In One Night episode 3

In One Night
episode 3
They were at the top of a rock, in a place called Alapata, which, loosely translated, meant ‘rock area’ in Yoruba language. The space wagon was parked under a tree, next to about half a dozen cars. To their left were four, fancy white party tents, spaced out in sort of like a four pointed star pattern. The in,sides were illuminated with fluorescent lights, and the wh0le arrangement looked beautiful under the moon light. A few people could be seen moving around in the tents, and service boys went and came.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Patrick said before coming down from the Sienna. She watched him walk off to the tent closest to them. Bimpe turned on the car inner lights, flipped opened the sun visor, and slid the lid to the side to checkout her reflection in the mirror. She was dazed at the person that stared back at her. Ahmed always used to say if she were just a few inches taller, she and Omowunmi Akinnifesi could pass for twins. She shrugged off the thought as she definitely wasn’t feeling like a beauty queen right now.
Patrick had tried calling Ahmed multiple times on their way here, but he wasn’t picking his calls. She felt Ahmed must have guessed she had gotten through to Patrick, and he was trying to beg on her behalf. Ahmed’s Benz wasn’t among the cars parked in the place, but Patrick had said he sometimes came to the place with a cab.
She lazily pulled her small rectangular shoulder bag to the front from where it was stuck behind her, opened it, and pulled out some face wipes. She was cleaning makeup off her face when, from the corner of her eye, she saw Patrick rushing back to the car. He got in and coughed a few times before saying, “they said he just left here like 5 minutes ago.” Patrick strapped on his seatbelt before adding, “He must have gone down through the other road. That’s why we didn’t see him.” When he tried to start the car, it made as if it was going to start, and then it ran down. “Shitt!” He cursed out loud.
……….
30 Minutes Earlier
He was sitting outside, in the center of all the tents, looking up at the full moon and wondering if there would ever be a time when people would have to start moving to the moon because of overpopulation on Earth. Elon Musk and some other tech billionaires were already working seriously on making visiting and holidaying on the moon a reality in the near future. He looked down at his vibrating phone beside his bottle of water on the table and saw it was Patrick again. He pressed the side of the phone, and the screen went blank.
He usually came to this place whenever he had something bothering him, and he never came with his phone or car, so as to avoid distractions. Today was different because he more or less drove here on autopilot; his mind had still not been able to accept what he had seen earlier. In his 28 years on Earth, he didn’t think he had ever felt this miserable. Patrick had told him not to take her serious, but he never took his friend’s words serious as Patrick never took any girl serious in his own life.
On impulse, he picked up his phone and dialed the last received call on his call log. “Hello,” a female voice on the other end said.
“Hi…Umm! I spoke with you earlier. I am the guy…”
“Oh, yea, I remember. I guess you want to speak with Ruth.” She said shouted her friend’s name a couple of times, and then said in a whisper, “it’s the guy; the guy from the bank.” Ahmed had a smile on his face now.
“Hey, hi.” She said. The shock in her voice was evident.
“How are you doing tonight?”
“Fine.”
“By the way, my name is Ahmed.”
“I’m Ruth.”
“Nice name.” He said and she said thank you. The line went silent for a few seconds before Ahmed blurted out, “I’d like to see you tonight if you don’t mind.”
“Oh!”
“So…”
“I don’t know.” She said, dragging her last word. Then she started giggling, “I’m sorry. My friend here is…” She was saying then chuckled before adding, “Okay.”
“Is the okay a response to my question, or…”
“Okay, I’ll see you.”
“Great. Where do I pick you up?”
He couldn’t believe he was driving back to the University campus after what had happened there earlier in the day, but he sure wanted to see the Ruth girl. It was like the Universe was trying to tell him something.
Just before he approached the University gate, he saw a man sleeping on the sidewalk. He had seen stuff like that many times, but this time, he thought of what could actually be wrong with the man; wondering whether he was just drunk, or a mentally ill person. He looked at the man in the rare-view mirror after driving by him, and as he put his eyes back on the road, he saw an obstruction right in front of him and swerved just in time to avoid hitting it. A streetlight had been knocked down probably by a heavy duty vehicle, and the bottom concrete part was sticking out on his side of the road. His heart beat faster for a few seconds before it went back to normal.
As usual, the community opposite the University entrance was bubbling with activity; people were coming and going, some were at the bus stop waiting for cabs, and there was a little traffic on that side of the road.
She had told him on the phone earlier that he was lucky to have caught her, as she was about leaving her friend’s room when his call came in. He got her personal number, and she told him she would wait for him by the school bookshop as her friend’s hostel might be too hærd for him to locate. He described the car she should lookout for and told her he would be there in twenty minutes. That was about twenty five minutes ago.
As he lowered the window to collect a gate pass from the school guards at the gate he wondered what time the gate usually got closed for the day, or whether it was opened 24 hours a day. The cab park to the right that was lively when he came earlier in the day was now des**ted. There were just a couple of cabs there with very few people around. As he wound up his car window to start the drive into the campus, Wizkid’s Come Closer song came on, and he started bumping his head to the music.
A couple of meters after driving past a roundabout he got to an intersection; the road to the right would have taken him to the bar the wh0le drama with Bimpe happened earlier. The one up ahead separated the glass house bookshop and a tall white building that had a big clock at the top. He always wondered why the clock was never correct.
He didn’t see her anywhere. He turned on the car’s inner light and was about to pull out his phone from his pocket to call when she appeared from the shadows; standing at about 5 foot 8 inches, with an incredible hour glass shape, she was hærd to miss. He turned the car deck down a few notches, and drove over to her side of the road, signaling to her with his index finger that he was going to park the car. Right after the bookshop was an admin building with a car-park in front. He pulled into the lot, and he saw her approaching him from the corner of his eye. She had on the same thing from earlier on at the bank.
By the time he was properly parked, she was already by the passenger’s side of his silver colored Mercedes Benz C230. He got out, tucked in his shirt properly as he walked to the other side of the car. She stood there, with her hands behind her, and a smile on her face.
“Hope you haven’t been here long?” He asked.
“Not really. I actually just got here.”
“Nice top.” He said and she laughed, and leaned on the car. “I was actually dared to wear this throughout today.”
“Oh! That’s interesting.” He said, right in front of her now. She folded her arms, and looked up at him, waiting for him to say something else, but he said nothing. He just stared at her, and was surprised she didn’t look away. It was like she was gazing into his soul trying to figure out who he was. Her phone started ringing and she excused herself to answer it. She spoke for about half a minute then walked back to his front.
“Sorry, that was my friend.”
“Hmm! Is she checking whether I have kidnapped you?”
She laughed before answering with, “No, actually, we were meant to go clubbing tonight, but…” She was saying then stopped to type something in her phone before adding, “Abike’s boyfriend was delaying, so we kind of changed our minds, but he is around now.”
“Oh!”
“Yea, and…sorry, Abike is my friend you spoke to earlier.”
“Yea, I kind of figured that out.” He said and rubbed his neck. “So, you love to club.”
“Nah! Not really my thing, but today…”She was saying then looked into space like she was thinking of something. The cheerful look on her face disappeared for a second, and then she shrugged before adding, “Today, I just feel like going out.”
“Oh, that’s great. I can take you to the club, and we can catch up with your friends there.”
“Umm! You don’t have to.”
“Yes, but I want to.” He said.
She looked up at him in silence for a while, and then looked at her dress before saying, “Okay. I need to get to my hostel and change though.”