Risen from the dark

I found something on you

Carlos was a fat man with a rotund face and small rattlesnake eyes. His face was clean shaven, with small lips which  was comfortably holding a cigarette.

“ Dios mio! ( Oh my God)” He exclaimed. “  Que susto( What a surprise)! I remember you.” He said

“ Como te llamas(what is your name?)”

“ I don’t speak Spanish.”

“ Ohh….okay. ” He said. They were sitting outside his restaurant where he usually sat to smoke cigarette. “ What is your name?”

“ They call me Walter.” Walter said, “ What happened to me? how did you find me?”

Carlos looked uneasily at him.

“ Did you lose your memory?”

“ I can’t remember what happened. Not even my name or where I come from.”

“ Hmmmm….I suspected that. Are you a CIA , FBI, or any other federal agent?”

“ I don’t know. “ He said but he remembered the words.

“ I found you in the mountains, not far from the ocean.Because Bolivia is a landlocked country, I go the hummocks close to the ocean. It was strange. I found something on you. I kept it………”

Adnan felt his heart beating rapidly as he entered the vast living-room. What he saw was not what he expected. The table was full with her siblings.

“ She never told me it was going to be a UN meeting.” He thought.

What was this all about?

The table was long with six expensive dining chairs at the sides with two master chairs at the ends opposite each other. Herge Adam sat at one end while Hajiya Fatima sat at the other end. The children sat at sides.

Naairah led Adnan to the dining table.

“ Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah.” Adnan saluted

“ Ameen wa alaikum salam.” They chorused.

Herge Adam had a broad smile on his face, and he offered  Adnan a warm handshake. Adnan showed hesitation, feeling shy  and then reluctantly offering his hand .

“ I am very glad to meet you.” Said the father. “ Please have a seat. Your seat was reserved.”

He was ushered to a sit and this was opposite Naairah. He felt so uncomfortable. He could feel the eyes of her brothers boring into him. Adnan looked at Hajiya Fatima and slightly bowed, and then greeted her.He perched on the chair, trying with a great effort to ease his baulk. The table was set for a feast. There was a variety of dishes displayed. But Adnan did not feel the urge for food that day. He did not know if he could eat there. He saw a part of him he never knew existed: feeling shy.

He also noticed that Naairah also felt a bit shy. Their eyes would meet at times and they would quickly take them off like a touch of fire.

“ Thank you for honouring my invitation.” Herge Adam said with a warm and avuncular gesture. “ Please feel free. This is your home and we feel you are part of us.”

“ Thank you very much, sir.”

“ You are one little secret my daughter never shared with me-her best friend.” He chuckled. “ So I really wanted to meet you, and get to know you better. And we usually have dinners like this, to keep the family together and being part of the family, I felt it would be the pertinent time to come join us.”

Adnan said nothing.

“ I am Adam, and that woman there is the first lady of the house, Hajiya Fatima. I am also known as Justice Barber and she as Selena Lopez”

There was laughter but Adnan only smiled and bowed his head.

“Abba, it is Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.” Naairah said. “ I told you to enrol in my New-school School.”

“ I will definitely get a form.” Herge Adam said and they laughed. His jokes and humility made Adnan felt more at ease. “ That is the vice –President of the family, Gaddafi. He is my first son, studied  Geology at Siegner Dabistas  University, Germany but had his Masters at UK. He is married with two children.He is the Regional Manager, Dahauba Group of

companies.” He said waving at a strongly built man with very dark ,low-cut hair and fully bearded face.

Gaddafi smiled at Adnan who nodded with a bow at him.

“ That is Abdul-Rahman. He is my second son.” Herge Adam wove at a slightly chubby man. “ He studied Political Science, Kingfield College, and currently a  consultant and a Lecturer in the University of Center City.”

He went on to introduce Abdul-Rasheed, Sadiq, Habeeb, Sa’eed who was a final year student, and then Mohammed who was his last son.

“And of course the only princess in the house, my Naairah who is currently in school. This is our small family and we are so happy to meet you, and be part of us…..”

“Assalamu alaikum.” Someone saluted and he was replied.

Adnan turned to see who came in with a smile planted on his face.

It was Zayyad !

What was he doing here?

Adnan and Naairah exchanged glances.

“ I was coming back from a small mountain climbing.” Carlos said, and then moved his rotund face forward like he was about to tell him a great secret, “ my wife is complaining about my potbelly these days so I go climbing…..”

Wife!

The word  made a bang in Walter’s heart.

Aadila! Was she his wife? The name was there in his head but he could not relate it to any face.

“ And I saw you staggering. You were seriously in a bad shape. You were all wet, bleeding and out of your mind. You dropped on the ground. I looked round and saw that you were not being followed. You kept saying, ‘ocean, the boy, the boy, Aadila.’ I could not lift you alone. You are a hunk of a beef so I called Dialo, my boy who came and helped me out.

Before Dialo came, I searched you and saw something. It was a very small  device. I did not know what it was. All I have known all my life is food and restaurant. I hate technology and that thing looked so full of it.

So ,I took you to Doctor Mark. He is a good man. Doctor Sean would not accept you. And I left you there. I am sorry but I never went back there. Market is bad these days. I could not afford to be told about bills.”

“ Where is the device?”

“ I have it in my office. I will get someone to help out. What happened to you?” He said, “ Oops! I forgot. You lost your memory, huh? Sometimes, I wish I could lose mine and forget all those days and these days…..and just be in a free world and I won’t care if any woman cheats on me because I have a potbelly.” Carlos said with a tinge of bitterness. “ And my mistresses don’t complain. Adriana says she loves it, same as Mette-Maaret and Kamila. Mayra reserved her comment. But my wife complains.”

Walter said nothing, but smugly wrinkled his nose as cloud of smoke from cigarette  filled the air. It seemed he never smoked. It did not look familiar to him but had seen it a lot of times. He was not here to talk about his marital life. He needed answers.

“ I kept the device hidden. Only one person know where it is. I don’t even know why I hid it or felt it was important.” He turned at a young lad, “ Hey, Rico! Tell Andrew to get his head here.”

Andrew was a short stocky man with a mean expression. He appeared and stood expectant.

“ Gimme that thing.” Carlos said.

“ What thing?”

“ The small thing that looks like pen.”

“Hmmmm.” Andre said and went in.

“ Andrew is trustworthy. But I don’t trust Rico and Pablo.” Carlos said, “ they don’t love me. They love my restaurant because they get money.”

Andrew came out a few minutes later.

“ Have.” He said, handed it to Carlos and left without giving Walter a second look.

“ Take it Senor.”

Immediately he saw it,  he felt some sparks in his head, and images falling into a katzenjammer, then sputtering sounds could be head in his head. Then he began to see lab coats, stethoscopes, microscopes, syringes, and computers.

Was he a doctor?

What was he?

“ Where is the EBM?” Walter said subconsciously. He knew the device but he could not tell what it was now. And he remembered EBM but not what it was used for. Was the pen-looking device connected to the EBM?  

“EBM? I told you I don’t know s**t about technology. The only business I have with a laptop is watching cooking programmes and South-American drama.

Walter looked at it again. It was black, with a red button on the top and digital screen which probably displayed numbers.He pressed the red button, then heard a faint sound, then he put his thumb on the digital buttons. With a programed mind, he pressed some numbers: 00030.

On the tiny screen, he saw: EBM out of radar. 15km.

“ Where did you pick me?”

“I told you before.”

“ Please tell me quickly!”