The street was not as busy as it was the other time that Kalu came to see Rose. It pulsated with lives that last time.
He guessed that it might be due to the fact that it was weekend for it was a Saturday. The other time he came was on Tuesday which was a weekday.
Saturdays were the accepted days to many city residents for ceremonies for it was a work free day especially for government workers.
On Saturdays the street were always dried. A good number of people that roamed the street outpoured the various event centers.
The only thing that didn't seem to reduce on Saturdays was the number of vehicles on the road.
Kalu was in doubt if he could meet the 'Rose' this time around but there was another voice in him that kept assuring him that he would meet her.
He didn't wish his coming the second time to be in vain.
Those money he spent on transportation could be used for some other useful purposes or rather remain hidden in his savings even though he had nothing to channel them to at the moment, it could be there for future purposes.
He paused by the side of the road, so close to the house to have a rehearsal of his plan once more in his mind.
After the rehearsal, his confidence boosted for he wasn't now afraid of how to approach Rose when he would finally see her.
He first of all branched to the provision store where he purchased a handkerchief the last time.
He didn't really want to purchase anything this time but it was part of his plan for safety.
He wanted to keep some of the money with him with the woman in charge of the store before he would enter the compound, the lion's den according to his perception, for the fear of what happened to him the other time.
Being familiar with one of those men now, wasn't enough guarantee for him not to take some safety measures.
The truth was that there was no assurance from the man that he would protect him the next time.
Instead the man was trying to prove a fake innocence by claiming that he was just there to visit a friend.
"I need to be wise this time..what if the man was not with them this time? what if he had gone to visit his mother as he had always done?" he advised himself.
From the manner of the woman's response to his greetings, it was clear that the woman didn't recognize him again.
It had been over two weeks since he made that last visit.
He first purchased another handkerchief from the woman though he was already with an handkerchief a more expensive one but he wanted to make the ground fertile for the acceptance of his request.
After he had paid for the handkerchief, he then brought out some money and implored the woman. "Please ma! could you help me and keep this money" he pleaded in a childlike manner.
The woman's forehead wrinkled in surprise at the request.
"I don't understand what you mean by help you keep the money" the woman responded. " I don't even know you!"
Kalu then explained himself to the woman.
Though the woman couldn't recognise the face anymore but she could remember the story so well.
"Are you that boy?" she asked now with a sympathetic tone.
"Yes!" answered Kalu.
The woman wanted to know the reason he had been coming to the compound. What could be bringing him back after what he went through the last time. "It must be something so serious" she thought.
But Kalu lied to her that he had been coming to check on a friend. "She is an old time friend though it has been long we saw each other" he lied.
The woman collected the money from him and he also pulled his wrist watch and gave to her to keep. He might not be able to retrieve the wrist watch if it were taken this time.
By now he was sure that there was nothing to be taken from him apart from a small amount of money he left in his pocket, amount he was ready and would be glad to forfeit inasmuch as his mission would be successful.
As he walked out from the woman's shop, his confidence took a deep dive.
He pictured the faces of those men how rugged and hostile they were and went back to the shop of the woman to ask if she had seen those men that day.
"It hadn't been long I came out, I don't know if they are there" the woman replied.
Kalu took a deep breath in an effort to regain his confidence as he walked out from the woman's shop the second time adjusting the collar of his blue shirt that was part of the gifts that was presented to him by his uncle's friends on his birthday.
He decided to stand for sometime at the frontage of the compound to see if luck could possibly shine on him by Rose coming outside.
As he stood, he was seriously weighing on his mind which door to begin the knocking from, this time.
He leaned forward to the entrance of the compound and listened carefully to know if he could hear a mumbling sound of discussion inside the compound but the only sound he could hear was the sound of moving vehicles along the express.
He repositioned once again like he was in a wait for someone and pondered on the dream once more.
And as he was pondering on the dream, his courage was reignited, dispelling every fear in him. He was now prepared to face anything.
The woman from her shop kept staring at him. Snickering at the absurdity of his actions.
As he threw the first step and was about throwing the second step in an inward movement to the compound, he had the sound of a swinging door.
Someone was coming out from a room. He quickly stepped back and decided to wait for whom ever it was outside.
To his greatest surprise it was the same girl he saw the last time though he didn't see the face then but he could judge from the shape and her graceful style of work.
