Dial - Season 1 - Episode 89

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 89

I was drawn back relentlessly until I was near enough to the mirror. I stopped struggling then, beaten and bullied beyond any hope.

My shoulders were drooped, and my strength was gone. I fought down the tears by gnashing my teeth savagely, and then I turned slowly and faced the mirror.

Nana b0s0mba filled it in his white attire, almost completely blocking out the white house behind him. He smiled in that kind, infuriating way, and he raised a green apple to his lips and bit it with obvious relish.
“Sorry, Mr. Biko,” he said gently. “I didn’t mean to scare you, no. Sorry about that. I just wanted to tell you to be real careful with the five names you choose. Remember, if none of them forgives you, then you’ll die. So be careful and choose wisely!”
“Oh, you evil man!” I said in an unsteady voice. “You evil, vile, wicked man! Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

His eyes went dark with instant anger as he looked at me, and he threw the apple away suddenly, and for a moment I saw that his eyes were no longer the eyes of a human being, but they were blazing like real amber fire! There was red-hot fingers of blazing fire in Nana b0s0mba’s voice.

When he spoke I saw traces of smoke coming out of his ears and nostrils, and deep down in his gullet I saw flames of fire.
“Stop making me angry, Mr. Biko, and face your responsibilities!” he growled fiercely, and I saw smoke filtering out and curling out of his grey hair. “Oh, you think I am wicked, huh? You’ve refused to think of what you did to my only daughter! I had to bury my daughter in the cemetery of dishonourable people because you dishonoured her!
I loved that girl with a passion! Yes, I have sons, but she was the only daughter, reminding me of her mother! I raised her up, and she was the joy of my life, Mr. Biko! You think I am wicked? Oh, you don’t know half the things I wanted to do to you! I’m not super-human, Mr. Biko, and don’t you dare forget that! I am a grieving father! And if it had not been because of the wishes of my daughter not to harm you, you would’ve seen the real anger of a grieving, pained, angry father!”

And my mirror cracked into several fragments at that moment by this man’s passionate outburst. I looked into his fire eyes, and saw the smoke swirling around his head, and at that moment I felt his pain, and I felt his passion, and a great sorrow finally filled my heart, and brought tears to my eyes.

He looked down, and he seemed to take a shuddering breath, and then he slowly looked up at me. The fire was gone from his eyes, and for the very first time I saw tears in Nana b0s0mba’s eyes.

When he spoke again his lips were trembling with anguish.
“She was my joy, Mr. Biko,” he said in an unsteady voice, and he was no longer the self-assured powerful man anymore, but a broken shell of a grieving father. “I couldn’t protect them, no. My powers are not able to completely protect my own blood, and that’s my vulnerability! I gave her a chain, but you let thugs steal it from her, so I had no idea whatsoever that she was about to die, Mr. Biko!

You took her from me. You drugged her, and you slept with her, and discarded her like a toy! She was all alone in her lost world, a little broken girl with nowhere to turn to. She killed herself, and I couldn’t help her! And you had the effrontery to list her! You even had the nerve to tell me, to my face, that she was involved with someone else! I buried my daughter in a horrible cemetery, and I couldn’t lay her down beside her mother!
You didn’t even show up for her funeral! And you had the audacity to sleep with my sister too! I am a grieving father, Mr. Biko, and my heart is filled with wrath! I wanted to make an anaconda swallow you whole! And yes, I wanted to strike you blind and crippled! I wanted to take away your wealth and make you beg on the streets like a scum!

Oh, I wanted to make you die slowly like the bastard you are, but no, Akos begged me to treat you with fairness. You’re only growing old, Mr. Biko, but at least you’re alive! So don’t you dare stand there and tell me I’m a wicked man, Mr. Biko, because you don’t want to see me wicked! No, you don’t want to see me going into a wicked mode! I am just a grieving father!”

And his head bent, and his shoulders began to heave silently as he wept brokenly for his dead daughter. The more he wept, the more crack lines appeared in the mirror, and soon his image became so distorted that I could barely see him well.