All My Life

by Rucy Ban

  When I turn back to look at Nalini, I realize she’s been successful in completely engaging Eddie. She’s chatting him up now and he’s lapping up all her attention like a big drolly puppy dog. Nalini is a real pro at this game. So much so that if I hadn’t been paying close attention, I wouldn’t have noticed the slight flick of her wrist as she spikes his drink, just when he looks away at the dance floor.

  For the next fifteen minutes, my eyes don’t leave Eddie as I coax his subconscious to keep reaching for his drink. When he finally finishes it, I see Nalini lean in and whisper something in his ear. The ‘let’s get out of here’ line.

  Nodding his head eagerly, Eddie scrambles up and rushes to follow Nalini who’s already half way through to the door.

  We get out of the club in a hurry to follow them in our car.

  Eddie is driving a swank AMG and I realize Agnas is struggling to stay on his tail in her beat-up pick-up. Her work made all the more difficult because she also has to make sure we don’t get too close to them. It’s a very hard undertaking. Our car is about as inconspicuous as a German Shepherd on roller skates.

  Driving like a maniac, Eddie is zipping along, just barely stopping for all the traffic lights. Where is a patrol car when you need one?

  I begin to relax a little as we near Josiah’s apartment. But that’s the biggest mistake I make. Because as we enter the street, I get distracted trying to find a parking spot for us, not immediately realizing that Eddie doesn’t plan on stopping. His car just slows down for a few seconds and then he zips straight across, jumping the red light.

  Agnas and I both gasp simultaneously, just as the red tails of his AMG disappear around the next block. Tires screeching, Agnas races to catch up with him. But it’s no good. It’s too little, too late. Then to make things worse, a car blocks our way just as we go around the corner. It takes an awful lot of time for us to go past it and by the time we hit the main road, there are just too many cars, too many corners, too many side roads for him to have taken.

  That’s when it hits me…we’ve lost him! We’ve lost Nalini! Oh fuckfuckfuck. What do we do now?! Did he know? Of course, he knew! Fuck. What the hell happened?!

  Agnas starts driving around like a crazed woman and I’m so panicked I can’t think straight. I can’t fucking think straight. A sob escapes me. I got Nalini into this. I got her into this. Jesus. I swipe at the tears streaming down my cheeks. Think you stupid girl. Think. THINK. The list! The fucking list!

  “The list!” I yell at Agnas who is so focused on scanning the streets I don’t think she even hears me. I scramble for my cellphone and with shaking fingers search for that one number that can be our only savior. Got it! I press the call button and pray harder than I’ve ever prayed before. “Please. Please. Please. Answer the phone. Oh please!”

  “Officer Browne.” A wave of relief crashes over me as I hear his voice.

  “Officer, this is Kari! Do you remember me?! Please, I need your help!”

  “Kari? Yes. Yes…of course. What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Eddie…he’s taken one of my girlfriends somewhere. We were following him in our car and he just took off. I don’t know what he’ll do…where is…?”

  “Hold on, Kari. Where was he coming from and where did you last see him?”

  “Officer…please…I need the list. We were in Club DNF and I’ll tell you everything later but right now…I need to find him. I need the list of all those properties that you’d mentioned? The ones his father owns in lower Manhattan? Please, officer.”

  There’s just static on the other end of the line and my already panicked heart goes into overdrive. “Officer?!!! Please! Hello?!!!” I look up at Agnas who’s already looking a little defeated as she strains her neck trying to look at the array of cars all around us.

  “Oh God! Please…” My voice breaks and my shoulders slump helplessly. He was my last hope.

  A staccato voice shakes me out of my despair. “Kari…listen…out of the properties…there are only three which are not rented at the moment. And out of these, there is only one close to Club DNF. I’m just messaging you the address.”

  “Oh! Thanks officer Browne…thank you!”

  “Kari…I’ll advise you not to do anything stupid. I know which car Eddie drives and I’ve already sent out an alert for him. Trust me…we’ll do the needful…”

  “I know, I know…please send me the address. She’s my…friend.”

  Seconds after he hangs up I get the address on my phone. Agnas takes one look at it and changes her course in a swift roundabout.

  “It’s just a block away,” she informs me in a low voice and I let out the breath I’ve been holding. There’s time. There’s still time. Oh God, please. Let there be time.

  We enter a plush street lined with rows and rows of white picket-fenced houses. Hell’s own Wisteria Lane.

  My eyes immediately zero in on the white AMG parked haphazardly across a driveway. It’s a large two-story house. One of the bigger ones on the street. Agnas turns to park the car right behind the AMG but I don’t wait. Even as she’s pulling in, I open my door and dash out towards the house. Just as I’m about to turn the knob, a loud crash resounds from inside.

  Frantic, I rush inside and find myself standing in an empty dark living room. I sprint across to the lobby and hear muffled voices coming from upstairs. Doubling up the stairs, I run into the first bedroom I come across but my steps falter as I take in the sight. Eddie is standing with his pants and briefs pulled down. Nalini is kneeling in front of him. Mascara streaking down her cheeks, hair limp with sweat, the nuzzle of a small revolver digging into her skull.

  My beautiful friend. My brave beautiful friend. He’s reduced her to this. Something snaps inside me at seeing her demeaned like that and without the slightest hesitation I plunge at him with a furious cry.

