The Note
Lost and found
I landed in the country the detective’s note led me to. Gen couldn’t have done this to me, she wouldn’t have, traveling more than 5000 miles away from home? The cab driver drove me from the airport to a hotel of my choice in the city. It was 11pm when we got to the hotel, thank God I had reservations. I walked towards the receptionist, gave her my details and waited for the bell person to lead me to my room. She led me to an elevator and we stopped on the third floor, we walked towards the right of the elevator and stopped a few rooms away from it. She led me in and explained the settings of the tv, the service of the hotel and the settings on the air conditioner. She looked like she wanted to stay and chit chat, excitement written all over her face but I thanked her and bid her goodnight. Today was no day to entertain admirers. Since I stepped into the country, everyone stared at me and even pointed, with my beauty and charisma, I was used to it, I heard someone call me “oyinbo” or whatever they said. I felt like an outcast, a beautiful one. In another time I would love to sit and learn about the culture of this people but not now, not when Gen needs me. I went to my laptop to search more on what the last detective had gotten. His people had seen her enter the country with that man but lost them as they disappeared into the crowd and finally into the city, they found traces of her in a place not too far from where my hotel is. Ten years and my sister was lost in this country, my rage could not be contained as I brought out my stress ball and squeezed it with my fingers until I felt the anger suppress, I was angry with Gen for leaving me but more upset that I couldn’t protect her. I shut down the laptop and crawled into bed to get some sleep, tomorrow I move.
The next day I waited for a cab in the reception. When the driver came, he was a short man with very dark skin almost burnt, I hope the complexion is due to genes and not the sun because I heard the sun here could be very harsh. He had horizontal marks that flowed from just below his eyes and ended on his cheeks, his shirt was too big for his thin figure but he looked proud of it anyways, almost like this was his most expensive clothing. He looked as excited as the driver that drove me from the airpot. I told him where I was going and he drove off. I would have love to drive myself but asides the fact that I’m an alien here, I have no idea where anywhere is. He asked, “Excuse me ma, where is the place we’re going to again”? I answered “I’m not too sure of the place I was informed about but do you uhm know a place, Oguudun”? He gave me a puzzled look and after a while he laughed “Ah ma, you mean Ogudu?Ko jina, the place is not far, are you going to roundabout abi Crescent or Pako”? I could barely understand his accent. It was thick and he kept pronouncing the “h” sound in front of vowels. I’m sure if he were to say words like eat, ink or even attitude he would find a way to squeeze the h sound. I pondered on his question, where would Gen be? In a very discrete place of course, a place where she would be comfortable but won’t be noticed easily. “Is there a quiet area where there are clusters of houses but only for the rich?” I asked him. He looked at me and said “Ma, do you mean an estate?because Ogudu is full of them”. This will be harder than I thought, looks like I’ll search every of this estate even if it takes days,I would find her.
It’s been a week since I got here and I still haven’t found her. The cab driver who’s name I later found to be Leke, searched street by street looking for Gen but we had gotten nothing still. Today we’re searching Pako, after Pako he suggested moving to Ojota to continue the search. We drove in through the gates of the estate, I told Leke to keep driving straight and if we were going to find her we needed to start from the most quiet neighborhoods. We headed straight down to where seemed like the end of the estate. There was no one in sight, except from the uniformed men guarding a house down the road. I got down from the car and Leke proceeded to get down with me, “Ma, this men are my country people, you might not understand them like me”, I replied him “Don’t worry Leke, I can take care of myself, you can leave now”. Leke looked at me with pleading eyes, he had grown fond of me just as I him. I walked towards the large white house, it was too big to be called a duplex but that’s what it was. The two men guarding what I assumed would be the front gate looked at me as if they had been expecting me, maybe I finally found her. The taller one with the built shoulders and well defined chin walked up to me and said, “come in miss, the Mrs has been expecting you”. It took me a minute to realize the Mrs was probably Genevieve.
I was escorted to a living room, with very classy details. Everything here was in my taste from the abstract painting on the walls to the Black leather furniture I was sitting on, I was in complete awe taking in the entire living room till a familiar voice lifted me from my trance, “Like what you see”? I turned to see the person that spoke expecting my sister but it wasn’t. This was a completely different person, she resembled my sister but there were obvious differences. She had a tanned beautiful glowing skin, her lips were fuller and more beautiful, she had an aura of confidence all around her, she was on make-up but you could tell the spots had disappeared, wait, she was on make-up! Gen never wore make up. I was about to ask who she was until the beautiful person said “Hello Guinevere, it’s been too long”.
