Man In Black

It was a hectic day back at the hospital, the only thing I craved for was rest, Girra would be surprised to see me home early today. Normally the pending work at the lab at Freeda would have taken the rest of my day, but today was different, I spent most of my time working at the hospital and I needed a long rest at home. My driving time always did me some kind of good at this times. Driving through the city of New Town always brought to me a feeling of relief, it was a peaceful place and even though it was filled with industrial buildings and cars drove from one place to another, somehow, the well tended parks, with it's beautiful flowers and fountains and the well interspaced living areas with well nurtured trees and grassy expansions, gave a peaceful aura each time I found myself on it's streets. Driving on the streets had a way of relieving, there were never hold ups and the serenity only made it better, driving around always had a way of turning a day around, especially after a bad one.

I had reached the front of my gate, when I sighted Molly and Solly playing catch, it made me realize how much time I had lost for these past few months. The project had eaten up into my family time, it seemed like they were used to not having a father figure around. I drove in, using the automatic garage door opener to get in the garage. Molly and Solly dropped their balls, as they came to hug me, this time it seemed different, something had definitely changed, but I couldn't place it. I got in, as I dropped my bag on the large dinning table in the dinning room. I immediately removed my shirt and went back out, I didn't want to miss this moment for the world. At least, I'd get to spend some time with my kids, after a long while.

'Hey Willy!' I heard in a strident voice when I went out, as I turned to see who it was that said my name. It was my neighbor, Pee. He waved at me with so much enthusiasm. I could understand this because we had not talked in a long while and I'm sure he wanted to come over for some neighborhood gist. Pee had a habit of being quite long_winded, being retired and married to a neighborhood gossip could do that to a person. I waved back and immediately thrust the ball to Solly, as I spied with my side eye. I was already exhausted from the day's work, the only other exhaustion I needed was to play with the kids. With my side eye, I could see that he had left his front porch and was heading closer. Just then, I heard a yell, it was Girra, calling in the kids for lunch. I quickly told them to go in, as I looked straight on, trying as much as possible not to look back, as I got into the house. I wasn't really in the mood for pointless conversations.

'Hey hun!' I said when I got in, as I gave Girra a kiss.

'Hello darl....' Girra looked a little surprised to see me, as she washed the dishes in the open kitchen area. I could understand her look, after all I had not come back this early in months. 'What's the occasion today? you're back home so early.'

'Anything for you hun.' I said sarcastically, making her blush a bit, as I heard a ding, it was four o'clock. Girra had bought the big old brown clock, she said it would make everyone time conscious when it dinged hourly, but I was not comfortable with it, I knew it would make it obvious when I did not come back home early. I had told her severally to turn off the ding, but she preferred it that way. What could I do about it, if she loved it that way, then I had to too. Even though Girra could be difficult sometimes, she was the best thing that happened to me so far and I respected most of her decisions.

The resounding ring of the alarm for 7:30pm woke me up from sleep, Girra set it to get the kids to sleep each night, she always made sure they got in bed early. I became wide awake, as I sat on the bed, Girra was still sound asleep, even with the sound of the alarm, it must have been a more stressful day for her than me, I thought, as I switched it off. I tried sleeping, but somehow couldn't get any sleep, so I went down the stairs to check if the kids were asleep, the silence made it clear, even though I still wanted to see for myself. I opened the door to their room and found them sound asleep, when I heard my phone ring from upstairs. I wondered who it was, as I raced upstairs quietly. With a glance, I saw "Harley calling" It must be something so important for Harley to call me at that time.

'Hey Harley'

'Hey doc, are you free now? I've got something to show you.' Harley said. I thought of how late it was, but I didn't mind, after all I couldn't get any sleep and everyone was fast asleep. I found it hard to sleep, probably because it was not my usual sleeping time.

'Yea I am, I'll be there soon' I went upstairs, as I got my white t_shirt and my denim short. Outside was lit up by the full moon and there were still cars that moved on the road. I walked out the white lined gate, as I waved for a cab. Going into the garage to get the car seemed like it was going to be a struggle, because the sound of the automatic door of the garage was so noisy, that it would wake Girra and probably all the people that were sleeping, so I preferred to use a cab.

Driving from Freeda to my house was a 2 hours drive, the ride seemed more peaceful because I was not at the back of the wheels, the cabman had a few stops before I reached my destination. I came out of the taxi, seeming a little refreshed, I think I had dozed off for a while back there. Anyways, I gave the cabman his money and headed to Harley's house, it was not too far away from my lab and was litted up like the other houses around, with landscape lights. Freeda did not have much of street lights, so the landscape lights was what brought most of the illumination, making the place feel hygge, especially at night. I headed to the house, moving close to the door, as the automatic doorbell rang.

