Niko’s Eye

Chapter 41.

"Friends For Life."

Isis.

Maybe it’s the network.

After multiple tries, Isis decided that she’ll wait for her grandmother to get back to her.

She scrolled through her contacts and decided to give Zainab a call.

"My bitch."

She moved the phone away from her ear as she heard an excited Zainab screaming her lungs out on the other end.

"Where the f**k have you been you shithead! Oh my God, I missed you sooooooo much. I can’t believe you’d wanna leave me just like that. Start explaining. And it better be good."

Isis chuckled, not knowing where to start.

They had been on the phone for almost three hours, catching up and letting each other in on the latest.

"So your dad might just be back in your life, and you’re actually adopted? I think that was kind of evident with the way Aunty Lauren treats you."

They snorted at everything and couldn’t keep a straight face about anything.

"Oh my God, I can’t believe your mom is such a catfish. Like, diabolically so. But baby, you are my best friend. You are stability when the world goes nuts. I am the same for you. Together we navigate, grow and follow our passions. I am so proud that you have changed so much, that you become a better person as you mature. If in this life I only have one friend as good as you, then I am luckier than I ever expected to be."

Isis smiled through the phone and let Zainab know that she could come and stay with her at Alejandro’s if ever she felt like home was just too much for her.

"Girl, this ain’t even home anymore. They’re battyman heads. In fact, bomboclaats. I’m coming right now. I haven’t seen you in forever anyways," had been Zainab’s reply.

In the push and pull between the primitive drive and higher-order social mind, I resent and then love you, my friend. I am well schooled in what love is, what love is not. When the primitive drive takes the wheel it’s hard to fight it, to stay what a friend should be. If I wait for the panic to subside, to feel the sadness that lives beneath my anger, to let the fear be acknowledged... then I’m in control. Soon the feelings of love come back and I want to hold you so close. In truth, whenever the wintry rain sets in I want to run to you. Only you. Every time. Maybe one day that’ll actually happen, or perhaps you’ll run to me. Either way, regardless of outward appearances, you’re the only one my heart has let in.

Isis did not waste time in tidying up the house before her best friend’s arrival. She had made sure to call Alejandro so that she could let him know. She had been shocked by how cool he was with Zainab coming to live with them.

That would also help with keeping our hands off of each other.

She wished she had actually spoken her mind.

He also said something that had lingered in her mind as she went about cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes.

"He said that he had a surprise for me, one that would complete me."

God, I hope it’s not a ring. I don’t know if I’m ready. We haven’t even spoken about his past life. But why do I wanna know about it so badly? Isn’t it the only thing that was suppose to matter was that he didn’t kill my father? But still, I want to know what I’m working with here. Am I working with an Al Capone, a Timothy McVeigh, a Pablo Escobar, or all of them?

The thought just sent shudders down her spine.

But I’m sure he had his reasons. He seems to have changed...for real. Right?

"Anyways, there’s a really cool friendship bracelet I saw on ** that I need to get for Isis and I. The must-have friendship bracelet is woven with threads the colour of every hue of human skin; it’s going to be our new symbol of humanity working together for a better future."

She smiled and got busy with making dinner.

Alejandro.

Alejandro had been in a meeting when he had received a phone call that his secretary had said to be urgent.

He had excused himself and attended to the phone call, only to find out that Isis’ grandmother was on her way back to Barbados, and needed him to fetch her from the airport that afternoon.

"Nana, what a surprise. Your presence would really complete Isis. Oh, and me of course.

She had told him to be at the airport by 5:30pm. Her flight was said to arrive an hour before then. But he was planning on being there atleast two hours before. He didn’t want to take any chances. He thought about fetching Isis so they could go to the airport together but she said her friend was going to arrive today as well, so he thought that she needed to be home when Zainab arrived.

Since Belvia had phoned him, he kept looking at the clock. He didn’t know if he was excited or what. But, his mind kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

The path don’t care about the terrain, that’s for me to deal with. The path is the path. So whatever comes I keep going. When I get knocked down I have to get up, ’cause there’s no other way. I know what’s out there though, I know ’cause the universe told me. It said "just walk" and so I did, I still do. It says at the other end is peace, real happiness for everyone, and I gotta keep going even if the path makes me bleed. Sometimes it has, sometimes so much I just wanna stay down and feel the cold... then I remember why I started this journey and find my feet again. It hasn’t been lonely though, and I think some company would be nice if you can be brave enough. It’s freedom, it’s duty, it’s leading and following. I can’t promise comfort, but there’s plenty of stuff to k****e your soul and bring the sorts of smiles you thought only belonged to the stars.

What exactly am I even thinking about? Life, huh. Yeah, it’s been a ride. Sometimes I sleep not knowing if police officers would know at my door, wanting to arrest me for my crimes. I don’t think I can ever be ready for that. I’ll just have to face it when it happens.

Alejandro had actually been having low-key anxiety attacks, and taking some pills for it, without telling Isis. He didn’t want her to worry about anything.

After every mountain peak there’s another, yet the climbing is everything. With each stretch I reach higher; with each stride I’m stronger, I keep gaining a little more to carry me through the times of hardship. I feel the winter wind as a coldness to teach me to stay warm inside. I feel sharp rocks as a whisper to walk lightly. Those times the clouds shower me with their icy love, I let it remind me of the tears I prevent by walking these ways, by walking with God, and it makes me move all the faster. That’s why I win, ’cause I learn from what’s hard and sprint when the weather is fair. So if Isis wants to walk with me, that would be so sweet. I need her to make my journey complete.

The road don’t rise and the road don’t sink, it’s me that does the walking. Every day it’s right there and I can ride it anywhere or sit here on this curb. It can be so hot come summertime, yet in truth it’s simply giving back what went in, finding balance as the dawn approaches, ready for each new day. I see the places we did hopscotch as kids, throwing down them stones, leaping in time to our rhymes. I see the road in the right here and now, these shoes feeling how the it pushes back softly, always supporting, never asking. And in that moment I hear it calling with it’s sweet song of other places, all of them connected by the breathing land that runs under that tarmac, under oceans and mountains. That’s how I know I’ve gotta go, go with the road, take her curves and junctions, pause at the red, go at the green. I can’t force anything. If it happens, it happens. I can’t run away from paying my dues.

Alejandro had no peace within himself, maybe he was being haunted by the souls of the people he had murdered.

We do not choose any life without pain, we all pay one way or another, the only question is how we payand for what? Then there is us as a society and a globe, what do the sum of our actions pay for? Look at the natural environment, look at the climate.... who is it that will pay for this and how? Heaven, I can tell you, is all about personal responsibility, hell is all about party now and let someone else pick up the tab... When we are in trouble do we say, "What the hell?" or "Heaven give us strength"? Who are we really praying to? Ah well, what the heck, go to hell, see if I care, you’ve all got the receipts in your pockets anyway.