Chapter 14 Hippopotamus

Chapter 14 (Hippopotamus)

Liam couldn't just get the gist of what was happening. There just seemed to be no explanation as to why Mario's face was the way it was. Could it be that Mario hadn't seen a hippopotamus before or that the fierce looking animal scared him? Whichever one it was, it was just so funny to think about even though he couldn't laugh at that moment.

"Was she serious? Is she kidding me right now? Me?! That animal?!" Mario scoffed as he relaxed back into his chair with his mouth slightly ajar. He just couldn't believe his eyes. How on Earth did that animal that he was watching at that moment look like him? How exactly did he look like a hippopotamus? With its blackish color and ugly face and short self, how on planet Earth did he look like a hippopotamus? The last thing he saw from the documentary was the animal immersing his head back into the water before they changed the context of the program.

"Mario, is everything okay?" Liam asked again, hoping that this time he was going to get an answer.

"I really can't believe that she called me that." It was more like he was talking to himself than he was referring to Liam and with that, Mario stood to his feet and climbed upstairs heading to his room.

"Who is he referring to?" Confused Liam asked himself as he watched as his brother stormed out of the sitting room. He just hoped that he had nothing to do with whatever was wrong with Mario.

...

Back at Mario's room... The first thing that the perplexed looking young man did was to sit on his bed and go through his phone. He was typing the word "hippopotamus" on his browser. He wanted to give himself the benefit of the doubt that the hippopotamus that Peace referred to wasn't the one he saw on the TV. He had to check Google just to be sure that the animal, hippopotamus, had a different outlook on the net. He was surprised to see that the pictures Google brought out for him were no different from the ones the TV showed him. It was indeed the same thing and he just couldn't understand how the animal resembled him.

At some point, he even had to zoom into the image to check out the features of the animal. It was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. There he was thinking that a Chimpanzee was the ugliest animal, not knowing that there was one that had a gold medal hanging around its neck for ugliness. How could she? How could she compare him to this thing? If only he had checked the picture of this animal before he met her at the hospital, he would have made her day worse than it already was. He sighed exhaustively before throwing his body back on the bed.

...

Peace was so excited that morning as she went about her normal duties at the orphanage. Following the notification arriving in her Gmail that she had now been employed to work at the Santana night club, she performed her duties without duress and was ecstatic for the time to hit 8pm. Because of how busy that she had been at the burger store, she wasn't able to do some of the fun things that the children liked to do with her; like playing games, shooting out bubbles from guns and engaging in sword fight using paper sticks but on that very day she decided that she was going to do it with them as she had every reason to do so. Yes she was very happy and for the first time in many months, she felt free. The only thing missing in her life was the presence of her father.

She went ahead and played different games with the kids. It was just too bad for Lily that she wasn't able to join them in playing hide and seek which was her favorite game. Flashes of how she played the game with her late mother appeared in her head and the smiles which were initially settled on her face had now turned into a frown.

While Peace was playing with the kids, she noticed how withdrawn Lily was from the rest of the kids and the activities they were partaking in. Silly her... Why would she allow the kids to play hide and seek in her presence knowing fully well that Lily loved hide and seek and was incapable of partaking? In order to make her happy Peace came up with the idea of switching to another game, a game she knew that Lily was able to partake in -- the bubble gun shooting game.

As the game started, Lily's mood lightened up again and not long after she soon forgot her pain and just like the rest of the kids, she enjoyed the rest of the game.

...

After what seemed to be eternity, the time hit 7pm. She had already finished up with her duties at the orphanage. She made sure that she attended to the kids and settled all their needs before she hurried home to prepare for her new work at the club. She was definitely going to get there before 8pm -- she didn't want to give a bad impression on her first night of work and so she was determined to go there on time.

Finally, after a few minutes of rushing and preparing herself from home, Peace arrived at the very big night club.

"Wow!" She exclaimed in a whisper like tone as she stood outside the building, glaring at the massive red light that displayed the name "Santana." She had heard so much about this place but she had never been opportune to come there. It wasn't like life was going to allow her anyway. But here she was standing in front of the storey building not as an onlooker or a passerby but as a worker.

She took in a very deep breath and wearing a smile on her face, she walked straight inside. As she entered inside, she couldn't help but wonder at the magnificence of the interior. The decorations were top notch -- ranging from the plush settee to the glass tables, to the counter and to the beautiful arrangement of glass and then to the different equipment that she found there, everything was just divine. The room she stood in was void of any human being except a male bartender that was arranging wine bottles in their shelves. She could feel the vibrating sound of heavy music playing from another room which she assumed to be the dancehall and hear the exciting screams of people as well but then she wondered where she was to go from there or who to meet. She was just about to meet the bartender and ask questions when someone tapped her from behind.