Cross My Mind

AN ARMED ROBBERY

…..

After four hours of driving, Garba and Jeremy have arrived at Youngsville Louisiana and drove straight to the Goldenberg mansions. Garba thanked Jeremy and dragged his bag into the compound. On the other hand, Jeremy was so confused he doesn’t know how to interpret what is going on. Two and a half hours ago, he listens to Mila address herself on the phone as a person named Garba. She was also giving the Garba person specific instructions midway through when the phone suddenly ended.

At first, Jeremy thought Mila has multiple personality disorder or something similar to that but after Mila put her phone down, he asked if he can use the phone to make a call and when he picked the phone, he checked the call history and found out that Mila actually made a call, it wasn’t a pretend call to speak to her other personalities. However, she really did call someone and the call lasted for as long as she talked on the phone.

At that point, he knew that there is only one logical thing to do, he quickly brought out his phone and copied the number in, saving it and pretending to make his call. Now that he has the number, he will find out what is going on. He drives his van away.

Inside the mansion, Garba walked pass the security with doubt in his mind, he knows that people will look at him and see Mila, but he just cant get used to the new feeling of pretending to be someone else. He also know the mansion outline surprisingly but cant remember how or why he knows Mila’s room is upstairs.

Lola and Mr. Goldenberg are not home at the moment, but both their cars were home so Garba realized they must not be too far, they must be somewhere nearby in the neighborhood.

Inside the mansion, Garba went straight to the upper floors and headed for the master bedroom, he pushed the door open and walked into the room, on the walls are portraits of a woman he immediately recognized as Mrs. Goldenberg, Mila’s mother and on the wall next to the bed are skull paintings of different kinds and all of them have been signed with the insignia MG.

Garba quickly understood that it is a short form of writing Mila Goldenberg.

He went straight to the bed and sit, feeling how comfortable and warm it is, he laid down and had a nap. A few minutes later, he was woken up by the noise downstairs. He stood up and take off the sweater and jeans trousers he is wearing. As he sat to take off the socks, he was shocked by what he saw on two parts of Mila’s body.

On the calf of Mila’s right leg, her smooth and soft skin was demarcated by a large scar that runs to the back of her knee, her left leg has a similar scar but a little smaller than the one on her right leg. On her lower abdomen also runs another nasty scar as well.

“what could have given such a young lady these many scars?” he asked himself as he walks into the bathroom, took his bath and dressed well in another set of jeans and sweater. The noise on the lower floor of the house only keeps increasing by the minute so Garba decided to go see what is happening.

He walked bare footed to the railings of the stairs leading to the lower floor and was met by a party of middle aged people dancing and drinking all over the house, at the center of the living room, Garba saw a woman in a red gown, the woman is slightly younger than most of the other people and seems to be the center of attention for the party. She turns her gaze upwards to see what everyone is looking at and Garba met eyes with that of the woman

Instantly, he begins to feel a lingering resentment and hate towards a woman he is meeting for the first time in his life. The woman’s facial expression although firmly controlled, seems to radiate a strange displeasure and resentment as well. Garba avoided the woman’s gaze and continued to scan the rest of the living room for any sight of Mila’s father.

After checking from one man to the next, until he has checked all the men in the room and none of them really hits him as Mr. Goldenberg. The woman in red dress climbed up the stairs to where Mila is standing bare footed and at first just stare at her without saying anything.

Garba got tired of what he feels is turning into a staring contest so he cleared throat and said.

“Excuse me miss, but can I help you?” with a face that clearly looks angry and he has no idea why he is so agitated at the sight of the woman.

“Lola dear, I hope I am not late, me and the men went for a little geese hunt in the swamp and I totally forgot about the party” another strangely familiar voice said

“Honey, can you come up here for a moment? There’s something you should see” the woman next to Garba said.

A few seconds later, The man was now standing face to face with Garba and without any introduction; he knows that the man is Mr. Goldenberg, Mila’s father.

“Mila, I thought you were with your boyfriend Jeremy” he said awkwardly.

“I don’t care who she was with, what is she doing here after the stunt she pulled on us twice, she has packed her clothes and left with her last words being she will not set foot here again so help me ask her what she is back for and we shall provide her with it before she sets out again on one of her adventures” Lola said with a mocking voice.

It dawns on Garba for the last bit of clarity why he feels intense resentment towards The woman, she is Mr. Goldenberg’s girlfriend who made him drive Mila’s mother to the point of suicide, ‘Mila’s greatest hatred must be vested upon this woman' he thought.

“Hello father, I decided to come back, I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you” Garba said in an attempt to make conversation

Lola’s mouth popped right open and remained in a gape, apparently shocked at the way Mila just spoke to her father, In all her time with Mr. Goldenberg, she has never seen Mila speak to her father the way she just did.

“do what you want to, you’re old enough to take care of yourself”. He said and immediately, Lola stormed off to the lower floor.

