FORGIVE ME PAST: The Tight Spot

“You see, I told you,” Ronnie proved his allegations. Stone and Gerald stared me down as though demanding for an explanation.

“I.. I was going to share the money here guys,” I stammered. “And to tell you how fortunate I was last weekend.” I smiled but they were not in the mood of exchanging such good energy.

“And to tell us about your rich friend?” Ronnie vaccinated me against any adjustments I was planning to make in the story.

“You don’t understand,” I hesitated, “I was going to tell you about these things.” ‘Then tell us,’ my inner man challenged me too before Gerald made the similar statement. “I made a new friend—a rich friend. Umm, I met him at Dimes,” I stammered.

“It seems we are going to receive nothing but lies today,” Ronnie went on with playing devil’s advocate. Turning to Stone and Gerald, he continued, “So, the hater of football was at Dimes.” That’s when I realised Ronnie hadn’t seen me at the betting center. Now I knew I had to re-plan my explanation starting from Denis’ Lounge because I even had no proof of the winning ticket—it had been retained at the counter on the issuing out of the money.

“Kuba, I don’t see any reason as to why you should tell us lies,” Stone said. On his face was written all the care he had for me. He was trying to guide me through the whole misunderstanding. I wish he could believe me! “Just tell us the truth and all this will come to an end.”

Tilting my head slightly, I tried to build up a perfect story that would satisfy them, as well as save me from any trouble they were capable of gifting me. I would have obtained this goal if it hadn’t been for Gerald’s anger reaching its boiling point. He jumped at me and grabbed my neck before I could say another word. Perhaps he was not ready to hear more of my ‘nonsense’. “You ungrateful greedy pig!” he yelled. I was drowning in fright.

“Gerald, calm down man,” Stone begged on my behalf for I wasn’t able to utter even a word while my throat was in the claws of an eagle.

“So you think you have obtained a higher class than us?” Gerald shouted, ignoring Stone’s plea. The latter didn’t make any other attempt of interceding for me. I was finished! “When your mother was on her dying bed, who helped you out with the hospital bills? Tell me!” There’s nothing I could say because the mere opening of my mouth made him lose his senses the more. “Who helped you with the burial and all?” Okay I was trying so hard to contemplate on his words and punish my self with guilt but, first things first, I was just gasping for air.

“He can’t breathe, Gerald!” my guardian angel, Stone, shouted, pulling Gerald’s arm to reduce the pressure against my neck. The latter finally let go of me but with a push that made me fly as though I had no weight, landing on my slim mattress. Ronnie had been quiet that whole time, obviously enjoying every bit of my suffering. “If it wasn’t for Ronnie seeing you enjoying yourself at the bar, nothing would have changed, isn’t it?” he cried.

“Let me explain everything,” I retorted. “I wanted to tell you guys about him. He is a target I made friends with while I had come to the betting center to fetch you guys. I have been studying him all this time, waiting for the perfect moment to break this to you. He is the one who gave me that money and he has more that we are supposed to acquire,” I lied. I don’t know what I was saying. It’s just that I was caught up in the frenzy of the predicament, and so I thought a pregnant lie would make sense to them and ease their anger. Silence.

It became clear to me that there had not been better news falling into their ears than this. They didn’t want to show it, but the once-overs they gave one another, like in a Mexican stand-off, betrayed them. For the first time in weeks, I saw Ronnie eyes neutral. My lie was giving birth to healthy offstrings! “But again, you can’t get money and forget to give us some,” Gerald said, his grave tone finally breaking down.

“Ah, you can have the money,” I said. “Actually I wanted to give it to you immediately but I didn’t find you guys here, and Stone was asleep.” Hallelujah to the most high, I was no longer up the creek! “You see, I used my share to buy clothes and other things. I wanted to surprise you. I just don’t understand why Ronnie decided to spy on me instead of inquiring,” I fired at Ronnie.

They all ignored my last statement. I studied Ronnie’s mood and realised something wasn’t right—his face was warm. He seemed to know much but I decided to just knock off the tense feeling. Gerald shared the money amongst them, and returned the remaining 132,000shs to me. I watched the money—my money—being shared, not qualified to do something about it.

“Alright, tell us more,” Gerald demanded. “Where exactly does he stay? What does he have? Is he dangerous in any way?”

“He stays at Kyebando, in his forties and doesn’t seem dangerous to me.” As I betrayed my ‘good Samaritan’, the feeling of guilt became more and more prominent, but it was too late for drifts now—I was already at a point where I couldn’t help it. “He has a lot of expensive things at his place; for example a cooker, home-theater, flat-screen TV and so much more,” I continued feeding the spirit of theft in them.

“Wow, this is going to be a fruitful reap,” commented Stone, dropping his weight onto the sofa. Indeed it was going to be a fruitful robbery, but not a happy one for me. I thought about alerting Sande but I hadn’t got his contact. It was so sad and evil of me to sacrifice someone who had only done good to me. “And I think we should do it as soon as possible.”

“We are doing it tonight,” Gerald confirmed. The other two seemed to agree with him, but I didn’t. Anyway the disagreement was only in my head. There’s no way I could object at such a time—they would become suspicious of me. At this point I realised there was no way I could save my saviour.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” asked Ronnie, akimbo.

“I think I should go there, inspect, and persuade him to drink his senses off, in the name of a friendly visit,” I suggested. “It will be a piece of cake if he’s drunk, you know. And I don’t think killing him will be necessary,” I made efforts to protect him in every way I could.

“Of course we are not going to kill him—unless he pushes us to—but you are not going there before us. We will go there at once and surprise him; we will break in in the middle of the night—around 2am, while he’s asleep,” Gerald declared. The other two, nodding their heads in affirmation, seemed to love his plan. I had to digest that as well, and accept that I had no other options to select from in the bracket of saving my friend.

Gerald asked me further about the locking system and security there, which I summarised for them. They were glad and optimistic about the outcomes because a padlock was nothing! Contented with the plan, Ronnie and Gerald went to their side, and discussed some things I failed to eavesdrop, probably going deep into the night’s plot. On the contrary, I had a feeling they were talking about me! But what was there to talk about me this time round? Nothing.

Stone pulled out a marijuana stick and lit it in the name of celebrating the to-be successful job. This was a perfect time to escape and warn my friend! I ran as soon as I got out, through the narrow corridors, to catch a bodaboda to his place. While on the ride, my mind flooded with a thousand thoughts: ‘what if one of them is following me and finds out my intention?’; ‘What if I don’t find Sande there?’

Within no time, I was at his door, knocking, even after seeing the padlock on. He wasn’t there! My mind went blank. The only other place I thought he could be was the betting center but it was too risky for me; I thought about clashing with the other three there. Nevertheless, I had to go and at least try. On my arrival, I first peeped through a slit in the curtain to find out if any of the guys was present but none was. Learning that, I entered and looked for Sande but in vain. There was nothing more I could do!

After asking at the counter whether they knew or had seen him that day, and getting a negative answer, I decided to give up the act of charity. More to this, I had to return immediately—I couldn’t be gone for so long, especially then when my position before the other three was not clear. The day went by very fast as though trying its best to bring forth the time of our strike as fast as possible.

That evening, I remained in the company of my colleagues, preparing our ‘tools’. The day finally died and total darkness struck. We began the countdown of hours, to our mission, which finally broke into minutes. Gerald lit a cigarette and covered it with flakes of marijuana, as the act was before any robbery. We always got a little high before a mission to make us feel invincible. We left the platter still fuming and entered the night for our errand.