UNDER SIEGE (A Story Of Hope)

by Ciuri Di Badia

  They both reflected the events of the day as they walked abreast. Each one of them had got what they wanted. They both felt as if a load had been lifted from their shoulders. They knew it too well; the arguments and suspicions were over. From that day, they were revamped.

  Nothing compares to what they had been through. Not even jilted lovers come close. Taking a case of the latter, also called heart-broken lovers; they feel weighed down by the break up that befell them. It’s like something disconcerting has been bestowed upon their being. That goes deeper especially when one looks at photos, letters, gifts and other memorabilia that reminds them of their ex. It is until one gets rid of such knick-knacks that one feels better. You need to burn, throw away or give out such mementos in order for you to be free. Free from your past. Let go of your past.

  The couple continued walking together in cackles and chuckles. They held each others hands as they celebrated their marriages’ renewal; a special kind of renewal in their own rights.

  Convinced that he had a faithful wife, Kamau opened a new page in his life as he swore to forever trust and believe his wife. Wambui was happy. She knew that she won’t be under siege anymore as the husband now trusts her. She also knew that she would continue enjoying her secret lover, unabated.

  The secret lover was all smiles. First he had escaped death and shame. Secondly, their secret was not unearthed. Thirdly Munyotu knew that he was in for the plucking for a long time.

  Wit can take a person to unimaginable extents. It’s a diffused reflection of peoples IQs. You don’t have to be born bright to discover witty ways of having your way. When you use it appropriately, as Wambui did, it reverses situations to the unexpected; it transforms a lie into a hypothetical truth. It creates boundless opportunities as it works the seemingly unworkable.

  For the husband, as an adage goes, his stupidity was not a crime but, it somewhat called for a punishment, a background chastisement in the sharing of the perceived sole eaten hairy pie with an ever hungry window sneaking beast.

  That’s it with cheating wives and aficionados. Having driven the point home, let us go back to civilization and not hold the breath of the main story for too long; Tommy required a wit that would alter his course of events. He required some help from wit, he required it quickly.

  * * * * * * *

  Tommy’s chances were like that of a couple who want to conceive a baby boy. No matter how you look at it the practicability of such a desire is far from a guarantee. In as much as effective and premeditated insemination is; most couples prefer the natural means. Talking of the natural means, a person has a limited role in determining its final product. There lies the big puzzle when it comes to the choice of baby’s gender. Everyone dreams of a precise gender….holding a baby boy or a baby girl. Very few speak in terms of either.

  I heard somebody say that where there is an aim, there is a way. This is how it goes. It’s just a game of chromosomes and if somebody understands their characteristics one can manipulate them to conceive a child with the sex that they desire. The male gamete that results into a boy (y-chromosome) is very fast but it does not live for a long time.

  On the other hand, the gamete that sprouts into a girl (x-chromosome) is slower but survives for a longer time even in acidic conditions. So, if you try to conceive days before ovulation, you are likely to conceive a girl since the time lag will lead to the death of the y-gametes. However, if you target the ovulation day, with a deep penetration, you are more likely to conceive a boy since the y-sperms are very fast in swimming and are likely to fertilize the ovulated female gamete.

  The point am trying to make with this is that one can stage-manage situations or environment so that they result as one wishes.

  * * * * * * *

  Chapter 5

  Birma was ‘resting’ on a couch in her room when she heard Blake, the security officer, knocking at her door. She staggered slowly to open it in a semi-conscious toddle.

  Blake was a well built man who seemed like he could wrestle anyone or anything that had the propensity of having life. However, his blatant shyness set him back; it happened often, more so when he was talking to women. Responding out of the dictates of his nature, he usually blushed off; facing his own toes. As he was a married man, many used to wonder how he courted his wife and finally convinced her that he was the right man to tie the knot with him. It is an enigma that is very hard to recount.

  On that particular day, he looked confused and apprehensive. He was agitating all along as Birma was opening her door. His disconcertion was obvious. It was as if he had an apology to make or he was unsure of whom he was to find at that residence.

  In an uptight and a tense voice, Blake said

  “Excuse me miss; the gentleman in the next apartment is asking for you”

  After a short exchange, Blake left. Birma on the other hand was left, pre-occupied with thoughts.

  She hastily flapped her hands over her head, straightened her t-shirt as a short prettification before she made the impromptu call in on Tommy.

  She shut her door behind her and hurriedly rushed towards Tommy’s shack. Her heart pounded heavily as she neared his door. She pushed it open and in she went, not bothering to observe the conventional etiquettes such as those of knocking or flipping the bell. In there, the environment literally turned her to a dumb; she couldn’t utter a word.

  Tommy broke the escalating silence by superciliously asking

  “Birma, Birma, Birma; if you are not interested in what I have to say, then why have you come?”

