Empty 4

Empty 4

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⟹ ⟹ ⟹ PLAY THE SONG BEFORE READING. START THE SONG FIRST.

 

One by Ed Sheeran

 

It had been a couple of hours of trying to make sense of the entire thing when Sam showed up with some food. I was still angry and confused but Sam had one rule, no matter what was going on, I still had to eat. She had stopped by her house and brought some rice, smoked turkey and some “aya mase” stew. The plantain was part of the accompanying party; even death could not make me play with that. Looking frustrated like a kid who did not want to eat their vegetables, she forced me to eat. About 20 minutes later my nostrils were blazing, heat burning through my stomach and I was still angry.

“Okay, now tell me what happened. Again”

She said in her usual calm voice.

“Can you believe that bastard? My useless uncle Dele, impregnated my mother and then killed her!”

I raged out of the blocks.

“He did it! I know he did it!”

I continued physically showing signs of aggravation and anger as I clenched my fists together. 

“Look at the papers”

I pointed at the sheets lying on the bed.

“She was transferring monies to him for God knows what and he was also in town the day she went for her appointment at the doctors. Why?! What was he doing there? And then he goes with them on vacation and then all of a sudden, they turn up dead and they are fine?!

No Sam! He did it!”

I paused…

“Are you sure baby? That sounds like a lot to accuse someone of babe.”

Sam began with. I knew it was going to annoy me. A frown came across my face as she spoke.

“Why don’t you let the detective know what you have found and then let him do his job and find out the truth”

She was such a voice of reason for me but it was so annoying that she was telling me what I needed to hear and not what I wanted. Ugh!

“But…. I know….”

She placed her hand over my lip and walked me slowly backwards to the bed.

“Come and get some rest my king, it has been an intense and long day. You need some rest”

I gently sat on the bed as she kissed my still burning lips.

Sniff. Sniff.

I lay on my back thinking about everything. She lay next to me. Her head on the right side of my chest; I ran my hand down her hair. I was still confused but she made sense. She was the only thing in my life that made sense.

.     .     .      .      .      .

I slowly turned over and stretched out my body. I rolled within the sheets for a bit. Twisting and turning, my mind trying to ignore the reality of time that awaited me outside my closed eyes.

I stopped turning and lay still, my eyes still closed, I could hear the clock ticking outside my heart…

“Tick…. Tick… Tick”

In the focus of that I realized that I was alone in bed. I had fallen asleep with Sam firmly draining the blood out of my right arm as her decent sized head camped on it all through the night. I had watched her sleep with her mouth slightly ajar and her drooling out. She was a beautiful woman, even in her sleep but her drooling was something I still marveled at. Even “perfect” beings have

I had been in my thoughts for roughly about 5 minutes and I finally decided to open my eyes.  I opened my eyes and the sunbeams invited themselves into my room and onto my face. It was warm. I turned around and to my back on the left side of my bed; I glanced at the alarm clock. Set 15 minutes ahead of what the actual time was, it read 12:18pm.

“Shit!” 

I muttered as I ran my hand over my head. I had clearly over slept. Oh well, I got up and grabbed my phone. A few people had texted me. Sam also texted to wish me a good morning and asked me to call her to update her later;

“Good morning my love, I am writing this message standing over you right now. Not like crazy eyes from OITNB but with watchful loving eyes. I just planted soft kisses all over your handsome bearded face. You look like a warrior that just won a grueling battle or when you’ve passed out from me sucking your dick dry after you’ve cum. Lol. Okay, okay sorry I brought that up. Olowo ori mi, I just want you to know that no matter what you decide to do, I’ll be by you 200% as always. Don’t forget that. Please call me when you wake up or after you speak to the detective. I love you mucho mucho grande. If you wake up in time, I made some eggs, they are covered in the microwave. I know how much you hate stale or cold food. Make sure you eat, or you’ll catch these hands!”

I smiled and sat up. Damn, I had slept for a cool minute or more like hours. I had been so tired. Work and life had managed to drain me out. I needed all that sleep after an emotionally draining day. I pulled up my phone and dialed his number; detective. Sigh.

