It's 10 o clock in the night, otherwise known as party 'o clock.
Among all the things that I could tell about the party outside, there was one thing for certain. This DJ wasn't playing at all.
The mix was pretty smooth and slightly raved too. It just kept driving me to put on my clothes faster so I could join the party outside.
"these damned socks" I said as I slipped them on and put my boots on top.
This was the finishing touch for my being ready for the party. I stood up straight and looked into the mirror, pretty happy with myself. My gear comprised of my khaki colored buttoned shirt with a jacket on top of it. It was accompanied by brown combat trousers and boots to match it.
I was looking like Bear Grilles right now.
"alright, you ready?" Danny asked as he peeked into my room.
"yeah" I replied as I turned back towards him
"let's do this"
We both came out of the rooms to meet the girls in the parlour, all geared-up as well.
It was actually nice to see Eva talking so fluently with jayjay and to see that she was also dressed like a survivor, the way we were.
The smile on her face was very bright, it could probably be visible even from miles away, but I had no idea as to why she had changed.
All I knew was, whatever it was, Danny had a hand in it.
"alright, Danny let's go" Eva said as she sprang to her feet and dragged Danny away and out of the door.
To be frank, it took me a couple of seconds to SUCESSFULLY process that information
"shall we?" I asked jayjay as I stretched a hand to her.
"yes we may" she replied as she grabbed my hand and we walked out of the cabin.
We walked into the pretty. The scene and the music gave me only one memory, PROM. This party had a prom vibe. The costumes and the music and the pairing made it all the more alike.
The party began and I was actually happy to be party of it. A little secret between you and me, I have NEVER been to a party except its my birthday.
Lets just say that I am a master hermit and a lover of peace of mind. I actually don't know how to deal with all the smells from booze and the irrationality of teens and all of that kind of nonsense that make me feel numb
Its just not my thing.
"so what do you want to do first?" I asked jayjay
"lets have a drink, I guess" she answered back with a very beautiful smile plastered to her face.
"no capping, I am going to enjoy this tonight" I thought within me as she dragged along to the stand where they were distributing fruit punch.
We sipped the fruit punch and had a few more before we moved on to see what else the town had to offer.
Along the way, I came across something really interesting. A dance floor kind of competition. There was a glowing platform on the floor and a separate music station with it and it seemed to be managed by some dudes who were obviously dance enthusiasts.
The were dragging or rather coaxing couples into coming unto the dance floor and showing their moves. That's where it got interesting because curry and his guys were on the dance floor.
Apparently he wanted to use his moves to further woo his date, Lisa. He asked the DJ to play him a romantic song that spoke for his heart(just guessing) and the DJ just nodded and got to his discs.
The dance floor got heated up real quick when the DJ started to play sex sounds by Lil Tjay for them. Curry just rose a brow at two of his dancers and then they started dancing with the kind of coordination that I have only seen in a chris brown dance performance.
By the time they were done, curry pulled out a flower from nowhere and handed it over to Lisa. I have to say it, even for him, that was pretty good.
"wow" jayjay said as she watched them
"that was actually sweet" I responded.
"yeah it was" she said dreamily. To be very honest, I never imagined her to be the kind that would want such things.
"hey, Jerry" jayjay said.
"yeah, what's up?" I asked
"check this out" she said as she pointed back to the dance floor.
I turned to check out what she could have been talking about and to be very very honest, I was shocked.
It was Danny and Eva on the dance floor.
Now mind you, I'll have you know that Danny is a actually a very good dancer. The best that I know of personally. The only catch remains that he doesn't show this side often when he isn't within the confines of the house.
I guess this is why, curry saw it as a bit funny that Danny wanted to dance.
But I knew he was about to be shocked. The only thing I didn't understand was why he had taken Eva with him even after we had agreed that she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to dancing.
But I don't doubt Danny for a second.
I saw Danny grab her by the shoulders and talk to her. I guess to encourage her or something.
He asked the DJ to play the same song again and the DJ seemed to happily oblige while curry and his crew waited to watch.
They started off the dance with a simple waltz. Danny had his arms on her waist and she had hers round his neck.
It was actually beautiful.
"awwn, they look so cute" jayjay said as she clamped her hands together
"i know right" said a voice from behind me.
I could only guess who that would be but why does she have to show up when I am trying to show jayjay a good time.
It was Camilla.
Jayjay turned to see who was talking and instantly her face lit up with excitement.
"CAMILLA" she said at a high pitch before hugging her.
Now that was unexpected, in fact, come to think of it, this whole night has been full of the unexpected. Starting from the party that we knew nothing about, to my meeting the owned of the whole cabin town, to my finding out that I had a neighbor that I had as much as said "hi" to in years, to Eva's transformation for good, to finding Danny willing to dance in public and now learning that Camilla and jayjay have been acquainted before.
Like, can I please get a break from this?
While jayjay and Camilla were catching up and discussing, I continued to watch Danny and Eva who had now taken the dancing to a whole new level. That kind of freestyle street hi-hop kinda stuff. I cant really explain it.
By the time they were done, I was the first to applaud them, before curry and his crew, though except one of his dancers, Mason
Apparently, Danny and Eva had just won the respect of curry and his crew, for curry to have even stepped forward and shaken his hand.
"those were some nice moves man" curry said as he shook him
"thanks a lot" Danny said with a smile pasted on his face as Eva seem to attach herself to him, just smiling.
When the crew had dispersed, the two of them came to us where we were standing: Eva, Camilla and I.
"nice work guys" I said first
"thanks bro"
"where did you have the time to learn all of that with the way this day has been?" jayjay asked
"that my friend is a very long story" Danny said with a hand at the back of his head and the other in her hand
"it was actually pretty nice" Camilla commented
"thanks" Danny said
"so, um....who are you?" Danny asked, obviously clueless of who she was.
