THE LAST SMILE
EPISODE 22
Luciana jumped out of Ray’s hands. She could not believe her effrontery. The k!ssonly lasted for a second and immediately she attem-pted it, she remembered Deolu. She had no right to k!ssa stranger, even if he was in pain. Deolu was also in pains at home trying to look for her and here she was, k!ss!nga total stranger who seemed to have more ghosts in his life than real beings. But even as the thought flashed throu-gh her head, she stared at Ray with concern. He was no longer shivering, he just stood, staring at her. It did not look as if tears had dropped from his eyes; his face just looked blank with the hint of confusion. The tears didn’t really qualify to be called tears because it was just a few drops, but tears they were nonetheless. She guessed he was too arrogant to admittedly cry, especially not in front of a girl.
“Oh my!” Ray exclaimed. “I am sorry”
Lucy blinked. “You did not do anything wrong; I am at fault” she quic-kly countered. “Don’t give more meaning to it. I was just trying to calm you down since I was the one who got you upset. Let’s call it a calling k!ss. Guess it worked” she smiled faintly
“First of all, you did not upset me. I should have gotten over this incident but it seems stuck in my br@in. Secondly, you can’t call that k!ssa calming technique; I have been known to be a good k!ss£r, you know. I can give you a proper k!ss” he humoured but it only made her frown and shift uncomfortably.
“Of course, I know that you have a erm… guy but I was just trying to make you smile, dimples” he said and she did smile. He had added dimples to her pet name when her dimples kept calling to him. He also noticed that whenever he called her that, it brou-ght a smile to her face.
“Thanks” he said, jamming his hands into his pocket before he did something stupid.
Lucy frowned. “For what?”
“For calming me with a k!ss”. He laughed when he saw her embarras-sed blus-h. He moved forward and before she could think, he dropped a k!sson her cheek and left the gym.
********************
Teju tried to push her own heartache aside in order to help her friend out. The more she tried, the ha-rder it bec@m£ for her to un-derstand. She had been with that ingrate for more than two years and when it was a few months to their wedding, he chickened out because of a cheap as-s? She could not believe that a man could be so callous. In fact, all men are callous and wicked, she thought.
She gathered her thoughts and concentrated on the issue at hand. She knew that Luciana was Ok but still had no links to her. Not a day pas-sed without her uttering a word of prayer for everyone involved in the struggle – Lucy, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Deolu and all friends and family members involved.
‘That Fred is in Abuja and Inspector Chris has not given us any feedback’ she thought. It has been over two weeks now and there was still no response at all from the station. She wondered why police men were so useless; the only time they are useful is where bribery is involved. Could she blame them? The pres£nt government did not care whether the people ate or starved and the people have taken it upon themselves to do whatever they could for money.
When she had gone to the police station where Deolu was initially kept unlawfully weeks back, she had known that she would get vital information. She had interrogated the officers who carried out the job and found out the truth after much threat. She had given them the option of either winding up in jail or being her informants. Apparently, the latter option was chos£n and she was glad that she had been wise enough. They were the ones who told her that Fred was in Abuja and now, after due research, it has alre-ady been discovered that the police in Abuja were doing next to nothing. No wanted banners or anything that can put Fred on the run. She smelled a rat and she was going to get to the root of it.
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Tinuke sat on a stool in the kitchen as she waited for her food to cook. She shook her head as she remembered the humiliation that Teju had given her. She could not imagine why she had been so quiet. Even though she had the strong urge to sl@p Teju’s face, she hadn’t been able to dare it. Somehow, she feared Teju. Before she even met Teju, she had seen her pictures on Tunde’s phone and discovered that she was a barrister. She always feared people with the long graduants’ go-wn and a wig on their heads.
She had called herself Oyin when she met Tunde. She met him at the boutique, where she had gone to shop, in order to forget her sorrows. Tunde was a fine guy and she nee-ded a distraction so she introduced herself as Oyin and the fun began. She hadn’t seen a guy who could resist her b©dy and Tunde was not an exemption. Virtually everything she told Tunde about herself were lies and the fool believed every word that c@m£ out of herl-ips. She had enjoyed everything until she bec@m£ bored. Tunde did not have enough cash to fit into Tinuke’s type of man. Raymond was everything. Ray had the killer looks that would intimid@t£ any guy, he had the cash, he had the fame and also had the ro-mantic instincts. She nee-ded her man back. She was done pla-ying ‘Oyin’ with Tunde. She wanted her man back. Teju was right; she nee-ded to redefine herself.
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Raymond swallowed as he entered his room. Too many things had happened too fast and he was entirely at fault. He could have simply told Lucy that he could not open that room for her but he had put up the br@ve front and had made it worse by entering the room. He sighed as he thought about his loss of composure. He felt so ashamed of himself. He had lost control in front of her and now she must be thinking that he was a weakling. He hadn’t been able to control himself until Lucy k!$$£d him. That k!sswas all he nee-ded to come back to his s-en-ses.
She had been staying in his house for almost three weeks and everyday, his de-sire to k!ssher and hold her against him increa-sed. He had ensured that he kept his distance from her because he did not want to be seen as taking advantage of her because he helped her. It had been extremely difficult, judging by the way she constantly clouded his s-en-ses. He thought of her every time, even when he was busy at work. He would never have tried anything with her but something alre-ady happened – a k!ss.
