Dial episode 7 – 8

DIAL

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Sequence 7

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So I decided to play possum.

The death of Akos had left a sour taste in my mouth.

That was an unexpected and extreme twist. I was used to girls on my DIAL List feeling used and dumped, calling me incessantly, cursing me, reporting me, threatening me and sometimes even going to the extreme of trying to hurt me, physically.

It was all part of the game, part of the thrill and part of the hidden pleasures I took from my dedication to the DL.

What I hadn’t envisaged, ever, was one of them taking the extreme route of death. I wanted to believe, sincerely wanted to believe, that Akos’ death had been an accident, just a freak twist of coincidence, but I knew deep within me that it wasn’t the case.

It was beginning to dawn on me that the DL Project had another facet I hadn’t taken into consideration. Akos had been fragile; she had had an inner vulnerability, an almost childlike-trust of people, especially me.

My attentions had blown her mind and opened up her heart, and I had cruelly played her. She hadn’t known how to respond and cope. To her, life might have been literally coming to an end. Living in morbid fear of her father, and finding out she was pregnant with a man who, to all purposes and intents, had just used and dumped her, might have been too much for her to bear.

In the end, death might have seemed a most favourable way out of her predicament.

And I had been the catalyst.

I mourned Akos of Wowo.

I felt really bad as the days passed, and guilt weighed more and more on my conscience.

At the end of the week, however, I had two visitors.

I was having discussion with two Saudi Arabian partners when my secretary buzzed me.

“Yes, Steve, what is it?” I asked irritably. “I told you to hold everything until I’m done here.”

“Sorry, sir,” Steve said, and his voice sounded funny. “A Chief Inspector Danso Cuger is here to see you, sir, and he won’t wait. Says it’ll take just a minute.”

My heart gave a sudden lurch.

I had been expecting it, but as the days passed and I had not heard anything further, I had begun to relax.

And now this.

I took a deep breath and kneaded my brow in an agitated way.

“Sir?” Steve enquired, and he sounded worried.

“Alright, Steve, show him to the Lounge,” I finally managed to say. “I’ll be with him in a minute.”

I sat for a while and absent-mindedly drummed my fingertips on my desk.

One of my Saudi partners leaned forward, worried.

“Yew heev gat di trable, Meester Biiko?” he asked.

I looked at him, irritated, and almost punched his face in.

I forced a smile and got to my feet.

“No, nothing to be worried about,” I said. “Excuse me for a moment, gentlemen. Will be with you soon.”

I left my office through a side door, walked down two short corridors, and then I paused at the backdoor of The Lounge.

I took deep breaths, and then I opened the door and entered the luxurious Lounge.

It had three beautiful sitting areas, and I noticed that Steve had shown them to the Dark Sofa area.

I had expected to see only one man, the police chief, but there were two of them.

One was in a brown suit and white shirt, and I assumed he was the policeman.

The other man was in black trousers and a mufti smock, and his back was turned to me as he stood near the aquarium enjoying the sight of the swimming fishes.

“Gentlemen, welcome,” I said with forced gaiety as I approached.

Chief Inspector Danso got to his feet and took my extended hand.

“Hello, Mr. Biko,” he said in a tired voice. “Sorry to disturb you, but it was necessary. Won’t take up too much of your time.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” I said as I ushered him to his seat, glancing nervously at the man standing beside the aquarium. “Please take a seat. Can I offer you something? Water, tea, a drink? We have iced cocoa and scones too, quite delicious.”

The policeman smiled and shook his head.

“That will be okay, Mr. Biko,” he said as he sat down again.

I lowered myself down in the seat beside him, and that was when the man in the smock turned round.

My breath stopped for a moment as I stared at him.

He was slender and fair, with heavy curling hair that fell down his face in whiskers and a thick mustache.

His thick hair was sprinkled with a generous amount of grey.

What shocked me was his incredible facial resemblance to Akos, even with all that facial hair of his. I had imagined that a girl as beautiful as she had taken her looks from her mother, but I was wrong. This man looked very handsome, and it was evident that his facial good looks had been passed on to his daughter.

“This is Nana Bosomba,” the policeman said in a hurry. “He wanted to see you, Mr. Biko. We’ve rounded up the bureaucratic tape concerning the death, you see, and we’ve released the body of the deceased to him. He wanted to see you before leaving, and there were a couple of questions I also wanted to ask.”

Akos’ father walked forward slowly, and then he smiled sadly and held out his hand.

