All characters are fictional, but the places may not be. Any semblance to real events is purely coincidental. The story explores themes that are suited for mature audiences and contains explicit material. Viewer discretion is advised.
Multi-chapter story
- Prologue: Before the clock started ticking
- Chapter 1: Sometime after 7:30 p.m
- Chapter 2: 3 a.m (this post)
- Chapter 3: 11 a.m
- Chapter 4: 3 p.m
- Epilogue: Sunset
Joe was holding her feet like a Barbie doll, and he himself was so big. She begged him to set her down. He didn’t. She screamed and wept as he dropped her into what appeared to be a dark, bottomless hole.
She woke up abruptly, kicking, with cold sweat and tears. She tore off the wrist beads: something Joe had gifted her on their second date. If you had asked her merely the morning before, she wouldn’t have called it a date; to her, it was more like a destined encounter. Before the events of that day, they had met the night before for a date. The details of that bizarre yet blissful encounter is for another day.
On that fated day, she had driven to meet a client in Osu to finalise a contract. There, on the famed Oxford Street, she met him. She remembered the events of that day like it was yesterday: Joe wore a faded blue jeans trousers and an army green jacket with a white shirt beneath. His white Nike Air Force 1 shoes struck her as particularly white. So, a normal fit for a normal day. But when she saw him, there was a mixture of thoughts and emotions that came to her. She instinctively looked behind to see if she was being stalked, slightly panicked; you can never be too careful as a woman. More or less at the same time, she began to wonder, this man is looking good, the way he was walking towards her, the beard, and the bald head. This was followed by a feeling of self consciousness. She didn’t normally feel this way. And when he came closer, his smile had her smitten. All this happened in a short few seconds. Before she realised, he was standing squarely in front of her.
“Hi,” he beamed, “I got this for you.”
She was stunned. She didn’t know whether it was the directness, or the apparent lack of manners, or the manner of one who knew for certain she would come here. Maybe it was all three. It was a little box with some hand-made wrist beads with her name attached to it. And this was not even the highlight of that day.
She placed her hands on her head in disbelief. The bonnet came off. Her hands cycled through her hair; the relaxed hair became disheveled. She got off the bed, looked around and paced; always a few meters from the bed. And then she fell on her knees, and a loud scream sprang up on her. And she wailed… like a woman who had lost her only child. She arched and pounded her fist on the wooden floor while still kneeling.
She felt the bed for her phone. In that moment, she would have given anything to relive one of the most memorable days in her very eventful life. There were no videos of the proposal. He knew she would rather have a private, intimate proposal than a grand, public one. It was just them. She had always been a private person. So, when the proposal had happened, and he had left her home, she sat down, beaming. She wanted to call someone and share the good news. But who? It was too soon to tell her SHS WhatsApp Group. She had very few friends on there anyway. As someone who made a clear distinction between coworkers and friends, her coworkers certainly didn’t deserve to know such a deep and personal thing, and certainly not at this time. She thought of telling Rosie and Eva but it didn’t feel right. She wanted to reserve her parents for last, but no one came first. A feeling of gratitude descended upon her. Aenya felt blessed to have them as parents. In her mind, they deserved all the credit for the great love she had found. It was because of them that she had come to have such a high bar. When she finally called them, they shared in her joy.
She cycled through the Photos app and found the video again. At the time stamp 5:49, Joe stops moving. He was going at her from the rear, so she turns her over, and looks directly into her face. He crouches closer and caresses her face. He bends slowly, and starts to kiss her gently all over her neck, her breasts, all the way down to her thighs. Aenya felt something building up in her chest.
Aenya flung the phone across the room. She was livid. It was incomprehensible to her that she had let this happen. Her gift to see through the facades had served her well in the past; she had never been wrong.
What happened? How did I miss this? How did I let a man embarrass me like this? No. It wasn’t me.
But it didn’t do any good. Any effort to convince her heart fell on her heart’s deaf ears. She lay flat on the cold floor, looking at the ceiling of her dark room. The moon illuminated it somewhat. Her warm tears flowed, and flowed. After a while, she felt herself calming down. But the night was far from over.
An image began to form in her mind. A round face with small but full lips materialised in the darkness. The hair was bleached brown with green accents, with lines shaved on either side of her ears. It was that woman. That lady is the one who had stolen Joe from her.
And then, she felt shame.
This had never happened before, she thought. How did I get here? How am I blaming an innocent woman, who probably doesn’t know a thing, for mistakes committed by the man who was on top of her?
All roads lead to Joe. Joe. The man who had worked so hard to gain her attention, and then her love. When she lifted her head to look around, everything she laid eyes on reminded her of him. And it made her more upset by the minute. On the bedside table was a miniature figure of her Joe had made and shipped all the way from Budapest. On her wardrobe door was a card written in Joe’s handwriting. On the floor was a Persian rug Joe bought her when she got promoted. She could see him everywhere. It was like Joe was surrounding her. She felt like she was choking. The miniature figure was the first to go. It was smashed to a thousand pieces. It cut her foot. She ripped the pinned card from the wardrobe door and rent it into pieces. Even the stuffed platypus didn’t survive. She brought out the scissors and began to cut it. Its head went first. She went to the living room. She had a modest setup back then until Joe decided to surprise her with a Bose home sound system. She carefully disconnected it from the TV, as she bought that one, and smashed the devices on the ground. She was executing this with a controlled anger now. After two and half hours, she was thoroughly exhausted. She didn’t even know she was asleep when she did.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3 of the story!