When he was in the gym, he ba-rely noticed her pres£nce because all he could see were the events that gave him constant nightmares. He had been certain that he was no longer sane because all his efforts to shut out the mental pictures had failed, but when Lucy had k!$$£d him, he knew it was her. Within that second, all his fears and ghosts vanished and he could feel her. Lucy had made the act look like something irrelevant but he knew that it was not just a ‘calming k!ss’ like she had called it. It might be for her but it was far much more than that to him. He could smell her, he could taste her, he could…
“Oh no” he gro-an ed. “What am I doing?” he re-moved all his clothes in a flash and rushed to the bathroom. When he drove Tinuke away, he had promised himself that he would stay away from the opposite S-x. His permanent break-up with Tinuke was not even a month old and he was alre-ady daydreaming about another girl. It made him wonder if he had actually loved Tinuke. Not that he loved Luciana but…
He jumped out of the shower and decided he nee-ded fresh air. He wore something light and left the house, zooming off like someone was on his tail.
********************
Deolu sat on the couch in Teju’s sitting room. She emerged with two glas-s cu-ps and a pack of jui-ce and filled them, taking one. Deolu took his and sipped.
“Teju” Deolu looked at her with a t©uçh of concern. “I still feel there is something wrong that you are not telling me about. You look sad and hurt”
Teju stared at him. “Why won’t I be sad? Everyone is sad. It is my best friend that is missing here. Anyways, the main reason why I called you here is to find out some things.” She paused to sip her drink before she set it aside. “That DPO you met in Abuja… erm… Chris Chuks, tell me about him”.
“I know nothing about the man. When I got there, I expected to see Frank, my friend, but I saw Chris instead. I called Frank two days ago to help with the case and he told me that he had been transferred.”
“But he is still in Abuja?”
“Yes” he answered.
She adjusted thoughtfully. “I don’t trust that Chris.” An idea struck her and she rushed into the room to get her l@pt©p. Deolu just looked at her, wandering why lawyers made a fuss over little things. The DPO was just not competent enough, that’s all.
Teju launched the browser on her l@pt©p. “When you talked to him about the case, did you notice any discomfort or tension in him”.
“Of course not. He only listened the way any other DPO would.” He answered instantly.
Teju stared at him as she waited for the information she sought to fully load. “Are you a hundred percent sure? Lucy is on the line remember? I just have a strong conviction and I nee-d to be sure”
The mention of Luciana’s name did the trick. “Yes!” Deolu exclaimed. “It was when I gave him the pictures of Lucy and Fred. He was practically shocked. When I querried him, he gave me a flimsy excuse”
Teju nodded distractedly as she opened the data on her l@pt©p. It was Chris Chuks’ biogra-phy. When she re-ad a few lines, she nodded. “I knew it”
“Knew what?” Deolu sat beside her now, re-ading from the l@pt©p.
“He is from Imo state”
“And what has that got to do with this issue?”
Teju wished that she had a lawyer beside her who would un-derstand many things without being told. “Apparently, I heard Fred tell Lucy that he has a brother in Abuja whose name is Chris. That could easily pas-s for a coincidence but it can’t be a coincidence that they are both from the same state, can it?”
“Oh my God! That filthy b******.” Deolu cursed as he rose to his feet. “I should have known”.
Teju relaxed and smiled at the situation and Deolu looked at her with a puzzled expression. She stared at him as if surprised that he could not even decipher what she was thinking. “Fred is in Abuja, meaning, his hideout is more than likely known by Chris. We don’t know where Fred is but we know where Chris is”.
“So, if we can get Chris, we would know where Fred is” he finished and Teju smiled. Deolu smiled wholeheartedly for the first time in days. It can be really wonderful having a lawyer as a friend.
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Raymond got back home when it was alre-ady dark. He had driven round and finally br@nched to greet one of his friends. They had talked and talked till it was dark. As he locked the door of his car, he entered the house with only one thing in mind – sleep. He called Lucy but no answer c@m£. He could not imagine her asleep at that time; it was not 8 o’clock yet. He called and called but did not get any answer. He went to her room and knocked but no answer c@m£. After some time, he opened the door and he met the room empty. Panic was the first thing that aro-se in him. He checked everywhere in the room but did not see her. He ran out to question his gateman but saw a note on the side table in the sitting room.
“Hello Raymond,
Words cannot express how grateful I am that people like you exist. You picked me up and took care of me, risking everything. I am alive today because of God and you. plea-se don’t be sad that I had to leave like this. I figured that if I don’t leave now, I would not want to leave anymore. You made me feel at home in your house. Thank you. I nee-ded to leave because my abs£nce at home would be creating confusion, just as my pres£nce in your house is creating confusion. I nee-d to find a solution to the problem I am in and staying in your place is not ma-king me do anything about it. My people are running around in circles and it is hurting me.
plea-se do me a favour. I nee-d you to accept the past. You are strong and compas-sionate and that is why the death of your parents affected you this much but you have to let it go. I never loved art but I have never seen anything more beautiful than the paintings I saw today. You don’t have to forget your past, you just have to accept it because your past can make you a better and stronger person. Painting brings you fulfillment and it would hurt to see you give up what you love doing. God loves you. Don’t stay angry at God because he does not make mistakes. He gives, he takes. The same way you have the power to do anything you like with your paintings is the same way God has the power to do what he wants to do with us. It was not your parents that got burnt in that crash but their flesh. When we get to heaven, we would see them without a single scratch. Your parents would be very happy where they are if you keep on holding on to God like they wanted you to.
plea-se greet Vicky and tell her that I would miss her terribly. She is always in my heart and my prayers. Wish she was my sister. I would miss you a lot Ray and the nicknames you call me.
With Love
Sugar”
The paper sli-pped out of Ray’s f!ngersas he stared into space.
Tbc