The Salty city Predator

Chapter 5

The younger twin brother is still looking for his brother in all these joints. He also went by the pub close to the sea where most fishers frequently wash away their sea trouble after a day facing the turbulent waters. They tell of tales ranging from the current lousy fish market prices to storms in the sea. They all narrate adventures of the sea during the day. Some also discuss matters on their welfare over the territorial waters and constant harassment by patrol officers from the neighboring countries. They continue to wash away in liquor as they tell tales of the magical female musician a daughter of a fellow fisherman. She was a small girl with a big voice who fell in love with the vast sea. She would always beg her dad to take her on his fishing expeditions. She had a special place improvised for her at the front of his father’s fishing boat. She was fascinated by the tides in the deep ocean waters. As his father rowed the boat she would sing praising the great sea for feeding her family she would also not to forget to honor her father to secure her next sea trip on his fishing boat. The ordinary fishing folk and fishmongers much loved her at the shore of the sea. She started singing even before she could talk. At the beach, she would help her father in everything, sell his catch after fishing or when repairing his boat or nets as she sings. Her singing would attract crowds as she would always praise the vast sea and her father. Her beautiful voice would arouse her passion and love for the vast sea and the city. The fishmongers called her the songbird while the fishermen called her the mermaid, but to her father, she was the queen of the sea. Rumors among the city folk would be that her voice was a magical trick her father used while fishing. Her voice would make the storms calm; the fish would stop to listen as she beautifully sang her heart out and the tide would obey the rhythm of her song. The great mermaid would rule the ocean with her magnificent voice, and then the father’s net would quickly make a hefty catch as the fish listened to her amazing voice. She had secured a place at her local church choir, and she was always a favorite at the music festival representing her school. She also won many awards and certificates due to her beautiful voice including a fully sponsored scholarship for her studies.

To her father, she was the sole pride the apple of his eye. Many directors always approached him with recording deals for his little girl. He still turned them down for he wanted his little girl to secure good education before her singing career disrupted her. She joined one of the prestigious high schools in the salty city where a young producer spotted her during singing competition in her school. The young producer promised her a recording deal and allowed her to work in a band during holidays. Her father was against her signing in nightclubs late at night at her tender age. For her, the parents were the stumbling block to achieving her dreams of fame and money. She decided to take a chance away from her family and run away to pursue her career. She had everything in her hands as a backup singer in a band and halfway recording her album. She had fallen in love with the young producer who had convinced her to move in with him and forget school. The blind love led her away from her father’s dreams of following hers as a singer. The band sang almost in all parts of the city in all the nightclubs and significant events in the town, they sometimes performed for long hours, and she would be allowed to be the lead singer occasionally. Everything went very well for the teenage girl who was now the lead singer in her band and about to finish her album, she was living life to the fullest with clouds of expectations gathering before her and a bright future guaranteed. Her parents would always hear of her band's performances from her nosy neighbors in the slums.

One night after a crazy performance at a show she started feeling nausea at first, and her body was too weak. She thought of it as a mild parasitic infection or a mare food poisoning. She visited a pharmacy for some medication, and the funny feeling was over and her body strong again for two days but on the third day, her body was too weak this time she was vomiting severely. Her husband rushed her to a local dispensary where her fears were confirmed. She had missed her periods, and now the doctor assured her pregnancy. This was the worst news ever for the young couple no one was ready for a baby. She could no longer perform as she was used to and she had to step aside for her condition could not allow her musical career to continue. The producer started mistreating her for she was no longer earning. He recommended an abortion for he was not ready to be a father. Some of her colleagues once warned her in the band have witnessed many desperate young girls who end up pregnant and lonely. She thought they were being envious of her great talent and love. All her savings were used in paying rent, the producer boyfriend moved out and could no longer be seen she tried accessing his studio but to no avail, she always found hostile guards at the gate. She one day decided to wait for the producer outside the entrance he came out of the studio late and saw the desperate girl. He told her he was already married with two kids and when she asked about her album he just laughed and asked the guards to get rid of her.

