SHADES OF LUST
Episode 41/42
Written by Oluwatosin Odebiyi
Early Saturday morning, I headed to Enugu to see my girl (Tracy). It really was a long week without her and I couldn’t help but think about how my life would be without her. Her damaged leg equally was something that worried me a lot. She was too beautiful to live with a disfigured leg.
As I sat alone in the bus, my thoughts wandered restlessly. I thought about many things ranging from Kelvin’s double life to the way he was desperately trying to keep me from meeting Jessica without any tangible reason. There wasn’t any doubt he was working for both Jessica and I at the same time, something I really found hard to understand.
I already made up my mind not to bother him with my problems anymore. I was a man just like him and so was capable of taking care of myself. All I now desperately wanted was to make enough money, graduate from school and investigate my father’s death without answering to anyone. I swore to bring his
killers to justice even if Kelvin was involved; I swore to give him the same treatment.
I equally thought about Pamela and her child. It really was an affair I knew would come back haunting me at the wrong time. I just really was confused on how to settle that issue. Pamela already was playing the script she prepared for herself and nothing on earth would stop her from playing it to the end.
Somehow I felt I would lose Tracy at the end. I felt the poor girl would never marry me. I knew sooner or later my affair with Pamela would be exposed and Tracy won’t have any choice than to quit our relationship.
As I thought about all these, tears slowly appeared in my eyes.
‘’Lord help me’’ I breathed as I looked out of the window.
**Kelvin’s side of the story continues**
By 9am that fateful Saturday, I drove out and headed towards Cynthia’s shop to see if it was open. Of course I still was scared over what happened the previous day when I dialed her phone number. I just wanted to be sure of myself. I just wanted to know the situation of things at her end.
‘’how come no one is yet to ask about her?. Why haven’t I been questioned about her disappearance?. None of her friends has even bothered to call me’’ I wondered as I made my way to the shop.
I really was dying out of guilty conscience and couldn’t help but wonder over and over if Cynthia was actually dead even though I witnessed how everything happened the previous week.
On getting to her shop, I found it firmly locked. I Slowed down my car, looked around for some seconds before speeding away. A part of me felt like driving over to her house to verify as well but another part of me kicked against such idea.
After driving around for a while, I turned back and headed to my house where I met Jessica waiting for me.
‘’where went you?’’ she asked curiously as we hugged tightly.
‘’I tried calling Cynthia yesterday and her phone rang to my surprise. But after the first attempt the line stopped going through and so I had to drive to her shop this morning to check if anything unusual is happening’’ I explained like a terrified child. Jessica broke away from me and smiled.
‘’you see the reason I asked for us to stick with each other?. You are slowly losing your mind. You called a dead girl’s phone number yesterday and it rang in your head huh?. I suggest you move over to my place before you totally lose your mind’’ she said with a smile. I shrugged and breathed deeply.
‘’I guess you are right. We have to start living together’’ I finally accepted.
‘’I was on my way to the market before I stopped over. I will be expecting you at my house before 1pm’’ she breathed, kissed me and headed to her car. I watched her drive away before heading to my room to think.
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I barely had settled down in my room when I began hearing strange sounds coming from the place I hid my late uncle’s suitcase. I quickly brought it down, searching for the rat which I thought was behind the noise but couldn’t find any rat, instead a cockroach fell off the suitcase, leaving me with no choice than to open up the bag and pour out the contents.
After taking out the contents, I headed outside to dust and shake the suitcase in case another cockroach was still inside but to my surprise a very small diary fell off from nowhere.
I slowly dropped the suitcase, picked up the diary and went through it but unfortunately the diary had nothing in it. The first few pages were totally empty with no write-ups but something pushed me to continue going through it until I got to the sixteenth page which had the date January 17 and on the page was a boldly written sentence.
‘’**I finally secured a red bungalow today at Worldbank housing new Owerri. I can’t wait to furnish the property**‘’ were the words written on the diary. I read it over and over as my thoughts quickly raced to Jessica’s bungalow which has the same color as noted in the diary.
‘’could it be the same house?’’ I wondered deeply.