MORE CONTRADICTIONS

“Jokes have owners, Grace! Do not try to crack one if you know you will do something contrary to what a joker can, and that is to pull a smile or erupt outbursts of laughter from people. That back there was not a joke at all, Grace!” I say that because if she was joining, that was a terrible one. She should know that she stinks at it.

She leaves her corner and walks to me. Fear is eating her up pretty badly. I can sense her shivers as she forces her feeble self toward me. I cannot blame her. All I can do is applaud whatever is giving me all this boldness to not let the fears that I am concealing inside surge out. I would tremble more than her. I would look like a leaf on a hurricane. “Do you think I would joke around such a grave matter, Gia? Do you think I would want to feel this and much less? Remember that crooked monster’s name? No, Gia! I would give everything to not think of such a dark thing.” She speaks when she reaches where I am.

“Then stop entertaining that thought, Grace. I should, too. It does not make any sense. It is absurd. I mean…”

“It is not absurd, and you know it, Gia!” She cuts me off. It isn't. “Let us both face the truth here, sissy. The only fact that we are relying on about that monster being dead is the sole fact that you shot him, Gia. Nothing else. I mean, we don’t even know where his body is.” Grace says.

Why is she always forgetting to state that I shot that sickening bastard countless times and that he could not have survived all those bullets, huh? That adds more power to the point. It changes a lot, if not everything. Like I said, he didn’t have to live two lives. And neither could the angels favor him that much to give him a second chance. Besides, he did not deserve any second chance at all. He had nothing—absolutely nothing—to come back for. Nothing! He was the evil one, and no evil person deserves a second chance unless it is for reformation. But even for that, some things ought to be put into consideration. Not all people can reform, and Ejay was one of these cursed souls. He actually tops that list. The only thing that monsters deserve is another thousand deaths. Transformations and revenge chances are things that he does not merit, even in the afterlife.

Forget that, because I trust fate could not have made the gravest mistake in allocating second chances and picking Ejay of all the demons. Let us revisit this body issue. How about we call Paul so that we can know where they buried his corpse, huh? You know to like, clear these hanging doubts, and rule out this impossible possibility? Or where they dumped it. Maybe they did not dispose of it well, and that is why his spirit has the freedom to roam around, bleeding terror on us like this.

“Who are you calling?” Grace asks as I fish my phone out of my bag and start dialing.

“Paul. He is the one who can clear this up. Once we know what they did to that corpse, then all these doubts and fears will come to an end.” I say, and she nods her head. She wants this as much as I do. “Paul?” I speak the second his hello comes through the line.

“Gia, how are you doing? How is the search coming along?” Paul asks.

“Aah, not so well. Still no news of him. I have even exhausted all the places I thought I could find him.” I explain that my heart is sinking deeper with this issue. Men, what a stress I have, huh! On top of my fruitless search come these? Well, peace really hates me. Or is it that I attract trouble so much?

“I am so sorry to hear that, Gia. Don’t lose hope, though. You both will find each other in the end.” He consoles.

Of course. No hope is lost as long as I am breathing and he is too. I am holding on to the hope that the echoes of our hearts will pull us to each other once again and very soon, but let alone find each other for now. The first time he came into my life, when I was in a mess, he got tangled in a mess that was not his, to begin with. He fought battles that were never his. He took and bore so much more than he should have. He suffered great losses. He got hurt. Now, with this thing that just happened, I am rethinking continuing the search for him. I don’t want to involve him in yet another mess. I need to solve this first. I cannot walk him into yet another quagmire of problems and pain. I don’t want that for my daughter.

“Thank you, Paul. Anyway, I called you because I wanted to ask about something else.” I say.

“Sure. What is it? You need help with something." He asks, and from here, I can hear the noise of something going down his throat. He must be eating. Well, good for those who have the appetite because of me? I am full of fears and all these unsettling feelings. I cannot find any room for food or anything at the moment.