  She stood there motionless, defeated and powerless. Tommy was on his way to winning in the game of wits.

  She acceded, mumbling in a mumble-jumble that sounded something like this.

  “You see, after we parted, I thought about what you told me and I regretted turning down your offer. My reaction reflected the inverse of my true feelings. It was naïve to do so. To the contrary, I enjoyed your seductive-talk.”

  Tommy was right all along; when one is faced with synthetic bottlenecks, the surest way to sail through is by using some inversed wits. Those wits will be your means to the end. However, the wits can be the end; that is if you are found out.

  For Tommy, the girl he admired capitulated to his advances because of wit. She went to him, and with that, she had accepted everything it brought with it.

  The tone and nature of their conversations changed as they started smiling and feeling at ease with each other. They scorned and scoffed at each other over the walk they had taken several days before. They made it sound hypothetical as if it had not happened in reality.

  It was in that transmuting environment that they slowly found themselves making-out. They breath-took as they continued to kiss and embrace. Mutual caresses came as auxiliaries. It went on and on until they got into the extremities.

  In the middle of the raging hormones, Tommy prosaically coughed out

  “What a nice and appetizing garden you’ve got down there?”

  “It is of no use to me if there is no deontologist to plough and sow it proficiently as you can, dear. It would feel awesome ploughing it with you”

  Some say that big things come in small packages; this particular case was no different. The package they were in, though small, was too heavy for one to carry home------same as to say that he went limp at the moment of truth. It was as if Tommy was in the peak of E.D, leaving Birma high and dry.

  She implored and implored him for sometime. However, with one reason after another, he found paramount excuses and negated the ding dong, hanky panky. Nevertheless, he promised her a good time the following day. They continued talking for a while, laughing and staving hi-fives on the air. It went on and on. Ebbing low, they indolently parted thereafter.

  Their nights were full of fantasies as they both took flights of the imagination; each of them fancied what was to happen the following day. They had difficulties in getting into deep sleep as the whimsies kept on pounding back, again and again.

 
On the next day, Tommy and his male neighbor coincidentally met Quinsy at Bakers hotel. Dan had invited Tommy to lunch during their lunch-break. Quinsy arrived several minutes after Tommy. As soon as she entered the hotel lobby, she noticed Tommy and Dan seated at the ambient end. She went towards them. Tommy welcomed her and invited her to join in and have lunch with them.

  In low tones, they talked as they gobbled up a hotchpotch of an assortment of some Italian dishes.

  At some time, Dan left to play darts as there was more time before he could return to his place of work. With the partial privacy, Quinsy was able to pour-out burning issues from her heart. With reservations, she remarked.

  “I see that you did not leave and you are doing well”

  “My contract in Oregon got rescinded and I resorted to finding a new job here”

  He paused for sometime before continuing

  “I did not believe that we had to break-up like that. It was a cruel thing to some degree”

  “It was nothing big. Ours was just a few days stand” Quinsy countered.

  He informed her of his new girlfriend and in return, she wished him well and insisted that he should come to her if he needed anything.

  “Just any” she added.

  “Right”

  “Please I do mean it Tommy” Quinsy asserted

  Dan returned and they continued engaging in tri-parity at length, before they returned to their respective work places.

  The rest of the day went well for everybody. When Birma went home that evening, she first checked her mails in her mailbox. She found three letters and a serrated card. The letters were from her parents and one from her sister who had relocated to the British Isles along with her husband. They usually preferred sending each other letters as they gave a more lively touch to their conversations as opposed to e-mails. I guess reading from each others handwritings did the trick.

  The letters did not excite her as the strange looking card did. Being red in color was reason enough to raise eye-brows. The card was addressed to Birma’s address but did not contain her name. it had a strange message that was so brief. Birma was bemused by this. An inextricable code that was printed in black appeared on the middle of the card. It stated;

  ‘You know your alphabet? Then 21 23’9’12’12 4’9’5’’

  Not understanding the message that was being conveyed, she shrugged off the idea that somebody could be menacing or sending an ill-intended signal to her. To her reprieve, she believed that it was a misaddressed mail that had accidentally landed to her address. As riddance, she tossed it in a drawer and forgot about it. She then went on to read the other letters.

  On that evening, Tommy went home earlier than the previous days, and first checked on Birma. He gave her a peck as she opened the door for him. They then embraced. However, he did not stay for long; he just assured her that he would be back to deliver to his promises. She joked by saying that he would find her nude when he returns.

  Tommy’s other neighbor, Dan, was one unlucky bloke. First, during his early teen years, he had a car accident that left his right leg with a joint fragmentation that caused him to limp on his right side. It neither allowed him to walk for long distances nor carry heavy loads by himself. Further more he had to contend with mocks from his fellow teenagers over his funny walking style. It used to bother him very much at school. Ridicules emanated not only from his peers but also from his juniors at high school. To his let off, those deride and scorns reduced as he grew older.

