CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The last call she’d received from Gil was the previous night; he was simply reminding her that it was a Thursday and he was expecting her the following day. Her heart leaped with excitement when she thought of Gil; though the previous week was a lousy one for her; it had passed by pretty quickly. She looked back; if she counted the first week she met Gil, it all amounted to exactly a month now of dating. Her days of sorrow were quickly getting buried by her new-found bliss. Friday went by slowly for her, mainly because her mind was set on her pending journey. She was itching to be with Gil, to feel his touch, his body heat, more importantly, she longed to embrace his warm lips as they land down on hers, sending a sizzling chill of excitement over her entire body.
She yearned for him, yet again. Slowly as time seemed to sail, noon came and she smiled, every limb of her body excited. Just an hour more and she would be on road. Earlier she had approached the headmaster and requested half a day of work, and with a wide grin, he had granted the request. By 1:30 pm, she popped by Rose. They had a little chat before parting. Almost two weeks, a week, and six days to be precise, they had avoided talking about neither the crime nor Gil.
She immediately called Gil after parting with Rose, she hoped he was still on his lunch break, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to take her call. She checked her wristwatch; a few more minutes before 2 pm—an appropriate time for her to make a call. The call went through and she was surprised to hear that Gil was at home instead of at work. She asked why, and she was told it had rained towards noon. At mines when it rains heavily, the workers park their machines and knock off. They agreed that Gil would wait for her at the bus rank. She called Maider after that and they had a little chat. She hurried home to get ready for the 2:30 pm bus.
Gil had been unsure of whether or not Jane would come, his mind had been trying all week to convince him that Jane was just fooling him. That she was just pretending to love him. After the call, his worries had melted out. He stripped off his work overall and quickly had a shower. He waited in the living room, counting every passing minute; a five- hour drive wasn’t a joke. So he was expecting to see his Jane somewhere after 6 p.m., and with that in mind, he had let his mind wander somewhere else. Love. He was in love, and he was somehow convinced that Jane felt the same way as he did; if that wasn’t the case she would not have been bothering him with countless calls and endless texts.
For a week now he’d been contemplating whether or not he should tell Jane about the robbery and the answer that emerged was yes. The how part of it was the only thing bothering him now. It wouldn’t be easy but he had to. The worst possible thing that could happen was Jane finding out from elsewhere.
Having allowed her into his life meant his sheathing was compromised too and with that in mind, he knew that Jane finding out from any source but him would spell nothing but trouble for him. The empire he was planning to build with her would collapse before the foundations were even laid. He has no choice but to confront her about it and hope for the best, perhaps they would talk it through and come to a mutual agreement. He reversed his mind to the day they had sex, a naughty smile crossed his face, and he wished for only one thing: that it would be a bit easier to coax her. He badly wished he had her.
Time had flown because when he woke up from his thoughts it was already a few minutes after five. He took a Cola from the refrigerator and crossed his legs as he dwelled more on the hope that he had impregnated Jane.
He received a text message from Jane, telling him they were passing by the Airport. He rushed to the car and drove to the bus rank. After picking her up, they drove to Maider’s place. Maider, Jane, and Gil happily exchanged formalities; it had been a while since they had all been in each other’s company. Gil helped himself to a sofa while the two ladies busied themselves in the kitchen preparing supper. A few minutes later, a vehicle pulled up at the gate, and a light knock followed the turned off engine.
Gil opened the door to welcome the visitor. Wide-eyed, he leaned a bit backward, leaving the door ajar for Prof to enter the room. “Now what are you doing here Prof?” Still bemused by the presence of his friend he asked.
“Ha-ha!” he chuckled. “Just paying a visit to Maider, and coincidentally you’re here too!” Gil signaled him to sit, and in that almost high-pitched voice, he called Maider. He told her she had a visitor; she had least expected that. She made her way to the living room, two glasses of red grape juice on a tray, and offered them to the young men. They gratefully accepted. Shyly, she greeted Prof.
