CHAPTER 8: JO-JO
At Reach guest house, the crowd was seen roaring in ecstasy and
at the stage with enchanting lights, stood”Ed-Sheeran”, his iconic hair
and scintilating acoustic guitar straped from his shoulders. He wore
a black polo and blue shorts with a leather sandals. On his neck was a
conspicuous totem pendant and he gave a soulful rendition of ‘Perfect’
to the awe of the crowd.
At the middle of the light-headed crowd was Richard and Katherine. Richard was behind Katherine stance for stance with his hands around her waist, as he whispered in the ears of Katherine the love-struck lyrics of ‘Perfect’. At the tail of Ed-sheeran’s performance of the song, Richard knelt before Katherine as the crowd circled around them.
“Katherine – i am lost without you, to find me – i need you in my life, So! Would you marry me?”
Katherine was star-struck as she flashed her gaze to random faces, all prompting her to say yes! Last was ‘Ed-Sheeran’ who comically nod and smiled juvenilely.
“Yes! Richard i would marry you!” she stood Richard up and hugged him passionately in tears. The crowd roared with shouts and claps.
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Early in the morning, Richard dropped Katherine at her house and zoomed off. Katherine whistled aloud as she walked to her door. As she opened the door, she flung her shoes away and walked to the bedroom while calling “Jack!”.
At the spine to her room, she saw traces of blood stains on the floor. When she reached her bedroom. She saw Jack lying in a shallow pool of blood.
She quickly reached for him and found out that the stitches he had from the transplant has been ripped. She called Richard to meet her at the hospital, called the emergency line of the hospital and frenzied off to the hospital.
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At the hospital, Jack died in the arms of Katherine. And she wept remorsefully. Split seconds later, Richard came to the hospital and found Katherine crying.
“Kate! I am so sorry,” he muttered in pain.
Katherine was still sobbing in pain, when Richard tried to console her, she resisted.
“Let me be!” She screamed. As she scampered from the hospital.
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As katherine was in her apartment staring at Jack’s picture, she heard the door bell rang. She opened and found Richard.
“What do you want?” she remarked.
“I want to talk kate, can i come in?”he inquired.
“I am so sorry for what happened, i am.” he paused
“You know if i didn’t attend that party, Jack wouldn’t have ripped his stitches?” She said as she looked at Jack’s picture in tears.
“Probably, but you can’t change what happened, i know how you feel right now, the guilt and pain, let me help you babe, just trust me,” he walked slowly to Katherine.
“You don’t know how i feel, you are so selfish, only thinking about your love for me and now Jack is dead. Guess what? His memories is haunting me.” she removed the ring from her middle finger,
“And this can’t work.” she gave Richard his ring.
“And don’t you ever come near me, because i don’t want to be your love anymore, so leave me alone and leave!” she screamed in tears.
“Kate! I am sorry.” he took the ring and left.
Katherine sat on the floor and wept bitterly.
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Katherine was lying on a sofa sandwiched between empty cans of pringles and pop corn and the phone rang.
“Oh! Don’t you get tired of calling Richard?” she said in disgust. She looked at the screen and she sat up.
“Hello! It’s Katherine,” she answered.
“Oh! Katherine (in distinct macho tone),Your suspension is lifted. See you at work on monday.”
“Wait sir – Arrh! My head ache – Mr. Smith, i don’t think i would be at my post anymore, I quit; so get another. I am so done with print work,” she said in surety.
“You are serious Katherine? Okay, then good luck to you. But incase you are still interested, feel free to call,” he said in a comforting way.
“Okay sir! I appreciate but no thanks.” she responded.
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Exactly two months after Jack’s death, Katherine is seen packing up her things into her car, when she saw a car drive into her compound.
A male figure walked towards her.
“Hi kate!” he said.
“Hi Dr. Andy, nice to see you,” she said rather surprised.
“Richard told me what happened, he said you have refused to pick his calls and avoided him completely,” he inquired.
Katherine rolled her eyes and closed the trunk of her car.
“You are leaving town?” he asked.
“Yes to Denver! I long to be free from everything. Maybe his love was too sudden, maybe we were never meant to be…”she was to continue.
“Or maybe you feel you don’t deserve to be loved.” retorted Dr. Andy.
“In any case Katherine – i want you to know that Richard deeply loves you and he is so wounded by your attitude; good luck in your search for freedom,” he walked to his car and drove off. Katherine stood rooted to the spot and sobbed.
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Later that evening Richard was in his nighties calling Katherine. At last attempt her number was switched-off, he threw his phone on the table in rage and walked off to check his letter-box. There he found an invitation letter, in it he read about Valerie getting married in two weeks time and his spirit broke.
He fell on the longest sofa and winced in pain.
CHAPTER 9: BAE BOO
The G.M.D was in his ofice perusing over some file when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in – Please!”he retorted rather passively.
“Good morning Sir, i wanted to see you – Sir.”
“Oh! Dr. Richard – come on, sit down.” he pointed to the opposite chair, while he buried his head again to the pile of files.
“Uhm! Sir – i want to quit from my job.” Richard spoke equivocally.
