MURDER IN THE ORATORY

FIVE

MURDER IN THE ORATORY

Five

Jasper

Being in this situation is not exactly something that anyone would want at any time. I assure you, that I wouldn’t want this even for my worst enemy. I am shaking and my body feels weak, but I have to remain strong for the sake of my Amy who seems worse. Ooh, I have no idea why a car would trail us here because I don’t know if I have enemies. Does she have enemies? That too, I simply don’t know. Do you get me? I am so clueless, yes, I am.

I will do exactly what is good for us, I will do exactly what I can to save myself and the love of my life. I push one of the cars that are ahead of me, and it drops into the dugout. I sure this is so immoral, but I will not let anything happen to her. I will protect her, even if it means that being the last thing I do before I die, I will do it. I’d rather go but leave Amy alive. She is still very young and needs to fulfill her numerous dreams.

I am being bad, I know, and I also know that I have to save her, I need to. I will not be able to handle myself should anything unwanted happen to Amy. I drive off between the car, and the tractor pushing the cars to the side, I make sure that she is bending down this whole time because she cannot see this, and just in case the bullets stray in here, then she must be safe.

I push away and when I check from the side mirror, the car is coming at a very high speed from behind us. I cuss furiously under my breath. I am just clearing the way for the car, and it’s finding it easier.

I am becoming nervous, but I have to teach myself how to remain strong. As a psychologist, for me to avoid seeing her sad, I have to pretend that everything is okay, or that this is a situation I can handle. She tries to lift her head up, but I make sure that she takes it back down immediately. This must be the last straw. My question is, who exactly is this that doesn’t love us?

The tractor passes by scratching my beast a little bit, but that’s none of my worries at the moment. What I need right now, is to be sure that my love is alright, and that I escape from the car. Then I don’t stop at any moment, I keep going until I lose the car. I sigh slightly, as I ask Amy to sit up. She does doubtfully, and when our eyes meet, I feel the pain.

I take a break and pull her towards me. I hug her tightly. Suddenly I feel my hairs rise. Just when I thought I had lost the car. Then boom! That must have had been the worst mistake I have ever done because I watch in awe as a bullet penetrates the car from the back and boom! It only misses my only available ear by a whisker.

I watch in wonderstruck as Amy screams her lungs out, but I motion her not to panic. If I am not careful, then she might go into a panic attack. I ask her urgently to lie down and due to the nature of her small body, she goes fully down. Then I manage to step on the gas. You know what? Amy has been through s**t and back, and I wouldn’t like to let her be in more. She has seen the worst that there is in this world, and I am yet to understand who is after us.

I am so unlucky. This was one of the road trips that I was hoping would be the best. No phones, no nothing, and I truly have no idea how to even call for help. Then a car blocks my way, and yes, intentionally, and I without any care of wonder, I drive into the car pushing it out of the way while a bullet is fired, and I hear a scream from Amy, this time, a painful and a fearful groan.

Ever been terrified as a man? Ever felt like it is the end of the world, and that you have lost all hopes, and nothing can happen to save you from the situation you are in? Right about now, that’s me, and I am assuring you that if no one sees these idiots and stops them I will do something that I might regret later on in life.

I might want to get out and face our attackers but that’s not happening. I keep driving, asking Amy to just hang on. I don’t want to fail on my promise to her and to myself. I want to take care of her the best way that I can. I promised I would, and I will not let her down. I hit the steering wheel so hard! That’s what I do when I cannot seem to think.

She is bleeding, I hit my head hard, thinking where to find help, that’s when It comes to my attention that this is a hospital car, I mean I was given this machine by the hospital and it has an emergency line on the speed dial. I dial it urgently, hoping they will be able to trace where we are. We are in the middle of nowhere and it doesn’t even add up how come there was traffic a few minutes ago on a road that should be deserted.

I wonder for a moment what I should do. I contemplate stopping, but I don’t think we will make it out of this place if I stop. I check on Amy, and I realize that her bleeding may be worse. I instruct her to get her scarf and apply some pressure on the wound.

She takes the scarf, and as I drive with my right hand, I assist the terrified human being to tie the wound. It doesn’t take long before she faints on me, and I have no idea what to do about it. Watching her eyes get teary is one of the most painful ordeals ever. Watching him look at me helplessly, makes me want to take things head-on, but I have to make sure we are both safe.

She is already at a bad stage. I have to stay safe, alive and most of all, sane to be able to assist cover her. I incline her seat and let her lay on her back. This is really serious. I want to cry, but I tell myself that that’s too childish. I want to shout, but I decide that that’s not cool enough, I want to drive into a ditch and finish us, but hey, I need to live to tell my kids this story one day.