  Now, his limping does not bother him that much; at least when talking of a typical social setting. Unfortunately, he cannot claim the same when it comes to his love life. He had for a long time lusted for women but none of them had so far given him a chance of exploring his lust. So, the situation had had his libido escalated to its zenith.

  The girl he had been eyeing for sometime was still out of reach. No matter what he did, nothing seemed to be working. All his efforts simply ended in failure. Despite his infatuative connotation, she austerely failed to fall for him. It happened time and again.

  Tommy whizzed to his apartment after greeting and jesting with Dan who was fixing his car in front of Birma’s apartment. He took a bath and went into a track suite before he took his dinner. He danced with anticipation as shower water sluiced him from above. He couldn’t believe that the moment he mad been looking forward to the whole had ultimately come.

  As he was opening a broth tetra pack, his phone rang and after picking, he heard a hoarse voice of a man summoning him to his van outside. He said that he was the delivery man and that he had a parcel that required Tommy’s personal collection. He placed the tetra pack beside the noodles that he intended to take it with. He then rushed to his bedroom and took is identification card from his wallet and dashed outside.

  When Tommy went to the van, he found the two guys at the back who were busy putting together his assumed package. The package consisted of a best friend card, a crystal ball curio and a black-forest cake; all from Quinsy.

  Lights in Birma’s apartment went off as she started preparing for the growl with Tommy. Her minds’ eye was running wild with imaginations of what was about to happen that evening. To calm her exited mind, she put on some loud music on her CD-changer. It worked.

  She had, for a while, longed and dreamt of such a day. She felt that she couldn’t be able to carry her dream through another day if it didn’t come to pass that evening. Of that; she was sure. With everything already laid out, Birma was fired-up. Only one thing was setting her back from enjoying the moment fully: her impatience. It was deeply corroding her; just like a hydrochloric pint would when sliding down ones throat. Nonetheless she continued waiting.

  In about ten minutes, a masculine stature entered the already dark room. With a minimal conversation, the two occupants swung into action; breath-taking, as they sunk deeper and deeper into ‘catching the strokes’

  They had very little preliminaries as they were already ‘warmed-up’ and instead, hastily pirouetted for the bedroom where they started the muffle ride. They entangled themselves between the creased sheets, seeing their passions ooze like a spurt from water fountain. As the ride got deeper, grunts and groans of a fervent satisfaction could be heard emanating from the usually silent bedroom. They went on and on with the benefiting act, of which’s sweetness was only known to themselves.

  After a while, the door flung open and another tall man pecked in. The first thing that he heard was the shrill gasps and thumps in the background of the deafening music. The mixed hums could be heard coming from the direction of the bedroom. To him, it all seemed like a distant presentiment. First, he was not expecting it and secondly, it did not feel real. It was as if he was dreaming. His bewildered mind was torn between what was happening and the thought that he could be dreaming. Well, for his sake, I wish it could have been the latter.

  He neared the bedroom door where he placed his ear against the door to get a clear understanding of what could be happening. He tried once and again. To his disappointment, the unclear echoes failed to affirm his suspicions. He opened the door slowly and then flipped the lights on. That’s when it dawned on him, straight and clear. It was a shocker. Inside the glinted room; he could not believe what he was seeing, he just couldn’t.

  He switched off the lights in a bid to draw himself away from the disgusting scenario before him. It helped a bit. He couldn’t take it anymore, he couldn’t withstand the sight of getting them in the act and needless to say the feeling of betrayal, he just walked out, ignoring the door behind him. In his opinion, he had been deluded, and nothing could convince him otherwise. He was utterly mad, mad with fury.

  Perhaps the booming music, the creaking bed and the attention-taking love making prevented them from hearing neither the door being opened nor the lights being turned on. It was an inextricable setting that no one could really unravel what lead to what.

  They ended their bedroom demolition derby as they came together in unison. Dan swiftly grabbed his
shirt and trouser and run to the living room. He quickly dressed-up and limped out lest Birma discover that it was a rejected, semi-crippled man who had worked wonders on her.

  Dan was a man in vanity as he crawled out, proud of achieving his lifetime dream of savoring the sweetness of a woman. He finally got a stint of it; he got to know what lies in between the legs of every beautiful woman he sees walking down the streets.

  Inside the immediate Dan-departed apartment, Birma was pulling herself together as she wondered where her supposedly ‘sweet Tommy’ was. She had scanty thoughts that branded her partner as the bomb, a bed-breaker whom had managed to deliver her to the gaga sensations. In a self denial, she faintly convinced herself that no matter where he had rushed to, he would be back, back to perhaps give her some more lovin’. She made her hair as she completely ‘woke-up’ from a ‘roller-costar’ ride, only that she was missing the hurly-burleys that go on in amusement parks.