CHAPTER II: Furry Friends

I had gotten Adolph as a three-month-old puppy two weeks after Derek was born, and Sheba was a gift from my younger sister Stephanie. Everyone loved Sheba, even people that didn’t love dogs. She had this thing about her that made you feel like you were in the presence of an elderly woman. A few minutes with Sheba would make you believe that dogs were really man’s best friend. But on the night I was shot, the dogs were not in the house. Ese had made me lock them outside in their kennel because she had said she wanted us to have a romantic night after we’d both taken turns reading and tucking Derek into bed that night.

Adolph didn’t really bark—he was more of an “attack first, bark later” kind of dog—but that night, I chose to ignore him because Ese had just told me we were expecting a girl. I was busy carrying her in my arms around the living room and kissing her all over her face when three masked men broke into the living room with guns, disrupting our celebration. They ordered us to lie down on the floor, and we complied. Then, one of them asked for the exact amount of money I had in the house, $55,000. That was my cut from a contract I and three other people executed. I played dumb, telling them I didn’t have that kind of money. I was already planning on going to deposit the money the next day, purchase a property in Derek’s name, and also get a car for Ese since her birthday was in a week. Even Ese didn’t know I brought this money home. She only knew we had been paid for the contract but didn’t know how much it was, so how did these masked guys know about it? I wrapped my arms around Ese while we laid flat on the floor. “Don’t make us go through the stress of ransacking this house for that money; you won’t like the outcome, Lanre.” I had to look up when I heard my name. These people really knew me, and that was when I knew how the night was going to end. “Baby, these are not robbers. They’re assassins,” Ese whispered to me, confirming my fears.

I whispered to her that she should talk to the family lawyer tomorrow and our daughter should be called Ethel. She looked at me, confused, not knowing why I was telling her those things. I kept ignoring the masked men as they continued barking orders, and they were acting confused, wondering who should do the deed. Then, the biggest among the three came towards us, grabbed Ese, and placed a gun to her head. I watched my wife pee on herself as she placed her hands on her tummy. “Please, don’t hurt my wife. I will give you the money, so you can leave me and my family in peace.” I pled with them as I kissed my wife while one of the three men shoved me towards the direction of the study, and the other two remained in the living room with my wife. The study was where I’d taken the money when I got back home, and I had planned to tell Ese about it later that night after she told me we were expecting a girl. I got the briefcase from under the table where I had kept it, and the masked man collected it from me, opened it, took a wad of bills, and placed it in his pocket. That was when I saw his wristwatch. He was the only person I knew that wore a blue Casio G-SHOCK. I remembered it because I was the one that got it for him as a gift. “Arinze, why are you doing this? Who sent you? You’re my banker.” I turned to lunge at him, and he fired the two shots that stole me forever from my wife, from Derek, and from the miracle of watching my daughter being born into this cruel world.

The other men rushed into the study while Ese screamed as she saw me laying on the floor, struggling to breathe but coughing up blood. I was choking on my own blood because a bullet tore through my carotid artery while another shattered my clavicle. “What happened? Why did you shoot him? That wasn't the arrangement.” “What was the arrangement then? We were supposed to shoot him; moreover, he recognized me and called me by my name,” my killer responded. “What should we do to her?” he asked the other two with his gun pointed at Ese’s head while she was screaming and pleading with me not to go. Before they could make a decision, Adolph rushed in from nowhere and attacked the man that shot me before he was about to pull the trigger on Ese. Another shot was fired, and Adolph whimpered as he collapsed on the floor beside me. I looked at my wife as she cried over me while Adolph dragged himself in pain and came to lay his head on my leg as the men grabbed the briefcase and hurriedly ran out of the house. The one that was badly bitten left a blood trail that disappeared at the gate where their car was parked. Ese kept screaming as I breathed my last, and she cradled my head in her hands. Shakily, she laid one hand upon my chest. She realized only then that she was waiting for a heartbeat. My heart would never beat again. Adolph also stretched and gave an inaudible groan as he died too, on his master’s lap.

It was just past 9 PM, but nobody came. Apparently, no one heard the gunshot, and no matter how hard and how loud Ese screamed for help, no one came. “Lanre! Lanre! Please, don’t go. Please, Lanre, don’t go." She kept shaking me as I had a blank stare, the gaze of death. My blood and Adolph’s pooled around her. Sheba came in, went over to me, licked my face, went across me, licked Adolph's too, then she ran over to where we normally kept our phones, grabbed one, held it in her mouth, and brought it to Ese. She used her head to nudge Ese on the shoulder, and Ese collected the phone from her mouth and called the first number she remembered, mine. My phone rang, and then she realized that I would never pick my calls again. She then called her mom and told her to hurry. That was when she fainted,and Sheba laid down beside her, whimpering, facing the open door, daring anyone to come into the house. Sheba had been locked up in her kennel when the masked men came into the house. Adolph was chained in the backyard because he normally got released at night around 8 PM. No one would ever know how Sheba came out of her cage or how Adolph broke free of his chains.