“Mr. Biko, glad to meet you,” he said, and his voice was cultured and gentle.

I got to my feet in a daze and shook his hand.

I had expected an ogre, a giant of a man with a mean face, dressed in scary priestly clothes with painted body parts.

This soft-spoken, gentle and slightly-built man was far from the image I had perceived of him. Surely, this couldn’t be the same person Akos had been so terrified of.

“Glad to meet you too, Nana,” I said in a humbled voice. “I’m extremely sorry about Akos, sir. I sincerely am.”

He nodded and sat down across from me, and I noticed that his eyes were fixed on my face, and he never looked away again.

“My daughter called me about a month before her death,” he said gently, and again he smiled sadly. “She told me she was in love with you, and that you were going to marry her.”

I laughed nervously, and I wasn’t sure for a moment how to play it, and I gently rubbed my forehead.

“Look, Akos was involved in an accident that could have been fatal,” I began and smiled at them. “She was nearly knocked down by a car. I sent her to the hospital, and later we became friends. Yes, I did like her a lot, yes, but she told me she was in a relationsh¡p, and so I didn’t press it.”

“I’m confused here, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said. “I know her relationsh¡p with that other boy was over a long time ago. Are you saying you’re not the one she was referring to, the man who gave her the ring?”

I smiled, and I was sure it looked fake and forced, but then I had decided to play the part, and so I stuck to it.

“Oh, I did give her the ring, yes,” I said in a rush. “I was getting her a present, a chain actually, and she saw the ring and said she loved it, and so I bought it for her too.”

The man nodded, but I noticed that his eyes had suddenly gone cold.

“She had saved your number as ‘Husbie’ on her phone, Mr. Biko,” Chief Inspector Danso said, sounding confused. “And she was pregnant too, judging from the test kits in her bag. Her friends at the hospital spoke about you, that you were going out, and confirmed you gave her the ring, promising to marry her. Are you denying all that?”

They were pushing me into a corner, and I detested it.

I knew they had nothing on me, and knew I had to stick to my story. The wh0le issue was messy, a real big mess, and I admitted that I had really forced the girl to go to the extreme, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I was filled with remorse, yes, and wished things had ended differently, but it hadn’t. As sorry as I was for Akos’ death, I wasn’t about to be weighed down with some responsibility I was not ready for, and so I changed tack and took on a more brutish approach.

“I don’t know what you’re driving here, sir,” I said, summoning the coldest voice I was capable of. “Look, maybe I did lead Akos on. Let’s be honest here, she was an incredibly beautiful woman, and yes, I did tell her I would have wanted to marry her. But she had a boyfriend, and that was as far as we went. I don’t know why she saved my name as Husbie, and I don’t know who got her pregnant. Believe me, there was nothing but friendsh¡p between us.”

The policeman looked at the fetish priest, but the priest only regarded me with very calm eyes, and then he stood up slowly. He looked at the policeman.

“I think we’re done here,” he said calmly. “Have you given him the letter?”

Chief Inspector Danso Cuger stood up too.

“Oh, I forgot,” he said.

He reached into his pocket and brought out a crumbled envelope. I remembered, quite too late, that he had informed me at an earlier date, a week earlier actually, that Akos had left a letter for me.

I took it from him, and my hand shook a little, as much as I tried to stop it.

They stood looking at me, but I made no attempt to open it.

“We had to open it, you know,” the policeman said. “We had to determine whether she fell by accident or there was more to it. It contains a short note and the ring you gave her. We have now concluded that she might have committed suicide since she wrote to you and her father.”

I could not speak, and so I nodded, and at that moment I felt a lump in my throat. It was a rush of sadness that took me by surprise. The fact that I had betrayed Akos, right here in front of her father, really filled me with uncharacteristic remorse.

“We’ll leave now, Mr. Biko,” the policeman said and smiled. “Thank you for your time.”

He shook my hand, and then I extended my hand to Nana Bosomba. With a sad smile he took my hand and nodded once.

“Hm, I don’t think we are done yet, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said. “I’ll see you tonight, and we’ll conclude our talk.”

I looked at him with both apprehension and surprise.

“Tonight?” I asked and shook my head. “Oh, no. I won’t be available tonight, sir. I have other things planned. We can talk now, if you want, about everything.”

He smiled again and turned toward the door, following the policeman.

The cop went out, but Akos’ father stopped and turned to look at me.

“Tell me, Mr. Biko, if my daughter was just a friend, why is he on your list?” he asked.

This time I gasped loudly with shock, and it was as if the air was s—-d right out of me as I took a step back.