She was now so disappointed she was contemplating suicide. She would always remember her father’s advice she would now be in her final year in school. She decided to go to her parents, but her father could not bear the shame and refused to house his pregnant daughter. Her mother escorted her daughter and gave her some cash and asked her to go live with her aunt the mother’s sister in another part of the slum so as starts a new life. The young girl could not go to her aunt’s place for it was within the immediate vicinity of her school where her peers were in there final years with promising future she could not stand the shame. The teenage girls in the school were hearing her fame as a singer and admired her for dropping out of school and making it she could not want to kill the beautiful stories she they were told of her. She decided to go to a part of the slum that no one could recognize her and start life over. The little money her mother gave her was used as rent and buying some few essential household items, and she would do odd jobs to maintain her household as her pregnancy grew. There came a time when her pregnancy could not allow her to work but she successfully managed to deliver a beautiful baby girl into the salty city. The beautiful girl was named purity after her mother, and her pure, innocent baby was now her only reason for living. She would soon move from one household to the estates with her baby strapped on her back looking for any job from laundry to cleaning. She did this for a few months until one hotel owner living in the estates employed her to do the cleaning and laundry at his hotel located on the shores of the sea. She reported working early in the morning to clean the floor and later do the washing of bed sheets and other utilities by noon she would leave to nurse her baby. Her work was impressive, and she could now afford a better house. The hotel owner bought a washing machine, and she was reshuffled to be a waitress. She would soon be staying late serving clients and could not afford to spend time with her daughter, whom she was leaving at a daycare center in her new neighborhood.

At night she would enjoy the service of a live band as she served high end clients at the nightclub. She would remember her time singing at a group and fantasied of how great she could have become now. She always prayed that her one year daughter would have a beautiful voice like hers and she would make sure she did not make the same mistakes that she made. She always sang along as the band sang she would also note when the lead singer would sing out of tone or when the band would destroy a classic. Many different bands would be invited to the club to entertain sometimes famous disc jockeys would be invited some would play some of the tracks in her album precisely the way she had recorded. She once asked the DJ about these songs and found out that her album was launched under an unknown artist with the copyrights under a particular producer. One Friday as she was doing her standard duty as always taking orders and serving drinks at the restaurant where a confident man greeted her and insisted that she looked familiar.

She tried to brush him off as she does to the many stalkers at this establishment but he told her of a girl she used to sing within a particular band. You look like her only you look bigger I was an instrumentalist trainee in that band she had one fantastic voice that anyone would kill to listen to. She must be your relative I wish I could meet her now. She could not hold her tears anymore he realized this was that girl she always avoided bands that could recognize her. He offered her a chance in his band but turned it down she was not ready to face the past ghosts that haunts her every day. This young man kept on asking her to join his band every time he came to perform here.

In his band, he keeps firing the lead singers because they always develop an ego and think they are more significant than the band. Freddie still plays the drum set in the group. One day it happened that his lead singer was nowhere to be found she had been snatched by the competing band they tried to cover-up for her but the sound was still wanting. They were so confused the restaurant manager was moving up and down not knowing what to do. Her vocal-cords ware aching with excitement. She remembers with nostalgia how would sing on her father’s fishing canoe in the middle of the sea. She started feeling helpless and her body started moving towards the band. She tried to stop but there was a compelling force beyond her. She walked towards the band, and Freddie handed her the microphone and just like that the mermaid was reborn, the queen of the sea was reborn and her voice commanded authority all over the whole hall. She was now wiser and more intelligent this time she was not going to look back. She continued singing for Freddie’s band for a while until she landed a deal and signed a recording deal with a music company. She produced hit after hit as she performed in all clubs and shows in the salty city until the city was too little for the mermaid. She continued ruling the radio waves and one law firm helped her get rights for her first album she had been coned. She was not yet eighteen years when the first producer signed her and there was no consent from a guardian a requirement by law terming her contract null and void. She earned a global reputation winning award after award. She was no longer the queen of the sea, but a musical goddess who was later married by a foreign director and again the salty city is robbed off yet another great talent.