The b©dyguard – Episode 3
By Tisa Phiri
I silently went back to the small house avoiding being sp©tted by the guy standing by the door. Peeped throu-gh the window and there she was, a coloured girl tied to a chair her hair ruffled and looking like it was b!own by the wind all over her face.
I watched the guy I had seen near where I hid stand before her and screamed at her.
“shut up! Now you b***h! or I will s£nd you to your grave…”
” plea-se my father will give you whatever you want just let me go now” she cried.
I looked at her and felt for her, I was brou-ght up and trained to respect a woman and whatever i did, I would never deliberately hurt a woman. Seeing the man in that room sl@p and hit that poor woman made me furious. I couldn’t tell what had transpired but I wasn’t going to stand and watch that psycho mistreat a woman. Before I could talk myself out of it, I charged forward my gun pointed forward. I took some quic-k but silent steps towards the front, bowed a bit and saw a clear view of the man by the door.A str!p of smoke emerging from his mouth. he held a cigarette and it seemed he was enjoying the effect it was impacting on him.
I looked further away and sp©tted two other guys seated in a shed the opposite side their backs towards me, ma-king some calculations, I knew I could take down the man by the door without ma-king noise and sl!pinto the room. I had to be careful as four against one would not work so good for me if i didn’t pl@yit well.
Slowly I stepped forward, I held the man by the door and he tried fighting it but i was quic-k, I twisted his head like I learnt from the military how to put out someone without killing them. Slowly i l@yhim down and checked on the guys in the shed. Their faces where still turned the other way, satisfied, I pushed the door slightly and walked in. The woman saw me and I held my f!nger on my mouth to silence her. The guy before her had his back turned to me.
Before he could turn to look at what the lady was glancing at, I held him from behind and he tried fighting back. I didn’t give him an opportunity to produce any more noise, so I slid my small knife from my pocket in his throat. placed his dead b©dy down as blood flowed down creating a pool around his back.
The woman looked at me her eyes filled with fear.
“who are you?” She asked shaking.
“plea-se don’t kill me.. plea-se.. ”
“shshshshs” I whispered to her.
“I just want to help you and if we have to escape this place alive I nee-d you to do as I say okey?” I asked untying her hands which were tied to a chair.
“okay ” she nodded herl-ips still shaking..
I held her small hand and slowly opened the door, after I was satisfied the guys in the shed were still in the same position, I pu-ll-ed her out and ran to the back as fast as she could go. Just then, the guy by the door winced and shouted ma-king the friends startle and went to him.
“what hapened here? ” one of them asked the guy on the ground.
“the girl !” he shouted.
“Damn it! ” They shouted back and one of them ran towards the back and another went searching in the front. I quic-kly led the woman to the bushes and asked her to l@yflat down. I saw the man look around and when he realised it was quite, he went back running.
“where did they go? ” he shouted..
Some minutes later I raised the woman and told her to ran as fast as she could. I follwed behind as we ran further away from the house not even knowing where we were going. I could see the way she was running that she was a fast runner. If i wasn’t as fast I could have lagged behind. I really don’t know what inspired her speed, whether it was fear or it was just in her to ran.
She st©pped after we covered a reasonable distance, to my surprise longer than I anticipated a woman to go. p@n-ting, she leaned on the tree. I st©pped before her..
“are you okey? ” I asked her..
“Who are you and why have you come to my rescue? Who s£nt you? Was it my father? ” She asked me. Though it was a dark night, i could tell her eyes were on me. I was sure she was wondering how a man in a combat looking like one from the dept of the forest was doing saving her life..
“Well,” I finally told her..
” my name is Akim and no i wasnt s£nt by anyone. i just happened to be pas-sing by and saw those guys holding you there, my instincts told me to help you and I pray to God I have not just made the biggest mistake of my life” i added serously..
I indeed hoped I hadn’t burried myself in more trouble rescuing the woman I didn’t know and had no idea why they held her.
“anyway” I thought to myself..
“I did what I could and I would go my way”
She sighed..
” thank You Akim”
“you saved my life. Am Paula.. ” she added..
“What did you do for them to hold you like that in such a place? ” I asked her.
“I don’t know but i think it’s about my father’s political issues or something. I was just held as a bet.”