“What?” I asked hoarsely, sweat forming on my face. “What are you talking about? What list?”

He smiled again.

“Like I said, Mr. Biko, we’ll talk tonight.”

He turned to leave, and I tried to speak but my voice was gone as desperation raced through me.

The list?

What did he mean?

No one knew about the Dial List. It was my personal secret! Had he been referring to another list, maybe? Something that Akos had told him about? The man had no means to know about my most well-kept secret.

My throat was very dry as I sat down and tore open the envelope.

The ring I had given her tumbled out, and I sat down looking at it for a long time, and then I extracted Akos’ letter.

Hello, Yao.

If you’re reading this, then it means I didn’t make it.

I loved you with my soul, to the very ends of my heart.

Goodbye, and know that I loved you till my final breath.

PS:

I’ve asked my father, as a last wish, not to harm you in any way.

Please, make sure you do everything that he asks, I beg of you.

I sat for a long time, and then I began to weep silently for Akos of Wowo.

DIAL

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Sequence 8

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I closed from work early and drove out of town.

I went to see Vida.

She was Number 17 on my Dial List. Vida was married to a man who had two other wives, and her husband usually spent only Monday and Tuesday nights with her. He had money that took care of her father’s expensive medical bills, and her lavish lifestyle.

I suspected Vida was not with him primarily because of his money, though. Her husband was famous, and he belonged to a circle of influential people: politicians, investors, presidents and big-clout personalities.

This made Vida a part of the powerful clique in the society.

A former exotic dancer, model, actress and presently fashion icon, she was powerful enough on her own. Unfortunately, she could not have any children because she lost her womb when she was a teenager.

We had met at one of her fashion shows.

I had seen her, noticed her beauty, learnt she was married to one of the wealthiest and richest men in the country, and I just penned her down as a great candidate for the Dial List.

I bought several expensive clothing from her collection that evening, and she had noticed. She called me up to thank me, and I arranged a simple dinner.

She had refused, but invited me to her house instead.

Vida was older by eight years, it turned out; but age didn’t mean a thing. She being older didn’t mean I needed a ladder to climb aboard her sh¡p…and we had made love that first night.

That would have ended it once I got her on my list, but she was available, the forbidden fruit, and so we met occasionally to share bodies.

I was in my office that day Nana Bosomba paid me a visit, preparing to leave, when her call came through.

She wanted to see me that night.

On any other normal day, I would have refused, or bluffed her a bit, but this day was not a normal day.

For starters, that Nana Bosomba had freaked me out, and his cold promise to see me that evening had jangled my nerves.

I had lied, and that was that.

I had called Chief Inspector Danso Cuger shortly after they left my office to inform him that I was willing to bear all the funeral costs that would be incurred on Akos. He had promised to inform the Fetish Priest.

That was the last I had heard of them.

I was however not in any mood to see that man again.

So I put the ring I had given to Akos back in the envelope and locked it up in my desk drawer, and then I hit town.

I drove for two hours out of town to meet Vida.

As usual she met me at a roundabout. I parked my car at a terminal, paid for two days, picked a taxi to the roundabout, sat in her car, and she took me home.

She was wearing a long, white leather overcoat when I sat in the car, and from the way her eyes roved over me I knew she was in the mood for some good hærd fun.

She gave me a hærd, long k-ss, and then as we drove she tugged hærd at my belt. I smiled and unbuckled my belt, and then unzipped my fly.

Her right hand dove into my boxers, and in a moment she had my turgid member out. She flipped me expertly, and soon she had me all fired up like her.

My hand dove through the slit of her overcoat, roamed up her smooth stockinged thighs…and then I realized she was unclad underneath.

She was all hoarse with lust as she spread her legs and my fingers gently went to work.

Once at her house she blew the horn impatiently, and the security detail opened the electronic gates. She drove straight into the garage and the doors slid shut automatically behind us.

In a flash she was out of the car, flinging her overcoat off.

She was wearing only the black stockings, a garter belt, and black high heels. Her pert derriere bounced excitingly as she leaned across the warm bonnet and presented that incredible sight to me.

“Do me, Biko!” she gro-ned lustfully. “Do me now!”

She raised one heavenly leg and draped it across the bonnet, exposing her lustful environments to my appreciating eyes.

I got down on my knees, clamped hot l-ips to her core, and expertly lapped her up.

“Oh, Biko, oh, oh, ohhhhh!” she wailed. “Now, Biko! I’m gonna blow if you don’t mount it!”

