“Now that we’ve placed this paper by the window side, I’m no longer sure if this was the right decision. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure in the first place but now, it just feels like we should blot it out completely,” Zipporah stared at the triangular-fold paper hoisted in between the window pane lines. 

“Should we remove it then and hope the lady finds us?” Gertrude furrowed her eyebrows, affected by her skepticism. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know….” Zipporah shook her head, biting her lip as she ruminated on the two options she had. She was starting to panic when the answer wouldn’t come to her, so she expressed her trepidation by digging her hands into the fuzzy balls of hair on her head. 

“You should make a decision.” 

That’s what I’m trying to do! You’re not helping matters by telling me that! Zipporah retorted in her mind. 

Then footsteps came into hearing as Zipporah was still stuck in her decision-making process. It was in that moment that she wished she’d hastened up with her choice. However, there was no time for regrets. Quickly, she pulled Gertrude away from the window side and forced her onto one of the dining table seats. She settled on one of the chairs too as she began to fiddle with the hem of the table linen. 

The steps came closer then the jingling of keys came next. For a wild moment, Zipporah got heart palpitations when she imagined the lady to be the one behind the door, but her fantasies collapsed when she heard a low grunt as the bunch of keys collided with each other. That grunt was unmistakable. 

David always made that animalistic sound when he could no longer contain his anticipation. It was as if he were a predator, excited to feast on the weak flesh of his prey, but the difference, in this case, was that he was feasting on their sanity, chewing away, chunk by chunk, till there was nothing left. For him, it was annihilation at its finest. 

Then the door opened, and he walked in. Gertrude swallowed a thick lump of saliva, maintaining eye contact with Zipporah as they both remained stiff on the chair. As David stood by the entrance and surveyed the room with his spirit, he got ticked off just from looking at Zipporah and Gertrude sitting quietly at the feasting corner.

Grace and Kemi were sitting on the couch in the living room as usual, reading storybooks. But as soon as they saw him, standing by the door like the messiah he was to them, they suspended their reading activity and rushed to him, enclosing his waist in a desperate hug. He patted their hair in response to their displays of affection. 

David could never forget how he’d met Kemi. Kemi was a girl with partial speech problems and always used to visit a nanny for tutoring sessions. Unknown to her, the nanny had only offered to provide lessons for her so she could sexually exploit her. The nanny had a perversion for little girls. When Kemi finally managed to run away, the nanny chased after her and found her. 

Then she forced her into her car with the intention of driving her back to the tutoring center. Fortunately for Kemi, David was driving on the road, on his way to carry out an important mission. That was when he saw Kemi crying in the front seat while driving in the same lane as the middle-aged nanny. 

The first thing that caught David’s attention was Kemi’s striking resemblance to Sindara but he decided not to get attached to her because he thought the girl was the nanny’s daughter. But when he looked closely and saw the devilish look in the lady’s eyes, he sensed that the girl was in trouble. 

So he pressed his foot on the brake, sped up, and cornered her within minutes. Then he saved the girl. David loved how Kemi remained subservient to him ever since that day. He didn’t even have to ask. She saw him as a big brother and lived a life of gratitude in reverence to him. 

He could not understand why Zipporah would not emulate Kemi’s behavior. Eventually, she and Gertrude left the dining table to join him at the entrance and give him a welcome greeting, but they’d since failed the vibe check. Their pleasantries were half-hearted. It wasn’t difficult to ascertain. 

Their gaunt mouth positioning and ramrod straight backs spoke louder words than their verbal expressions could ever have. However, he decided to assume that it was the usual surface stubbornness that they, especially Zipporah, liked to exhibit. She was always an obstinate little girl. 

Gertrude, on the other hand, was still on his side, right? He’d literally spent the entire day with her alone in his mansion, playing poker with her. David could tell that she’d enjoyed his company. He did not need to pay attention to the exhausted, dolorous look in her eyes, right? Unless Zipporah had again tried to poison her mind against his will. Still, he decided not to give it much thought. Perhaps, Gertrude had not even told her about the time they’d spent together in his house. It was probably best for him not to worry too much.

“I’ve come to spend quality time with you girls today because I’ve missed you all so much,” He smiled, reminiscing on how the previous day had been. 

He’d been busy with Celine and even more occupied with thoughts of visiting his mother. Was it going to be okay for him to see her? If she gave him her forgiveness, was he willing to accept something required of him that was beyond the show of mercy? Was he ready to embrace the changed attitude that the reconciliation would demand of him? 