“oh I see” i looked at her..
“anyway, you are on your own from here. I also have my journey to Persue and I don’t plan on tagging you along, you can stay here till morning and find your way back home. I have to go before dawn. I nee-d to cross the boarder.”
“Wait !” she called me before I started moving.
“you can’t just leave me here in the dark alone. where are you going? I can go with you and what boarder are you talking about? Where is this place?” She was now panicking I sighed..
“my dear, we are somewhere near the Zambian boarder in congo. I should cross before morning. so you have any idea how you got here?” I asked her..
“Oh no don’t tell me am in Congo. I have no idea cause i was brou-ght here unconscious, that explains why my father’s men have not found me those bas***ds crossed the boarder, this is hell I can’t believe this is happening to me. Do you have any phone? ” She asked..
“no I don’t and I have to go. If you are coming lets start walking now and by morning, you will head your own way.. ”
“Okay thank you” she nodded as she walked behind me. I switched on my t©uçh and lit the way. I pointed it on my hand and checked the time. It was almost 03am.
After going for a mile I noticed Paula was lagging behind..
“you are tired, we can rest here” I indicated searching the area around the tree. she sat down and hvgged her self. I noticed she was cold, I looked at the sky and the clouds had cleared.
” It would not rain until hours later” i thought to my self..
I sat next to her and she moved closer.
“am scared” she whispered.
“It’s okey” I told her
“we will be fine, there’s nothing to fear, even snakes are hiding from the cold they won’t come out.” I felt her shoulders shiver with the cold, removing my heavy combat jacket I covered her.
” hope you won’t mind the stench” I joked. I felt her shoulders relax she had smiled.
“thank you Akim” .
I smiled too and couldn’t help feel that she felt safe, leaning her head on my shoulder after some minutes she fall asleep.
My mind went back relieving what I just did. It was risky but I felt good about my act. It had been long since I did something I was proud of. Leaning my back on the bark of the tree I fall asleep.
The b©dyguard – Episode 4
By Tisa Phiri
I woke up as the early morning breeze t©uçhed my skin leaving my b©dy feeling chilly, next to me was the woman i rescued the previous night, Paula. I watched her soft movement as she breathed. I could bet she was tired all the beating and shouting she was expo-sed to by those mafias probably gr@bb£d all her strength i thought to myself as i watched her long face.
Her skin looking pale, probably because of the cold and the stress too. I took advantage of the moment and an-alyzed her. She had a slim and long face, her nose a bit pointed out ma-king a shape of a well curved wooden doll. Her thickl-ips with a faint red color, with the silky hair in her head a little bit messed up,but still tied in a pony tail. She was definitely beautiful. I presumed she had a mixture of Asian and African blood. Everything about her face was like a white person, only her skin which wasn`t as white as that of the whites.
“Well Ackim” i sighed,
“of all people you had to rescue a colored girl.” I moved her away from my shoulder she leaned on and slowly placed her head down. She slowly opened her eyes and woke up with a start realising obviously that she wasnt in a luxury be-d, but in the thick forest, with a stranger.
“Hey! sorry i woke you up” i said dusting the leaves from my back.. “its okey,” she responded her eyes wi-de open,
” i was so tired and i sle-pt so much forgetting my situation” she grinned as she stood up removing my combat jacket hanging on her shoulder.
“yeah we have to start off and if we are luck, we might find people ahead and ask exactly where we are, from there you will probably find your way back home” i added looking at the sky trying to re-ad the weather, hoping it wouldn`t rain. But my wish was in vain as the clouds were alre-ady dark and in minutes it would start raining.
“Yeah sure, thank you” she paused obviously she had forgotten my name..
“Ackim” i reminded her.
“yeah” she let a weak smile ex-posing her white and sharp teeth.
“thank you” she continued.
“you saved my life and if God willing we make it out of here alive, i will see to it you are well compensated” she told me as she re-moved her brown leather boot she wore on her feet and hit it on her palm to re-move the small stones and soil that had entered inside.. i watched her feet, her nails well manicured and painted red. she however had a few bruises on her feet.
we stood closer to the tree as the rain started falling. I suggested we waited there until the rains st©pped. The big and thick leaves gave us at least some shelter. Even though a few drops of water still reached us. I handed her a tin of fruits as i opened the last one from my bag..