The conversation was very similar to the one I had with Sam. He listened while I blabbed and then he said,

“I will be in Dallas tomorrow afternoon. We have some leads on our end too and I have some action to take care of over there.”

“I will be there too.”

I said, beginning to head for my computer to book the next flight. I was ready to go down there and witness the evil man that murdered my parents go down.

I hung up the phone and texted Sam about the plans. I was going to take the next 5 days off. She only needed to take off 1 working day as it was already Thursday. She responded with a simple,

“Okay baby”

Rushed packing and close to a thousand dollars later; tickets booked. We were leaving that night. I called up my supervisor and told her I had a family emergency to attend to out of state and I would be gone. I packed up all the letters and papers on the floor and dumped them into a garbage bag. I packed the full garbage bag into a suitcase of it’s own and continued packing. It was almost 8pm and we had a 10:05pm flight to catch. I hated being late so you can imagine how I felt sitting in front of my condo leaning on my car and Sam still hadn’t shown up.

I was texting on my phone when Sam pulled up.

“Baby, I’m sooooooo sorry. It was my best friend that held me up, that’s why I’m late.”

I rolled my eyes and sternly said,

“Olatokunbo!”

I only ever called her by her “Nigerian” name when she had done something really bad.

She looked up at me and didn’t respond. She had those eyes, those “forgive me right now I’m a baby girl eyes”. I couldn’t help it.

“Just enter the car and let’s go!”

I had checked in online and all I really needed to do was drop off my car at the airport-parking garage.

The check-in process was smooth. It was about 10:11pm when I glanced at my watch sitting on the window seat of the plane. I hated looking out the window while flying, it made me want to throw up but I also loved watching the takeoff and landing. That’s why I religiously picked that seat for all my flights. Minutes later we were taking off and I looked out the window, I must have stared too long as I began to have motion sickness. I closed the window and leaned back in my seat. I glanced at Samantha who was already reading an article for work. I reached for my wallet and looked at the picture of my parents to ensure that I had it in there. A deep sadness covered my heart. I took in a deep breath and sighed heavily; I was going to fight for the justice in whatever way I had to.

The heat hit me as we walked out of the DFW airport. I was tired but ready to go. These next few days would be eye opening and I had to be ready. We were sitting down outside the airport waiting for my cousin to come and pick us up. It just seemed like everyone wanted to make me wait that day. It had been 30 minutes and no sign of her, so I called up her phone. She answered at the second ring and told me that she wasn’t the one coming to get us. I was still trying to figure it all out when Sam drew my attention to a car that pulled up behind me. I turned around and thought to myself,

“What the heck man?!”

“What was he doing here? Was he trying to die?!”

Sam, knowing how my temper can fly off the handle sometimes, immediately walked up to me and placed her hands around me.

 

“Calm down and talk baby she continued to say” 

I was heated and ready to pop off. This man killed my parents and then thought it was okay to come here? Is he mad?

I finally spoke…

“I am not getting in that car”

I said to my uncle, now standing out of the car. He looked at me calmly and said,

 “Femi, the police department already called and spoke to me to today. I know what you think and how you feel but I would not have come here if I was guilty. Please sit in the car and let me explain and I will tell you all that I know. If after that you still want to leave, that is fine.”

I shook my head in disapproval and he continued to talk. Sam finally said, in a whispering voice,

“Just hear him out babe, we can even leave our bags outside the car”

Sigh. She just always made sense. We left our bags next to the car, curbside to the airport door and sat in the car. I sat in the front and Sam in the back directly behind me.

“Femi, I know you know about your mom and I.”

 My uncle started and then he continued on to say,

“But I want you to know that I would have never killed her. I loved her and truly wanted to care for her and out baby.”

I felt like he thought this was meant to make me feel better but it actually served to annoy me. Sam placed her right hand on my shoulder and slowly rubbed it in a motion to calm me down.

My uncle continued;

“I don’t have all the answers but that woman was carrying my child and to me, that meant something so I would never harm her or your father in that way. “

He then went on to say something that resonated with me and changed the direction of my thought; a Yoruba proverb from our homeland;

“Kokoro ton je efo, idi efo lo wa”

 

Which essentially means, 

“The enemy/root of your problems are closer than you think”

Then he asked,

“Would you be staying with us at the house tonight or do you have hotel reservations somewhere?”

