Day 35 - David's side of the story

That single incident put a great strain on our relationship with Teresa. Yes, we still talked and smiled at each other a lot. But at the back of our minds there was this unfinished business. These unexplained issues that kept on haunting our every word of conversation.

It was an unbearable anti-climax. Where we had both thought there was plenty to be discussed, now all of a sudden there was almost nothing to discuss.

I sadly watched as Teresa slipped back to her old self of putting road blocks on certain routes leading to certain no go subjects.

As I continued to recover from my bullet wounds, I also grew desperate that our relationship was falling apart and there seemed to be nothing that I could do about it. I racked my brains for a solution, but there seemed to be none. All the answers seemed to be locked up by two persons, Teresa and the mysterious snake-bite-Kevin.

Since Teresa was not talking, I felt that the only way to save the only meaningful relationship I had ever had in my life was to somehow speak to this Kevin.

Teresa was staying somewhere close to the health center, I didn’t know exactly where, and she usually came in every day with food and stuff. One of the topics that Teresa did not want to discuss was what we were going to do when I recovered well enough to leave the health center. This was going to happen in just a few days, as my recovery rate had been extremely fast ever since I had recovered consciousness just three days earlier.

I knew that Kevin had to be somewhere in the health center and I could not bear it anymore. On that third night when I was sure that Teresa had gone for the day, I made my way around the small health center determined to find Kevin.

The place was really badly run as no nurse or doctor seemed to be in sight and nobody challenged me. But turning round the corner on the corridors, my attention was attracted by a small private room that had a single armed policeman seated at the door. Could this be Kevin’s room?

I approached him and he looked up at me with lots of interest. I must have been quite a sight with my heavily bandaged open chest, unbuttoned brown shirt and creased cotton white shorts. I was still weak and I walked very slowly.

“What is your problem, sir?” the African policeman asked in very good English.

“I would like to have a brief word with the gentleman I believe is inside this room.”

“Mr Kevin Seymour?”

I was amazed at my luck. But then this place was small. “Yes, please.”

“You can not do that sir. He is a suspect.”

“I need a few minutes, please.”

“It is against regulations for suspects to be allowed visitors of any kind.”

I felt in my pockets for the local 100 shs bill Teresa had left me with, incase I needed something. I was desperate. Would it be enough, I wondered? I didn’t know, but it was worth a try. I removed it and pressed it into the policeman’s free hand.

“Five minutes.” He said holding the door open for me.

From the open door of the tiny room I could see the small pale frame of this man who held all the answers. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be asleep.

I walked in and the policeman carefully shut the door behind me.

I would have to wake him up, I thought, as I sat on the side of the bed. But the moment I reached out, he opened his eyes wide.

“David, the junkie.” He said.

“I’m no junkie.” It was then that I noticed one of his hands was handcuffed to the bed.

“Who let you in here?”

“I just wanted to ask a few…”

“Ask what?” he almost shouted. “Get the hell out of here, right now.”

I was shocked at this man whom I had never met being so angry with me. What had I done to him? I stood quickly as the policeman opened the door.

The venom still very much in his eyes, Kevin burst out; “I have evidence to prove that your lover is a murderer, a con artiste and has a criminal record for pick pocketing.”

Those words hit me. They really did. I had no reason to believe this bitter man, maybe even some of the snake venom had made its’ way to his brains. Still I had a strange feeling that what he was saying was true. At least it would explain why Teresa had so many areas in her life she never wanted to discuss.

And who had told him she was my lover? That was yet to happen.