LUST OBSESSION

Andrea started talking to himself “I killed her. Yes, I killed her. My threats made her do it. She did it all because of her love for me. This is too much for me to bear. Her blood is on my hands. I see her in my dreams. Let me confess and die." Then, he shook his head vigorously and banged the stool before him to further demonstrate his utter disappointment with past misdeeds that brought the negative memory flash that haunted him. “Let me die!”, he shouted. Bob, his gateman, heard the shout and a bang, but he could not understand what must have gone wrong with his boss. Nonetheless, he rushed into Andrea's sitting room, panting, to be sure nothing bad happened to his boss. Instead of his boss reciprocating the gesture with gratitude, he bounced him. “Hey. What do you want? Did I call you? You meddlesome interloper, go back to your work now,” he dismissed Bob. Bob apologized and returned to the gate as his boss directed. However, it was so obvious that he was still very worried about his boss even though the man discountenanced his care attitude. Once in a while, he would tip-toe to the side of his boss’s sitting room window in order to get any clue about what could have made him to shout like a little boy that had his fingers trapped by a reckless car door. After a while, Bob concluded that the man must be ruminating over the events of the ghastly motor accident that orchestrated his permanent confinement to the wheelchair. Clement, a guy in the next compound, heard the shout too. He walked up to Bob to inquire about who shouted in their house. Bob denied ever hearing a shout or a bang. He said maybe Clement was already suffering from hallucinations. He dismissed the shout as a figment of Clement’s vague imagination. Clement never picked any offense because he was so sure that he clearly heard a disturbing noise. So, he advised Bob to sneak and peep through the windows to be double sure that his boss had not fallen off his wheelchair. Bob refused to yield to his advice. Rather, he started off a discussion on the porous state of waste management in their residential estate in recent time. He lamented the ludicrous agreement their estate’s homeowners association made with the non-performing waste management company saddled with the responsibility to drain their waste bins. Clement was more interested in this new topic. So, they both got carried away with discussions on errors of changing the erstwhile waste management service providers who had served the estate for years without glitches. Pointing at the direction of Andrea’s windows, Clement advised Bob to tell the chairman (as they fondly called Andrea around the estate) to use his influence to help them on the waste management issue now. As they furthered the discussion, Clement said, “that’s my phone ringing”. And he sped off. Now that Clement had re-confirmed the occurrence, Bob was on the lookout for a re-occurrence so that he could call for the necessary help in case he would not be able to help his boss alone. He waited patiently, still tip-toeing up and down until he became tired and dosed off at his security post. An SUV pulled over in front of Andrea’s gate and the driver started honking. It was Andrea’s driver. He went to pick up Andrea’s daughter, Ryan and their housemaid. The driver kept honking until Bob woke up and hurriedly opened the gate. “How are you Mr. Sleeper?”, the driver jokingly asked as he greeted Bob. Bob replied too with, “am fine Mr. Noise Maker”. Ryan and the housemaid alighted from the car. Ryan rushed in to go and hug her dad. Andrea gave her a “hi five”. She noticed her dad must have shed tears. “Dad, did you cry,” she asked. Andrea denied ever crying saying it might be patches of soap and water he used to wash his face. She helped him to the lines formed by tears. Ryan had plenty of gists from school today. She wanted to say so many things, but her dad was just not in the mood for banter. She would have gone ahead with her narration of what happened, her dad would just interject by apologizing to her to rewind. She thought it was food issue. So, she promised to go and have a cold water shower. Then come back so that they could both have more hot gists as they eat cereals together. Ryann jumped into the bathroom. She hastily opened the tap for some water to pour on her head and part of her body. She jumped out almost immediately into the waiting hands of their housemaid who was at a corner monitoring to be sure she did the proper thing. “You didn’t bath well. Are you a dirty girl? Water did not touch the back of your legs. My friend, go back now and do the proper thing. Go back before I report you”, she ordered her. Reluctantly, Ryann went back into the bathroom. Her head and shoulders dangled as she went. This time, she bathed very well washing every part of her body just in case big sister was still watching her. Food apart, she had hardly drained the water on her body when she put on her skimpy things to rush back into the sitting room to give her dad the hottest gist of all from her school that day. “Dad, I have a breaking news,” she said with enthusiasm. “So what again was new in school today?” Andrea asked. She said the principal and her own class teacher, Mrs. Geng resigned their appointment with immediate effect. Andrea shouted why as if he didn’t know what happened. She went on to narrate the scenario. According to her, first it was the principal that went early morning to discuss his resignation with the proprietress. The proprietress pleaded with him to no avail. Later, when he not be made to change his mind, the woman pleaded with him not to allow the news of his resignation filter to the students yet. She wanted to break the news next day. And the man agreed. However, about thirty minutes to the school’s closing time, her class teacher went to drop her resignation letter with the principal not knowing that the principal was the first to resign earlier in the day. The principal begged her to calm down. He wanted Mrs. Geng to allow him break the news the following day. She said no. She insisted proprietress must hear it same day so that the record is straight. The principal was concerned about relationship. He believed the woman might think it was all a gang up to frustrate her business. Mrs. Geng did not care. She was just sick and tired of working in that school for more than ten years with nothing much to show for it. The principal eventually called the proprietress and broke the news of another staff resigning with immediate effect. The proprietress warned them not leave at a time the board of directors just approved their promotion and pay rise. But the principal said there was no going back on his decision. He also opined strongly that Mrs. Geng would not rescind on her decision. Housemaid walked in. She took permission from Andrea to allow her take Ryann for a shopping. He granted her request but cautioned her to place a close watch on the girl to avoid excessive spending. Before the driver, Stanley, finally took them out of the compound, over excited Andrea had started calling Mrs. Geng to congratulate her on the successful exit from her old employment. And warm wishes for the new job. Stanley heard everything Andrea said to Mrs. Geng on phone but he pretended. Andrea was actually behind the resignation of both the principal and Mrs. Geng. Though the principal didn’t know the actual persons, his new employers told him that two gentlemen recommended him to the international school that just offered him employment. But all along, Mrs. Geng knew it was her sugar daddy (Andrea) that told human resources team at the manufacturing company to interview her with a view to engaging her services. But why was Andrea so wicked to her daughter’s school proprietress? The proprietress had mistakenly said at their last parents and teachers association forum that tuition fees increase is inevitable in the coming session. After meeting, Andrea and few others went back to her on that decision but she treated them shabbily. She was so unruly that they had to apologize for daring to challenge her decision. Tuition fees increase almost every session in the last three years? Andrea made up his mind to teach her and her board of directors a lesson. He reasoned that it was because they had nothing to worry about that was why they always think of raising the school fees. They also increased cost of uniform above national inflationary level. Andrea did not help Mrs. Geng for free. He called her to agree a celebration meeting at his usual hotel. He told her to pick a convenient date and be ready to spend quality time with him. Just the two of them together.