In total, i had stolen 6 tins from the camp, meaning for the past days i was running i only eat 4 tins. I looked in my bag and re-moved the two bottles of water that had remained, handing Paula one.
“that is all we have left” i said.. gulping on my own water..
” we have to make it on time or you wont survive this jungle” i sighed as the water made its way to my stomach.
The rain st©pped finally and we started our journey.
“so tell me who exactly you are and who your father is. In short, try to explain the details of what is going on in your life.” i asked her as i watched her walk in front of me her skin jeans colored with some dirty, as her small behind moved side to side.
“well ” she begun,
“its a long story, but it seems we have the whole day ahead of us after all,” she chuckled…
“My father is a business man and politician too, we just moved in to Africa, i mean Zambia” she paused.
“some 8 years ago after my mother died in Asia, as you can see am a mixed blood. My mother was Asian and my father is Zambian. so when mom died dad couldn`t stay any longer that side so he decided to come and invest here in his home country. it was easy for him cause he alre-ady had investments running and also he sponso-red a lot of politicians here. so when we moved here, he developed some sudden interest in politics,
the fact that, that would cause him to withdraw some of the privileges to the politicians and also that he has more wealthy, he is a threat to some old politicians and someone is trying to take him down, am not sure how, cause my father and i rarely discuss politics at home. somehow i was caught up in this mess and here i am, am not even sure why they kidnapped me..if my perception is correct or not,am not sure ”
“Hmmmmm i see,” i finally sighed when she st©pped talking,
“being rich isnt that funny after all” i added with a laugh.
” i thought you guys had less problems but i guess we all have challenges uh..”
” yeah Ackim” she let a laugh, “everyone has their own issues to face.. ”
“Now i know ” i sighed,
“so what do you do yourself?” i asked her as we walked on approaching a clear valley ahead.
“I am working with my father`s company, am the chief Executive in one of the mines he has over 80 % of shares, on the Copperbelt”
“where is that?” i asked when she mentioned Copperbelt. I was hoping that would give me a hint of which side of the country we would head.
” Solwezi” she answered
“well great” i giggled,
“that means we are near. I dont think they could have held you far away from Solwezi and the fact that those guys where speaking some sort of Bemba with a tone of Kaonde, it means we sure are close ” i told her..
We c@m£ across a village and seeing the man we had st©pped to talk to my heart rejoiced, up until that moment i didnt realise i alre-ady crossed the boarder. The elderly man was kind especially after seeing how tired Paula looked. He offered as a meal and water which we gladly accepted. After talking to him and asking him some questions, he told us we were a few meters away from the road going to the town. We thanked him, though my kaonde wasn`t so good i was able to grasp most of the things he was saying.
With our bodies energized we matched down to the road as i explained to Paula about myself and how i got where we were. I don`t even know whether my parents are still alive and where they must be. I told her the time i joined the Commando, my father only had 2 years to his retirement day.. we c@m£ to a gravel road and sat down as we waited for a vehicle to show up.
“I wish we had a phone,” Paula said weakly.
“Things could have been easy from here. I could have contacted dad or someone to come pick us up.”
“well we have none my dear” i shrugged removing the jacket. The sun was now shinning up in the clear sky and it was getting a bit h0t. Paula was quite for some time looking at me from head to toe, i caught her glaring.
“What?” I asked looking at myself.. “am i that bad?”
she smiled wi-dely.. “you are okey given the circu-mtances.” She smiled. I shook my head.
An open van st©pped an hour later, i rushed to the driver and told him we nee-ded a lift. Pula offered him some money telling him he will be paid well if he gets us to town.
“This is it then,” i told her as we sat in the back of the open van, the bu-mps moving us from one side to another.
“what is?” she shouted on t©p of the noise from the engine.
” i mean from here we p@rt ways.” i told her dodging a small br@nch ahead as the van moved to the side of the road swaying the pothole ahead.
“No,” she responded seriously,
“you nee-d to clean up and get some other clothes before you go on to your city. i will see to it you are comfortable before leaving” she added..
“that`s to thank you for saving my life….”
“Okey then!” i shouted back.
” lets do that…”
To be continued