Do you understand what I mean? I am frustrated, I am mad and yes, I am stopping to confront whoever is doing this to us. Just as I am about to take the abrupt break, something speaks within me, ‘don’t stop, she needs to be saved if you stop, you two will die in the hands of these slayers, and I doubt that’s what you want for you and your woman.’ Feeling as confused as I am, I decide to listen to my inner self, my only prayer now is that help comes. It might be easy or not, I know they could decide to track our cars, and that’s what could make it easy.

This is the time when I drive like never before. I have never been in the situation, but you will not believe that I am on the maximum speed and that the car is closer to us. There are two people c*****g their guns at us, and I pray so much that nothing worse happens. Still trying to calm myself, I wonder why the road is just straight. Anyway, I see a T-junction, and I decide I will lose them at this point.

There is an oncoming matatu, and I diverge a little making sure that I confuse the driver, then I make my way to the right and I drive at the top-most speed. Right on cue, I smile faintly when I hear sirens. Our emergency response team is here, but that’s not all, the black van is totally very closer to us and I shout a short prayer that we be okay.

I make an abrupt stop and when the car tries to ram on us, I swerve our car and yes, they end up into the ditch as we slightly make our way backward. I know our emergency team because on the gadget I used to call them, it is indicated that they have located us. What a relief.

I watch in awe as one of the doctors who is also a trained army gets out. I have no single idea how the car pulls out of the ditch, and one guy is out coming our way, this is when you say, let what happen happens. I have really tried, but I cannot do it anymore. One of them, assuming the doctor doesn’t know anything points a gun at us, the rest are just standing back and watching from afar. Three of them to be precise.

‘’Get out!’’ he shouts looking at me, and when I look at the doctor, he nods, and I do as he says. ‘’Where is she?’’

‘’Who?’’

‘’Don’t play damn! I am looking for Amara! And I know you are hiding her in this car. Bring her out or you are dead!’’

‘’Who are you?’’ I ask calmly, but he doesn’t seem moved.

‘’Are you deaf or deaf? I said, bring Amara out, or you are dead. I will count from one to three, and if you do not bring her out in a second, I will shoot you.’’

‘’Go ahead and shoot me. I promised Amara that I will protect her with all my strength, to the last drop of my blood! You have no tiniest idea what that means, do you?’’ he doesn’t respond to that. Instead, he starts counting with his gun directly c****d towards me. I have the choice of getting Amy out, but I choose not to.

If I am going to die because I have to support the woman I love, then I will gladly do. Besides, what am I without her? She isn’t feeling well at all, she has been hurt several times and yeah, she must be painfully hurting. I cannot take that. She has to live.

‘’One, two, and three …’’ before he finishes counting, I don’t know from where the bullet volleys and just like that, his gun is shot away, as another bullet goes straight to his arm, and the other cowards rush back to the car whose doors were never shut, and they drive off, one of the cars parked behind us drive off after them. The i***t tries to take his gun, but another bullet comes his way, shooting him in the leg. Then he falls and I run to the gun and kick it away.

‘’Who are you working for?’’ I hear a voice, one very familiar voice that sends me wondering, and when I turn, I see my brother from the army. I run back to the car, as the doctor brings out his tools. He says he will take care of her wound. He advises that we rush back to the nearest town so that they get her to a hospital. I am hoping against all hopes that Jairo makes that i***t speak.

Come to think about it, who could that i***t be? I wonder if he is working for him or for someone else. Why the hell didn’t he even cover his face? That’s something my brother and his team will have to do. Finding out who he is, where is comes from, what his mission is, and why Amara?

Amy is taken to the ambulance and Doctor Omar offers to get someone to drive my van. He says that he knows the state I am in, and he cannot let me drive anymore. ‘’What state do you think I am in?’’

‘’You are anxious, scared, and nervous. You probably didn’t sleep at night, you are worried about who the guy left back there is, and I can hear your poor throbbing heart. You know what I mean?’’

‘’Who will care for my Amy?’’

‘’I will do that. I owe you more than you can imagine. You know what?’’ I shake my head I know nothing.

‘’What?’’

‘’That i***t should be able to speak to Jairo, so, just take it easy.’’ I walk to the ambulance. I will not let Amy go alone to the hospital.

Dr. Omar does first aid, I cannot help but keep feeling if she is still breathing. We are in a facility that looks like a hospital and trust me, this doesn’t look like the best. I, however, have no option, because I know the doctors came prepared.

When I called in earlier, I told them what my quandary was, and I am glad that Dr. Omar is one of the doctors that showed up here. I feel uneasy when I look at my Army being carried from the ambulance to the hospital. I lift up my face to look at Omar and I meet exactly what I didn’t wanna meet. The look on Omar’s face tells it all. I don’t know just how, to react, so, I decide to let the tears fall unceremoniously.