Chapter Fifteen

FIFTEEN

Today, Zuri sold two lanterns. I was not there when she sold them but I can spot that something has been removed. She sold one from the "Memory" and another from the non VIP group.

" Where did you go?" Zuri throws to me as she writes.

I shrug and look around. She pauses her writing as if that was the attention she thought I needed. When she stared that way, it made her look like her brother though she is a darker shade.

"Do you think you can manage this place?" She asks, already closing the ledger before her. " I need to do something."

"Yes I can."

I'm wearing my Spartan sandals and it slides easily against concrete so I slide over to the counter.

Zuri arranges her bag while I take her seat. She hands me some money. "You can buy something to eat."

I nod.

"Don't mess it up," she warns at the door before leaving.

When she leaves, I walk around the shop turning on the lanterns. I bring the leaf patterned lantern to the ground beside my feet then place my feet in it's glow. It seems as though my feet are beneath a shadow of leaves.

The door to the shop shuts. I stand up from where I am seated and immediately pull out my knife.

She is here.

She looks at me and locks the door then she turns the sign. I watch on, getting into a defensive stance. This is my captor right here. She is wearing a coat that has lots of pockets and it stops around her thighs. She pairs it with tight fitted leather pants. This choice of clothing does not sit well with her chopsticks legs. She should be wearing her baggy shorts more.

She spins around and throws her hand in the pocket of her long coat then she walks behind the counter and sits.

"What do you want from me?" I ask, bringing down my hands. I am certain she does not want to kill me. She let me escape and has not come for me since she knew where I was. But the hide and seek is no longer tolerable for me. I don't need it.

Her eyes are grey. It adds to make her face lack distinct features. The grey eyes move around the small shop, never for once pinning on me. One could summarize that I am a fly.

I put off the lantern at my feet and return it to its place. I feel her eyes on me as I move. I know she never liked to talk but right now we need to talk. Staring wasn't of any use.

I stand beside the stool I was sitting on, giving the counter some space but not too far away from it.

"Please," I say, "What do you want?"

She throws her head up. With eyes closed, she hums in her throat. I feel like dropping a lantern from the shelf to disrupt her silence.

She walks out from the counter and approaches me. I shift closer to the wall as she passes. She lifts her eyes and pauses them at the window.

"This place lacks security," she says, walking down and running her hand over the lanterns. "They won't steal from here though because the man was good to everyone. You are the only one who can steal from here."

I get defensive. " What do you mean?"

She is as solemn as a graveyard. Her demeanor gives away nothing.

"What are you doing here?" She asks.

"Here?"

"What is this foolery you are doing in this shop and in this city?"

This conversation is strange. Why are we exchanging dialogue?

I move my feet forward to be certain I was not drifting in space if she drugged me once she came in.

"I let you go because I thought you were smart but it turns out you lack even the commonest sense."

She walks back to the counter and my eyes follow her.

"What do you want with me?"

"Idiot," she says under her breath.

I agree that's what I am. I have so many questions I want to ask till I find out why she's here discussing with me.

She moves to the lantern I just returned and turns it on. It cast a glow of leafy patterns around. She is impressed though nothing carries her emotions. She nods as she examines it.

She turns her eyes to me. "I will be taking this."

"It's supposed to be paid for."

She drops some money on the counter. I move to count it. Her eyes remain unwaveringly on me as I package the leaf lantern for her.

"I stayed back because I have nowhere to return to," I say.

" I'm sure you believe that."

She gets to her feet. " I have done a background check on you but you are not in this hole because of your stepfather. You are here because you are drawn to adventure."

She begins to walk to the door in slow strides. " You are just as stupid as the come."

She has talked more than I have ever seen her do before. Though no sentence leaves her mouth without being accompanied by insults. My questions are still gazing, unanswered.

"I don't believe you came here to call me names."

Her jacket was open when she came in but she now stands at the door looking at me as she buttons it down.

"You are an idiot to be out in the open this way."

She looks at the door then back at me. "Did you lose the weapons you stole?"

Took. I took them but I move my head. "It was confiscated."

She rolls her eyes. "Of Course Dummy."

"You are wanted for two murders," she says and folds her arms. "Damn, you are cold."

I walk to the stool and settle on it. "I told you, that was in defence and he is the only one I ever did anything to." I wish it was not just him. I wish I had killed Uncle Joel.

She begins to unbolt the door and I hope it takes forever because I'm not ready for her to leave yet.

"That man you bashed with a stone in that supermarket, he died," She says, pausing her hands on the bolt.

" It's not true," I mutter. That man does not deserve it. He was alive when I met him.

She walks back speedily to where I am seated. She takes my hand and puts a Glock in it. "No place is safe but be safe."

The shock transforms me into a mute until she gets to the door.

" Well, what do you want!" I yell but she is already out.

I immediately stuff the gun into my trouser before rushing to the window to see her once again.

Once again, this woman has ended up confusing me. How can someone hold me captive and then turn around to give me guns?

The thoughts cross my mind, wondering if something is wrong with her that she chose to prey on me. I know there are people who feel stronger by helping another who is considered weak. That I am at this point; weak and foolish.

But I did not kill that man. I hit him a few times. He was still breathing when I left him. He did not deserve to die.

Everybody has something they want. It is the same with Zuri. What could this woman want from me?

Now I am afraid. More afraid than I have been in a while. I do not want to be shot from the back. I want to know when I die. But with the way she described me in the open, I feel one day someone will shoot me down from a high window without giving me a chance to say my last words.

With how often thoughts of death have crossed my mind, I believe one day, I should write a tribute to myself. I hop on the stool behind the counter and fill the sale into the ledger. The woman just threw money out of her pocket. It is way more than the price of the lamp. I remove the excess and keep the rest for Zuri.

In trying to understand her, my head is beginning to swell and it seems I burnt out my whole sugar trying to understand what it is she is doing. I hope she comes again.

If I should leave this place, I do not know where to go. The safest place I had ever been was in that woman's house. I was simply non-existing there. It felt suffocating but it was safe.

In the evening, I lock up the shop and walk home through the normal route. I pause at a restaurant and buy food then I decide to get a quick glance at the woman's house. Maybe I could see her. Maybe we could talk some more.

I have heard of people walking into danger and always questioned it but here I am now walking around danger as I have already walked into it.

As I turn into the alley, I feel someone following me. I bend unexpectedly to a beggar and hand him a note of money and from the side of my eye, I see the figure. He pauses and turns around.

This place is dark and if I should be waylaid here, would anyone help me? Would I even be able to help myself? I have a gun and a knife. I don't know how to use the gun and I really don't want to kill one more person.

I walk faster, almost running out of the alley into a place where more people are, into a place she might see me. I run and pause behind a building.

I wait there, holding my breath until I hear my stalker approach. I reach out and pull him by the arm but it was a clumsy move. I had it all coordinated in my head with my knife in hand ready to strike but now I have a knife on my throat and a hand over my mouth. Things turned around quickly and I am here in a dark alley about to be killed.