When Celine revealed that his mother’s love for him despite his disobedience was not genuine, David was amazed by how refreshing it was for him to realize that she was perhaps telling the truth. Still, even that revelation came with a different kind of uncertainty for him. 

His perception of her love as false had made him run away from home, but now that he was beginning to see that she didn’t hate him, he had to let go of the girls since a coping mechanism would no longer be needed. After all, a significant part of his problem was solved. 

Was he willing to watch his precious girls go away though? After the friendship he’d spent years building with them? Would he be okay on his own? No. He wasn’t willing to do that. He loved the idea of seeing his mother again after eleven years, but he wasn’t ready nor sure he’d ever be. Now, he was here to see his girls after he’d made the resolve to never let them go. 

“Let’s watch some TV together,” he beamed at them as he spoke with more enthusiasm. “There’s this show I would love for you girls to see. I’ve watched it so many times, and I cannot get enough of it. I’m sure you would also feel the same way once the show’s over. That’s good, right?” 

“Yes,” Grace smiled, and Kemi nodded. Zipporah and Gertrude answered in the affirmative too, but he didn’t fail to notice the slight delay in their response and the reluctance of it. 

Zipporah’s swallowing after she’d responded was so thick that it was evident she’d been wondering just how much more of this agony she had to bear. How long did she have to keep nodding to his every command, doing ‘fun’ things with him in a clustered space because that was all she could ever get? 

She was tired and didn’t know how long she could bear to stand even the mere sight of him. Gertrude, although also at unease and equally unhappy that he was here, was a bit more composed. All that was on her mind were fervent prayers of protection for the piece of paper by the window. He must not see it. 

Both were being obvious about their displeasure, but their slight attempts at hiding it yielded no fruit. Again, David ignored it and smiled. His girls would never betray him, that he was sure of. So he turned off the lights, pulled the curtains to a close, locked the door, and inserted a cassette disk into the DVD player. Then he settled on the biggest armchair in the living room. 

“Come girls, Come sit next to your big brother,” he tapped the empty spaces on the furniture. Grace and Kemi rushed like locusts atop a barley field. 

Zipporah watched them with irritation but felt a sense of pity for them at the same time, especially towards Kemi. Sometimes, she wondered if she misinterpreted Kemi’s mechanical behavior for submissiveness. What if she needed help but didn’t know how to ask for it because she had a speech disorder?

What if she had no choice but to obey because she feared that David could kill her and no one would notice her even if she asked for help via sign language? These thoughts made Zipporah reach out to her on a few occasions, but each time she did, she had plenty of reasons to doubt that Kemi needed help. She genuinely seemed happy to be around David. It always stung her like acid to the skin whenever she watched Kemi smile, knowing there was nothing else she could do to rip it off her face and bring her to the truth of the matter.

Once the four girls were settled close to David, He opened his mouth to give a short speech; 

“Do you know what I love the most about this movie we are about to watch?  It was one of those shows that helped me when I lost my sister. It taught me that anything is possible if you set your mind to doing it. My goal at that time was to bring my sister back to life – to find traces, features, and qualities of my sister here on earth and to take care of whoever was an embodiment of that. It was the punishment that was best befitting for me. I wanted this so I would never be able to let go of her….” 

As soon as Zipporah heard the last sentence, she stifled a short gasp that had suddenly found some form of expression in her throat. Those words felt like a vice, a beastly hand that had found its way to her heart to squeeze all the blood out of it. 

In that moment, she loathed her existence and blamed herself for sharing a similar trait to his sister. Why? Why the heck did she have doe-like eyes, chubby cheeks, a fat lower lip, and tender skin? Why was she outspoken and fearless in expressing her thoughts? If she didn’t possess any of those qualities, she wouldn’t be here. Their paths would not have crossed at all. 

What could she possibly do to get herself out of his darned disadvantageous body of hers? How could she melt away, disappear or just die? How could she do it? 

She looked towards the window at the dining table and the small piece of paper that was hidden between it. Now, even though she had little faith in the paper’s ability to save them, she closed her eyes after she looked at it and said a small prayer in her heart. She didn’t even care if her action seemed ridiculous. Hope was her only resort; it was a hill she might live or die on.  

“Gertrude,” David’s calling took Zipporah out of her reverie. “What was the last thing I said?” While she became the scapegoat, Zipporah took heed and wiped the tears off her eyes quickly. 

“Um…your sister?” she too, had been absent-minded. She’d been more worried concerning the safety of the paper. The fact that Zipporah had not been able to decide before he stepped in bothered her greatly. 

