Cross My Mind

A BAD TURN OF EVENTS

…..

In Garba’s body, Mila lies on the floor of her hotel room as the four robbers go through everything in the room, taking anything worth money until the room was scattered rigorously.

The robbers have found a total of four bundles of cash worth four hundred thousand Naira in Garba’s luggage.

“This is our biggest catch of the week, in all the people we have robbed, this blue eyed bastard is the only one that has this much in cash. I bet he has more where this came from” one of the men said.

“Somewhere in a Bank account most likely, so lets just grab what we have here and beat it before someone gets here” the second man responded.

The bulky dark one among them went to the bed side and sat down, ordering the rest of the men to pick her up and bring her to the bed.

The three men simply did as the man commanded, they grabbed her hands and picked her up and for a brief moment when they are taking her to the bed, Mila completely forgot that she is in fact in Garba’s body which literally makes her a man.

Having subconsciously forgotten that she has swapped bodies because of the intensity of the fear she felt when threatened, Mila mistook the robbers intention and assumed that given the situation and how they were bringing her to a bed, she mistakenly thought they were about to r**e her.

So with all of her might, she squeezed her arms as hard as she could, avoiding the pain and slipping out of the rope she was tied with.

As soon as the men realized what was going on, the tried to hold her down but she has already wrapped the rope on the neck of one of the men, kicking the one with the rope on his neck as hard as she could in his crotch, making him fall down gasping for air and wailing in pain.

At this moment, Mila begins to be convinced that she was winning the fight so she used one hand and pulled the gag in her mouth out but before she could turn to see who she could attack next, the large dark man sitting by the bed has gotten out of the bed and sneaked behind her as she was fighting the other robbers.

Before she turns to attack him, he used the handle of the metallic revolver pistol and hit her as hard as he could on the head. Making her fall down dizzy and in great pain.

At the moment, the rest of the men have gotten up on their feet again and Mila is still on the floor with her head spinning from the hit on the head she got earlier.

“Beat him up until he passes out” the bulky man said and the man who just got over the pain from being kicked on his crotch responded “with pleasure boss” .

The three men took turns kicking and hitting Mila in Garba’s body one after another, they started by kicking her on the face, the chest and abdomen until she passes out from the pain.

Back in Youngsville Louisiana, a few minutes ago Garba was seated in the living room watching the news together with Mr. Goldenberg, Mila’s father when he felt a sudden rush of pain in his head.

The pain was not too great to force him to collapse but it was sharp enough to make him place his hands on his face and recoil back into the couch so suddenly that both Mr. Goldenberg and Lola were shocked.

At first, Garba begins to wonder if Mila’s body is injured or that she has migraines this badly but this thought bubble was suddenly burst out by an explosion of even more intense waves of pain that started erupting from all over his Mila’s body.

“what is wrong with her, why is she suddenly in pain, is this some sort of disease ? Why do I have to feel this….” Garba’s thoughts were interrupted by the swift increase in the level of pain, he suddenly felt a pain that he instantly know could only be inflicted by a punch of kick in the gut.

It was a familiar feeling because of how many times his father would punch or kick him in the gut whenever he did anything wrong when he was younger.

The pain sent him falling from top of the couch, down on the carpet gasping for air. While on the floor panting, he felt at the back of his neck a kick so hard it made him roll over while the rest of his body such as his ribs, thigh and crotch keeps hurting all over.

“What is wrong with her, this is why we are better off with her gone out of this mansion forever. Is she into drugs now, what will my friends say if they found out that my daughter in-law is an addict struggling with the effects of an overdose?” Lola started shouting at Mr. Goldenberg.

Garba could not believe what he was hearing, while the only child of the family is on the floor next to their feet wailing and obviously struggling in pain from something visibly wrong, the only thing Lola could think of is her reputation among her peers. ‘I now understand the immensurable detest and hate he felt when he first saw her.

In the background of the noise that Lola was making, Garba could hear Mr. Goldenberg on the phone.

“She is acting out of character wailing and writhing on the carpet as if in pain, yet nothing seems to be inflicting the pain on her. Please arrive on time before she hurts herself, she is my only daughter” Mr. Goldenberg said.

At this point, Garba has realised that Mila’s father must have dialed 911 to report the his current unusual situation and request an ambulance that may take him to a hospital.

“This is bad, I can’t be in a hospital while my body is still switched, once the doctors figure out what is happening to us, they will probably never let us off. We may become experimental subjects all over again” Garba thought, but this is the time he starts to have flashback images of an experiment he and Mila were in, in the flashes, he saw himself running away from a giant boa constrictor, racing through a forest he is sure he has never been to, yet the images from the flashback he is having at the moment not only look familiar, but also feel strangely familiar and real.

