THE ONE

Chapter Six: Kindred

Axel stopped by Kiruddu hospital in Salaama after work, making his way to the ward which his sister shared with a dozen other patients..

"Owulila otya kati?" (How're you feeling), he held at her forehead.
"Mpulila mbikoye" (Im fed up), Rachel muffled.
"Toyogera bwotyo" (Don't say that!)
"Gwe tokoye?" (Aren't you?)
"Nedda. Tujja kujanjaba owone. Atte mama tomugamba bino kumwelalikiriza" (Of course not. We'll nurse you back to health. And don't be telling mom this to worry her)
"Kale" (okay), Rachel slowly rolled to her right side.

Axel pulled the blanket, covering her to the shoulders. It was his time to spend the night at the hospital so he crouched down between beds, pulling out his phone to pass the time.

He saw the pictures Max had posted of his bar outing with Joseph. Joseph owned him now & anytime he could change his mind about telling his brother. That would spell the end for him, which would spell the end for his sister.

Calculating how much he needed to pay back, it was well over a million shillings. It would take him a year to clear the debt but he decided to start small.

The next morning, he got Joseph's number from Max's phone as it charged, deciding to send him some money..

Dejen was back in Kampala for holidays. A modeling agent had scouted him in Mombasa & he'd done his first photoshoot, sharing the news with Joseph..

"These are good", Joseph was seated on the left foot of Dejen's bed, swiping through the catalogue on Dejen's phone. "You're a natural!"
"Really?", Dejen chuckled, throwing on a grey jumper.
"Yeah. You'll be big in no time", Joseph assured.
"Which do you think is better? I want to post"

Joseph heard his phone buzz from a message

"Huh?" he beamed.
"What?" Dejen asked.
"Someone just sent me 100k!"
"Who?"
"They're not in my contact list.."
"Haha use it fast!", Dejen smirked.

Joseph's phone rung..

"They're calling, hello?"
"Nze Axel, nze awereza sente. Mbade njagala kusasula mpola" (Its Axel, I'm the one who sent the money. I want to pay you slowly.."
"Zileke!" (Leave it!), Joseph scowled, hanging up.
"What's wrong?" Dejen was puzzled.
"Ugh, just someone who owes me", Joseph shrugged.

"Alright. So which do you think I should post?", Dejen climbed onto the bed on his belly.
"So they rejected all these?" Joseph swiped again.
"Uh huh", Dejen crawled up to his side.
"But they're great!", Joseph praised.
"Not enough for the mag.."
"Let me first look through all", Joseph added.
"Alright", Dejen picked up a remote turning on his screen. He filtered through his PS5 "What should we play?"
"I don't know. Call of duty?", Joseph offered.
"Okay", he clicked.

They heard a knock, Dejen climbing off the bed to check. His ex girlfriend was outside..

"Sher??"
"Hey Dejen", Sherise greeted.
"Uhh, come in", he ushered. "Jos could you excuse us for a moment?"

Joseph casually walked out.

"This is a suprise, how're you?"
"I'm good", Sherise sat on a bean bag.
"Should I get you something?"
"No I'm okay"
"Okay. How you been?", Dejen sat on another bag to her left.
"Been okay. I'm heading to Nairobi for holidays..."
"That's good", Dejen added.

"So um.. the reason I came is I needed to talk about a few things.. about the way things ended... No, the way you ended things.."
"Okay"
"I fail to see what I did wrong..."
"You didn't do anything wrong", Dejen assured.
"I know. But you made it seem like I had..."
"It wasn't-"
"No let me finish", Sherise cut in. "I recall everything started after the DC. You yelled at me so I figured you needed some space but it seems it wasn't enough. You just ended things"
"I guess I overreacted & let my anger do the talking. I just...I just needed some space...", Dejen added.
"Which space I gave..", Sherise stressed.