It wasn't Me.

CHAPTER 11.

Malaki couldn’t believe he had been handcuffed. He didn’t understand what was going on. All they told him they was that were the police as if he didn’t know and he was under arrest and anything he said or did could be used against him in the court of law. 

He never understood these insane policemen. When he decided to shout and struggle, they put him in their van. That was all he remembered. 

They knocked him out with God-knows-what and he had to admit, he didn’t think they were normal force men or security agents. He could swear they were raving-mad. 

How could any person or agent act in such a condescending manner? If security agents acted like common criminals and riff-raffs what was the fate of civilians? What was his fate?

When he began to boot into consciousness, he had to moan a little due to the pain. There was a throbbing ache on the left side of his head. 

He needed to touch it to know if it was bleeding or may be someone had done something to that part of his head but he couldn’t move his hand. 

Both hands were tied firmly behind him. He felt like screaming but he knew it would escalate the pain. He simply continued to moan. Sometimes he moaned out, at other times, he simply grunted. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness.

Just as he expected, he was locked up in a room. He decided to accept and believe it was a room. The thought of it being some creepy place other than a room gave him Goosebumps. He told himself to focus on one thing at a time. 

For now, he was blindfolded and both his hands and feet were bound. He needed to get out of this place. The throbbing ache in his head continued to increase and then everything went dark. He went unconscious for the umpteenth time.

Sometime later, he came around. He tried to recall what happened and was still struggling with the thought when he realised he was bound and the events came flooding back. 

He still tried to persuade himself to believe all this wasn’t happening to him, someone was playing a trick on his mind; the person would come in and tell him it was a big bad joke, he’ll give the person a piece of his mind and fist, then the joker would tell him it was a test and he passed. 

While he was playing with his mind, someone came into the room and shouted something about him coming around: he was back to reality and it was no joke. He didn’t know how many hours he had spent in the room but it seemed like twenty years or more and he was terribly thirsty and hungry. What he would do for a glass of cold water!

A couple of people entered the room. Some were laughing, some were jeering. Malaki was angry but was too weak to argue or act in any other way. One of them calmed the others afterwhich he drew a chair, sat down and faced the blindfolded Malaki. 

The first thing he offered Malaki was a threat although he told him it was no threat but it was a guarantee. He told Malaki to answer his questions or get ready for bouts of pain. Malaki was to nod three times for yes but to nod sideways for a no. 

After this instruction, he asked if Malaki wanted water. Malaki was irate. Why wouldn’t he want water? He’d lost count of the number of hours or days or weeks or may be even months he spent there yet the mooncalf asked him such a question! 

But since he was too weak, he couldn’t voice or show his displeasure. Surely they couldn’t kill him so he decided against answering. The man interrogating him asked him the question again but Malaki didn’t answer and the man got to the end of his patience. 

Malaki screamed out in pain as he felt hot liquid pour on his arm. Once again, everything went dark as the voices and laughter faded.

Someone poured cold water on him to bring him back to consciousness. He was finally beginning to accept the fact that he wasn’t in a room but in hell. The man who poured the water on him told him to pull himself back to life while he called on someone to tell the Prof he was ready for him. 

He wondered who the Prof was. He sure didn’t know any Prof so what did the Prof want with him?

Malaki began to ponder about his life. It was always from one problem to another. 

Was he ever going to find peace? He remembered what Mama Abi told him once about peace. 

She said there was peace in this world that wasn’t of this world and it would take finding out your own inner peace to get it. 

He was beginning to see and understand what she was saying. His life had always been tupsy-turvy. He looked cool outside but he had more than his fair share of issues inside.

The man who was spoke to Malaki was humming to the chorus of M.I’s Number One when a man walked in and told him the Prof was coming in. Malaki started to say his last prayers. He wished he could have seen Tracy for a last time. 

He would kiss her and wish her well but would shoot Henry. The other men in the room hailed the Prof  who asked them how many days Malaki had been locked there. They told him two days and the Prof laughed. He told the men to give him water. Malaki’s throat was parched. 

He drank very slowly and the doctor withdrew the water. He said it was to help his throat heal as it was too dry. The water was given back to him after some minutes and he drank some more. The doctor asked if he was satisfied with the water and when he said yes, he left him. Prof seemed like a reasonable person.

Prof introduced himself as Professor Ben. 

Malaki was wowed. They removed the cloth tied round his eyes. The light stung his eyes a little before things went back to normal. It was truly Prof B. 

Prof B was his landlord while he was in school for his first degree. Prof said when he was 70 years he would become a Professor and his surname was Badmus so they called him Prof B. 

He remembered Miriam (they called her Mia), the Prof’s daughter, the sweet, loving cute girl. She was fair-skinned and she was a perfect model except that she was short. She liked him but he had his eyes on Tracy so he didn’t bother himself with her even though his cousin Dom liked her. 

She knew that he wasn’t interested but she still tried to catch his attention. She cooked for him on countless occasions but he always avoided the food but Dom was a glutton, he ate the food always. But she was so sweet he didn’t want to break her heart. 

On his birthday, she bought two cakes for him one chocolate cake and another one that looked quite yummy although he didn’t remember the name. When he saw the cakes he wondered where she got the money. He asked her but she told him not to worry. 

Since that day he noticed Prof B was nicer to him and he didn’t like at all. In his defence, he avoided her by pushing Dominic his cousin to her. He noticed she was hesitant at first but she later warmed up to him.  That was about five years ago. 

He hadn’t heard from Dom in a while. He didn’t remember seeing him at the wedding as well. Prof told him he hadn’t seen his daughter in almost a year. She told Prof She wanted to marry Dom and Prof told her it was over his deadbody. 

Prof said there was something about Dom he didn’t like, there was something cold he saw in his eyes and he couldn’t be trusted. 

She didn’t speak to him for about a week after which he saw an envelope in her room one morning. She wrote a short note telling him she was sorry but she had to follow Dom to Czech. 

He saw a pregnancy test result that confirmed she was pregnant. Prof said he almost had a heart attack. Mia had done her worst. He had been on a frantic search for her and Dom but he didn’t know anyone in Czech neither did he know Dom’s house. 

A few weeks back, one of his former tenants informed him of Malaki’s wedding. Since then he has been on Malaki’s tail. He wanted his daughter back and he didn’t mind wiping out Dominic and Malaki whole clan.

Malaki was wondering? How could Dominic do something like that? He was suffering presently for something he knew nothing about. When Prof asked for Dom, he said he didn’t know and two slaps sent him into unconsciousness. 

They revived him and Prof asked him to take him to Dom’s place so he could be free. Dom’s father was late but his mother was alive. He liked the woman and didn’t want anything to happen to her.

He told them to follow him.

He began to think of a plan immediately.