Abidjan is big, but not too big for me to find the woman with my phone. she had entered a big market with my phone. that was what they did when they snatched or stole your phone. I followed what I had on the screen of my iPad and made it into the market.
I was getting closer. She seemed to have branched somewhere, maybe where she would sell off the phone. but how come, she was drunk and she was still able to go this far without dropping down at the roadside?
Well, who knows if it was pretense in the first place. None of that mattered anyway, what mattered this very moment was the fact that I was out to find my phone and nothing more.
"Hey…" I said to a man standing by the door of the building where she had just branched. "Did you see a lady…"
The man snubbed me and walked away. I wanted to grip his shoulder and pull him back to answer my query, but he was gone before I could conclude on what to do, so, I pushed open the door and walked into the building. It was a restaurant, and the tracker was reading I was closer to it.
I looked at the far end of the hall and saw her. She was donning the same pink dress she wore to my door, but she had taken off her jacket, so, she looked nothing less than a cheap whore.
I swallowed hard and made it to her table. She had ordered a sumptuous sea meal for herself, while she was downing a bottle of Coca-Cola.
"The boys," I said with a wicked smile. "They didn't fight like you said."
I sat on the seat in front of her and she passed me a cigar. She was so fast I didn't know when she fished the stick out of the pack and dropped it at my side of the table.
"Good afternoon." She greeted me with a smile. "Have we met before?"
I smiled and pushed the cigar back to her. I don't need it. I don't take cigars, and I wouldn't take a thing from a thief for any damn reason.
"You don't smoke?" she smiled and lit her stick with a lighter. "You aren't familiar."
I took a deep breath and placed an open palm on the table, while my eyes stared at her in rage and threatened what I would do to her if she didn't hand my phone over to me.
"What?" she asked. "You are a beggar?"
"Give me my phone." that was an order. She should know I didn't look like I was there to plead with her to do what I deemed necessary.
She scuffed and relaxed in her seat. "I don't have your phone."
"I won't ask twice," I said with a stern look. "Give me my phone."
She chuckled and relaxed in her seat. She was posing the boss with my phone in her bag. She just didn't know who she was messing with. If she did, she could have thought better.
"I don't have your phone," she replied.
"I can get all the police in Abidjan into this place to beat you to a pulp if you don't hand over my phone," I said with so much authority.
She laughed and crossed her legs. "Look, Abidjan is too big for a politician to rule."
"My phone," I demanded.
"Money." She demanded. "Pay me and have your phone."
"I won't pay you a dime." I snapped.
"Then, you will have to call the police, but believe me, before they make it here, you are…"
I pushed the table against her and pinned her to her seat, then, I reached out for her bag, took it, and fished my phone out of it while she remained trapped in her seat.
"How dare you?" she asked with her eyes red with rage.
"I don't need to call the police on you," I replied. "I can beat you without support from anyone."
She laughed and waited till I freed the table before she pushed it off herself. I waited for her to put up a fight, but instead of pulling up a fight, she picked her cigar from the floor and slipped it in between her lips, and thus came the puffing of smoke in the air.
"You've gotten what you want." She said with a wicked smile. "Why not go home already?"
I looked around me. The restaurant had been shut and nearly everyone in it was waiting at every corner with sticks to beat me up if I made a move.
"And what now is the meaning of this?" I asked.
"It means we have unfinished business." she rose to her feet. "I thought it would end with stealing your phone, but it only got bigger."
I took a deep breath. I couldn't just help but take a really deep breath. I had given them numbers, who would fall first. There was a fat guy by the window. A clear kick on the jaw will gas him out, and the other big guy, his weight would be useful when I pushed him to the door, and for the lady who stole my phone, she wouldn't have her senses at work for quite a long time because I would make sure she passed out before she knew it.
"You've all signed up for a game you wouldn't like to play," I muttered and made for the door.
"Sorry, ma'am." Said the lady. "The door is locked. This is a kidnap; you are going nowhere till you pay a huge sum of money."
"Not even a penny." I went on for the door, but her men came forth. The first man tossed a stick at me, but his stick became the weapon with which I broke his arm. The fat one was next, I aimed for his jaw, but seeing he was quick with his elbows, I gave him a kick below the belt, and while he held his thigh together in pain, I kicked him below the jawbone, and that was hell of a fall for him.
The rest backed off.
"Get this door, now!" I yelled.