Sam responded from the back seat,

“Uncle we’ll stay at the house”

He started the car and began driving. I said nothing; staring out the windshield my brain was running in all different kinds of ways. I was now more confused than ever. What did he mean? What was going on? What the bloody fuck was going on?!

.    .    .     .     .     .

Shots on Shots | Ice Prince and Sarkodie

Our bodies were off by a few hours but we woke up around 1pm after getting home that morning from the airport at about 6am. I had spent most of those hours lying in what used to be my room and staring out the window trying to understand what my uncle meant. Sam had woken up in the middle of the night and left the room for a period of time. I thought I might have been snoring or something, it made no sense to me at the time.

I hadn’t taken a shower when my uncle called out for me to come downstairs. Walking down the stairs to the living room, Sam closely behind me, I noticed Det. Rosen sitting on the couch. He stood up and shook my hand. I sat down across from my uncle with the detective to my left side.

He began talking;

“We have been investigating what was originally ruled as an accident but was actually the murder or your relations. Some of the evidence we gathered has led us to believe that we have a few more questions to ask. The evidence on ground shows that someone in your room (he pointed towards my uncle) during the vacation used their key card to leave the room during the middle of the night before the incident. So at this point, we are here to take you and your wife in for further questioning and continue to investigate the case”

My uncle looked on ahead; flat and unmoved like he saw all this coming and in many ways, he did. All my uncle said as the detective placed him under arrest was,

“Femi, find the truth.”

I was standing with Sam holding on to my left arm looking really sad. As the detective walked my uncle to the second living room, towards the main door. We heard the key, someone opening the door from the other side. It was my aunt.

“What is going on here?”

She asked with a confused look on her face. I began to try to explain and then she put her hand up as it to shut me up.

“Officer, you have the wrong person”

She said as dropped her bags on the floor and sat upright, her back up against the wall.

“I did it.”

Those were the first words out of her mouth in her seated position. I was shocked. Just like everyone in the room.She then went on a long confessional where everyone stopped and was silent in awe and disbelief.

“I am tired of all the lies and the sneaking around and playing dumb. Dele, I knew you were sleeping with my sister a full year before she died. After all we went through Dele, everything! My own sister?! Chai! Chai! Chai! Dele!!! There is God o.

 Anyway, all those “research trips” you were taking out to Dallas when we still lived in California. I knew it was to sleep with her. And you left me with your kids. I was crushed. And my sister had always taken from me since we were kids. She always got all the men, all the boys that I liked, she had them because they thought she was prettier. She rejected one guy that wanted her and then he came to me. Of course I fell for him. I did everything for him. And then I got pregnant… 23 and pregnant. I could not keep the baby because I knew our father would kill me. So I devised a plan. It had come to my attention from one of my sister’s ex friends that she had damaged her womb and could not have children. So I suggested that she and I should run to the US from Nigeria and I would have the baby and give it to her. So she could call it her own…”

She paused as she was getting teary eyed. Everyone was still glued in their standing positions.

“Your “father”, her husband, never knew. She planned that part well and he always thought you were his. Femi, you are that child. You are my son…”

Those words cut through me. I felt like I was stabbed in my gut. There was no way. I felt winded and took a step back to reaffirm my stance. “What The FUCK MANNNN?”

She continued as my uncle’s face remained covered in calm. He knew all of this. My mother had told him.

“Femi, I brought you into this world and gave you to my sister because at the time, I knew I could not raise a son. I just couldn’t. And I knew she needed a child. I did that for my sister. I gave her the greatest gift one could; life. And she selfishly took away my happiness. Taking money from our business and giving it to the worthless piece of shit called a man here (she pointed at my uncle). I had silently watched the two of them play everyone like fools without saying anything but I couldn’t take it anymore. The night in Hawaii, we were drinking and I offered her something and she said no. She and my husband left the pool side for a while and I knew what they were off doing. I don’t know what came over me that night when I went and tampered with the brakes. I really didn’t want to kill them. I just wanted her to be scared off him from the trauma of a minor accident. The next morning when Dele tried to go and join them to go sightseeing, I stopped him because of the risk. He knew nothing at the time; only if anything.