“Yes, Paul. I just spoke to the police here in Mombasa."

“Police?” He cuts me off, and I can swear he has abandoned even what he was chewing to listen to what I have to say. “Why were you with the police, Gia? Is there a problem? Did something bad happen? Are you and your sister alright?” He asks.

He worries too much. It's good that I don’t think his soon-to-be wife is anywhere near him because she would be nursing a high fever from worrying. All the same, I explain all the incidences that happened back at the beach to Paul, and just like Grace and I, he cannot cloak his worries, only that he has not torn the little hope I am holding on to that Grace and I are just obsessed with Ejay. He hasn’t mentioned that gross name, and that gives me a good sense of relief. “Unbelievable! But worry not, Gia. Sheryl and I will fly over there tomorrow to keep watch over you."

Huh! Listen to this one. Which them? Fly where? Aren’t they in the middle of their wedding preparations? They just cannot come here. “You don’t have to, Paul. My sister and I are safe under the police officers that were assigned to us. You guys should consent to your wedding.” I speak some sense into him. I am glad it is even him that I am speaking to, not that loose-wired Sheryl of his. She would be ranting hysterically by now. She would be running berserk.

“No, Gia. You and I know that we just cannot consent to anything as long as there is some sick jerk who is after you. You and your sister are in danger, and you expect us to be all jocund over here? Never! I don’t even want to imagine Sheyl’s reaction to this. We are flying there tomorrow, and that is the period! I need to know what is happening.” Paul says it in his despotic detective tone. When he gets like this, when he speaks like that, I know there is no changing his mind. He has made up his mind, and that is final. “Alright, so, what did you want to ask about before I interrupted?” He adds.

I clear my throat first. This issue is choking me for real. “It’s about Ejay?” I speak.

“Ejay? What about him? I thought everything about that monster ended that day in the desert. If it's about that thing, Deep, I am still waiting for the report from my informant.” Paul says, and this unnerves him more than before.

“It is not so much about that. And I thought so too. I just want to confirm something that has been bothering my mind since I spoke to the police over here.” I say.

“I am listening," he says.

“What happened to Ejay’s corpse?” I go straight to the point. There is no need to beat around the bush.

A fleeting screaming moment of dreadful lull passes, followed by the screeching of his voice as he presumably empties the contents of his mouth into his stomach. “I am so sorry, Gia. I just didn’t know how to tell you about this. I didn’t think it was important either.” He says, pulling me into a heave of conflicting baffles.

He didn’t know how to tell me about it, and his thinking it was even less important should at least not have fallen into the same sentence. “Tell me about what, Paul?” I ask, my sister leaning into my ear. She perhaps wants to have first-hand information. She wants to hear everything with her naked ears and directly from the source’s mouth. I have no problem, though. It’s not like I was going to hide anything from her.

“The head of the police said it was best if no one knew what happened to Ejay’s body. They conflated it.”

A bomb just exploded. But hang on! Don’t just jump before the drum rolls, dear mind. Patience! Exercise patience, because the rate at which you are thinking is very dangerous. It can cause a heart attack, and I am too young to die yet. “So none of your team members know a damn thing about Ejay’s corpse?” I ask, my bones shaking. Even the hand that is holding the phone is shaking so badly. This sounds like a terrible joke.

“No! No one knows, and no local police actually know. That was an order from the higher-ups that we had to obey.” He spews some more confusion, fears, and everything within those margins of terror. I am finding it hard to breathe. I feel like the ground beneath me is cracking, threatening to rip me off.

“Ho…How so, Paul? The police over here have a different report regarding Ejay’s body.” I murmur my faint whispers.

“Different? How different? What kind of report do they have?” Paul asks in worry.

“Their report says that only the police in your area know what happened to Ejay’s body. They didn’t say that it was confidential.” I state this as I try to soothe this rippling fear and confusion.

“What? I don’t understand this confusion now. How could we have differing reports?” Paul speaks.

Even I am confused now. I mean, how?