The arrival of rain usually was accompanied by two things: comfort and discomfort. It all depended on your location. If you were home, sheltered away from the brutality of the cold wind and the droplets of water beating down your back like horses’ hooves, then convenience became a huge envelope. The interiors of your home would take on a sudden, dark, peaceful shade. A thick blanket and a warm cup of tea were further enhancers.

But if you were on the road or on the run, the striking of lightning and the unpredictability that came with it, and the sticky feeling of your wet clothes against your body would make you regret your existence in a wild moment. You would mutter a curse under your breath each time the sole of your shoes got stuck in the muddy soil. You would long for a roof over your head or just wish that the darned rain would stop especially if your house was far away and you had to hasten your footsteps. 

For Zipporah and Gertrude, the rain was like an unclear, mysterious fog that shielded the uncertainties that lay ahead and their location wasn’t even the contributing factor. They were sheltered in the building David had put them in but still, they were uncertain of the nearest future. What if David was out there in the rain – perhaps in some underground basement, dealing with the lady who’d tried to open the door? Maybe that was a bit of a stretch. Still, they had to assume the worse of him since he really could be up to anything at the moment. They were even unsure of what would happen to them. They had to speculate the gory things too.

Nonetheless, they had to plan their way out of the house and how they could help the woman find the right key. So as they sat on the mattress in the room, unsure of what to do, a discussion played out between them in the form of unsure questions. 

“What does the right key look like?” Gertrude asked. She was tired of thinking and hearing the voice of her subconscious at every second interval. 

“The right key to the house is small and crystal-like. Perhaps, the key is originally made of steel but is covered in crystal or it was made with crystal from the onset. It looks glassy and also seems heavier than the other keys,” Zipporah gesticulated with her hands as she curved her fingers, trying to draw her description in the air. 

“How should we help the lady know which key is the right one?”

“Honestly,” Zipporah sighed “I’m just as lost as you are. It’s not like we’d ever get the chance to step out of –”

A streak of lightning cracked the night’s air and a loud, frightening thunder followed suit. The rain got more torrential as it silenced the rest of Zipporah’s words with its vociferous noises. While Zipporah flinched from the suddenness of the rain’s interruption, Gertrude saw something. It was brief but it gave her an idea. While the lightning flashed for two seconds, she saw droplets of the rain pelting down the window. Once the thunder stopped rumbling, she presented her idea. 

“How about we draw the key on the window with the wetness of the rain? It makes for a clear image.” 

“That’s a good idea in terms of subtlety. After all, we don’t want David to know of our doings. However, we don’t know when next she’d come. The rain might even wash off the drawing in a short moment and it won’t last till the next day. There’s a very low guarantee she’d see it,” Zipporah said. “Maybe we should draw it on a piece of paper and put it on the window.” 

“Ah. Mr. David will see it!” Gertrude shook her head vehemently.

“We could put it on the window when she comes?” Zipporah became less confident in her suggestion, hence the timid question. 

“We have to show her before she tries to find the key so she doesn’t come by and then go back to try and take the right one. The guards would have seen her by then,”  

“That’s true. But I feel like the next time she comes, she won’t do it secretly. She might try to break in – especially if she’s still unable to find her way around with David. Things might even get worse with them,” Zipporah rubbed her chin as she contemplated her idea.

“How can we even be so sure that she will come by again?” 

“Let’s just hope. We don’t have a choice right now, do we?” Zipporah’s smile looked forceful; like she has to wear it on her face so she wouldn’t burst out screaming. “Since we’re talking about trying to get the lady to see the key, we just have to think of anything.  I know we’re very pathetic – building weak hypotheses on spontaneous happenings but that’s all we can do. So now, let’s say the lady comes without finding the key – with the intentions to break in.” 

“There won’t be a point showing her what the right key looks like if she wants to break in. she’d still have to go back which would have been too late for her by then,” Gertrude said gently as though she were afraid to hurt Zipporah by contradicting her. 

“Oh, right,” Zipporah sighed, hitting her forehead with her fist. “Sorry for wasting time with my fruitless thinking. Should we just keep the paper by the window side anyway? She might not come to break in next time. She might even send someone else to make findings or might come to see if she can know what the right key looks like. I know I sound crazy right now. None of these things might happen. I think we should scratch out the paper idea.” 

