Chapter 11

“I know, I know. I’m sorry," Naa apologized, taking a second to shake out her umbrella before stepping inside into her ‘office’.

“Girl where have you been?”

Naa looked ruefully over at the only other occupant of the shop as she hung her jacket.

“Forgive me Gina, I got caught in the rain. I had to wait it out… No wait, you’re not the boss of me…”

Gina looked on as her co-worker stuck out her tongue and made faces at her. Naa’s playfulness vanished at the stoic look on her best friend’s face.

“Jesus, Gina. Did you eat up your sense of humour too?”

“Strike two” replied Gina, her expression still flat. “You couldn’t find a taxi?”

“Oh, come here, I’ve missed you” Naa reached across over the counter, stretching to grab her into a hug.

“Give it up, those skinny hands can’t reach me from here” Gina swatted her efforts away, and left Naa slumped over on the counter, feigning misery.

“It’s not my fault your ass is fat”

“I’m thick, honey. Wouldn’t kill you to have some of this flesh on you either," Gina swung her hips exaggeratedly along on her way to the bathroom in the back.

Naa made a face at her when Gina turned to smile, before closing the door behind her. She took her place behind the counter on her chair and absently started looking through her phone, tired from having been kept out an hour and half by the rain. In the end, the keeper of the shop where she hid from the rain had offered her an umbrella to go on her way after noticing her stress. She eyed the umbrella, sitting in the corner and made a mental note to drop it off. There were still some nice people in the world after all.

Naa looked at the logo plastered on the counter. ‘N.A.G’. The N stood for her name, Naa, the G, Gina. We probably didn’t put enough effort into the name, Naa chuckled. Together, she and Gina were owners of the pharmacy. They had run it for three years and done well actually, making it profitable in just ten months. From there it had been smooth sailing. The shelves had appeared, extended and filled up, forming neat rows which snaked through to the back of the shop and back. They sat in the front behind a glass counter, content with what they had achieved. It helped immensely that they were the biggest pharmacy in town, carving out a huge chunk of the market for themselves to gobble down greedily on, while the small pharmacies looked on, unable to compete with the evil establishment run by the two adorable women they could not bring themselves to hate. Both women were in their thirties, single and self-sufficient. Gina had a flock of men swooning over her plump figure which she kept well. She was well aware, and usually tried to divert attention from herself by “dressing like a pastor’s wife," as she often described it to Naa.

“What are you smiling about?” the door closed behind Gina, announcing her return.

“Mind your business”

Naa put away her phone and logged on to the computer in front of her to track the day’s activity.

“When do you suppose we can retire and ride off into the sunset with all our cash?” she asked Gina.

“That might take another few years," she giggled.

“Told you we were in the wrong drug business”

Gina burst out laughing. “Yeah right”

Naa stopped her scrolling and paused at one entry on the computer, a sale from when she was out of the shop. Something was gnawing at her mind, and she tried desperately to grasp it. She turned her screen to Gina, “Who bought this?”

Gina shifted forward to get a good look. “Some guy…”

“Where’s the prescription?” Naa almost shouted.

Startled, Gina reached into a drawer and pulled out the paper on top of the pile to hand over to Naa who seemed to be worked up over something.

Naa, who had been fishing in another drawer pulled out a similar paper and snatched the one Gina was holding out of her hands to compare. Before Gina could protest Naa was out of her chair, rushing towards the door.

Gina was bewildered and screamed, asking where she was going after just arriving. Naa wasn’t listening. She was lost in her thoughts. Hastily she threw on her jacket before turning to look at a puzzled Gina.

“I’ll explain when I’m back.”

In a flash, she was gone. Gina stared at the computer screen to see what had made Naa jump. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she shrugged. She would get her answers when she returned, and it better be soon, she thought glancing at the time.

Naa raced along the street praying she wasn’t too late. She realised what it was that was gnawing at her brain. She sped up. God please!