The G.M.D peered at Richard, dropped the file he had on his hands and sat up.
“You said?” While taking his glasses off.
“Sir – i want to quit.” this time Richard spoke up with certainty as he darted his eyes away from the G.M.D.
“Dr. Richard – i know of the fact that you have been emotionally drained, but son you are a pro, shake it off,” he said with an expectant impulse.
Rather Richard didn’t feign any sign of care.
“You know son – i was lost three decades ago when i lost Dianne, my wife,” he said with a twitched comforting tone.
”I couldn’t stand any thing, not even my job. I just wanted to end it al,” the G.M.D continued but this time Richard looked with keen interest.
“In a binge at the local pub, i drank to wetness, so i slept in the pub with the morning sun kissing my eyeballs, and soaked in a despicable stench. I knew that the one thing that Dianne would have wanted was for me to move on -” with a glance at Richard.
“And that i did, before fate brought Joyce into my life,” he said as he sat aback.
“So Dr. Richard – i would be giving you an 8 months leave and after that time duration, if you fail to report to your job then it will no longer be available,” he said with compulsion and authoritative majester.
“Okay sir!” Richard left with no intention to return back to the hospital, as his will to stamp his request was gone with him only nursing the thought of a place away from missouri.
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Richard was in his office picking up some stuff to leave when he heard a knock on the door.
“Hey! Buddy – wanted to leave without saying bye?” Dr. Andy stood at the door frame opposite toRichard.
Richard just grinned and continued his picks.
“Man! Take it easy on yourself, its not the end of the world -” he paused.
“You know, you don’t have to leave because i am here for you.” this time he stepped into the room and shut the door.
“I know.”Richard spoke hesistantly.
“But this city reminds me of her and i need to leave to be free,” he said with unleashed impulse.
“Oh! Freedom in Denver again like Kate?” he quizzed.
Richard shot a stare at Dr. Andy and at that instant they burst out laughing.
“It’s good to see you laugh again buddy!”Dr. Andy said.
“No, of course, to somewhere i can exhale the feelings, i feel for her.”he said as he gazed at Dr. Andy.
“You know Katherine loves you deeply but people need time to decipher themselve and then bask in love – so give her sometime, maybe she would come around,” he said while trying to persuade Richard.
“No, Andy, she never wanted my love, she was selfish with her space and Jack, and never thought of how i would feel.” he said in pain and deprecations.
“I would miss you Richard, remember to give your buddy a call from time to time,” he said while standing up.
“Of course, i would.” Richard became emotional, so Dr. Andy shook his hands and hugged him passionately.
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St. Ambrose Catholic church along 5130 Wilson Avenue, at the right pew of the first architectural arch of the brown edifice was Richard kneeling down.
“Dear God, i know Kate brought me here on several occasions, but i never wanted to know you, today if i could bargain with you – (he paused), if you want me to be a firm believer – let me see Kate again, otherwise, i would never come to you again,” he said in firmness. “But she said you heed prayers, so hear me now.” he rose up and walked away.
At the side of the church, he saw a marble of the italian immigrants, he reminisced of companionship and his mind ran through his hoped fate with Katherine as his spouse, he stared for awhile and walked away.
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Katherine was lying on her bed in her new apartment, staring at some pictures, there she saw Alvin and all his co-workers at Smith Publishers at an halloween night at Mr. Smith’s house.
She was perplexed to see the costume of Mr. Smith and herself. She laughed at her choice of princess Fiona and Mr. Smith’s choice of Peter-pan.
At others she just stared for sometime and continued her slides. Then as she picked a picture, she perceived the smell of Jack’s magenta cough syrup. Then at first glance, she saw a picture of herself and Richard at St. Ambrose on Easter sunday, with herself and Richard smiling contagiously. The picture was smeared with the syrup tracing Jack paws on their faces. On deep stare, she discovered that the syrup print from Jack’s digital pads and claws was faint while a conspicuous red glow was on his metacarpal pad. But the shape of Jack’s metacarpal pad was rather funny depicting the shape of love.
Her mind read it as Jack’s approval for her love ties with Richard. She was transfixed as she stared at the picture.
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Richard was at his apartment stalking his belongings to leave missouri. With him dawning a sweater with hood and a blue jean; at the back pocket of his jean, he tucked his tickets.
While he was trying to stuff his last luggage, he heard the door bell rang.
He went to the door and opened it.
“Hi! Rich, can i come in?”
He was bambozzled, he just opened the door while muttering a faint yes.
“Richard, i am so sorry for all i did …”as she was to continue.
Richard quickly pulled her to himself and kissed her voraciously. After a while, Richard and Katherine was smiling with her hand around Richard’s neck, knot at his thyroid gland as they stared at each other eyes.
“Whoop! I almost thought i lost a beautiful woman to a romantic dog,” he said as himself and Katherine burst out laughing while maintaining their stance in a rhythmic manner.
“You know we both need to leave St. Louis, for sometime,” Richard spoke with charm and charisma.
They both laughed while kissing each other playfully and then greedily.
*********** THE END ********
