Chapter 5
They were at the top of a rock, in a place called Alapata, which, loosely translated, meant ‘rock area’ in Yoruba language. The space wagon was parked under a tree, next to about half a dozen cars. To their left were four, fancy white party tents, spaced out in sort of like a four pointed star pattern. The insides were illuminated with fluorescent lights, and the whole arrangement looked beautiful under the moon light. A few people could be seen moving around in the tents, and service boys went and came.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Patrick said before coming down from the Sienna. She watched him walk off to the tent closest to them. Bimpe turned on the car inner lights, flipped opened the sun visor, and slid the lid to the side to checkout her reflection in the mirror. She was dazed at the person that stared back at her. Ahmed always used to say if she were just a few inches taller, she and Omowunmi Akinnifesi could pass for twins. She shrugged off the thought as she definitely wasn’t feeling like a beauty queen right now.
Patrick had tried calling Ahmed multiple times on their way here, but he wasn’t picking his calls. She felt Ahmed must have guessed she had gotten through to Patrick, and he was trying to beg on her behalf. Ahmed’s Benz wasn’t among the cars parked in the place, but Patrick had said he sometimes came to the place with a cab.
She lazily pulled her small rectangular shoulder bag to the front from where it was stuck behind her, opened it, and pulled out some face wipes. She was cleaning makeup off her face when, from the corner of her eye, she saw Patrick rushing back to the car. He got in and coughed a few times before saying, “they said he just left here like 5 minutes ago.” Patrick strapped on his seatbelt before adding, “He must have gone down through the other road. That’s why we didn’t see him.” When he tried to start the car, it made as if it was going to start, and then it ran down. “Shitt!” He cursed out loud.
……….
30 Minutes Earlier
He was sitting outside, in the center of all the tents, looking up at the full moon and wondering if there would ever be a time when people would have to start moving to the moon because of overpopulation on Earth. Elon Musk and some other tech billionaires were already working seriously on making visiting and holidaying on the moon a reality in the near future. He looked down at his vibrating phone beside his bottle of water on the table and saw it was Patrick again. He pressed the side of the phone, and the screen went blank.
He usually came to this place whenever he had something bothering him, and he never came with his phone or car, so as to avoid distractions. Today was different because he more or less drove here on autopilot; his mind had still not been able to accept what he had seen earlier. In his 28 years on Earth, he didn’t think he had ever felt this miserable. Patrick had told him not to take her serious, but he never took his friend’s words serious as Patrick never took any girl serious in his own life.
On impulse, he picked up his phone and dialed the last received call on his call log. “Hello,” a female voice on the other end said.
“Hi…Umm! I spoke with you earlier. I am the guy…”
“Oh, yea, I remember. I guess you want to speak with Ruth.” She said shouted her friend’s name a couple of times, and then said in a whisper, “it’s the guy; the guy from the bank.” Ahmed had a smile on his face now.
“Hey, hi.” She said. The shock in her voice was evident.
“How are you doing tonight?”
“Fine.”
“By the way, my name is Ahmed.”
“I’m Ruth.”
“Nice name.” He said and she said thank you. The line went silent for a few seconds before Ahmed blurted out, “I’d like to see you tonight if you don’t mind.”
“Oh!”
“So…”
“I don’t know.” She said, dragging her last word. Then she started giggling, “I’m sorry. My friend here is…” She was saying then chuckled before adding, “Okay.”
“Is the okay a response to my question, or…”
“Okay, I’ll see you.”
“Great. Where do I pick you up?”