Yet, He could not recall any of the events happening, he could not remember ever seeing a boa constrictor face to face, not to talk of racing one that is Trying to eat him

For some strange reasons that he cannot really understand, when he saw Mila in the flashes he is experiencing, the version of him in the flashes looks awfully close to Mila and at a point, it even looked as if the two of them were about to kiss.

He was brought back to his senses by even more pain in his abdomen, as if someone is continuously kicking him in the gut with all their might. Garba could now hear the siren of the ambulance slowly rising in the background noise and as this happens, his consciousness had a sudden flick.

As if in a room at night and someone switches off all the lights in the room and put them back on, Garba’s consciousness blacked out and slowly came back to be. When he first opened his eyes, there was a wheezing sound in his ears.

“Am I in a hotel room, what is all the red stuff on the floor and ouch” he realised that he could not stand up.

“Lets quickly get out of here” Three men shouted as they run out of the room. Garba managed to make an attempt to get up. As he sat down with pain all over his body, he realised that he has returned to his body but some sort of fight has ensued between Mila in his body and the people that ran out of the room just a few seconds ago.

He placed his hand on the floor to support his body to stand up and felt his hand splatter a warm fluid. When he looked down, he realised that there is a dead body of a skinny black and short man lying next to him with a terrible wound on his neck and a revolver pistol on the floor.

The man has apparently been shot on his neck and has bled out to death. Garba looked at his hands to see that they are all stained red with the blood of the dead man right next to him and just at the moment, he heard his phone ringing from the man’s pocket.

“What in the name of God have you gotten me involved in Mila? What the hell is this?” he murmured, and reached out to the dead man and pulled his phone out of the dead man’s pockets and realised it was his midnight alarm that has gone off.

He managed to stand up, walking to the bathroom and realised how beat up he was but did not really sustain any serious injury from the beating he received so he packed his bags and ran out of the room.

As he approached the end of the hallway leading to the reception of the hotel, he was suddenly tackled by two men in police uniforms and one of the men pulled out a Taser and stunned him, knocking him down.

“Cuff him and move him to the station, there are still more of the suspects on the loose and they are armed and dangerous.” A third police officer approaching from the reception said. Garba passed out.

Mila was expecting to get shot when she suddenly blacked out and when she opened her eyes, she was on the floor of the living room of Goldenberg mansions with Her father Mr. Goldenberg , Lola and three paramedics trying to resuscitate her by giving her an adrenaline injection and a mouth to mouth CPR.

With a sudden push, she threw the paramedic that is trying to give her CPR off, sitting up in a spring and shouting.

“Please don’t shoot me, you can take the money” it took Mila a few second to realize that she has returned to her own body but somehow while she was getting lead on, ambushed, robbed and beat up by a gang of coordinated robbers in Abuja Nigeria, Garba has somehow managed to ditch Jeremy and returned not only to Youngsville Louisiana, but also to the very Goldenberg mansions she left a week ago due to lack of love and care.

Yet, here she lies after what she has realised must have been a passing out episode that has happened in front of the two and has somehow raised enough concern for them to call an ambulance. She realised that Mr. Goldenberg who stands next to his wife Lola has some sort of concerned expression on his face.

“Are you okay Mila?” the man said and for the life of her, Mila could not believe that the old man is really asking her if she was okay. In that instant, her heart was filled with a sudden rush of feelings of sadness and an uncontrollable anger that made her stand up. With her body shaking.

“After all this time, after you decided to lie in bed having s*x with this woman next to you thirteen years ago while I beg you to help my dear mother who was tired of the many years of emotional and physical abuse that you inflict on her. You forced me as a ten years old child to watch my own mother hang herself on the same chandelier I watch when I sleep everyday. You could have saved her by leaving that woman for one second and stopping her from committing suicide” Mila shouted.

With the pitch of her voice getting higher and her volume louder, she continues.

“You left me, your only ten years old daughter to wander the golf course surrounded with lakes infested with alligators and after I almost died in an alligator attack, you were not there for me when I was in surgery, neither were you when I was in the hospital healing, or during physical therapy. Have you no idea how much I cried to the doctors to get me my daddy who was the only family I had? Have you no idea how lonely I was back then?” she shouted with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Mr. Goldenberg stood with his eyes showing deep sorrow yet, no tears or words could come out of his mouth.

“Where was your concern and care when I was bullied in school, when I started getting in trouble intentionally just to get your attention? Why didn’t you ask me if I was doing okay then? Did you not only give This wretched woman all of your attention?” Mila shouted, this time around losing herself to her anger and throwing her shoe at the two, she stood up shaking and crying while advancing towards Her father and Lola. The paramedics quickly grabbed her, having realized she has lost control, they quickly injected her with a tranquilizing agent, which quickly sedated her.

“Take her to the clinic and figure out what is wrong with her, I want her properly taken cared of” Mr. Goldenberg said while Mila’s consciousness begins to fade away.