The Second Sight – Episode 3
THE SECOND SIGHT EPISODE 3
THE CROW RETURNS
Location: APARTMENT GARAGE
Yaw Boat is alone in his apartment, getting ready for his date with Elaine.
She wants to be with him in his apartment again.
Boat is all excited like a teenager, certain that it is the night he will finally make love to her, and the anticipation alone is driving him nuts.
He has not used any cocaine, and he has not drank any alcohol. Elaine has made it clear that she abhors alcohol and drugs, and so Boat has been hiding the face that he uses both from her.
A Friday night.
That is the night!
He gets dressed carefully.
After all, it is Elaine he is meeting, the most beautiful girl in Africa; he has to look good.
She is that special to him!
Yaw Boat admires his reflection in the mirror when he finally steps up for a final appraisal.
Friday night…
It is going to be a night to remember!
He stares at the bed reflectively.
He has cleaned the room, as he always does when Elaine is coming around. He has gotten rid of all incriminating evidences which might ar-use her suspicions.
Boat has changed the sheets, and the bed looks really inviting. This is the night that bed is going to experience the pleasure and honour of having Elaine unclad on it, hopefully.
Tingling with anticipation, Boat steps out of his apartment and locks the door. He looks down the corridor warily at the other door down the hall, and breathes with relief when he sees that Mary is nowhere in sight.
Mary is a beautiful twenty-five year old woman who lives in the same apartment block with her brother and his wife, and one of her cousins called George.
She is five years older than Boat, and she is an exotic dancer at one of the numerous night clubs littering Accra.
Her greatest assets are her great body and her fierce passion.
Boat had met her in the corridor when he moved in as a new tenant. They had exchanged a few pleasantries, and she had helped carry some of his luggage into his room.
Ten minutes later, as he was thanking her, she had moved into him with lust in her eyes, and soon they were unclad on the floor, grinding away with furious abandon, her teeth clenched together, tendons standing out huge on her neck as she made love to him with the ferocity of an amazon goddess.
Some women do not even hold hands on the first date, but within thirty minutes of their meeting Mary had made crazy love to him.
She loves s€×, and claims she has fallen in love with Boat on first sight. Boat didn’t believe that, of course. That kind of animal lust just couldn’t be love.
Love is the sweetness he feels when he is with Elaine. He loves Mary’s availability, though.
Sometimes Boat craved a rough-shod ride, and with Mary, lovemaking is always hot, rough and explosive. She holds nothing back, and knows how to please a man.
She is not the jealous and fussy type of girl, and does not throw any tantrums when Boat brings other girls to the apartment.
As long as she can have her time with Boat whenever she wants, she is okay.
Underneath that passion and that insatiable little s₱0t of hers, however, she is a great woman to be with. She has a great sense of humour, and she is amazingly respectful.
Boat turns to leave the apartment quickly, and then finds Mary standing just behind him, grinning mischievously.
Boat comes to a frustrated halt. She can always do that… creeping stealthily up on him, soundless, dangerous.
MARY
(cooing)
Hello, handsome!
BOAT
(irritably)
I wish you’d stop doing that, Mary. You’ll give me a heart attack one of these days if you continue creeping up on me like that.
She smiles and glides up to Boat.
She is in a blue skirt that stops somewhere immediately after the edge of her p-nties. Her pink shirt is tied below her firm br-asts. She is tall and graceful, and Boat’s eyes feast on her generous curves and taut belly.
Now this is a woman who is nicely bended! Boat feels the first tingling of arousal in his groin.
MARY
(murmuring)
Where are you off to all dressed up like a Hollywood star?
She presses close against Boat, her arms sliding around his neck. She presses a hot k-ss on his l-ips, exploring deeply with a luscious grunt. She looks up at him with eyes glazed with passion.
Boat wants to shove her aside and move on. When he has a date with Elaine, he hates distractions. But he does not push Mary though.
She is cool and respectful and a great all-round woman, but she has one mighty temper, and it will be bad to make her angry that night.
She will surely compromise his day with Elaine if she gets mad.
MARY
(whispering)
Make sure you don’t bring any of your wh-res home tonight. I feel so ho-ny today, Boat his love, and I want you all to myself.
Her right hand goes down, brushing over his groin, diving between his thighs, curling around the fully-er-ct member and squeezing gently, and much against his will Boat feels himself responding to her car-sses.
BOAT
(persuasively)
Sorry, Mary, but not tonight. I have other plans for-
Her face hærdens, the beginnings of anger flashing in them.
MARY
(hissing)
I heard you last night with that ugly b***h. I don’t see what you get from them that I can’t give you, but I don’t complain, do I? Whoever you’re seeing tonight, don’t bring her here. If it is that nun slut Elaine, keep her out of here!
With that she turns and glides down the corridor to their front door.
Boat says nothing. He knows how impossible it is to reason with Mary when she is in that kind of mood. She has been like that each time Elaine visited Boat.
