EPISODE ONE (JANUARY)
The vast room glowed red as though the air had been vaporised by the color. The air was fragrant with a sweet smelling French scent. There was no sense lacking stimulation as the music was a perfect match for the environment and once you saw the host, there was no escaping this lovely prison. As she made her last pole move, Michael knew from where he sat on the bed, like a little child hooked to telly, that he was about to go on a mind blowing trip. He always loved this part of his South African Business trips and she always knew how to take care of him.
Like a beautiful snake she slowly began to make advances towards him. His heart beat excitedly as he expected her. She always managed to make it seem like a new experience. As she was about to strike him with her skill, his phone blew into a ringtone. There was no avoiding this call and not even this naked buxom could stop him from doing so.
“How is she doing, doctor?” He asked the doctor in panic.
“Mr Hamooya, you need to relax. I cannot tell now for sure, but I am doing the best I can”, Doctor Phiri responded calmly.
Everything happened so quickly after the call. He was lucky Mashaba’s private Jet was available to get him into the country on time. His wife was in labor for their third child and it was unusually a complication. She had called him in the morning telling him she wasn’t feeling too well, but he just had plans for Lydia that afternoon after the meeting. For the second time since his cheating episodes, he felt sorry for his wife. The first was when he had done it the first time, he wished he had just apologized then and maybe he wouldn’t have gone far in this way. The guilt was burning his soul, but he was just happy to have made it on time.
After what seemed like two hours, Dr Phiri reappeared in the room and Michael immediately shot up.
“Mike, I’m sorry” He said.
Michael felt a huge pain in his heart like somebody was firing electric shots to his heart. He looked at his two sons and a sudden realization hit him that he had failed both as a husband and a father. Depression was slowly creeping in. The surviving baby had her mother’s eyes and nose. He looked the innocent baby in her eyes and called her Claire.
Never had he pictured Claire’s name on a grave stone. His wife was gone and he blamed no one else but himself for this. He had questions whose answers bred excruciating pain in his heart. Who was going to take care of his kids like she did? What was he to say to Peter who now was on a daily routine of questions about his mother’s whereabouts?
“Dad where is mum? Little peter asked inquisitively.
“Peter, mum is in heaven” he answered softly.
“Dad, can you please take me to heaven, I want to see mum” Peter shot again.
Usually people ask what they had done to deserve a predicament, but that was going to lack in Michael. His wife’s relatives had insisted on taking custody of the children and he saw himself in no position to disagree.
Michael felt his guilt outweighed the lessons life was handling him and when he was summoned by the Anti- Corruption commission presenting him office fund embezzlement charges, he had no time to feel sorry for himself. He knew he was going away for a very long time, he knew he had no time to seek redemption because he knew he didn’t deserve it. He knew this was his end, but deep down he knew it wasn’t because his children were still out there.
TBC
LET AQUILA SPEAK 