Garba felt his heart skip a beat over the event that just occurred. As Mr. Goldenberg turns to walk downstairs to where Lola has stormed off to, Garba held his hand.

“Let’s have a long conversation sometime later, not now, but some time” He said.

Mr. Goldenberg flinched for a moment, he paused and said.

“Lets do that”.

Garba  went back to Mila’s room and lied down oh her bed, after a few more tries to call her on his phone number and connect with Mila, he concluded that the phone must have run out of charge and shut down. He walked around the room looking at different paintings of the wall and the portraits there have a complete family tree of the Goldenberg family. Garba realized that Mr. Goldenberg, Mila’s father is nowhere to be found and concluded that he is either an adopted child, or took on the name when he married Mila’s mother.

****(Abuja Nigeria)****

The taxi carrying Mila drove her to the central region of the city where there are expensive five star hotels and resorts. The cab driver gave her quite a number of suggestions and in the end, She settled for a hotel called “Hotel fourteen”. The driver dropped her off at the hotel and drove off. The hotel looks very decent and up to the five standard. Inside, she went straight to the reception where she was welcomed nicely and provided her with a list of options.

Mila selected the best room she could find and lodged in. the room is as specious as they described it to be and the room service is excellent.

“I need to add Abuja Nigeria to my bucket list now that I have money enough for me to travel the world and more. Assuming I don’t get stuck in this body that is”. She said as she changed her dress and put on a hoodie and went out to the mall to buy a new phone.

As she reached the exit of the hotel building in the direction of the local shopping mall, she saw the same cab driver that drove her to the hotel drive to the main entrance of the hotel and stopped the car, from the car emerged the same three men that were stalking her. To make the situation even clearer, the man that snatched Garba’s smart phone from her also got out of the car.

“these guys must be a team, a team of amateurs if they allow me to know what they are after. You should at least change your dress if you are going to stalk me where I can see you and then follow me to where you want to jump me and take my cash. This may be a different country and continent, but in the end, garbage humans are still the garbage we all know them to be.” Mila murmured to herself and pulled her hoodie even lower to cover her face more.

Mila had predicted that someone was going to come chasing her to finish the job by taking the bundle of cash she has on her, so she tipped the waiter at the reception big money and declared that she is here alone and no one should be led to her room or given any information about her no matter who they claim they are. She walked towards the mall and got in, thinking that she is covered for the night and the men would never find her room.

However, little did Mila know that the three thousand naira she has just tipped the waiter were way less valuable than she had assumed and that the cab driver who brought her here was also part of the ring of robbers that she was brought to this specific place “Hotel fourteen” as part of the grand scheme to rob her of the money she was unknowingly displaying earlier during the day.

Inside the hotel reception, the four men have just arrived, they went strait to the reception and pretended as if they were going to book a room but started asking the waiter questions.

“did you see our friend who arrived earlier than us here tonight, his name is Garba Danladi, he is tall and dark skinned with two different colored eyes, a brown and blue”. One of the men said while sliding five thousand Naira notes towards the waiter.

As son as the waiter saw the money, he placed his hands on them and picked up in a swift, putting the notes in his pocket. He pulled out a room keycard and handed it over to the man.

“He went out just a while ago, giving me only three thousand Naira as a tip with his weird eyes. Remember, if you are ever caught in the process, I do not know you or how you sneaked in the hotel residence. My share goes higher by four percent this time around.” The waiter said and two of the men started frowning their faces in disagreement but the large one among them quickly agreed to the deal.

Mila bought a new phone from the mall but could not get a SIM card to use it with, she then walked back into the hotel disappointed that she could not contact Garba tonight to find out why the hell he has so much cash on him or what she is to do next. She also wants to find out what he has been up to all the while in her body.

This time around when she went t the waiters at the reception to get her keycard back, she noticed that the waiter she tipped is refusing to make eye contact with her and instantly figured something was wrong.

She collected her keycard and walked back to her room, where she placed the card on the door sensor and it blinked green, unlocking the room.

She pulled open the door and stepped into the room. “I could swear that I left the lights on” she said out loud and instantaneously, a voice inside the room said.

“that is because you did” and before Mila could do anything, the four men she saw earlier emerged from the corners of the room. The first one in front of her was holding an old revolver pistol pointed at her and the rest of the three quickly restrained her. One putting a gag in her mouth and the rest of the two tying her arms with a rope.

“you are quite a strong man so we will tie you and look for the money properly”. The large man holding the gun said.

“you had a sharp mouth as well, this is the first time I am seeing a strong man with a sharp tongue in my life, it is usually either a weak man who is not strong that has a sharp tongue or a strong man who can fight but cannot curse other people well. I guess you have both strength and a sharp tongue but not a sharp brain since you were flashing cash like that in public transportation bus” one of the men said.