He heart exploded with joy for his wish was finally granted.
The girl was so beautiful and elegant with a nicely shaped legs that was exposed by the short fine skirt she was putting on.
She was a good description of the girl he had been meeting in his dreams.
He fought so hard to control his emotion as he saw the girl coming out of the compound.
As the girl was about to walk pass him, he called the name 'Rose' in trial and to his greatest surprise, the girl paused and turned towards his direction to see who was calling her.
There was this contagious flint of smile on the face of Rose as she beheld the handsome face of Kalu that made his own face glowered in smile.
Kalu gestured to her with his hand to come and as she walked closer to him he quickly assessed the appearance.
He was able to spot some few disparities from the face of the Rose that visited him in his dreams.
There was this red tiny dot on the forehead of the Rose in his dreams like that of Indian women which was lacking on this Rose's face.
That was the first disparity he was able to spot at the instance.
This Rose was fair but it was as if the Rose in his dreams was fairer and the Rose that visited him the last night was wearing a long her that swept across her shoulders while this Rose had her hair plaited.
Those disparities were not enough reasons to conclude that she was not the one.
After all he had not seen her with his physical eyes maybe she might not look exactly as she looked in dreams in real life.
The girl was exuberant in answering his call and she started with a lively greetings as she came to stand with him like she had known him for long.
The happy reaction of the girl made Kalu believe that she was the one in his dreams.
"How do you know my name?" she asked first without waiting to know the reason Kalu had called her.
"I know you!" replied Kalu "don't you know me?"
"Your face look familiar but I can't remember where i have met you before" she said in a mild tone.
"Thank God I have finally met this girl, she is the Rose!." Kalu assured himself.
He was in short of words as he marveled at the girl's beauty.
He needed to let the girl know how he felt about her but how to begin was his problem.
"What's your name?" the girl broke the silence as Kalu was still considering the right words to begin with.
"I am Kalu" he chuckled.
The question forced out of Kalu what he had been contemplating on how to say.
"I like you!" he mumbled.
The girl gave him a breathtaking smile that went a long way in lifting his spirit.
He took hold of her hand at once to confirm that she wasn't a spirit.
"Where are you going?" Kalu asked
"I was going to visit a friend" she smiled.
Kalu pleaded with her to go with him to any place where the both of them could sit and discuss.
"Where do you want us to go?" she asked.
"Anywhere at all that we can sit and discuss, I don't know anywhere around here.. you are the one to Know a good place" he persuaded.
The girl suggested they go inside the house but Kalu didn't by the idea, it wasn't pleasing to him. He wanted them to be at a place where at least they could be able to be taking something like soft drink while discussing.
He had learnt from the home videos that it was more presentable and romantic to discuss with a woman outside, in a conducive environment rather than inside the house.
The feelings one would get from being in such new environment would be far more intriguing than the one one would get from being inside a confinement that one was used to.
After much persuasion, the girl finally gave in and took him to an eatery that was at the other street, not that far from their own street.
The eatery was nice one and well managed with smart attendants in a neat fitted uniforms.
They got seated inside the eatery. Rose acting a bit shy, refused to take anything. " I don't feel like taking anything" she said.
"If you refuse to take anything then there is no need of us coming here" Kalu insisted.
After much exhortations she then requested for ice cream and Kalu got a cup of ice cream for her from counter
while he got a bottle of coke for himself.
They were seated at a table facing each other.
The girl felt so much at home being with Kalu, she was bold enough to look into his eyes while they discuss while Kalu now got a bit timid and was looking at his coke bottle from time to time to avoid maintaining long gaze with her.
She loved everything about him. The way he looked, the way he talked and most especially the way he attended to her with so much care and affection.
Kalu was from time to time making sure that she was comfortable by asking her at intervals.
He wanted her to request for other things apart from the ice cream but she refused. She insisted she was okay with just ice cream.
She told Kalu all about herself.
"I have never been called that name before." she revealed.
"What name is that?" kalu asked inquisitively.
"Rose" she replied.
"But that's your name!"
"Yes but I prefer Rosaline..Rose sounds like the name of a flower to me" she chortled.
"So I should call you Rosaline? Kalu asked.
She nodded affirmatively.
"It's okay, Rosaline" he confirmed.
