, he bent to touch the ground. After the uniformed men shot the old man, they searched his body and were angry that they found nothing. So, they poured a liquid substance on him, which immediately melted his corpse to become dust. The uniformed men scattered the sand with their feet, and scrambled off.
Whatever the man wanted Joyce to know must have been a very vital information or else he wouldnt have been killed for it. And whatever was wrong with Joyce could be worse, so he rose to leave but first he had to hide his micro card. He peeled a small hole from the sole of his shoe and hid the micro card there

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/purified-tomorrow-the-mad-awakening

. Joyce had always wanted to be a detective and one of her goals was to haunt him with security tips. She built that small hole herself, and ensured she did it in all of his shoes.
 The moment he knocked on Joyce's door, she rushed to the door, looked both sides and dragged him into the dim room. For some absurd reason, she had all her windows locked and the window blinds pulled down. Joyce wouldnt have raised all the window blinds; yet, she was an advocate of good ventilation.
'What's happening, J?' He asked the moment she locked the door.
'I'm in trouble...'
'Calm down'.
Joyce walked up and down the room as her hand vibrated vigorously. 'No, you don't understand. I was just returning from work, and I saw Mrs. Jefferson who was singing that I didn't belong in this generation because I got support from the government. Was it my fault that I lost my parents at childbirth?'
'So, what happened?' He asked and wished to hold her down, but she explained things better whenever she was in that state, and his imagination was still filled with the dead man's red eyes. He removed the micro card from his shoe, gently placed it on the arm of the chair, and waited for her to finish talking before giving her.
'But I overlooked her rant like a rest on a musical tone, and entered the house, and he knocked, and I opened the door'.
'Who's the 'he'?'
'Matthias... You know him'.
'Matthias, what does he wants from you?'
She had told Carl about Matthias' numerous advances, and she had warned him several times to stay off her, but he was adamant and kept coming again.
'He started by deceiving me into allowing him to enter my house. I saw nothing harmful about it'.
He watched her carefully, and held his breath as he began to deduce what she would say. He was sure Joyce had finally broken her faithfulness, and had slept with Matthias. Carl gritted.
'Then, he made an advance towards me, this time he came right at me. I pushed him away and I think that made him upset...'
'So...?'
'He came towards me and tried to rape me'.
'What?'
'Yes. I fought him. And while we were at the struggling stage, I grabbed my trumpet. You know that new one you gave me on my birthday. I was rehearsing with it before he came. I hit his head with it'.
'That's good. The idiot deserved more than that... How come nobody came to your rescue?'
'In this area? You know how Mrs. Jefferson had poisoned the heart of many after her son was taken to prison because he tried to rob me. So, I didn't cry out'.
'Then, you're good to go. Wherever Matthias would be now, he would learn to never try rubbish with you'.
'Carl, he's dead'.
 Carl froze as if he had just been hit on the face with a plank. He blinked several times and swallowed hard.
 'The trumpet... I don't know. He just stopped breathing. I tried different methods, but he was dead. I'm in serious trouble'.
'Where's his body?'
She pointed at her room and whispered, 'he's in the wardrobe'.
Carl was perplexed.

                        
                    ***
Joyce stared at Carl as he made the plan as if he was merely eating, as if he was writing another song like Kenny G. He always made plans with such calmness that she always wished to be him, to have the same confidence he had. That would make her one of the best detectives in the world because she had all the tactics needed to be exceptional. She looked at him and nodded after he asked her if she understood him.
'Good, let the plan begin'.
 They carried Matthias corpse into the parlor, laid him roughly on the ground and Carl went out. After about five minutes, she screamed. That was the plan. She screamed again and began to scatter the chairs in the room. Then, she tore the cloth she wore. She screamed for help. Then, someone barged in. It wasn't Carl. It was supposed to be Carl. The plan was that he would pretend to be in the estate when the rape began, and would claim to witness the person being hurt, that he fought with the person and that person whom he would later discover to be Matthias crashed to the floor at a shove from him.
Mrs. Jefferson trailed the steps of the person that entered.
'I didn't want to come but...' Mrs. Jefferson said and looked down. 'You've killed him. Is that not Mr. Paul's son? Is that not Matthias? Help! Joyce Felix has killed Mr. Paul's son'.
 Joyce's eyes dashed to the door, and she realized what had happened: Carl ran away. He left her to face the music herself, even with a bad plan. 
'Mrs. Jefferson, it was a mistake. He tried to rape me, and I hit him on the head with my trumpet', she cried and knew she sounded like a broken record, but she couldn't do better than that at the moment.
 'Shut up! Hey you, what are you waiting for? Call the police. Call them'.
 The gentleman that came in first scrambled out of the house and returned almost immediately as he fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed the police. Joyce felt the world crumbling under her feet.

Read " Grabbing The Hot Gate " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. Carl had just deceived her and had hung her out to dry. He must be in a corner, laughing at her foolishness. If she had stuck to her own plan, maybe the police wouldn't be involved.
 The police came in, took her statement but refused to arrest her despite Mrs. Jefferson's incessant rant that she killed the man. For some unexplainable reason, the police felt bad for her and assured her they wouldnt press charges.
Joyce took her phone and deleted Carl's number. Nothing in the world would ever make her know him again. Whatever love they shared was over that instant and had got to its place of rest. No verse of it would ever be revisited. And from that day, her heart was locked away from every man. No one would ever get the chance to cross that line with her again.
She stormed to the frames that held the picture of the two of them and tore the pictures, and also deleted all his pictures from her phone.
'Carl, we are done', she whispered as she crawled into her bed, tears streaming down her eyes. 'We are so done'.