The Tame (ON HOLD)

Of Arrivals and new faces

Phina smiled at the pretty woman sat in one of the cubicles of the immigration control area. "Welcome to London", the brunette smiled as she handed Phina her passport. Phina nodded and strolled away to join her younger siblings who had already passed through customs and were eagerly gobbling cones of frost ice cream. Phina marched to the wide entrance of the waiting bay and stood on her toes amidst the pack of human congestion and strained her neck trying to see if anyone had come to collect them. Not that I would recognize anyone even if they came, she thought. So thinking, she turned sharply around to ascertain if her siblings were following her.

They tagged closely behind chatting animatedly and gesturing at people and things. Shaking her head in disdain, she grabbed both their hands and stooped low to confront them. "Haven't I told you two how inappropriate it is to make gestures at people? They might think you mad or worse, rude!" she scolded in her thick South African accent.

The two stood abashed that their sister had scolded them in public, something she would never have done back home. They bowed down their heads in shame and whisperingly apologized. As they got drowned in conversation, Steve, the oldest after Phina patted her on the shoulder and informed her, "Phina there is a man standing behind you".

She quickly turned around and almost bumped into a mountain of a man who could only be described as a major devotee of the gym. His head was bare of hair and his thick side burns adjoined his bushy beard, giving him off a dangerous look. "Are you Miss Phina?" he questioned her before she had the opportunity to affront him first. "Yes please" she replied in a small voice.

"Please follow me" he said in an orderly manner. Phina grew wary. She hadn't been in London longer than an hour yet she was not so naïve as not to know the consequences of following strangers around. Especially bossy ones. "Do I know you?" she questioned with a raised eye brow behind his back.

Either he heard her question and ignored her or he didn't at all. Phina pressed on her question again. This time he turned around and answered. "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself to you offhand madam. My name is Rottweilerson and I work for Dame Hyacinth Kincaid".

Phina frowned at his strange and odd name but followed him with her young siblings tailing closely behind her, since he said he worked for the Dame. He led them to a shiny black SUV, swung opened the door and took their bags. As the car sped along the streets of London, the young South African couldn't help but stare in awe at the maddening throngs of both indigenes and tourists that roamed the well-paved streets and filled exuberant fashion stores.Her siblings, Steve and Acacia, it seemed, were also sharing the same sentiment as Phina, as they pointed at monuments and structural buildings that caught their eyes, instantly forgetting their sister's earlier rebuke.

The SUV veered off the road onto a quiet street flanking gorgeous and stately town houses. The car rode the streets for quite some time before it rolled onto a private street. Phina raised her head up from her prayer-like position and met her eyes with an imposing villa-like mansion, strange yet alluring. The car came to a halt, the tires screeching on the cobblestone drive way. Before she knew, the door was held open by a man, obviously a valet, in a red and gold uniform.

Phina walked past the valet to a woman with cold grey eyes and greeted her politely with a wide smile. The gesture was not reciprocated. "I'm Anastasia and also the manager of the affairs of this mansion. "Please follow me", she addressed in a stiff manner and sharply turned to go. "Gah!, Phina, this one's stiff", Steve whispered when he was sure Anastasia was out of ear shot. "Yeah", Acacia continued, " just like the other man with the beard over there. I was even thinking he could hide baby Lolo in his bushy beard".

Phina nearly burst out laughing visibly at her siblings' comments. Baby Lolo was Acacia's puppy whose whereabouts had been unknown since the tragedy that occurred three years ago.The three had mourned its lose for quite a period of time.