"Rosaline I like you!" he pronounced once again after so much battling in his mind to use the word 'love'
This time Rosaline responded to his greatest surprise.
"I like you too!" she replied.
Kalu felt like a winner at her response and he held her soft hand once again.
He needed to have a taste of her lips just as he felt he had had in the dream but he was too shy to make an attempt for there were other people seated in the eatery.
The urge to discuss the matters of the dream was building up but from the way Rosaline responded when he first mentioned an issue of dream, it seemed to Kalu that she never wanted to discuss anything pertaining to dream.
"Why did you leave that soon last night?" he asked.
Rosaline looked straight in his eyes with a frown on her face. She wondered what he was talking about without uttering a word in reply.
"I am sure he is mistaken me for someone else...Anyway I like him, he is the kind of guy I needed for a boyfriend." she thought.
"Maybe she didn't want to discuss those dreams" Kalu thought to himself. And he changed the topic immediately to the tale of what happened to him the other time he was there.
Rosaline told him that she didn't notice that he was coming behind her on that particular day he was talking about.
She expressed her sympathy to him for going through such a tough time for her sake.
She didn't even know any of those men. The compound was not actually her place of residence, she was only there to visit a cousin. She had already spent three weeks with the cousin and would be going back to her house, where she stayed with her parents on the coming Monday.
Kalu counted himself lucky as he learnt that the girl's place of residence was even closer to him than the area they were at the moment.
Which means the stress of paying her a visit would be reduced when she went back to her place.
"My joy is that I have really found you and have got the opportunity to be with you.. what ever predicament I went through in finding you, I count as nothing" Kalu bravely revealed.
Rosaline raised his hand which was locked in hers and kissed the back of the palm.
They spent much time together at the eatery. It's like the more time they spend together, the stronger the bond that was initiating between them.
As Kalu looked outside through the glass window he noticed that the sun was already going down. He glanced at his wrist to check the time, then he realized that he had left his watch with the woman that owned the shop beside Rosaline's compound.
He needed to be home before the master, Abuchi that went for burial would return.
He looked around to see if there was any wall clock in the building but there was non.
Rosaline too wasn't with a watch or any device to check time.
Kalu had to move to the counter to ask the attendant of the time.
When he got up from his seat, that was when he realised that all eyes was on them.
There were also some other men that were seated with their girl friends or wives.
But Kalu's composure with Clara, the way they held each other's hand and laugh while they were discussing, were admired by almost the whole people that were in the eatery.
As he got to the counter he met the particular girl that served him. She was a young girl in his early twenties judging from her look.
The girl chuckled admiringly while responding to him. She gave him the green light which Kalu ignored.
"It's three minutes to 4pm" she chuckled.
"How time flys, just now that came we here is already to 4pm." He said to himself.
He was enjoying his company with Rosaline that he didn't know that time was almost gone.
Each hour counted like a minute to him, he wished to remain with Rosaline all through the day but he hadn't gained such a muscle. It could only be possible if he had been settled by Abuchi and now stood on his own.
"Is she your girl friend?" asked the girl at the counter as he turned to go back to Rosaline so that they could be on their way.
"Yes" he replied as he continued on his way.
The girl stood at the counter staring at him in lust as he walked back to Rosaline.
The whole eyes was on the both of them as they walk out of the eatery hand in hand like a newly wedded couple.
The people imagined if they were really married.
Though Rosaline wasn't happy as he wanted to go but she understood that the decision to stay was beyond him. Kalu in order to keep her happy promised to come the next day which was Sunday.
She wanted to see him off to the bus stop immediately for the place they were was very close to the bus stop.
But Kalu remembered the money and the wrist he had with the woman.
So they walked back to Rosaline's street to the woman's shop.
He had to wait for the woman for she wasn't in the shop when they arrived, she had gone to relieve herself.
After the woman had given him the money and the wrist watch, he then started hurrying home.
He wanted Rosaline to stay behind since she had already got close to her compound so that he hastened his movement to the bus stop but she insisted in seeing him off.
So, the both of them walked to the bus stop and hugged each other before he boarded a bus and she returned home in satisfaction.
Clara wasn't as satisfied as she had hoped before setting out to the police station.
She lied on her bed, thinking about her discussion with the police.