"well, bro. This is Camilla" I said as I pointed to her. I have no idea if it was for emphasis but I just did it.
"oh…..hi" Danny said as he switched from his shocked form to his natural more friendly form.
"i hear you are our somewhat distant and somewhat close neighbour" he said as he shook her hand a bit.
"well, what can I say?" she replied before eventually releasing his hand.
We all giggled at the awkwardness
While we giggled I took a look at the DJ stand and I saw something strange. The word "venator" saw tabooed to his forearm and he also had it on his laptop.
"strange" I said
"what is?" jayjay asked. At this time it was only the two of us standing there while the others had gone for ice cream.
"that word, "VENATOR"
"what about it?"
"i have seen it before on the ring that Camilla's dad wears on his fingers."
"could that be the name of the company that owns the cabin town?" she asked as she seemed to look at it deeply.
"no...the name of the company is the Serengeti leisure. That's why the party tonight is called a Serengeti party" I said as I looked at the tattoo sternly.
"do you think we should consult Mr Monroe?" she said as she wrapped her hand round my right arm.
I looked down at her, being the taller of the two of us and I felt the warmth from her on my arm.
"yeah lets go find him" I said as we turned and walked into the party with a new purpose other than partying and enjoying ourselves.
FINDING MR. MONROE!!!!
*********************************************************************
The energy and the rave of the party was on an all time high as the night progressed but that was the last thing on our mind at the time. We were in search of our geography teacher.
"hey, have you seen Mr. Monroe?" was the question of the night.
We were asking all around and it seemed like we weren't getting anywhere.
As we swam through the tsunami of teens, we noticed more than three times that the word and symbol happened to be kept in multiple places and located on different products.
The word was on the base of every cabin, at the bottom of every cup that we used to drink that night, on the stage by the iron pillars and poles and on the forearm of all the servants at the party as we later realized.
"this seems to be branded on all of them" jayjay said as she looked at the forearm of one of the servants in the distance.
"yeah I noticed" I said as I tried to camouflage the fact that I was observing him.
The DJ's rave came to an abrupt end and then he started to play a slow and soulful tune for us. In an instant or maybe just as a hunch, all the teenagers took up their counterpart and started to waltz to the tune.
"shall I at least have this dance?" I asked as I gave her a hand and smiled at her.
"oh….. what a gentleman!!" she replied as she took my hand and drew closer to me.
The atmosphere changed and I was finding it hard to breath. It was one of those situations where you find yourself choking but you're enjoying the moment too much to feel the pain.
The sight was beautiful. She rested her head on my chest and had her bosom against mine as we swayed slowly to the tune of All of me by John Legend.
"hey, Jerry"
"yeah"
"i never knew you to be a dancer too" she said as she giggled a bit
"well, what can I say? I learn from the very best." I replied as I looked across to Eva and Danny dancing not too far from us.
"wow"
"i think I need to spend time with them more often" she said.
We both laughed a bit and then fell back into the silence of the moment. As we went quiet, millions of thoughts started to run through my mind, the "What if?s" started to invade my mind.
I had a feeling deep in my guts that we needed to leave the place as quickly as possible, but I didn't know why.
"Jerry.....I am feeling scared" jayjay confessed to me as she continued swaying slowly. She seemed to have been holding that thought in for a very long time. I hear d what she had said to me and usually this is meant to be the part where I assure hr that everything would be fine, but I COULDN'T
I couldn't bring myself to do it, when every fibre of my being is telling me to flee the village with my friends without looking back. So how could I tell her that everything would be alright.
I stopped dancing and just looked down at her. She noticed the stop and she looked into my eyes. She was tearing up. I leaned in and kissed her forehead and whispered into her right ear.
"we will be fine because I am here for you"
She looked at me and I wasn't too sure what it was but there was a new glimmer in her eyes. I think I brought her hope.
"hey look" she said as she pointed to my back
I turned around and I saw Mr Monroe talking to mason at the juice stand.
I looked at jayjay and we went over to meet Mr Monroe. It was actually pretty hard to reach him because of the people that were still dancing. We carved our way through the crowd until we met with Mr Monroe when mason had just left.
"Mr Monroe?" jayjay called out as we approached him. He turned to see us and seemed to almost choke on his drink.
"hey guys"
"how you guys doing?" he asked as he continued to sip on his punch.
"we are all good, all good. Uh, Mr Monroe, we have a question to ask you?" I said as we moved closer to him.
"you seem to have a mastery in geography, history and multiple languages right?" I asked
"well, I don't mean to brag but….. yeah I am" he said with the confidence of Hercules
Show off!
"any way?" jayjay dragged as she seemed to take the wheel.
"what understanding do you have of the word "VENATOR?"
"oh dear, why asking?" he asked with a slight change in his mood.
"just curious" I quickly said. I wasn't too sure if it was a good idea to let the man into the full scope until I knew exactly what we are dealing with.
"well" he said before he finished his drink and took a deep breath.
"the word VENATOR is a Latin word that means hunter. It is also the name of a group of very ancient and well feared poachers believed to have gone extinct or out of commission two hundred years ago" he explained while we watched silently.
"now, do you guys know that the venators were known to parade this side of Africa throughout the course of that period" he said with a strange excitement in his eyes.
"these guys were known to be able to even hunt down mighty hunters like the Barbary lions of ancients Africa, which also happens to be their symbol. I should probably teach you guys in our next class" he said and instantly turned around to leave.
We stood their shaken by the realization and not knowing what to do. We were dancing to the music of ancient poachers.
THIS WAS BAD!!