"I will strike when you won't expect. People will know who you really are" Leon silently looked at the message. It was 9 a.m. We are on the 28th of November. At this time Joseph was heading home after being released from the hospital. At that same time, Leon was attending a class of metaphysics at the University of Yaounde I. As a doctorate student in philosophy, diving into the science of abstract notions and the fundamental nature of reality was a must-know. But he was brought back to reality by that message. Who in God's green earth could threaten the one and only BINGANA Leon? That question coursed through his mind for several minutes. It began tormenting him to a point that he sighed loudly, disturbing the whole class. The whole class, including the teacher, paused and looked at him.
"Is my class so boring that you need to outwardly express it?" Professor NGABIRENG asked.
"False alert sir," Leon excused himself. "I just received an unpleasant message from my girlfriend. I didn't sigh on purpose."
"That should be the last time delegate. Show the example to your fellow mates." Professor NGABIRENG spoke, resuming his passionate class of abstract concepts. At noon, the class was over and everyone deserted the hall except Leon. He had decided to clear any doubts surrounding that threat.
"Who are you?" Leon texted back, with his hands trembling at the thought of who was on the other side of the line and what kind of information this unknown dude was claiming to have.
"What does he know? Is it about the fact that I stole all the church offerings this past Sunday? Or the other time where… and also that other event…" Leon whispered to himself. He was reminiscing all the shady things he had done behind the back of many people who trust him. The list of dirty affairs seemed very long. More to that, his recipient was not responding. He had waited for 30 long minutes, reading the same message and flipping all the secrets he was keeping sealed deep down in his conscience. After an eternal 1hr, he received another text.
"I am sure your panties are soaking wet with your sweat 😂😂."
That message made him lose his cool. You don't threaten BINGANA Leon. He is the one that threatens. He texted back, insulting his recipient.
"I don't care what you know about me, I will disprove everything. If you think you are hidden, then just you wait and see something." He ended his message. He immediately received a response.
"Hey, pal. Sorry. It is I, Frank. Your favourite cousin and gynaecologists. I was just pranking you with my new number."
Though those excuses were not enough to calm down Leon's rage, they at least reassured Leon. Reassured him of his dearest secrets remaining secrets. ATANGANA Frank was a very good gynaecologist and had saved Leon from many 'unforeseen' predicaments. Yes, only Frank knew the kind of person Leon was. The kind of hobbies he had. No one knew that Leon had as a hobby, sleeping with any creature that looked like a young girl. Most, if not all young girls in his entourage fell victim to his charms. The daughter of the pastor, his cousins, nieces, and students. In his eyes, they were all women. The blood link or morals were just details. He would stop with a girl, only when she got pregnant. In order to dissimulate the pregnancy, Frank came in. As a gynaecologist, he knew a safe place to commit abortion. Due to his knowledge and ability, he became Leon's favourite cousin. With the coast cleared, Leon left for other matters. When he left the campus, it was almost 2 p.m. He attended to all his appointments and landed at his sweet home at 11 p.m. He rushed for his bed and began snoring off. At a few minutes past 4a.m, he skipped from his bed, disturbed by the notification tune of his phone. When he picked up the phone, it was a message from one of his nieces; Risa. He read the message and was astonished.
"So, the ritual failed. I am sure Risa messed up during the bonding. Seems like in this case my luck left me." He spoke to himself, sighing loudly. He noticed it was just past 4 a.m. and still had a few hours to sleep before the sun rises.
"A good sleep will give me fresh ideas on how to tackle this predicament." He said, laying back in bed and falling asleep rapidly.
***
Two weeks had passed since Joseph left the family house. Within those two weeks, he had seen his spiritual mentor Professor NTEMBONG Casmira. She had a PhD in physics and taught in private universities. But she was also the head of the ministry where Joseph worshipped and fellowshipped. Sylvain, noticing Joseph's continual presence decided to leave and stay somewhere safer. Risa visited Joseph frequently. Bringing him food, washing his dresses, and bringing him information from the university. Everything had changed in an inexplicable manner. Joseph was soon going to hit 33years. He had dreamt of building himself a little house before leaving his parent's home (But that never came to pass). He was always mocked by his fellow mates concerning his staying with his parents despite his age. He even got into a dispute at one point in time with Risa because he had not yet left the family house. But now, he finally left. Though it wasn't the dream house, the conditions were just as he dreamt. He wasn't paying rent; the location wasn't far from the university and it wasn't that far from Risa's home. During the two weeks, the church mobilized resources and kept taking care of him. His looks and colours were improving slowly but surely. After an extra week, Joseph stood in church and gave a testimony to the congregation followed by thanksgiving. He thanked the church for their support during his downfall and reminded them of the grace they abound in. The following week was Christmas week. Joseph and Risa had made up a parkour to follow on the 25th of December. It consisted of dining in a nice restaurant, then going to a carnival and concluding the night with a calm retrospective discussion. They had scheduled their little tourism to begin at 9 p.m. On that fateful day, they were both in church. Christmas eve and Christmas day itself are considered by most Christians as sacred days. Christmas day is the day the saviour of all humanity is said to have made his entrance into the plane of mortals. That day is always filled with joy, celebration and brightness. Though that day is also said to be a total fraud, it doesn't prevent people from going bankrupt on that day. Most of the time the driving idea of reconciliation and the birth of Christ isn't the main call of the day. People merry and party as if there was no tomorrow. But those with a little bit of self-control kept the partying to a minimum and the reconciliation to a maximum. That was how Risa and Joseph spent their Christmas day; with a great deal of self-control. Since Joseph was just from recovering and had no penny in his pocket, the bill of their little adventure was taken care of by Risa. She came and picked up Joseph at 9 p.m. for the most expensive restaurant in the capital city. That restaurant is known as THE FAMOUS. If you wanted to drink rich people's water or wanted to eat European, Asian or American dishes, or if you just wanted to feel yourself in the most spectacular manner, THE FAMOUS was the ideal place. That restaurant was known for its extremely expensive dishes. The cheapest item on their menu (a cup of tea) cost 2000cfa francs. That was the place that Risa and Joseph were headed to. The restaurant was found in the WHITE MAN'S quarter. A very clean and outstanding quarter. They arrived and ate to their fill. They were not only celebrating Christ's birthday; they were celebrating Joseph's recovery. When they were fed up with the formal and calm mood of THE FAMOUS, they went to the carnival. The carnival was found in the ETOUDI quarter, a few kilometres away from the UNITY PALACE. The mood there was rowdy, hot and above all crowded with children. They played games, were entertained by clowns, ate all sorts of sweets and screamed with joy as they wanted. Upon leaving the carnival, they were drenched in sweat and had their dresses covered with natural tattoos. The blue-black Gucci T-shirt that Joseph wore looked reddish. His white sneakers were no more white. Risa's black skirt looked brown and her shoes were unrecognisable. They looked like kids living the best day of their life. When they were back in Joseph's room, it was 1 a.m. They were exhausted but did not feel sleepy. They both sat on the bed and looked at each other silently. Breathing heavily, smiling, and enjoying the calm surrounding them. After several minutes of silent observation, Joseph broke the ice.