"What am I going to do now?" she pondered. "There is no way my mother would consent to the fact that her daughter is missing.. she will simply tell the officers that her daughter is dead, she could even go to the extent of telling them that I, am not normal...No! I can't involve her in this,..there is no way it's going to work" she concluded.
She was restless as she pondered deeply on the next step to take.
She got up from the bed and reached for the table fridge.
There was a bottle of wine that was given to her by her boss at work as a way of entertainment on the day of his birthday, for she couldn't make it to the celebration venue due to ill health.
She hadn't got the time to open the wine for over a month that it had been given to her for the fear of being intoxicated, and she had been waiting to have a drinker visitor so that she could entertain him with it.
She needed anything as that time that could aid her to catch sleep.
She desired the sleep to cool her brain in order to be able to come up with a better idea on the next step to take.
She paced aimlessly around the room after she had gulped the first mouthful of the wine directly from the bottle.
The wine was alcoholic, though mind in its alcoholic content and that had initially kept her from taking it all this while for she wasn't a drinker.
The first time she had a taste of alcohol was in a friend's bachelor's eve party. As she saw other girls drinking and having fun with a very expensive alcoholic wine, she was enticed by the amount of fun they were having believing that the wine had special fun-inducing substance.
It was like she was missing a lot as she was the only one in the party that didn't have a taste and wasn't as lively as others.
At a time when she couldn't control the urge again, she decided to have a taste to feel that special thing she was missing.
After taking a shot, her eyes changed, she felt the whole room was spinning, and she started screaming in fear.
The celebration was distracted at the moment and everyone's attention was on her as they rushed to know what the problem was.
"The hall is turning, it wants to fall on us, it's shaking!" she screamed.
The whole guest and the celebrant was so disappointed to learn that she was speaking under the influence of alcohol after being with her for sometime. Initially they thought that something serious was happening to her.
And everywhere erupted with laughter when they realized they just got into unecessary panic.
She was later led to a room where she slept off till the following morning.
She was still being reminded about the incident jokingly by her friends up till this day.
She discovered that she didn't get the same reaction as of the last time as she took the wine.
Though she knew that the alcoholic content of the one she took at that bachelor's eve was much higher than this particular one but at least she was expecting to feel a bit dizzy so that she could quickly jump on the bed.
She kept taking one gulp after another to attain the level of highness she had desired.
And as she paced around the room in expectation of the desired highness, a knock came on the door.
She opened the door at once without checking who was there first as she had always done.
Her face was expressionless as she beheld Alex standing at the door.
She went back inside leaving the door open for him without uttering a word.
Alex closed the door behind him as he followed her inside the room.
He got seated on the bed while Clara was standing at the window staring the at the back of the house with the bottle of wine still in her hand.
"Let me see the wine your having!" demanded Alex in an attempt to initiate a discussion.
Clara handed the bottle to him without still uttering a word.
Though from her facial expression one could not detect if she was angry or not but from her reaction it appeared like she wasn't too comfortable with his visit.
Alex stared at the bottle of wine like he was going through the writings on the label mean while he was weighing his next words.
"Clara there is something I want to tell you!" he said gently.
"I can hear you" she responded without looking at him.
"please I would like you to seat before I start" he pleaded.
Clara left the window and got seated by the edge of the bed facing the same window she had left while Alex adjusted to be a bit closer to her.
"After the story you told me concerning your sister.." Clara's attention was arrested fully as she heard that, her ears always itched anytime her sister was mentioned, and she turned to face him. But by that time the wine was slowly having effect on her, she was already having a light feeling of dizziness.
"...as I went home that day, I really thought about it and I came to understand that all you talked about was possible!" he continued.
At this time the effect of the alcohol had really eaten deep on Clara and she was already nodding in sleep.
Alex noticed that she was badly feeling sleepy and helped her in lying properly on the bed.
He knew that the sleep came as a result of the wine that was with her.
So he contemplated whether to go home or to stay with her till she woke up.
It was already getting dark by then.
"If go now, who will lock the door for her... someone might come in here and steal her property or even do something stupid to her.." he contemplated.
After much contemplation he decided to spend the night with her.
"If she wakes up before it's too late then I will go, but if she doesn't wake then I will sacrifice and spend the night here with her" he concluded.
He carefully made sure that Clara was comfortable and covered her with the duffel.
Then he sat on the bed staring at her face while she slept.
At a time he was also taken by sleep.