 

My sister took from me after all I had given her. She was always taking from me. I had to take some power back. I am sorry I hurt her. I am sorry I hurt you. I am so sorry…”

She was now wailing, streams of tears rushed down her cheeks. The detective took the hand cuffs off my uncle and began reading the Miranda rights to my aunt as he began to cuff her. She didn’t fight back. She was sobbing and silent.

I was now in full flow of tears. Trying to process it all, I had my hands on my knees in a bent position and then I looked up and said,

“Did you know she was pregnant?”

My aunt’s eyes grew bigger and now she began to wail and cry.

I continued;

“She was finally going to have one of her own and you took that away from her. The woman that raised me and an innocent man, you killed. You are evil and I never hope to see you again, I hope you rot and die behind bars. I will never forgive you!“

She was in full tears and really sobbing when she began to yell out,

“My stomach… My stomach…”

“She is lying!”

I yelled out as confusion broke out. The detective trying to make out the situation and my uncle attempting to help her, they both looked at me to help and I stepped back even further. I was not going to save her.

“You’re a doctor, aren’t you? You took an oath…” 

The detective yelled out as they lay my aunt on the ground. I pointed to my uncle and told him to call 911. I held her head up and figured she was having a reaction to something in her stomach. I stabilized her as I heard the sirens of the ambulance. I stood up and walked away from her body as she was carried away and the detective followed. He asked Sam and my uncle to help and they headed to the hospital.

What just happened? I thought to myself. My mother had just confessed to killing the woman I had called mother all these years. I had been living a lie. I was the product of deceit. I was feeling crushed inside. And she had just been carried out for something that looked like a poison reaction. What was happening? My mind flashed and pieced it together. Sam!

She was in the medical field and would know the “right” compounds to fix or throw together to create something that could hurt my aunt. Shit!

I was sitting next to my aunt’s items and noticed her water bottle for her Herbalife smoothies. I opened it and sniffed it. I was right. It smelled of chemicals. The kind you would only spot if you were in the medical field.

“Why did Sam do this?”

“I’m the doctor though. When they pump her stomach and test it, they will think it was me and I have all the motive”

Fuck! I wanted to run but what was the point.

The house was empty and I felt just like I did on the evening of my parent’s funeral, only now I was alone. The feeling truly caught up to me. Tears streamed down my eyes for over a full hour. Why didn’t Sam stay with me? It made no sense.I heard a knock on the door. I looked up at the door and didn’t respond.Another knock and then the door opened.  It was the detective and I had an idea of why he was there.

“Mr Femi Rilwan, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of…”

his voice tailed off as the tears slowly rolled down my face as he placed the handcuffs behind my back. I wasn’t even hearing what he was saying even though I knew he was talking.  There was a hollow depth in my heart as my heart rate slowed dramatically. He walked me out of the house towards his waiting car. Opening the door, he bent my head as I sat in the back seat, I thought to myself. Through the web of lies, deceit, infidelity and pain that all the people involved went through with me, I never truly understood what it felt like to be a “home”. There I was in the back of the cop car in front of my own parent’s home; trapped in my own hands and this time for real, I had absolutely no one. And I could be going down for something I didn’t do. The detective was walking around the car when Sam walked up to him. She stood very close to him and said something. Something I still do not know till this day.

She walked around the car and he opened the door. She stretched out her hand and held my chin in her hand.

I stepped out the car and he removed the cuffs from my hand. I gave Sam a big hug and whispered to her. 

“I love you.”

 She didn’t respond. She just clutched me tighter as tears streamed down her eyes. He gently shook the cuffs in his hands. I looked down at his hands. Sigh.

Say it with me y’all…. “What The Heck Man!!!!!”

 

Fin! Wait! Wait! Wait! Hold on to that feeling and let me know how you felt about this series Empty. I’d love to know.

Also, NO ONE got the actual story I wanted to start running on the poll from next week but most wanted Secrets so much…. Sooooooo… I will be releasing Secrets Part 1, next Saturday. In the meantime, please listen to a preview if what to expect. And like always, please let me know what you think!

Fuck You by @adewus4real