Bitch

Episode 41

“Have they called?” Henry asked Zainab as she returned with the three million naira, he
looked rather cool and relaxed compared to
Zainab who looked like someone whose
brother had just been kidnapped… Well, her
brother had just been kidnapped.

Her mind was somewhere else and Henry had
to ask the second time before she shook her
head in response.

“Good! That gives us more time to get ready.”

Henry replied.

“Get ready? They requested for ten million but
we have just three million. They obviously
don’t want the police to be involved and
surprisingly, you don’t want the police to be
involved too… I’m beginning to wonder whose
side you are on.”

“Firstly, I didn’t say I don’t want the police to be involved. I said, I don’t you to call the
police YET, we would involve them in the right
time.” He replied and started walking out of
the room. “Now, while I go get the bags, can
make yourself useful and divided the money
with you into three equal parts?”

Zainab really wanted to reply, but non of the
responses that popped into her head made
sense. She just closed her opened mouth and
started doing as she was told.

@@@@@

“Are you enjoying the meal?” John asked.

Jummy had her mouth full so she had to
quickly chew and swallow before she replied.
“Enjoy? That’s a modest word to express how good this food tastes. How did you know that I loved Pounded yam and Egusi with STRICTLY
goat meat?”

Henry smiled, “when you date someone long
enough and love her truly, everything she says
is important and you don’t forget it even if
you want to.”

Jummy couldn’t help but blush, but the
thoughts of how much John had hurt her
crossed her mind once more. She just couldn’t
accept him because of a fancy dinner and the
few changes he had made, after all what’s
worse than walking home and catching your
husband s——g his best friend who happens
to be MALE.

“It would have been much better if it was a
female.” She suddenly said out loud without
even knowing.

“What did you say?” John asked looking
confused, he heard her clearly but didn’t quite
get what she meant at the time and was
wondering what that had to do with the meal.
“Nothing.” Jummy replied and started rinsing
her hand. “I’ve lost my appetite,” she added as she did so.

John was more confused now, what have I
done wrong? He thought
“Jummy…” He called out her name.

“John… Please don’t even start. You know one funny thing, even after what you did to me…”

“Jummy…” He cut in.

She continued like he hadn’t said anything. “I
still love you, and I hate it that I love you. But
wiether or love you or not doesn’t matter
anymore…”

“Jummy…” He cut in once again.

“I’m glad you have changed because that
would make things easier for the next lady you
meet. We can be friends but you and I can
never be together again.” She picked up the
napkin and wiped her mouth then stood up to
leave.

“Are you done?” John asked.

“I’m going.” She replied as she fought back
the tears that were in the mood to let loose.

“I know I’m a jerk and a huge idiot who
doesn’t deserve you especially after what I did to you, and I also know no amount of ‘sorry’ can relief you of the pain I caused you. But there is a small problem, I just don’t want to be just your friend.” Henry paused, stood up and walked to the front of Jummy, he held her hands. “Jumoke, you are the one I see anytime I sleep, the one I can’t survive a
minute without thinking about, the makes life
worth living… I mean I think about you and its
like nothing else matters, you bring me joy…
Jummy…” He looked her straight in the eyes,
“you complete me.”

Jummy was speechless. No one had ever said
such beautiful things to her and she really
wanted to kiss him on that spot and forget
everything, but the ugly memories of what he
had done crossed her mind once more.

“John, I wish it was that easy. I’ve forgiven
you but like I said earlier, you and I can’t
work. I’m going home, don’t bother about
taking me home, I’ll find my way home.”

With that, Jummy stormed out, tears rolling
freely down her cheek as she did so.

John sat on the floor confused. He finally
realized something; he really meant everything
he said to Jummy and he hated himself for
hurting her.

He stood up and walked over to the roof’s
slab and looked down. Without having
Jummy, life didn’t seem worth living anymore
to him.

@@@@@

A few minutes later, Henry reappeared with
three identical bags but instead of them to be
empty, they all seemed to be half filled with
something.

He walked closer to Zainab and dropped the
bag at her front grinning.

Zainab looked up at him and saw he was
grinning. “What’s making you grin?” She
asked.

“Never mind, just put one million into each
bag and make sure the money covers the
newspapers under totally.”

“Newspapers? What are you talking about?”

Zainab inquired.

“You are a smart lady, you can’t possibly tell
me you don’t get the idea of what we are
going to do yet.” Henry said with a sigh.
“Wait… Wait… Wait!!! We are talking ’bout my brother here. We aren’t going to try and trick the kidnappers, they might get angry and I’m sure I don’t want them to throw their anger on my brother. When they call…”

Speaking about the devil, Zainab was
interrupted as her phone suddenly started
ringing.

She looked at the screen and saw the number
was hidden just like the first time the
kidnappers had called. She knew it was them.
She picked the call and put it on loud speaker.

“Hello.” She said.

“Have you gotten the money ready?” Mr Dayo
asked.