'Hey doc, come in' Harley opened the door after some seconds, as I walked in.

'Welcome home' was the weird sound that startled me, it was coming from the corner of the sit out window, near the door. I wondered what it was, when I looked and saw that it was a parrot. 'O my God, that was the weirdest shit ever' I said, trying to catch my breath for a bit, it was quite freaky. I never got into their house, so I didn't expect that. 'Her name is Fifi.' Harley simpered, walking down to the parlor. 'Where's mi momma?' I asked, still looking around, incase there were other surprises. 'Sleeping, I guess...' Harley's house looked bigger from the inside than outside, it's parlor was few steps away from the sit out and the only thing that lit up the place was the light from the television, making the house look dim. 'Come over here' Harley said, picking up his I_phone. I was eager to know what Harley had to show me, he never looked so serious in anything.

'Okay, so this guy still comes around sometimes, so I decided to buy a security camera, I had placed it near the mailbox, so it faces your lab area. I connected it to my phone and put it on record, look here' The footage wasn't quite clear, it showed a man on black, who drove a black Grand Cherokee High Altitude SUV. I tried to get the plate number, but it wasn't clear enough. A tall figure alighted from the car, after some minutes of staying in and walked furtively, moving towards the window. It looked as if, he was trying to survey the place or something.'

'when was this?' I asked, looking at the date, 'It was the 19th of April, 4 days before I travelled for the conference at London.' 'It's as if he sort of knows your every move. Look here, for the three days you travelled, he never came around.' Harley went through the dates of the recordings when I wasn't around, but couldn't find a single sign of a car. 'I think we should tell the police about this' Harley suggested. 'I'll make a report to the station tomorrow, just forward the videos to my phone' I said, handing the phone back to him. 'Sure, that will be done. But..... any plans for tonight?' Harley said flippantly. 'Plans?' I rolled my eyes in a bit of confusion, thinking of what he meant by that. 'I mean, do you have a plan to get this guy? he always comes around from 11:00pm. We could do our own investigations, I mea_' I cut in immediately. 'No, no. If anyone is doing anything, it's me. Are you bored or what? You've done a lot already, thanks' I said, giving him a pat on his back, as I turned around to go out. I knew he was just looking for another adventure. 'Com'on, I can help you and you know it' Harley said in a louder tone, placing his hands on his waist. 'Okay..... com'on then, don't be a cry baby.' Even though I knew Harley was right, I didn't want to get him involved, but then I had no other choice.

The lab was a little different, maybe it was because I hadn't gone into it in three days or maybe it just looked so awful. 'Come on in kid!' I motioned, as Harley came in behind me, after which I locked the door, I didn't want any surprises. 'Wooah, just what I need now' The lab tables and some apparatus were covered with sparse array of dust. There was a little work to do and I think Harley following me was of some good.

'Hey, have it' I said as I threw a cloth towards Harley. 'So where are we starting from?' Harley asked, as he wiped the dust from the table. 'What do you think?' I asked, glancing at him with the corner of my eye, still cleaning the table. 'I think we should get guns or something, that nigga has to know this is a red zone.' He said with a grin. I wasn't surprised at Harley's reply, he always made fun of everything. 'Seriously, do you really have t_' I was interrupted by what I observed in one of the lab rats. 'Come...Harl, come over here.' I looked closely, carrying my spectacles to get a better examination of the rat. 'What's that?' Harley asked. 'I think, this is my breakthrough. Woooah.' I jumped up in joy, as I went into the back room to get an electronic microscope, one of those microscopes that magnifies your vision. 'Com'on what's the big news?' Harley looked at me with widen eyes, he was eager to know what I was talking about and at the same time a little impatient. 'Look at this right here, okay I'm working on a specimen for a cure of one of these genetic diseases....' I stopped for a while, peering into the lens of the microscope. 'mmmm hmmm so...?'

'Okay, come. Look right here, this rat is supposed to have died, since they experience this disease too' Harley looked into the microscope, not really understanding my joy.

'Okay, so you've got the cure or something?' Harley asked. 'Smarty pants!!' I said in a higher tone, holding his shoulder a little tightly, as I walked to the other side of the room to get the sample. 'Here. You see, this is the masterpiece.' I held up the beaker, putting it on the table.