“I think we should keep it there anyway – as a sign for help. Anyone can see it and decide to help us.”

“Doesn’t sound likely to be honest – not in a million years,” Tears gathered around Zipporah’s eyes. When last did she cry? 

For years, all she’d learned to do was smile through it all – even when David locked her up in the room and released her a week afterward like a wretched prisoner. She had to chuckle once she came face-to-face with him. His discipline towards her always had to be a source of delight for her lest she drove him to further fits of fury. But there were times when she took off her mask; occasions where she talked back at him and moments where she wept but those were usually the times when she felt hopeless and unbearably weary. Now was one of those times – when she was brought to the remembrance of how trapped she was. 

“Can we still try it? Maybe the lady might do something that’s outside what we’ve thought of and then have a need for the right key? Who knows? We won’t make the paper obvious on the window.” 

“Maybe. At this point, I don’t even know anymore. I can’t believe I’m fighting so much to live. Wouldn’t it even be better at this point to die? Because there’s nothing in stock for me out there if I win this fight and live. Misery still awaits me because I have nothing.”  

“My parents have never even tried to look for me ever since David took me away. Why did they even give birth to me if they were going to hate me this much? It’s not my fault that I’m a girl, is it?” Now, Zipporah was looking Gertrude straight in the eye as she twisted a braid around her forefinger. Gertrude didn’t know what to say but her body responded to the utter despair in Zipporah’s eyes with the sting of tears in hers. 

She blinked away the tears and the despair was gone, just like that. Then she smiled and asked Gertrude to forget what she’d just said. 

“Of course, it’s not my fault. I didn’t choose my gender,” she said, letting the braid go.  

She didn’t acknowledge the tears in Gertrude’s eyes. In the moment of Gertrude’s confusion as to what had just happened, she realized that she’d witnessed an argument that Zipporah was having with herself. She realized that Zipporah hadn’t looked into her eyes because she thought she would give her the answers – she had looked in Gertrude’s direction only because she happened to be next to her. 

“Should we just remain here then?” Gertrude asked after she’d given the weird conversation Zipporah had had with herself some minutes of silence to die away. 

“I don’t know. But I think we should try… for your sake. Your parents are still looking for you,” Zipporah smiled again but it held no depth.

The rain had stopped but it left behind a souvenir of cold, fresh air and a kind of tranquility that the nighttime would not have been able to give ordinarily. 

“Please don’t cry again,” Gertrude took Zipporah’s hand and rubbed it. 

“Oh, those weren’t tears,” Zipporah laughed and wiped off the moisture from her face. “It was just frustration that could no longer be contained.”

“Huh?!” 

“Never mind. Go and get paper. Let’s try drawing the key.”

***

At the cross-section of Obalende Avenue, Folake and Celine met. It was gradually becoming their usual spot. 

“Here’s the number you asked for,” Folake passed a contact card to Celine as soon as she entered her car in the front seat. “Dial the first number on the card.” 

‘Thank you so much, ma,” Celine stared at the small black card with words written in gold colors. On the top of the card was the inscription of David’s company name. The bottom left corner of the card contained a set of phone numbers. The first phone number was that of the company’s event planner – the one she’d asked for. 

Over the past few days since she and David had met at her house, she had done some deep thinking. She was unsure of what to do and what approach to take concerning his case. Her truest desire was for him to come around; to visit his mother, learn the truth for himself and let go of the girls. All of the ted talk she’d given him when he came to her house was to stir up fresh feelings of repentance within him so he could ponder on his ways. She’d said all of that so he could do what was right. However, that didn’t seem to go well.

Thus, her hope that her desires would come to fruition was diminished. David seemed fixed on remaining where he was; not healing from his trauma. It looked like he was going to stick to the current coping mechanism he was living with which was why she couldn’t rely too much on her wishes. If she wanted him to come around and he wasn’t willing to do so, then the agony of Gertrude’s parents would be further prolonged and intensified. So she decided that while she was still going to make David let go of the girls, she was going to get the contact of Gertrude’s parents so if push came to shove, she could threaten to rat him out or might as well just go ahead and do so. 