She really has an unhealthy dislike of Elaine, and Boat does not understand it because she knows he has not slept with Elaine yet. There are other women she knows Boat sleeps with, but she is never filled with wrath for them.
It is only Elaine she cannot stand.
Boat sighs heavily and walks to the elevator. He knows he cannot bring Elaine home now, not when Mary wants to have her wild night.
He is not overly disturbed, though. He will take Elaine to his old man’s place where he still keeps his room. The old man will be busy in his study, and will not disturb him in his detached part of the house.
The parking space of the apartment is street-level, and when he gets out of the elevator Boat comes out through the huge glass-fronted doors, takes a turn to his right and enters the parking lot with his car remote control out.
He sees his Mercedes Benz S-Class, begins to walk towards it, and then he comes to a shocked stop.
His heart does a mighty flip, and for a moment he cannot move a muscle.
Perched on the hood of his car, and watching Boat’s approach with deep black eyes, is the crow!
That it is the same crow which had been in his room he has no doubt. Same steely eyes, same faint dislike in those black eyes, same fine dust coating.
It is just perching there, staring straight into his eyes. It is immobile, watching him approach with a steel gaze.
That is why Boat stops and looks at it with conflicting emotions.
As far as coincidences go, how does this one strike him?
It is almost unthinkable that the crow he has seen in his room a week ago has come back to perch on his car!
That, indeed, is very scary. He tries to convince himself that it is a coincidence, that it is nothing unusual. Maybe it is not even the same crow.
But deep down Boat knows better. It is the same crow! It is no coincidence! Somehow, it has got something to do with that nightmare!
The crow takes off suddenly without a sound, flapping once, and then gliding lazily into the darker recesses of the garage.
Boat walks forward cautiously to the car and stands gazing at it for a long time.
Something is not completely right, he thinks, but then again, it can just be a coincidence.
The damn bird had flown out of his apartment ten blocks up, and straight into the garage. Maybe it has a nest somewhere in the garage, and maybe it is not the same crow.
Maybe there are a lot of displaced crows in the country, just that he has not noticed yet.
Coincidence. Just coincidence.
Boat gets into his car and drives out.
After a moment of driving through the streets of Accra, he slowly forgets about the strange crow.
THE MAN IN BLACK
Location: SOMEWHERE ON THE MADINA-37 HIGHWAY
Yaw Boat hits the streets of Madina.
He smiles as he cruises along in the late evening traffic, funky nightmare and dusty crow forgotten.
It is Friday night, and the city is beginning to go into overdrive.
He is not irritated with the traffic that Friday. In truth, he is taking it cool, focusing on that eventual ending with the voluptuous body of Elaine in his arms.
His heart does mighty fl¡ps when he conjures up an image of Elaine’s unclad body, and the front of his trousers begins to bulge with unbridled lust.
Eventually Boat swings out of the heavy traffic and stops in front of a florist. He spends some time picking up a beautiful bouquet for her.
It seems dead right. He is planning to be very tender with Elaine, maybe even propose to her, and he knows it will sound nicer and more rom-ntic with a bouquet of exotic roses.
Not that proposing to her means he is going to get married to her any time soon. It is just meant to speed things up a bit, but the thought of being tied down to that lady isn’t a particularly horrific idea. He knows he will enjoy being her husband, but there is no rush yet.
But one step at a time, yeah, that is the game plan.
When he comes out of the store the traffic has come to a virtual halt around the Atomic Junction roundabout, and he winces. The rush hour is on full time now. He looks at his wristwatch. He will be extremely late if he gets caught up in that traffic.
Boat gets into the Mercedes and executes an illegal U-turn. Other motorists honk angrily and gestures at him with balled fists.
He just smiles and sticks his middle finger at them.
He swings unto the sidewalk, and pedestrians jump out of the way with cries of anger. Boat really doesn’t give a damn; nothing is going to stop him from getting to Elaine on time.
He always waits for her anytime he gets to their meeting place first. However, on the rare occasions that he had been late, she had left before he got to her, without even calling to find out where he was. Sometimes it makes him mad, but then again it all comes with the thrill of the chase.
This the one night he wants her to be around. It is going to be their night, and nothing is going to stop that.
The route he takes is longer, but it is relatively free of traffic. Finally he leaves the crippling traffic behind and slams up the highway towards 37 Military Hospital.
Boat moves into the speed lane and puts his foot down on the accelerator. The pin creeps upwards rapidly on the speedometer as the powerful car leaps forward.
He is doing almost two hundred and twenty kilometers per hour now, zipping past cars. He is exhilarated. Everything is going to be fine. This is his night, and he is the Prince of the Town.
He swings past an SUV in a curve and suddenly finds himself almost smashing into the back of a slow Chevrolet.
BOAT
(scre-ming angrily)
You foolish driver!
He hits the brakes, swinging fast into the second lane just in time, a hair’s breadth away from smashing into the car’s back. The driver honks long and hærd with shocked panic.
Boat sees two little faces, twins probably, pressed into the window of the passenger side of the Chevrolet, peering out at the world with innocent awe.