To Gil, Prof’s visit was less anticipated Maider had never talked about Prof except for that time when she’d asked for his contact details. She hadn’t even confided in Jane yet. She decided to let them take their wildest guesses on why on earth Prof had visited her. Dinner was served; they had it in complete silence, glances being thrown from one lover to another, or perhaps one crush to the other. Jane cleared the table after the meal. They whiled the night for almost two hours. Jane and Gil were the first to leave, on the pretext of being tired.
Jane complained about having been uncomfortable on the bus seat and that she badly needed to rest. Gil joined her. He too was whining about a hectic and demanding day at work. With that, they left. They drove in silence to Gil’s place, probably secretively enclosed in their thoughts, or just that they wanted to save whatever conversation may be in their minds, for home. A huge question lingered in Gil’s mind, had Prof left or he was still with Maider? If he was still with Maider what business was he doing with her?
The last time Gil checked, Prof had nothing to do with ladies of less decency like Maider, if he had a fling or even a relationship with Maider, it would be a mystical miracle. He let go of the thought as he pulled up at the gate. He climbed out of the car and opened the gate. He signaled Jane to drive. Clumsily, she switched the seats… and for a moment he froze, she hadn’t expected it. It’d never crossed her mind that she would one day wrap her hands around the wheel of her car. The feeling made her shed a tear. She regained her calm, she couldn’t let Gil see her this way. The wheel still held the same feeling, that feeling she felt the same day she had touched it for the first time. She gently pressed the accelerator, and the wheels rolled; she parked under the shelter. She was glued in the car seat for a moment. Then her mood changed to that of fury, anger, and hatred. For a moment all the excitement she’d had about being with Gil varnished.
She wondered if indeed Gil was driving her stolen car. Why then was he not bothering to tell her? Or maybe she was just barking down the wrong tree. Out of curiosity, she had researched the missing Gil of Rakops; he might have been that poor, but she was informed that his parents had been very rich. Although their property was auctioned to cover up the bank debts and other monies they owed, there surely would’ve been a way for Gil to survive. Perhaps they’d been under a life insurance policy, and by the time they met their fate, it was just a few years from maturing.
With that, he could afford all he had now. With all that confusion, she left the car, Gil pressed the systematic lock, and the locks shut. She opted to leave the investigations to the police. If he was not the one, then who was it?
He opened the door for her, and though she tried to force a smile, Gil could sense a slight change in her mood. So the lady was a super psychic—no, it’d been foolish of him to let her drive the car. The mind is a powerful tool, after all, it’s storage database is a complex one too, and bearing in mind the fact that the mind can store the smallest things like a feeling of touch, how rough or smooth something was, it came as no surprise to him when Jane reacted the way she did.
He was certain that when Jane gripped the wheel, it felt familiar to her. The feeling had made a coherent conclusion of what she was holding and driving: her car. No doubt about it. With a heavy weight of guilt on his shoulders, he wondered where he was going to start. He had to tell her now.
He had to save this relationship and himself too. They shared a bath; pushed all their thoughts aside and let their flesh take control. They made love. Exhausted from it, they kissed good night, pulled the sheets over them, and pretended to be asleep. They invited their own fantasies, and a huge uncertainty that seemed to be unsolved until someone took an initiative lingered on their minds.
The phone woke him up; lazily, he opened his eyes, wondering who was calling him this early. To his surprise, it was Prof. What’s up with him? He wondered. He received it; Prof requested they meet up later on in the afternoon, at a certain high-class Inn in the city. Prof normally went there to meet up with his high-class folks. Gil wondered what it could be all about. He kissed Jane good morning and went to the bathroom, washed his face, and brushed his teeth. After thirty minutes Jane joined him in the living room, with a tray of breakfast on her lap.
“Prof called earlier, said I should meet him in town.” Though he knew she had been listening in on the call, he decided to just give her the details. She swallowed the last piece of the bacon and gave a huge smile. “You will drop me off at Maider’s on your way to see him,” she added.
The day passed smoothly; they were indoors for the most of it, in each other arms, watching movies… He dropped her off at Maider’s place a few minutes after 1 p.m., before he drove off to meet Prof. Jane told him she would be going home in a few minutes, she had to tidy up the house which was now in bad shape, and she didn’t like it that way. She would go with Maider to the shops to get a few sheets and curtains to brighten up the rooms. He was reluctant to give her the keys, but in the end, he did. He had to, after all, otherwise, she’d grow suspicious of him.