Then she began to think of how she could get in touch with Gertrude’s parents. The workers in David’s company were not an option. They seemed very secretive. She could not forget the bespectacled secretary she’d approached the other day to ask for details about the couple she’d seen. The man had given her an attitude and even told her blatantly that he could not reveal any information to her. She was sure that the rest of the staff would also be like that and she didn’t have the time to go through the process of pretending to be their friend just to get a small piece of information. 

Eventually, she remembered that she’d once overheard Gertrude’s parents when they visited David by surprise for the first time. “…We asked the organizers of the event – the decorators, the event planners. They genuinely seemed to have no idea either. The only thing they told us was that the emcee of the event was the last person they’d seen Gertrude with before she went missing.” 

That meant that she could approach the event planners. They’d be willing to help if David hadn’t dealt with them yet for giving the couple the little information about the emcee that they knew. But she doubted it. She was sure Gertrude’s parents must have promised to protect the event planners. Now she was going to be an additional backing for the event planners just because she had the money to do the job for her. So she asked David’s mother to help her out with the contact card of the event planners since David would obviously suspect her if she asked him directly. 

“What do you need the phone number for though?” Folake asked gently after Celine had had her moment to take pleasure in the asset she’d just gained. 

“To get in touch with the parents of one of the girls that David has in custody,” Celine said softly then she added so Folake would have a better insight on her plan. “I just need it so I can threaten David to call her parents after I’ve done everything in my power to get him to let go of the girls.” 

“Wouldn’t that put you in danger too? He could hurt you and try to stop you from doing that.” 

“I might not even have to tell him. I could just go behind his back, call the girl’s parents and tell them where their child is.” 

Folake shook her head, strongly against the latter idea. Celine could tell that Folake couldn’t stomach the idea of her son being arrested by the police because it was for sure that if Celine decided to call Gertrude’s parents, they would not just take their daughter away and then let David go scot-free. He’d have to suffer for his crime. 

Human beings were truly interesting and unavoidably biased people. It was always fascinating to watch their partiality play out in most of the decisions they made and sometimes, it was a very beautiful thing especially if the partiality was rooted in their love for someone. Right now, Celine wasn’t sure if it was a beautiful thing but she wasn’t annoyed by her show of favoritism even in this terrible situation. She was willing to understand her.

“Look, let’s do it this way. How about we try to hasten up the process of getting him to let go of the girls himself? Let’s take more effective approaches so we wouldn’t have to do it the hard way,” Folake pleaded.

“Okay.” 

“Thank you. Let’s start with this…” 

Folake bent downwards and reached for a long black box she’d placed close to the brake panel.  She took it out and gave it back to her. Celine took the box, opened it, and saw a folded brown tie with cream-colored comet patterns. 

“His Dad had always wanted to get him that particular tie once he was twenty years old and he knows it,” Folake explained, tears were on the edge of her eyeballs, ready to fall as she explained before Celine had to ask. “But David ran away when he was fourteen and now, he’s above twenty. But that doesn’t matter anymore, does it? What is of importance right now is that Kelvin has finally forgiven him and has even deemed it worthy to reconcile with his son by buying the tie. It wasn’t like Sindara’s death was his fault but that’s what he believes. By “him”, I mean David. So there’s no better way for David to believe that he’s been truly forgiven by his Dad than the gift of this tie. 

“Please,” Folake grasped Celine’s hard and gave it a little squeeze. “Deliver to him. You don’t have to do it directly. Just help me make sure he gets the tie. He’d be strongly convinced to come back to us.” 

“Okay, ma’am,” Celine nodded. She liked the plan. She had faith in it. Still, she needed a backup plan. “But don’t you think it’s appropriate for me to get in touch with the girl’s parents? Time might not be on our side.” 

“Let’s just try this first. Then you can get in touch afterward if he still doesn’t do anything,” Folake said the latter words with a bit of resignation at the fact that it was an alternative that might eventually have to be tried out. 

“Okay ma’am,” Celine obliged. 

However, when she got home, she could not resist the urge. She was scared for the girls and thought to try and save some time with some extra effort just in case. So she dialed the number of the event planners. It rang and rang and rang until a robotic voice chipped in informing her that the number she was dialing could no longer be reached.

Grunting with frustration, she tossed the contact card into her bag. She didn’t have any other option. She just had to follow up with Folake’s wishes and bank on it with every fiber in her. Hopefully, there was still a small part in David’s heart that longed for forgiveness and reconciliation from his family.