David’s jaw clenched in anger at her inattentiveness. Why was she throwing occasional sideway glances at the dining table? Again, he ignored her attitude, taking surety in the fact that the movie would cure her absent-mindedness. 

So he started the movie. 

At almost every interval of the show, he could feel a warm silence seep in. He could tell that the girls were laden with sadness when the main character was bullied in the orphanage home and struck with anticipation for how the character was going to find her way through. David admired the gripping style of storytelling the producer of the movie had adopted. It made the character’s plight feel like his own, so he rooted for her all the way.

Midway into the show, he looked at his girls and studied their expressions to know how they were feeling about the movie until he noticed that Zipporah had not been watching at all. Instead, she’d been staring into thin air. This was when he decided that he was over it. He pressed the pause button on the remote and walked to Zipporah. 

“Tell me, what exactly the issue with you is,” he gripped her arm and pressed his fingernail into her flesh. 

Zipporah remained mute and looked him right in the eye even though she was in pain. He pulled her closer and intensified the effect of his fingernails on her hand. In a small moment, David found her repulsive and loathsome. 

He no longer thought that she was just a naughty little girl that would always come around after a few strokes of discipline. Zipporah suddenly seemed untamable and fearless. She wasn’t even frightened by death. She was no longer the girl he used to know, and in a wild moment, he was terrified by the change. But he had to mask it and exercise his authority over her. 

“What’s your problem? What are you doing to Gertrude? Why do you guys keep looking at the dining table? Have you succeeded in poisoning her mind and are now planning to escape? Open your mouth and answer me!” He shouted at her once he pulled her away from the living room. 

Zipporah’s eyes were glossy with tears, and her vision was blurred. Still, she didn’t look away. She stared right back into his monstrous orbs. Then when the tears slipped, a wry smile also broke forth from her lips. 

“Please, can you just kill me? Eat me alive or something. That would be very nice. You can have all of your sister’s qualities residing in your bowels. That’s what you want after all, to never be separated from her.” 

“How can you say such nonsense? After everything I’ve done for you?” Hurt flashed in David’s eyes. He was downcast by the fact that she wanted to die despite the luxury he’d made available for her. Still, he decided he was going to deal with that later. He needed to ensure she wasn’t planning to elope with Gertrude first. If he could succeed in preventing her escape, then he could spend forever trying to win her heart back. 

So he let go of her hand and walked briskly to the dining table. He began to inspect the tables and chairs thoroughly to check for oddities. While he examined, Gertrude’s heartbeat skyrocketed, and Zipporah stood still as a statue, drained of zeal and hope. She wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore. If dying was such a luxury, how much more were the chances of elopement? 

As soon as he walked to the window side where the piece of paper was, someone knocked at the door. Gertrude let out a long breath, and Zipporah laughed. With a stifled grunt beneath his breath, David walked to the door and opened it. One of his guards was standing by the entrance with a small parcel. 

“It’s a delivery for you, sir,” the guard’s voice was shaky. 

“From who?” he asked with an angered expression. 

“It doesn’t say, sir.” 

David snatched the box from the guard and ripped it open. Beneath the parcel was a rectangular white box. He opened it and saw a folded brown tie with comet patterns. David was so shocked that he staggered to the back and clutched the wall for support. 

Carefully, he brought out the tie from the box and studied it. Tears gathered around his eyeballs. He knew the tie was from his dad. He hadn’t heard from his dad since he ran away from home. He was astonished to learn that his father was still alive and hadn’t died from the heartbreak he’d caused him. 

The memories came rushing back and as they did, he was surprised that he hadn’t forgotten them. He remembered the night his father had beaten the living daylights out of him and cursed him. He recollected the day before Sindara’s demise how his father had promised to get him the play drone he’d always wanted once he got his bonus for the week. It was terrifying how things could irrevocably change for the worst from one mistake. Now, his father had sent him this tie as a reconciliation call. Perhaps, his father needed him to come over soon –

When this occurred to David, he paused. A penny of realization dropped in his mind. Celine had been telling him to visit his mother. Did that perhaps have something to do with this tie? Was she trying to get him to change his ways? Was there something she knew? Did it also have something to do with the girls’ weird behavior? 

As the questions multiplied, potential answers also appeared; answers that were not sitting well with him. He knew there was no use trying hard to be naïve at this point. Definitely, Celine was playing some strings. Some very loud strings, and he had to take heed.