Chapter 35

The first time my cousin who was based in America visited Abidjan, he told me that chocolate is gotten from brown mother cows. When I told him that milk is white, no matter the color of the cow, he told me it might be the dung, but whatever it was, he claimed it all came from a brown cow.

The chocolate in my mouth tasted as if it came from the brown cow; not from the nipples of its big breasts which dangle like the scrotal sack of old men bathing where eyes could see them, but from the anus.

It tasted like dung in my mouth. I couldn't eat comfortably after being told that I was calling the white doctor's name and forcing myself on a security man.

I dropped the chocolate bar and left the entire tray, the bread, the eggs, the chocolate spray, the chocolate drink, everything.

Today was Friday, and the trip to our place of outreach was tomorrow. The Kro region was chosen, which meant a lot of thrill and a lot of risk, but the charity house was very much ready for the risks.

"Maybe, I should lodge again and take off tomorrow with them." I made it to my wardrobe, but just then, the door was pushed open and the sound of Baba's swagger stick on the floor braced my ears. I turned to him and met him staring at me with narrowed eyes.

"Seems you knew I was coming." He made it to the window and drew the curtains across the window. The light of the sun seized to flow into my room, but the light on the ceiling kept it lit.

"You know what, I understand your place in the society and I respect you a lot, but I must be honest with you, Baba." I took a deep breath. "I hate it when you barge into my room like this. I am a woman for heaven's sake."

"And what is it you have on your body I have not seen?" he raised his wicked brows. "Or are you hiding something from me?"

I faked a smile. He was right. He has seen it all because he used to be there during the drill which made me who I am in secret. He saw me take off my clothes in those days for hellish drills that got me sick, and he once carried me, naked in his arms. He has seen all, but I hate him barging in.

"I thought we were more like brother and sister, Sita." He left the window and ambled towards me. "But anyways, if you've gotten tired of me barging in, then, I must not fail to knock as usual, but it was your maid who told me you were eating."

He bypassed me and made for the meal on my study table. I watched him sit on my seat and settle on my meal by first pouring himself a chocolate drink from the jug. Thank God he did that because the food could have all gone to waste.

"The general, we realized at the end of the day, is not involved in the bad site shit." Said Baba. "It was Yapi and his party and their white men associates."

His words reminded me of the white man who spoke American last night. he was the first among the squad that came out of the bunker to fight us.

"But that doesn't mean he is clean because we gathered the clips which were sent to him by his secret intelligence team." He sipped from the cup he filled with hot chocolate drink.

I waited for him to finish the meal before I spoke to him. He didn't play noble. He blew at the cup a couple of times, then, he gulped everything at once and dropped the cup. I knew he would finish it at once. I've always known he was that barbaric.

"Then, we learned he was coming close to you, and we were worried he might have something on you," Baba said and took a piece of egg from the egg disk on which the fried eggs were laid.

"We also have news he is plotting a coup." He threw an egg in his mouth. "But we will send a different agent this time."

I was waiting patiently to hear something sensible enough from him, but the only good thing he had said so far was the fact that the human product facility is not linked to the general, the rest were just the words of a man who wanted to buy time and finish his food.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"No." he left the food and stood up. "The white man you killed last night."

I narrowed my eyes. what is it he wanted to tell me about the white man I shot on the occiput and ended his silly life of crime on Africa's soil?

"What about the dead do you wish to tell me?" I asked.

"His body was handed to his colleagues, and from what we've gathered, a nonexclusive murder contract has been issued out to various secret agents of different secret and underground forums to track down and murder the widow gown agent who stormed the base and smote the white man."

I watched him speak while I held my breath. I can't be in a nonexclusive least, that's the worst thing that would happen to anyone, but I was glad, no one knew I was the widow gown agent.

"You must desist from using the widow gown for missions, else, the hunter might end up being hunted." He reached out for a piece of solid chocolate. "And you must watch your back, though no one out there knows who the widow gown is."

He turned from me and made it to the door of my room. "I heard you will be on a trip tomorrow. I was invited by the charity house, but I won't bother to step foot in those coastal regions. I prefer our heated Abidjan."