And so I mounted, and she let out an elongated grunt…

As I worked overtime, I was praying mentally that she would not say those dreadful words!

One of the reasons I wasn’t so keen nowadays on meeting Vida were those words; when she was in the throes of passion, and nearing a c—-x, she had this annoying habit of going into a litany of stupid words, always going like:

“Eat it baba, eat it baba, gba gba gba gba, eat it baba, or yessss, gba gba gba, baba eat it!”

At first, during the first few times, it had not been a real deal.

But as time went on, it began to first irritate me, and then it began to affect my libido.Anytime she launched into one of those tirades I found myself losing my er-ction.

I had spoken to her about it, and at first she had listened, but sometimes, out of sheer malice, she would shout them out, taking sick and maniacal delight in how it affected my libido.

Luckily, she was too much in need of a good shagging to say those silly words that night, and so we had an incredible mounting time in the garage, exploding to a mutual satisfying ululation of mo-ns and scre-ms and gasps…

Later, I mounted her up again in the kitchen after a quick snack, and later on in the bathroom I mounted on the edge of the Jacuzzi, and she mounted in,side the Jacuzzi and finally I mounted to the finish on the floor of the bathroom.

Which left us weak and sated by the time we finished taking a bath.

She was a perfect crazy element to my craziness.

I forgot all about Nana Bosomba as I tried to mount again on the huge bed before we fell asleep, but she told me she was tired, and sated. She was too satisfied for the night, and so we should sleep and maybe in the morning she would be h—y again.

I wasn’t satisfied; I wanted to mount again because I was so hærd!

She looked at me and pliantly fell down on the bed and opened those sweet creamy thighs.

With a mischievous glint in her eyes she watched me positioning up, and then just as I was about to drive home she launched into that silly tirade of hers whilst chuckling.

“Oh, yes, baba, eat it baba, eat it, eat it, baba, baba eat it, gba gba gba gba, come on baba, eat it!”

She was soon in uncontrollable peals of laughter as my machine gun slowly melted into docile softness.

“Why does it always do that?” Vida asked with laughter. “It ticks me off so much! So funny! Oh, Biko, I’m tired baby. Let me sleep a while and then I’ll wake him up myself. But if you can’t wait you can come back and eat it, eat it baba, eat it, baba, baba eat it gba gba gba gba!”

I scowled angrily and flipped over to my side of the bed, turning my back to her.

“D–n you, Vida,” I said, and she continued to laugh till she fell asleep a couple of minutes later.

And then I slept too.

***

I came awake with a sudden scre-m!

Vida was sitting up in bed in the dim lights.

Obviously she had shaken me awake, and she was looking at me with concern.

“What’s it, Yao?” she asked, looking worried. “You scared me! You were gro-ning in your sleep as if you were terrified of something!”

I was p-nting hærd, and as my eyes grew accustomed to the glare, and saw I was in familiar surroundings, I slowly let out my breath.

My unclad body was sweating even in the air-condition, and my heart was pounding hærd.

“I had a nightmare, Vida,” I said slowly.

“Oh, sorry,” she said gently, rubbing my back. “Just a bad dream. Do you mind telling me what it was about?”

I smiled thinly at her and shook my head.

“I don’t remember now,” I lied to her. “Seems hazy now.”

“It’s okay, dear,” she said and smiled reassuringly. “Should I get you some water?”

“Yes, please,” I whispered hoarsely.

She stood up without turning on the lights.

The room was dimly illuminated by the lights outside, and she padded out of the bedroom.

The darkness closed in on me, and my heart began to race again.

Of course, I remembered the dream so perfectly!

Not a dream, but a nightmare in which I had been with Nana Bosomba.

I had been in a dining-room with Nana Bosomba.

He was dressed in the same smock he wore to my office.

I had been unclad as I stood by the dining-table.

There had been two clay pots in front of him on the table.

What was odd about the pots had been the fact that they were very white, pristine white.

He had indicated a chair by his side.

“Sit down, Mr. Biko,” he had said with a gentle smile. “I told you I’ll see you tonight. Go on, have a seat and share a meal with me.”

Like an automaton I had sat down obediently on the chair he indicated.

He took off the lids of the white pots, and I noticed that they were filled with some soft mushy food prepared with either red oil or palm nut soup.

He had pushed one pot toward me and smiled gently.

“Eat, Mr. Biko,” he said. “Eat with me!”

And so I had dug in, and the food had been so delicious that I couldn’t get enough of it! I had eaten with both hands, left and right, eating with smacking sounds of enjoyment.

