He never expected any of this to happen,
He was driving two dead bodies to an address he had never seen in his life, taking orders from a crazy woman with a gun to his head knowing if they got caught he was done for.
What had he gotten himself into?
His hands were nearly slipping off the wheel but obviously he didn't have the courage to stop. He was sweating from head to toe despite the harmattan cold.
She pointed to a tiny quiet house at the very end of an even quieter neighborhood. "Park" she said through clenched teeth ramming the gun harder onto the back of his neck.
Under her watchful eye he pulled over.
"Kill the fucking engine" she yelled, a little harder. He quickly turned off the car.
She instructed him to get out of the car and led him to the back door.
"help me carry these out" she pointed to bottles of gasoline. He obediently proceeded to pick up each and every bottle while she opened them and began to lather everything in sight with it.
Who is this woman
He took a glance at the woman in front of him. Faded jeans, plaid shirt, golf cap. Couldn't make out her facial features but her dark golden brown eyes gave off hints of fear, fear how could that be?
She suddenly took him by the wrist and yanked him out of the compound.
She flung a bunch of keys, probably the house keys over the fence.
She dragged him even farther away from the house. When they were about ten feet away she slammed a suitcase on the ground. "Forget that car, take the money in that bag and do whatever you want and-" she pulled him by his sweat soaked coller "This never happened, I don't exist. If you ever open that your stinking mouth you die!"
And then she disappeared,
The house went up in flames.
_________________________________
What a sad sight,
All sorts of people where sitting there waiting. Some needed help while some came to visit others who came for help. Three years ago he would have rejected the slightest suggestion that he too would be one of those people.
"Mr Remi David, you may come in now" said a very unemotional nurse who was to lead him through winding corridors into a section labelled cancer wards. She opened a door labelled Ward15F
A girl was smiling at them, clutching a book.
"My baby!" He literally shrieked as he took her in his arms.
"How are you, I have the whole day to stay by your side " he kissed her forehead, her hair was starting to grow back.
"I had another surgery, it feels like there are needles in my back. They said the bone marrow would help me. I was waiting for you to come back. I missed you "
"Did that woman..." He exhaled
"was your mother with you?"
She sighed then shook her head .
"That woman eh, her own daughter -" she reached for his hand
"Daddy please don't be angry, mummy just got another-" she stopped herself "I know you hate her but -"
"Teni I don't hate your mother...I just never expected this, how can she be so... Nevermind, let's talk about something else "
she kept quiet, running her fingers through the beads on her bracelet.
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
He said but she turned away to hide her tears, He noticed.
"Teniola, tell me what you're thinking about. I'm your father, you can tell me anything.
Still more silence,
"Teni..."
"I... it's just that, Mummy has a new boyfriend-"
"That's not news but go on-"
"He works in London- "
"And?"
"Mummy is going to marry him "
He choked in his own spit
"Eh! While she is still married to me I can't beli-"
"Daddy I'm going with them...to London "
he froze ,
"Daddy my visa got approved yesterday I..." She burst into tears, all he could do was to hold onto her.
Teni, his Teni, the only reason he endured fifteen years of an awful marriage. The driving force behind his day to day hustle to pay the bills even after losing his job. The only reason why he never left after finding a stranger in his bed with his wife. That and the fact that he would literally be disowned by his father if the word divorce left his mouth.
She was leaving, he wouldn't be able to see her, hug her, tell her he loved her. His world slipped away from his arms as the nurse told him his visiting time was up.
That night in his apartment he cried himself to sleep. Dora had taken it too far this time. The first time he had caught her with another man was a few weeks after he had lost his job. She just shrugged it off and told him it was expected. More just kept on coming and he just moved out. He never came back unless it was for Teni and ever since she got sick, he made it a habit to see Teni every week occasionally bumping into Dora and one of her playmates.
He made up his mind .
Dora wouldn't win this time.
Whatever it takes, Teni must stay
_________________________________
She picked up the phone and just stared at the ID. She felt numb all over.
The drugs are wearing off.
Her head was banging in pain. She just wanted to pass out and not wake up. She had gotten through the day without feeling anything. She needed that because if she let herself feel, she would be hanging off a tree.
She stared at the caller ID, the caller ID stared at her, she took a deep breath as her shaken fingers picked the call.
A voice boomed through the phone.
"Is it done darling?"
"Yes"
"I think you know what to do now don't you?"
"Yes sir"
"Sir?"
"Yes... Landlord"
The caller hung up...
YOU ARE READING
LANDLORD
ActionIn an economic wasteland, On the rear end of a growing city, Where money rules justice, A simple errand drags a lone Uber driver into an irreparable mess. An innocent man gets involved in the most complex scheme by a gang with an unknown leader, LAN...
