The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 25

4 years ago

The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 25

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Meanwhile, somewhere in Jos….

“God…..its true what theyv’e been saying since o…our ozone layer is completely finished” Martha said as she opened the cooler for another carton of iced tea.
“mama…I’m not even sure we have any ozone layer again” Utebo said

“This sun is something else” Olivia added.

They were under an oak tree, the full strong branches provided shade from the scorching sun. they had spread blankets in the grass and arranged a mouth watering picnic.

A portable radio supplied soft music and there was the cool clean oxygen….straight from the tree. The adults were relaxed, having a nice time gisting and laughing.

The children were restless however, they wanted to race about. That was the whole idea of coming to the park wasn’t it? A group of kids were flying kites and kicking a ball, risking a sun stroke, sweating from the heat as well as the running around.

“Just wait a bit…you’ll play I promise you, you hear? Let the sun go down a bit first.” Utebo said to her twin boys as they pleaded for the umpteenth time.

“But by then we’ll be about to go” one of them said and made the women laugh hard.
“The sun would make you very black…like uncle Omar” Utebo replied, her eyes twinkled as the twins grimaced. Omar was a lance corparal who had been recently assigned to her husband. He was blacker than the hair on his head.

Olivia watched her daughter who had been engaged with a bowl of grapes for the past ten minutes. Emma loved grapes, a lot.

Suddenly she stood up “ice cream…i want ice cream”

“When wer’e going home we would buy, don’t worry…” Olivia assured her.
But Emma pointed “ice cream”
Olivia followed her daughter’s finger and the tunes reached her ears as she saw the cart being pushed by a fat woman.
“Ice cream, ice cream!” The other children shouted excitedly and clapped their hands in anticipation. The vendor who was a sharp business woman headed towards them, sensing potential customers.
“Aaaah…the one we’d buy is better than this one, its sweeter too” Olivia said.
“Let them have a cone…there’s no harm…” Martha said. ” I may get one too, this weather calls for it” She drank the last of the iced tea and squized the small carton before putting it in the polythene bag they set aside for waste .
“Good afternoon, we have vanilla, chocolate and strawberry” the woman announced pleasantly as she pushed the cart to a stop.
“Strawberry!”
“Vanilla-no, chocolate!”
The children shouted the flavour excitedly and the vendor served each of them a generous heap of the ice cream of their choice. She was even able to mix chocolate and vanilla at Utebo’s request.

“How about you pretty lady?” The vendor asked olivia.

“I’ll pass….i’m already too full”
“Its a good dessert, the food would digest well” the vendor insisted
But Olivia shook her head. “I don’t feel like really”

“You seem a bit farmiliar have we met before?” Martha said as she watched the woman

“Really….maybe i’ve sold ice cream to you before…been doing this for about 8 years now”
she announced proudly.

Martha thought about it then shook her head. “I don’t normally buy ice cream like this…its somewhere else”
“Maybe in a bus or something. Your money is 750” the woman said abruptly
Utebo dug into her purse and paid and the woman was off immediately.

“See her tiny legs” One of the twin said in amusement.

They couldn’t help but laugh even as Utebo cautioned the mischievous boy.
Olivia watched the woman’s retreating behind. There was something gnawing at her mind, Rex called it ‘the gut feeling ‘always saying to go with it. She didn’t even know what ‘it’ was right now but she was feeling uneasy.

She was about to ask Martha if she could remember where she had seen the woman before. But her mother in law increased the radio. Between licks she said “oh….my song, last night the D.J saved my life…” she looked so younger and free as she sang and Olivia smiled.

*~*~*~*~*
Back in the teaching hosipital, Tonye was getting restless. The doctor had yet to show and sitting in one place for long drove her nuts. Andy wasn’t much help, he hadn’t even asked about the where about of the doctor but he could discuss marvel and Dc characters and argue who would win in a fight between superman and the Hulk.
Tonye stood up finally and stretched “I’m going to the hospital, If it is to hunt down the doctor then that’s what i will do”

“Are you sure….I’ll go with you” Andy said
“No” she glanced pointedly at the cooler under her stool and close to his. She couldn’t carry the cooler everywhere she went especially when she didn’t know where she was going. “You stay, incase the doctor comes”

He nodded in understanding and Tonye headed for the door.

“I’m very sure the doctor will soon be back, he is most likely on his way now”
Christie said

“Then I’d meet him on the way then…..you’re sure he’s at the hospital sha?”
“Yes now, there’s no other place he goes”
When they were alone, Christie leaned in and asked “So are you single?”

“Y-yes”
“Wow, how is that possible?” She placed her arm tentatively on his lap and Andy swallowed.
He hadn’t gotten close to any woman in the last two years that woke up his feelings or in simpler terms, made him hot.

“Errrm…is there a toilet around here?” He asked

She smiled and removed her hand. “Yes its down the hall, men is on the right”
Andy stood up. He glanced at the cooler. He couldn’t carry it with him to the toilet. Besides it was already where it was meant to be, it was safe.

“I’ll be right back”

*~*~*~*~*~*

I handed the whole bag to Terry and he hurriedly unzipped the bag. I thought he looked like a child opening a present.
He held up the ziplock bag and for the first time I looked at the content. It looked like an ear or whatever. The ants hadn’t gotten to the corpse yet but time had already done its share.
Whatever it was, it was unrecognizable.
“What is that?” Dagnet asked

“DNA” i replied.
“No…no,,,,this is not nearly enough I have to amplify this”

“Amplify?” Bami asked
“errrh….”Terry scratched his head looking for the right word “….like photocopying”
“How will you do that?” I asked
He moved to a mini photocopy looking device on the table and hit some buttons.
“There’s something called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR if you wish, basically its used for creating copies, thousands..,maybe millions and it takes just some few hours”
“Hours?” Bami asked mirroring my thoughts
“It wouldn’t take long, i don’t need much copies”

Dagnet moved closer and watched as he operated the device.