"Thank you for this day. I didn't imagine you had all these in store." Joseph said.
"No qualms dear. I saw this as an opportunity to also thank you for what you have been doing to keep our relationship going" Risa answered
"I think when you love someone, you should be prepared to shoulder many things. The person's behaviour, the entourage and even the person's hate." Joseph responded.
"I agree with you," Risa began. "But you have supported so many things for us to be here today. You didn't run when I was comparing you with Uncle Leon, you stayed even when my family was against our relationship, you even went to my village alone just to convince my father of your seriousness with me. All those acts merited a feast. And not any kind of feast."
"Wow! I really did all that? Then we didn't feast enough" Joseph said, with a sarcastic tone. Something felt strange in his voice and Risa felt it. Joseph's answer was odd and didn't sink right with Risa. That oddness felt by Risa was because Joseph didn't recall most if not all of those events. He didn't remember how he began dating Risa, or how he had to meet Risa's father to let him know of his intentions with Risa. All that Risa said seemed true but didn't ring a bell in his brain. He tried dissimulating that by acknowledging all those achievements. Risa felt that but wasn't sure if she was right. So, she decided to put to test her hypothesis.
"Remember the time when Uncle Leon, you and I went out to celebrate my bachelor's degree?" Risa asked.
"How could I forget that day. He brought us to a bar and treated each of us to a crate of any drink we wanted." Joseph responded. It was true. He remembered that event. He began asking himself what was going on with his memories. When he tried to recall exactly what happened that day, not much came. They went to a bar, and drank but what came after that was shrouded in mist. A complete mystery. Most of his memories surrounding Risa and his friend Leon were incomplete.
"It was really wonderful. That was the day you openly confessed that you had feelings for me and wanted us to date. Risa responded. That was a trap and Joseph fell right into it. Joseph agreed to that and even went further by saying other things to back up what Risa said. Little did he know that Risa was lying and that she had discovered that he was suffering from selective amnesia. Risa continued their discussion, telling him of all that had happened in her life when he was hospitalized. She told him the good parts and omitted so many crucial things. The kind of things that, if Joseph had heard he would have been afraid of the girl he was dating. Joseph also asked about the source of the money they spent today. She knew Risa wasn't working and she was very lazy too. He began imagining how he would have to one day reimburse that money to someone else. But to his greatest surprise, Risa told him the unexpected.
"During your period of absence, I found out that I was too dependent on you. So, I started a part-time job at the university. As a master's student, I get paid to correct papers, and I work closely with some professors and doctors too." Risa answered.
That answer made Joseph very happy but also sceptical. Sure, part of him knew Risa had what it takes to do all that she said, but part of him did not entirely believe her. And with that, their discussion came to an end and Risa decided to leave. But before she left, she deeply kissed him saying: "It has been an eternity. The feeling hasn't changed. Welcome back, my love."
When she left, Joseph touched his lips, replaying the kiss in his head.
"Can a kiss be such intense?" He spoke to himself. When Risa arrived home, she notified Joseph through a text message. He responded and immediately went to bed. But Risa on her part had unfinished business.
"How was the date?" Leon asked Risa.
"It was magnificent. He is deeply in love with me. It is as though it was yesterday that we started the relationship." Risa answered joyfully.
"That is good for you but what of the things I asked you to check?" Leon insisted.
"Chill Leon. The coast is clear. He doesn't know that you were the one that gave me the money for our little improvised honeymoon." Risa answered, laughing at Joseph's gullibility.
"Good, but come again. Is that all you have to offer?" Leon asked, waiting for better news.
"Also, you were correct. The ritual was partially successful. He is suffering from selective amnesia. From what I can say, he remembers little of how our relationship was. I am not sure he remembers what he saw that day." Risa answered.
That answer was what Leon expected. His face brightened like that of a little kid receiving a gift. He stood up from where he was sitting, went towards Risa and groped her breast.
"That was wonderful. You did as expected. As a reward, you will be my pleasure tool for the night." Leon sensually whispered in Risa's ear.
"Yes, Leon." Risa moaned softly. "Risa merits that reward."