My African Nerd

21. Well Of Life

David Peterson

Dinner was going well. When I told Uncle Blake who I was going to meet, he adviced me to be on business mode and am glad I listened. Everything was going well so far. Mrs. Brown was a pretty woman honestly. She looked like the older more toughened version of Mia except she had hazel eyes instead of Mia's blue which looked like they could see your soul. She was a scary woman but my parents taught me to never show intimidation or hesitation because it makes you look weak so I just managed to stare back at her causing her to smile. I was about to come up with a lie about how I was good with business before he entered.

I stood up to greet Mia's dad only to see the last man I ever imagined. I felt my heart drop as his cold blue ice looked at me as shocked as I was. "Peterson?!" He asked in disbelief. I nodded unable to form a sentence. My confidence evaporated and was replaced with fear. He was my father's arch rival in business. Like my father, he worked in the shadows of the business, keeping his face from the media. Their wives were the faces of their respective businesses and travelled with paid actors to events so as far as the world knew, he was not Mr. Brown. It was for safety reason I guess. The world only knew my dad after he died. I don't know what I expected but when he gave me a tight hug, I tensed. He realised this and cleared his throat.

"Follow me to my office, excuse us everyone." He said. I turned to look at Mia whose jaw was on the ground. I nodded at her direction before following Mr. Brown. Mrs.Brown had a confused look on her face so Mr. Brown mouthed 'I will explain everything to you.' He led me to a morden home office. It had expensive paintings, family photos one that I assumed was made by a younger version of mia. It had a large wooden book shelve and a glass table that had everything arranged neatly on it. A wedding photo near the open laptop. We went by the shelve and pulled a book and typed a code behind it and a secret compartment opened. I don't know why but I wasn't as afraid as I should seeing that my dad's arch nemesis was leading me to a hidden room. He pulled a string and the lights went on. This room had a more 80s feel to it.  It had a sherlock holmes feel to it and immediately I knew that he rarely comes in here. He pulled out a large black leather office chair behind is desk and signaled for me to sit on the one in front. He ruffled his hair before pulling out a signal scrambler to block any incoming or outgoing signals to avoid our conversation from being intercepted. I knew it from my parents' offices.

"My God David, how are you?" He broke the ice trying to ease my tension. As far as I knew, he was also part of my suspects.

"I am fine thank you Mr. Brown and how are you?" Whipping out the manners but still very skeptical.

"I know you are wondering what happened to your parents and why am I happy to see you." He said calmly. Wait, he knows that I know that they were murdered

"Wha-aa-a-t? M-my paren-ents were in a-a car crush." I stated nervously only for him to shake his head

"They were not and you know it, you are a smart boy Peterson, always have been much to my dismay." He chuckled in his 'am an old man who rarely laughs at all' bellow. I raised my eyebrow towards him. What did he mean always? He pulled his drawer and then took out a framed picture before handing it to me. My jaws dropped and I wanted to cry, but not right now, not yet. It Mr. Brown with my dad and his twin brother uncle Blake. They looked around my age at an amusement park and they were smiling like they were really close.

"We were in college." He started deep in thought almost as if he saw it flashing past his eyes."When I met the Peterson twins, we were in college in Germany. We were all outcasts so we banded together and swore to make ourselves rich and untouchable. Your father studied plumbing and construction, your uncle studied business management and I studied Accounting and Entrepreneurship. We were the perfect trio. We started out as a small job group but soon people started hiring us for bigger projects. We had to register our company. Unfortunately, we did not have German citizenship and we were young so we decided to register it under another kid's name who joined us. The park was our first Multi Million project. We completed it about the sametime we graduated so we were already planning to share the money and spend big." He paused for a bit, pouring a glass of whiskey for himself. Rude basturd, not that I would accept just, atleast ask.

"Then when the payout came through, the other guy screwed us over. Twenty Million US dollars. We were depressed. We left the country pissed and depressed and went our separate ways. A year later, your father called me and said he and your uncle had a plan. I flew to South Africa and they said we should start the whole thing all over again. This time as two different companies. We did and that was when BB constructions and Brown constructions were born. they divided theirs into hemispheres and made them independent. For 5years we worked for each other making sure that we as the owners were in the shadows. Until one day, we were asked to build a bridge in Germamy. We had never returned there since we lost our OU construction company to the guy whose name is Dmitri Klose. It turns out OU was not doing as well as it should have. We knew sueing him would be pointless because it was 'his' company but we couldn't go down without a fight. We did a joint pitch and won. We made sure we stole every single client until it shutdown, made brunches of both companies there. OU went bankrupt and turns out Dmitri lost it. He lost everything and when your father told our story, he lost his wife and his Kid. We decided to pose as enemies afterwards to confuse our common enemies and to be each other's eyes and ears without raising suspesion. Ater Dmitri lost, we started living normally. Marrying and having kids. Blake had problems with the family and left for the United States. Our wives were the faces because they couldn't stand each other for real so it made it look real. We were brothers and before he died, your father believed Dmitri was hunting us down and killing us. He told me to tell you that if he died, to go to the well of life and sing the fox song whatever that means." He narrated sadly but certainly confused about the last part. The well of life? Fox song. Oh God, I remember it.

"I know where it is." I suddenly blurted out

Next chapter is the start of a summer vacation they will never forget, the final chapters are near, I can hear them calling my name... I hope you still having fun reading My African Nerd. Don't forget to vote if you like what you reading

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