The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 22

4 years ago

The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 22

I entered the lab after the call(I had hung back in the corridor to receive the call)
Bami and Andy were at one end of the lab observing the explicit well labelled diagram of the human anatomy.

Tonye was on the second and last stool in the lab beside the same assistant we had seen earlier. They were talking and as I approached them I heard the student doctor say “…wouldn’t take long, in fact anytime from now”

Tonye glanced up as I approached “the doctor stepped out not long ago, he took a series of test results over to the main hospital. But Christie here says he’d soon be back”
I nodded politely at the young woman and shrugged at Tonye. No problem we would wait. Not like we had another choice. But then it occurred to me I had another choice. Terry was waiting for me at the metro station.

Tonye seemed to have taken an obvious liking to the doctor’s student and now she was saying “you know I studied microbiology back then and whenever we were told…”
I interrupted her with a cough. Which was part warning and part to grab her attention. The former was because it was against the unspoken code of safety to give out personal details of yourself no matter how innocent the person on the receiving end looked/was. She glanced at me guiltily getting the drift immediately then I said “I need the other one for the plan B…the guy is waiting for me like this”

I could tell from her expression that I had confused the nosy Christie who hung on to every word.

“Let’s go to the car then…what of this your doctor friend..Rilwan?” Tonye asked as she stood up and lifted the cooler she had wedged under the stool.

“No you guys would stay and carry on with it..I’m sure he’d be here any moment..he was expecting us after all” I said.
Bami and Andy blocked us at the door.
“Are you going now?” Andy asked.
“Yes…please make sure doctor Rash-…Rilwan does the test immediately… It shouldn’t waste time before the result is out”
“I’m coming with you..I’d drive so that when we’re coming you’d pick up your car and we’d come and pick up Andy and Tonye…by then this result should be ready also”
“Okay…makes sense..see you in an hour” I said to Andy

And so Bami, Tonye and I left the building to the car park.

Inside the safety of the hilux or should I say around the hilux because we stood to the side and opened the doors for cover while Bami and I covered the other end leaving Tonye in our middle.

She wore the thick leather gloves she retrieved from the truck and opened the cooler. The ice emitted a cold smokey mist and the cold hiss of condensation as air entered the cooler.

There were two ziplock bags and she studied one critically before putting it back in the cooler and giving me the second one without looking at it. I couldn’t help but feel Tonye was as cold as the ice.

She held the bag out but my hands didn’t move. I could see there was a smaller transparent bag inside which housed the body parts I refused to look at. The bigger bag (also trasparent) was filled with ice which no doubt would be turning to cold water very soon.

“Rex” Tonye called out
Finally my hands obeyed the order from the pineal gland and I took the bag from her.

“You need a thick bag or nylon that is not transparent… Badge or no badge if people should see what you carry..you’ll surely be lynched” she said.

And I thought grimly; the ridiculous article by that clueless journalist which branded me as a ritualist will then be justified.

“There’s a bag in the truck” Bami said. He made to climb into the driver seat but I stopped him.

“Let me drive..I need it right now” I said pleadingly. He understood immediately, understood I wanted my mind to only be engaged in overtaking, keeping the right lane and every other thing related to driving. He probably understood because that’s what he had been doing all morning…he had been behind the wheel all through.

Well he’d had enough, I needed the therapy right now.

And so I got behind the wheel and fired up the engine while Bami climbed in beside me and Tonye stepped back.

“Keep an eye on that girl in there…we all know what curiosity did to the cat” I said and reversed out of the park. In minutes we were on the high way speeding towards the metro police station.

°•°•°•°•
?? ??
She was extremely pissed off when she finally got to the park. An hour plus had gone by since she stormed out of the room. Now it would all be worth it…still she was pissed.

She wore a white polo shirt with a popular ice cream logo and she wore a armless pullover like an apron. Splashed with the name of the ice cream across the chest and the same dark blue colour as the logo. To crown it off she had a cap with the two edges turned up like the ears of a dog. The kind of cap the yorubas called ‘eti aja’

But it was dark blue in colour and also splashed with the logo of the ice cream. She was proud of the logo, she had designed it herself and it was the spitting image of the original.

The most peculiar thing however was the body weight gain. In just an hour she had transformed to a fat and puffy woman with an enormous bust, stomach and behind. The secret behind this outlook was an armour made of wax and shaped like the body of a fat woman which she wore like a singlet. It was almost her body weight and she swayed a little from the weight but she was used to it she had made it herself also.

It stopped just above her knees however and a really awkward picture she would have made to have her fat and fleshy torso balanced on skinny legs which the gown couldn’t hide. However she was saved by the cover of the ice cream cart she pushed ahead of her. It was also painted the dark blue and had the logo splashed on every side. The cart provided shade from the sun which was out now but not yet in its full force, from the umbrella attached to it.

From the cart came the tune that was almost like a child’s lullaby except it had the exact opposite effect of a lullaby, bringing children awake with the longing and yearning for the cold delicious ice cream.
She was currently attending to a middle aged man and his little boy who was balanced on his shoulder.

She scooped a healthy portion of the ice cream onto the cone and handed it to the man without a word.

He gave it to the little boy and for a fleeting second she was glad she had scooped from the section free of the sedatives. Then her countenance as well as her heart hardened as she stared the man in the eye “that’d be hundred naira”

When both father and son were gone, she walked round the park leisurely her eyes darting as if looking for customers but she knew what she was looking for.

°•°•°•°•