Boat stares at the twins, fascinated by their innocent, uncaring eyes… and when he finally returns his attention to the street, the man in black happens!
Boat is passing under the Tema Motorway bridge towards the Airport road when the strange man appears.
Boat doesn’t not know where the man emerged from.
One moment he is levelling the car from the curve and preparing for another burst of speed, and the next moment the black-robed man is moving bang into Boat’s lane.
The strange man is moving from the left shoulder, where the railings are low, cutting across the first lane, walking almost leisurely towards the second lane, where Boat is burning rubber.
The man is wearing a black suit with a huge overcoat which billows out behind him in amazing slow motion. A black hat is crammed on his head. He is a tall, willowy man, showing Boat the profile of a long, aquiline face.
For a moment, as he cuts across the street, Boat thinks the man just wants to commit suicide by throwing himself under a speeding car.
The man in black takes no notice of Boat’s car as it bears down on him.
Boat’s palm is on his horn as he blasts away: “PAAAAAANNNNNN-PAAAAAANNNN!!”
The man could have been taking a leisurely walk in his garden for all the notice he gives Boat.
Other motorists have joined in, blasting away at their own horns, a deafening explosion of cacophonous disaster that could have awakened the dead.
The man in black continues to walk forward, still oblivious to the danger he is in… or just not caring.
Apparently he either wants to kill himself, or he is a bit mad.
Boat is still speeding well over two hundred kilometres per hour, and applying the brakes will turn the car into something like a vehicular rocket.
Desperately Boat looks to his left. The Chevrolet has turned into the first lane, just outside of his tail, and to his right is a mean-looking DAF truck, its twin trumpets letting out one hell of a din as its driver honks stridently.
HIGHLY FLAMMABLE is printed on the tank of the DAF truck, this is a sort of warning to Boat to keep out of its lane.
For a moment it seems the man in black is headed for the third lane, intent on throwing himself under the DAF truck.
Boat is mentally praying for the man to jump into the third lane in front of the DAF truck. The only danger is that the truck driver might be tempted to apply his brakes, and maybe swing the wheel to avoid smashing that madman.
If that happens the tank can swing round and smash into Boat’s car and possibly cause the petroleum in the tank to explode and kill all of them.
There is only one way out for Boat: he steps on the accelerator, intending to speed away before the man in black turns himself into a corpse.
Wrong move!
The man has no intention of crossing over to the third lane. In fact, he stops in Boat’s lane.
BOAT
(horrified)
Oh, Jesus! Oh, my dear sweet Jesus!
Braking is out of the equation now. It is quite too late for that.
Boat tries to move to the left, and the Chevrolet driver blasts on his horn shrilly to warn him off. Boat thinks of the two little twins in that car. He will probably kill them if he moves into that lane.
Boat chances a quick look to his right. No help there either; the DAF truck is now next to him and there is no space left.
BOAT
(scared)
Why me, you loony bas***d?
He tries to pump the brakes, and the huge car bucks and shudders, the tires wailing with distress, the engine screeching with torture.
Boat sees the figure in black looming larger and larger, nearer and nearer!
And then the man in black begins to turn, ever so slowly, to face Boat.
And then Boat gasps with shock, the breath catching in his throat.
There is a white collar at the man’s throat.
A clerical! A man of the Word!
The man in black is a pastor!
Boat watches with mounting horror. There is nothing he can do. The car was going to hit that crazy pastor, and kill him.
There is no doubt about it. The pastor is going to die if the car hits him at that speed.
The pastor’s head is bent a little, so that Boat can barely see his face.
Suddenly his head comes up fully.
He straightens his wh0le body, almost violently, and his right hand comes up, palm pointing down at first, arm perfectly straight, and then his wrist snaps up, palm suddenly staring Boat in the face.
Boat’s eyes are fixed on the pastor, and his body braces itself for the final impact that will break all the bones in the man and kill him instantly.
And then Boat’s suddenly stops dead!
Just like that.
The engine just goes silent and the car stopped comes to a sudden stopd.
Boat’s eyes fly open just as the Chevrolet zooms past. He catches a brief look at the tiny faces of the twins, pressed tight against the windows, eyes bulging open with stupefied horror as they watch what has just happened.
The driver of the DAF truck is leaning out of his window, watching what is happening with incredulous eyes.
Boat’s car has come to a halt just inches from the pastor’s kneecaps.
The engine is dead cold, the dashboard black and lifeless.
BOAT
(whispering, shocked)
What the hell just happened?
His wh0le body is trembling rather badly.
Still in shock, he watches as his passenger door opens and the pastor gets into the car. He sits down on the passenger seat and fixes calm eyes on Boat.
MAN IN BLACK
(in a deep calm voice)
Hello, Yaw Boat. We’re going to have a little chat. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Your appointment with the girl you want to have s€× with can wait. Are you with me?
Just like that!
Boat stares at the pastor with absolute shock.
Suddenly, Boat is afraid …very afraid!
To be continued…