'Normally this disease is more fatal in rats than in man. In man it can stay for up to 15 years, at max without killing or causing harm. But in rats, they don't last up to a month.' Harley still stared at me bug_eyed, from the other side of the lab table, waiting for what I'd say next, as I went hurriedly to the cupboard to get some documents. 'Here is the analysis for this rat. Today is making it it's third month alive and it's still kicking and strong'

'Hmmm, so how would you know from the microscope thingy, it's as if you determined it's health from it.' I looked at Harley for a moment, I thought that was a good question he asked. 'Yea that's right, they have some body changes before they die and you can observe them through the microscope.' I picked up the specimen manual, as I checked for the mixtures I had made recently. 'I thought this rat would be long gone by the time I came back.' I said, looking at Harley, who was no more paying attention to me, but the rat and was looking at it from the microscope like he knew what he was doing. The remaining samples were enough to fill two crates of glass vials, to deliver to GECA for further analysis, I planned to take it to them the next day. After few minutes of accessing the samples, I heard the sound of a car ignition outside. I clicked my phone power button and checked the time on the screen, which displayed 11:30pm. I walked slowly to the door, as I bent a little to spy at the window, sighting the same black car I saw on the footage on Harley's phone.

'Doc, he's here... what do we do now?' Harley said

in a husk voice, from the other side of the window. Harley was actually right when he asked about my plan, because I didn't have one. 'Com'on, you've gotta dock' I said, as I motioned with my hand. I quickly remembered that there was a sledge hammer at the backyard that I used to fix some nails that popped out at the store entrance. "At least it could help teach this mysterious man a thing or two," I thought, as I crawled to the back door. 'Doc..doc' I heard Harley say quietly as I turned, only to see him right behind me. I motioned for him to go back, tilting my head to the left, but he didn't look like someone that was about to leave. 'Com'on doc... we're in this together' Harley said, looking at me courteously, as he crawled closely behind me, to the back of the lab. The hammer was lain, resting on the side of the wall. 'What do we do now?' Harley asked, looking more frightened than before. I wouldn't say that I wasn't too, but I could not let Harley know, I seemed like a hero in this story.

'So here's the plan' Harley's eyes widened more, as he listened carefully. 'You're gonna carry the stick, Incase of anything' I said, pointing to the stick behind him. He didn't waste so much time to grab it. 'So, we'll move in stealth from the back'

'How would we do that?' Harley gave a mild scowl. 'We' re gonna make a cross over from the backyard of the other house quietly, so we can get behind his car, from there we'll definitely get him if he comes out of the car or even if he doesn't' It seemed clear to him, as he nodded. I could do nothing, but hope the plan turned out right. We had turned over to the back of the car and were heading closer to the car slowly, even though what we held slowed us down a little bit more. We were almost there, when I heard a loud "click" sound, it came from behind. 'What the heck.' I said quietly, but harshly. 'Sorry...' Harley whispered, wincing a bit. He had broken a stick on the ground with his feet.

From the side mirror, I could see a glimpse of the person's face as he looked in it, probably trying to see what made the sound. He turned on his car ignition and sped up, as I ran towards the car, throwing the sledge hammer towards the moving car. 'Come here, you coward' Harley said, as he ran ahead, when the car was no more in sight. 'haaah... hah.. he's gone' Harley said breathily as he bent down, placing both of his hands on his knees.

'Really....?' I said, raising a brow at him, as I moved forward to the lab. I tried to contain my anger, Harley had messed up the plan. 'Okay... I'm sorry, it's not like I stepped on it purposely' Harley said, running slowly behind me. 'At least something good happened today after all' I said, going into the lab, as I dropped the hammer carelessly on one side of the floor. I was right though, the specimen was the only thing that made my day. 'I'm sorry doc, I didn't mean to_' I cut in. 'It's okay, we all make mistakes. Thank the heavens that there's a little bit of joy from the specimen today' I went back to the sample on the other side of the table.

'It's alright Harley, I'll go report it to the police, just make sure you send the recordings and_' Harley interrupted 'I could connect the camera to your phone, just a little set up and downloads will do the trick.' I could tell that Harley was trying to cover up for his slip up. 'Okay here... do what needs to be done and get the hell outaa here. You need to get some rest and also, my regards to momma.' It was one heck of a day, but the night was full of smiles of achievement, except of course for the fact that Harley messed up. 'Here, it is done. I set it to recording, so it records everything.'

'Okay, thanks. You should be heading home now, I don't want momma being worried if she wakes up and doesn't find you'

'Alright then, good night.' Harley said as he walked out the door, with his head hung down to the ground. I knew he wasn't too happy that he blew the plan.

'Hey Harley' Harley turned back, when he had reached the door.

'Thank you.' He looked at me with a grin, as his face lit up a bit and continued in his way. He deserved a thank you though, if it weren't for him, I would not have the idea of trying to get the mysterious man in the first place.