Dave Belling heard the distinct noise coming from the distant end of a tunnel. He was lost inside the tunnel, manoeuvring like a frantic jelly fish to find his way through the dark towards where he sensed the noise was coming from. Everything else was silent. The noise sounded familiar
Brrrriiiiinnnnggggg . . . Brrrrrriiiinnnnggg . . .
and the more he listened to it he got to realise how closer he was getting to it.
The noise went away for a moment, but seconds later resumed it shrill cry. Dave saw himself edging closer to the mouth of the tunnel towards a bright light aiming at him. He stretched forth his hand into the light . . .
His eyes shot awake and he saw himself lying on his side staring at his phone buzzing alive on his bedside cabinet. Dave rose slowly from his pillow and screwed his eyes as he continued staring at the blinking lights of his mobile phone, hearing its atrocious ringing tune. His initial thought was that this was all still part of the dream he enjoying and thought for a moment that he was again lost in the darkness of the tunnel. Then he heard Jenny murmur against him and that compelled him to reach for the phone and he screwed his eyes to view the screen better. The caller's name wiped the dregs of sleep from his eyes and he swung off the bed and answered the call.
"Hey . . . Howard," he paused for a moment to swallow a gob of spite to clear his throat before continuing. "Err, what's the matter?"
"I need to talk to you, Dave. Right now." He sounded pissed on the phone, Dave caught that and yet he was baffled that his friend decided to call him at such hour. He scratched an itch off his eyes then wore his glasses so he could better read the time in his watch and cursed aloud when he did.
"Gosh, Howard, are you serious? This can't this wait till later in the morning?"
"I'm standing outside your fucking door," Dave's voice was tight and aggressive coming into his ear. "Get your ass out here right fucking now or I'm gonna wake up the whole street. I'm not leaving till you do."
Dave groaned irritably while thinking of whatever measure he could use to placate his friend. Behind him came a mumbling sight from Jenny and he knew it was only a matter of time before she awake to his phone conversation the longer he remained here.
"All right, all right. Hold your horses and give me a minute."
Dave dropped his phone and sighed wearily. He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses then rose to his feet. He found his robe in the darkness and wore it, followed by his slippers. He bumped his ankle against the foot of the bed and managed to stifle a cry from escaping his mouth. Too late he heard a rustle from Jenny's side of the bed as she turned over.
"What's the matter, darling?" her voice was just as groggy with sleep as was his minutes ago.
"Nothing, honey," he whispered back. "Go on back to sleep, dear. I'll only be a minute."
He hobbled towards the door while massaging his ankle and let himself out of the room.
His phone began ringing again as he made his way down the stairs and Dave uttered another curse before answering it.
"For Pete's sake, Howard, I told you hold your horses, did I not? I'm almost at the door."
"Yeah well, make it quick," came his friend's angry response and then the line went dead again.
Dave swore under his breath as he clumsily navigated his way into his living room, bumping into a furniture as he approached the door. He switched on the room's light then unlocked the door. A flutter of cold breeze stuck his face as he appraised his front lawn and beyond it the empty street and across from that his neighbour's home.
"Psst! Over here."
Dave looked towards his driveway and there stood Howard reclining against his vehicle in his pyjamas; he looked like he had been standing there for a long time. Dave shut the door behind him and made his way towards his friend who did not appear to be in a happy mood.
"The hell you calling me awake at this hour, Howard?"
"You ought to know why," retorted Howard who was trying his best to contain the mass of anger bubbling inside him. "Why the fuck didn't you ever tell me about your wife and mine being sex freaks?"
As if Howard expected his friend to make any denials, he drew his hand out of his pocket and presented him the two separate discs he had gotten from April.
"Ring any bells?"
Dave pushed his glasses further up his nose while looking at the twin discs with Howard and April's name on either one. Their names were done in his cursive style of writing with the same marker pen he often used. He looked at the discs with disinterest. Howard was somewhat disappointed that he had not gotten the exact response he had expected from Dave. What he expected was something akin to embarrassment and actual shame of being party to his wife Jenny persuading April to partake in whatever sick demented fetish they have been indulging this whole time behind his back. He continued waiting, expecting Dave to say something incriminating. He was growing further incensed with his mute silence.
"You not going to deny what you and Jenny have been doing with April?" asked Howard.
"What did she tell you?"
"What do you fucking think she told me? Just about everything. She woke me up and showed me the disc you'd mailed to me. I don't know how she found it, except before I could say anything, she showed me the one that bore her name and told me that she'd lied when she told me it was from someone else. Then she and Jenny have been doing this whole time."
Dave held the disc with April's name to his face.
"Have you watched it yet?"
"Yes, I have. It's the same as the one you sent me. But that's not what brought me here. What I want to know is why the hell I knew nothing about this?"
"Yeah, about that. I was gonna tell you about it, just needed to find the right time. But looks like April beat me to the punch."
"This isn't funny, Dave. I'm really upset standing here talking about this less than what I've been thinking since she let me in on her secret. What she told me about her and Jenny going around fucking black men, is any it true?"
Howard was upset, but how much upset was hard to explain. Nearly an hour ago he had sat up in bed and listened to April narrate about the times she had spent cajoling Jenny to tell her about the deviant lifestyle she lived along with Dave and how all this time she had become somewhat seduced and cajoled towards venturing into it as well. Maybe not explore wholeheartedly, but somewhat tickled to want to discover for herself how real it was. Jenny had intuitively read her thoughts and brought her along to numerous meetings with black men in hotel rooms. Jenny had as well given her the opportunity of filming her in action.
Dave came and reclined against his vehicle beside his friend with his hands stuck inside his robe's pockets.
"Yes, it's true," he calmly admitted. "But this ain't the right time to talk about this."
"My God, that's exactly what I thought you were going to say."
"When she told you about it, why didn't you come over right away?"
"I don't know. I could not believe it was all true what she'd said. I was downstairs in the living room running everything over in my head."
Howard felt just as spent and washed with relief having heard his friend admit to the truth. Already the anger that had brought him here to confront his friend was out of his system. Tiredness was what he had left in him now and it was beckoning him to return home and get back in bed.
They said goodnight to each other and promised to talk later in the day. Dave remained by his driveway and watched his friend return the way he had come. His shoulders remained hunched like he didn't have any strength in him anymore. Dave returned to his home and locked the door and switched off the light before returning upstairs, careful not to bump into anything along the way this time.