“Take your time, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba had said with a little chuckle. “The food is not running away!”

He had been eating too from the pot in front of him, with his right hand.

After a while he pushed the white pot away from him and then he wiped his right hand on a white napkin and dropped it on the glass-topped table.

He had then leaned back and regarded me solemnly.

“Now, Mr. Biko, I’ll go straight to the point,” he said gently. “Akos loved you, and that is a fact. She loved you so much that her soul begged me to spare your life. She was very fervent, and so I promised her. You see, I wanted to destroy you so totally that you would have begged for death, but for my daughter’s sake, I will spare you, but on one condition.”

I had been aware that I wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

Somehow, it seemed that I could not speak in the dream.

“We are going to bury her, Mr. Biko,” he said gently. “You put her on your list of fun, and you ruined her life. But that’s okay, Mr. Biko, that’s okay. She wants you to be forgiven, and so shall it be. However, she will not be buried in shame. In a week’s time, before we bury her, I expect you to be with us in Wowo. You will marry her, and you will have a wedding night with her. Only when you have done that, will you appease the anger roiling in my heart. After the wedding night, she will be buried, and you will be free.”

He stood up and looked at me gravelly, and then he smiled.

He reached into his pocket suddenly and brought out a white envelope. The old man opened it and showed the contents to me.

In the envelope were the protective chain he had placed around Akos’ neck. Also in the envelope was the ring I had bought for Akos, and locked up in my drawer before leaving my office.

And my heart thudded with sudden fear in the dream.

“That is your invitation to your wedding to my daughter, Mr. Biko,” he had said gently and put the envelope down on the table in front of me.

He then brought out a red sheet of paper and a black pen.

He slowly wrote something on the red sheet of paper, and then he smiled and turned it toward me, and its contents chilled me to the very core.

Nana Bosomba had written:

REDIAL LIST

01. YAO BIKO

He smiled, and then he spoke gently.

“I’ll leave now, Mr. Biko,” he said with a little bow. “I give you respect, because my daughter loved you. In one week you will come and marry her, and spend your honeymoon with her corpse. Just a week, Mr. Biko. If you fail to show up, you will definitely grow older with more experience.”

He chuckled, folded up the red paper, and put it into his pocket.

“Enjoy your food, Mr. Biko, enjoy your food,” he had said as he turned.

A white door suddenly materialized behind him, and he opened it and walked through.

I bent my head to eat more food, and that was when I saw the face of Akos in,side the white pot, and I began to mo-n and grunt.

But then, suddenly, I saw my body crumbling, as if my body was dissolving into grains of sand…and I began to scre-m with fear until Vida woke me up!

***

Vida rushed into the bedroom and put on the lights!

She was not holding the glass of water she had gone out to bring for me.

I saw that she was white with great fear, and her eyes were bulging out of her face!

She was shaking violently, and her l-ips were trembling so hærd that her teeth chattered.

“Vida?” I said with alarm as I began to get off the bed!

She took a look at the bed, and suddenly she pointed at the bed, and then she collapsed in a faint on the soft wool carpet.

And that was when I saw it!

The white bed-sheets on the bed were smeared with red oil, or palm nut soup!

I looked at my hands, and I went absolutely cold in,side!

On my hands were the caked remnants of the food I had eaten from the white clay pot!

For one terrible moment I could not move a muscle!

And then with a little cry I bounced off the bed and stood shivering in one corner, staring at the stained bed-sheets with horror!

And then I realized that Vida had come into the bedroom already freaked out!

Something she had seen outside had terrified her!

I walked to the door dazedly, ignoring her, my heart thudding so loudly that I knew a small prod would make me scre-m.

I walked to the living-room where she had put on all the lights, and I looked around expecting to see Nana Bosomba.

He was not in sight though.

I breathed easier, and then just as I was turning away my eyes darted to the dining-room area, and then I froze with terror!

The two white pots we had eaten from were on the dining-table!

My legs were trembling as I forced myself to approach the dining-table!

I saw the red-oil finger marks on the napkin, the one Nana Bosomba had used to wipe his hand!

And I saw the white envelope Nana Bosomba had put on the table, and spilling from it were the chain and the ring.

It hadn’t been a dream or a nightmare…

It was fulfillment of a promise: he had promised to see me tonight…and he had!

He had been here!

I had eaten his food…

And that was when I knew, irrevocably, that I was in very serious and dangerous trouble!

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To be continued