Leavened

| Chapter 4 |

For what seemed to be a long time, I could finally see the brightness of a day. For too long, I had been enclosed in a dark room with only blinds that were barely opened and dim lights with spoilt switches. The only form of light I saw was the one from the nurse's torch and which was only turned on during emergencies. At the thought of these, Jones' lifeless body overshadowed my thoughts. I felt my skin shiver with goosepimples but I shook the emotions off.

The murmurs from a few metres from the Black Asian men reeled my thoughts off. Still recovering from Jones' scary death and flashes of his body and the intensity of the sun, two tall men wearing white and blue overalls respectively stood by my sides.

"The car should be here any minute from now," Blue coat said with his hands in his pockets.

I looked over my shoulder and the first thing I saw were his black feathery hair and grey goatee. His eyes held a particular focus at the road which held so many moving cars and trucks. There was this familiarity and I was very certain about it. Perhaps it was the trembling fingers or the soft silky hair or the choice of shoes - black shiny brogues.

From the expressway ahead of the stately home, a black minibus swerved off the road and maneuvered its way into the compound. With its trunk directly facing us, there was a bang as the doors swang open a little. The doors flapped at each other for a few more seconds as the wheels of the wheelchair I was confined in since after a successful null hypothesis between the Primary Science and Health Institue( PSHI) commonly regarded to as Hulvey Walsh and Senior State Scientific Research Institute( SSSRI) fell to the ground.

A young man in red polo shirt and ragged jean trousers got off the bus to pull open the doors of the trunk. Under the thorough heat, his eyes glistened with so much happiness as he and white coat bumped fists. With me adjusting to the tight seat of the wheelchair and blue coat decongesting the filled trunk, they let out a subtle giggle and slapped palms so loudly.

"Alright, lab assistant just called. We should be on our way. Harry, carry on to the wheels. Harvey, come on and help me with lifting her into the trunk," said light head.

As both hands gripped the handles of the chair, a synchronised groan escaped. After a futile attempt to lift me into the trunk, they both resorted to lifting me first into the trunk and then, the wheelchair after. Settling into the cobweb- destroyed and dilapidated bus, Blue coat dusted his hands against a dirty white cloth hung at a corner of the trunk.

After keeping close tabs with the two men who at the most random occasions snickered or discussed on certain subjects with strange scientific terminologies and over hundreds of abbreviations - most of which were scientific organizations - and Harry, the overly excited driver, who jammed to a funky 90's hit, I had an aura of contrition. Contrition, possibly, because at first on sighting Harry quite delighted in such genre of music, I had tagged him as an occultic member. But when he looked over the headrest and said, "Do you mind a bottle?" I revoked my thoughts. I smiled, though small and sharp, he reciprocated and handed me a cup.

In all honesty, I was reluctant about drinking from him but after Blue and white both drank from the bottle which served as a confirmation that I was not going to be killed in an old rugged minibus. It would have been as pathetic as my uncle's marriage.

Soon, the bus was put to a halt. There was a staring contest going on in the bus as three eyes were fitted on me. All I felt was discomfort because I was the only thin living being with an ovary and uterus. The tension reduced when a man whom I figured to be a security officer knocked twice on the tinted windows. The men whispered something incoherent and the two men with me in the trunk nodded while Harry turned to attend to him. As he wound down the window, a head popped into the bus with feisty eyes and thin lips. He clamped his hand on the wing mirror and looked around the bus.