Alfreda suddenly turned face up, she had been lying down on her seat in the same position for some hours. The movement startled the old man sitting beside her, and she heard him gasp in shock, she looked over at him, he had that “What did you do that for” expression on his face. She had to say something to appease the man or else he would unseat her and throw her out of the plane with his intense stare. “I’m sorry, I was feeling uncomfortable sleeping on my side,” she said.
Sleep has eluded her for days now.
She’s been on this plane for 8 hours and she still hasn’t slept even for a minute. It was no better on the ground and in the sky, she had thought it could only get better while on the plane. She was wrong.
The images that pop up when she tries as much as to close her eyes to get a little rest are gory.
“David is not here on the plane with you, you have to take a few minutes of sleep. Try hard. Get him the fuck out of your mind and rest a little. You know you deserve better than a man like him,” that voice that has always been in her head said to her. The voice goes on and off, it comes to either console her, motivate her, or like now, scold her
“You know what? Just keep shut! If you do not get what my fear is about. You are just a passing voice, you can’t even help me, just disappear this very minute,” she murmured to herself.
It is easier said than done. It’s not as easy as the voice makes it seem. David has somehow imprinted the fear of him in her.
The thought of David and what he said he would do to her engulfs her like cold as every minute passes by.
He is capable of doing the most unthinkable things, I know who and what he is.
Alfreda has had no peace like he had said since she packed her belongings out of his apartment three days ago and finally, out of town yesterday far away from him and his vileness. But why? She was the victim here for God’s sake! The victim of his psychotic behaviors! She turned in her seat for the umpteenth time and sighed heavily.
She had loved this man with all her heart, Where did everything go wrong? At the peak of their relationship, everything just came crashing down. One thing she knew was that she was not at fault because she made sure to make their relationship work as much as she could.
It was David who was the orchestrator of the downfall that befell their relationship.
At first, David had sunk their finances into the mud. They both had agreed to keep a joint account and save twenty percent of their earnings in it, be it from their monthly salary, from proceedings of their side gigs, or any other means. They were a live-in couple and things were going well and as planned, in fact, they had planned to move from their studio apartment into a bigger and more spacious apartment by the end of the year.
Then, all of a sudden the money in the joint account started reducing day after day. Anytime, she asks David about it, he assures her and tells her it’s for a project introduced to him by his colleagues at the office and they needed as much money as possible to kickstart and keep it running.
At the point when it became obvious that he was going to empty all they’d strived to save for the past three years, she became worried and had to call him to talk.
One day, she had reached out for her phone to call him. Picking up the phone to call him was a usual routine and she was used to it already and he was, too or so she thought. As soon as he answered her call, the next thing she heard was him yelling at her and saying what she could not process at that moment, and up till now, she still did not understand what caused that outburst from him.
“Hello honey,” she said as soon as she heard his voice over the phone.
No reply.
“How’s work moving?” She asked and got no reply from him again.
He sure could hear her well, she could hear him breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong Dav? Are you okay? Why are you not responding? You don’t sound okay? Is work tedious today? Should I come to drive you around town so you can cool off a bit?” A wave of restlessness came upon her when she still did not get a response from the other end of the phone. She was about to look for footwear to put on when she suddenly heard him speak.
“Look Al, I need you to know the appropriate time to call and not to call, your call just made me lose a fucking deal! You need to learn from other girls who do not use calls to disturb their man during the day and do better.”
Alfreda stiffened at the snap in David’s voice remembering that David was all charms when dealing with her, something must be wrong at work then. He had abruptly cut off the call. She would wait patiently for him at home and get to know what went wrong.
He came home very late that night but she did not question him, he showered, ate a little, went up to the room, and slept immediately. Thankfully, the next day was a weekend, David does not go to the office on weekends so she decided to bring up the matter the next day.
Alfreda stood up very early the next day, to sort out house chores so she and David could have time to talk without any distractions. She went back into the bedroom and saw David already awake. David is no doubt a handsome man. He was a tall, dark, athletically built man in his late twenties and very aware of his good looks and physique. That drowsy half-awake expression on his face every morning never ceases to make her heart flutter. As Alfreda closed the door behind her, she moved further into the room and made her way to the bed, she bent down to kiss David on the cheek and immediately felt a tingle spread through to her spine. David pulled her closer and attempted to deepen the kiss but she escaped his embrace and proceeded to open the window blinds. She knew if she obliged him, they would forget the issue at hand totally.
It was glaring that he had been avoiding talking about what had been going on with him.
She was busy dusting the window with her back still turned towards him as she said,
“David, you know we have to talk right? About what you’ve been up to this past few months. I deserve to be informed about it and no! We won’t talk about this later but right now.”
She could feel David’s eyes boring intensely into her back. And right there and then, she knew.
TO BE CONTINUED…