Zainab had to make a decision quickly. She
could either say yes and hope Henry’s plan
worked out as planned or say no and let her
brother stay in the arms of people who could
really ‘hurt’ him. She was still weighing her
options when she suddenly heard a scream in
the background which sounded a lot like
Taofeek’s voice.

“Who was that?” She asked.

“Oh! So you are still there? I thought you had
died while answering the phone so I decided
to motivate you… NOW IS MY MONEY READY
OR NOT!!!”

Without thinking Zainab replied “yes! Its
ready.”

“Good, now we are talking. Here’s what you
are going to do, get into you car now and
drive to Cele express. Look around and you
would see two bridges, a motor bridge and a
pedestrian bridge. Carry the three bags and
walk to the pedestrian bridge. I’ll call you in
twenty minutes time so that means you have
twenty minutes to get there.”

“Okay.” Zainab said with her voice shaking.

“I don’t think its necessary to tell you to come alone right?”

“Yes.” Zainab replied and a beep followed as
the call was disconnected.

Without saying a word to Zainab, Henry
unzipped one of the bags and started loading
it with the money… Zainab paused for a
minute, staring at him in silence.

“You have twenty minutes and you are
admiring me?”
Zainab didn’t bother replying as she snapped
back to reality. She unzipped another bag and
started filling it up.

@@@@@*

For someone who was in the hands of
kidnappers who just opened a tool box filled
with weird looking things that could really hurt
someone, Taofeek looked pretty relaxed.

“Do you know what this is?” The other man
who had walked in with Mr Dayo asked Henry
as he held a tool that looked exactly like a
screw driver.

“A screw driver?” Taofeek replied as if asking for some sort of confirmation.

The man pressed a button on the screw-driver
and the tip of the screw-driver splited only to
reveal two sharp looking pin-like objects that
replaced the tip of the screw-driver.

“No my friend, this isn’t a really a screw-
driver. Its more like an injection with two pins.

The problem I have with it is that it doesn’t
cause much pain.”

Taofeek opened his mouth in shock, why
would he want it to cause more pain? He
wondered.

“What do you plan on doing with that?” He
asked.

“Just to motivate your sister.” Mr Dayo cut in
and the dialed Zainab’s number.

Everybody was quite for a few minutes and
then Mr Dayo spoke “have you gotten my
money ready?”

Taofeek listened carefully and tried to
understand the conversation. The next thing
he knew, the weird looking screw-driver was
stabbed into his laps and he let out and ear
deafening scream.

The only tangible things he got out of Mr
Dayo’s conversation was one: he definitely
was somewhere about a place called Cele
Express and Zainab had the money prepared.

He was going to be free at last! He thought to
himself and smile formed on his face.

He forgot things don’t also go as planned.

@@@@@

In no time, the bags were filled and the
newspapers were properly covered with the
money.

“Let’s go, I’ll drive.” Henry said to Zainab.

“Didn’t you hear the part where I’m meant to deliver the money alone?”

“And you would deliver the money alone, but
I’m driving you there, besides, I’m a better and faster driver.”

Zainab wasn’t in the mood to argue. She tried
to pick up the the three bags and take them
to the car, but they were too heavy. Henry
folded his arms and watched her struggle with
the bags in amusement. When he had had
enough fun, he walked over and snatched the
bags from and her hands, easily lifting then
from the floor.

“And later, you females would say ‘what a
man can do, a woman can do better’, when
you can just carry a few newspapers.” Henry
said as he walked away.

Zainab smiled.

By the time they got to the car and were on
the road, Zainab picked up her phone and
dialed a number.

Henry saw that she held the phone to her ears
and became curious, “who are you calling?”
“Someone. You don’t expect us to go without
the police knowing and not even a friend in
case thing go wrong?”
“Nothing would go wrong.”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances,” she replied
and before Henry could reply, the recipient
picked up.

“Do you know what time it is?” Jummy asked
from the other end of the line.

“Shut up and listen, this is serious.” Zainab
replied then when she got Jummy’s attention,
she went ahead to tell her the whole story and
made Jummy promise not to call the police…

Jummy promised then Zainab hung up.
“Now, someone knows where we were last
seen.” Zainab said to Henry.

They got to the bridge as instructed and
Zainab walked out of the car alone, dragging
the three bags along, she stood at the
pedestrian bridge just as instructed.

Her phone went life at exactly twenty minutes.

“Are you there?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Good. Now, do as I say. Drop one of the bags
beside the middle pillar of the pedestrian
bridge the take the remaining two back to the
car and drive to Mile 2 – Oke, you have ten
minutes to do that.” The call went dead.

Jummy did exactly as told and went back to
the car.

“Why did you drop one bag there and what
would happen to the remaining bags?” Henry
asked looking confused.

“That was the instruction, now drive to Mile 2
– Oke.”

“Wow!!! This just got quite interesting.”

Henry said as he started the car.