He promised her to be home as soon as he was done with Prof. They kissed bye, and he drove off. Jane ganged up with Maider on a half-full bottle of Vodka she was having. Jane tried to coax her friend to spill the beans about Prof’s visit, but the former was cagey about it.
“Nothing is going on, Jane. He’s been here twice, claiming to be worried about my drinking patterns, that’s all. And if you think he spent a night here, you’re wrong my darling. He left immediately after you guys.” She recited her lies to Jane, and her mind was not with her lips, but somewhere in the previous night’s events between her and Prof. Jane giggled at Maider’s defensive justifications.
They cleared the bottle; though Maider was a bit tipsy, she wasn’t that drunk. They got a taxi to the shops, did their shopping, and then caught a taxi to Gil’s place.
They didn’t waste any time, they started working on the house, and an hour later it was all perfect. Bearing in mind that Gil stayed alone and that it wasn’t her bedroom, Jane had been careful to make the bedroom less feminine. They had a short meal after that; Maider was in somewhat of a hurry to go back to her place. Jane walked her to the taxi. They parted, and she returned to the room.
The was one thing that she had avoided all along when cleaning the house, not because she wasn’t tempted to do it—the temptation had never been so strong—she just wanted to be alone when she did it. When Maider, had so infuriatingly nagged her about going home, she had she’d walked her to the taxi with pleasure.
Alone now, she tiptoed to the bedroom, with the hope that Gil would be out for a while longer. She opened the first shelf, and a stack of papers lay on it, she had to go through them, paper by paper. They were mostly Bank Statements with only Gil’s names on them, no information detailed enough to raise an eyebrow. She was about to open the second shelf when she heard the car parking outside. She gently closed it and rushed to open the door for him.
He was heavy and reeked of liquor. Damn! She’d been so close to finding the link she had always hoped for. Her feelings for him might’ve been strong, but something about him just didn’t feel right and she was determined to find out what. She filled the bath for him, he quickly bathed, dried up, and depleted, he threw himself on the bed. It was still past 4 pm, and a two-hour sleep would help him sober up a bit, Jane thought.
She did not want to wake him; he looked extremely exhausted. She went into the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and took an apple from the fridge. She went back to the living room and rested on the couch, waiting for her lover-boy to get up.
An hour passed, inviting dubious questions, and in the midst of them all, the question; ‘Who is Gilberto Tshwene?’ made the loudest noise. She almost panicked. Discreetly, she searched for the drawer keys, and found them, opened the shelf drawers in the sitting room, searched every file, envelope, and every corner she could think of. Negative. She tip-toed to the bedroom, paused by the door, gently turned the knob, and swung it slowly open. She held her breath and stepped in. Every single step was calculated to avoid making so much as a sound, she knelt by the chest of drawers, and one by one she opened them.
Finally, there it was, an office file, hidden under his clothes. She pulled it out and carefully sat at the edge of the bed. She turned the first page, a passport-sized photo of Gil was attached to it… she looked at it for some time. He was so handsome. She flipped three more pages and almost dropped the file. Anger, hatred, fury, and disappointment consumed her. She looked through all the copies of the death certificates, she felt sorry for him to have lost all his family members at the same time. Then there were copies of his ID and license. She carefully went through them. They had what she was looking for in black and white. She flipped more pages, a Cambridge certificate, a Junior School certificate, and lastly a copy of the title deed of his parents’ plots. She almost faded away.
She turned and watched him roll over to the side, and resumed his sleep. Ideas and thoughts rushed into her mind, some extremely evil. She made up her mind to iron things out. After all, she loved him, right? She hoped sooner than later Gil would tell her about it all; tell her about his family, who he was, and why he had robbed her. With a bit of honesty, she would forgive him and they could move forward. She left for the living room after putting back the papers in their respective places; she didn’t want Gil to see that she’d found him out. She waited patiently for Gil to wake up.