  The lightning that decides to strike right at the same time is my biggest ally at that moment. That and the magic potion Nalini gave him. Surprised, sloppy and overwhelmed, the punches I land on Eddie’s face stun him out of his wits.

  Nalini is swift enough to grab the revolver and as soon as she does that, we both retract to the wall behind. He stands up shakily, looking to and fro between us.

  “What…what are you…?” his voice trails off as he gets it. Then he starts laughing. Nalini points the revolver straight at his junk but that only makes him laugh harder.

  “You stupid bitches…Oh you stupid, stupid bitches…” He keeps laughing and my blood boils at seeing him so unaffected, so unafraid of us. Specially after what he’s just tried to do.

  “Don’t you realize? I play the law…I’ll get you both arrested…trespassing, assault, pre-meditated attempt to murder…the choice is endless…”

  He stops laughing abruptly and gives me a pointed look. “You’ll pay for this…you’re finished, you hear me. I will bury you…you’re so…” A loud pop cuts him off and I startle as a strange look crosses his face. Not shock, not anger, not even fear. His face is completely expressionless. A clean slate like the day he was born. Before the vagaries of human nature transformed him, made him into the demon he is.

  Glassy-eyed, his body slumps to the floor with a loud thud. I stand there transfixed, as my eyes trail the gush of crimson oozing out of his privates and onto the lush carpet.

  Vinegar and soda bicarb. That’s the only thing that will ever get that stain out. Someone’s shaking my shoulder. I look up into Agnas’ eyes, then to her lips which are moving in slow motion, then to the soft waft of smoke coming out of the nozzle of her gun. The smoke swirls, drifts and then disappears as if nothing ever happened.

  “…understand, Kari?! You need to take Nalini out of here. You hear me? The police must be on their way…I did this, okay? He was going to shoot you both and then I acted in your self-defense. Okay? Do you understand?”

  I nod my head and make myself say the words. “I understand.”

  Then I hold Nalini’s hand and tug on it. She’s standing there,
her eyes focused on the blood soaking through the carpet. I put an arm around her shoulders and make her move, out of the room, down the stairs and out…into the clean air, under the pouring sky. I make her sit in the back seat of the car but just as I’m about to shut the door, Nalini grips my wrist and stops me.

  “Babe…I’m sorry. It was a stupid plan,” she says in a low voice. I kneel down beside the car and pull her in for a hug.

  I risk talking only after I’ve cleared my throat a couple of times. But I finally say it. “Shut up.”

  She tightens her arms around me. “At least the fucker’s dead.”

  I nod my head into her shoulder. “There’s that.”

  The sirens come blazing in a few minutes after that and from then on, it all goes to hell. Reports, records, first account, second account, interviews, details, cross questioning. The roll of procedure is endless. But in the end it’s all worth it. Because…at the very least, the fucker is dead.

  Epilogue

  “Never make eye contact with a stranger when you’re having a churro.”

  “What?” I scrunch my face at Nalini who’s taken it upon herself to educate me in the ways of the world.

  “And that applies to a banana as well.”

  I have nothing to beat her back with so I just resign myself to it. We’re wading through waist deep waters in a dark underground cave somewhere in the middle of the Amazon and this is the kind of random philosophical bullshit I’ve had to put up with for the last two hours. At least now, freedom and more importantly silence…is just a few feet away.

  In the reprieve Nalini allows me, I think back on the last seven months. It’s been a hell of a ride. First, we had to go through all the legalities that Eddie’s father threw at us. Then once Agnas and both of us had been acquitted after a much publicized court battle, the media latched onto Neil for all the juicy details. Thank God they never found out about Agnas. This Amazon trip had been her idea. She had wanted us to go away for some time. Away from all the flashlights that had followed us for the last seven months.

  It had been utter hell. Anything we did, bought, ate or threw had become a topic for intense debate and deliberation. But at least it made me understand why Neil had been so eager to give it all up. No amount of money could justify that kind of torture. Speaking of which…

  Right on cue, Nalini starts off with another one of her quips. “Blue eyes, delectable apple, hairy chest and a rightie…your turn!”

  Though I really don’t want to encourage her, I have to clarify the mind-boggling mix of words she just flung at me. “What?!”

  Nalini lets out an exasperated sigh as if I’m the one chewing the brains out of her very hard skull! “Boyfriend description! I just described Josiah. Now it’s your turn!…Jesus!” she mutters under her breath.

  I have to really stop myself from lunging at her.

  Oh okay. What the heck! I just have to play along for a few more minutes. “Blazing eyes, lickable lips, delicious cleft, hard pecs and…a rightie,” I tell her.

  “Really? Not much common between our BF’s, huh? Well, apart from the way they hang.”

  I almost lose my footing as I struggle to right myself. Giving her a death glare, I turn around the corner and realize Josiah and Neil are standing on the banks just a foot away from us. They must have heard everything!

  And sure enough as I wade nearer, I see wide grins plastered on both their mud-caked faces. Jesus! I’m going to kill this girl!

  Trying hard to keep a straight face but failing completely, Neil reaches out his hand to pull me up. I slap it away and clamber ungracefully up the bank all by myself. This only results in howls of laughter erupting from behind me. Without looking back at the nasty lot, I march right out of the cave and into the bright sunlight.

  “Hey wait up, baby!” Neil runs behind me as I keep up with my furious pace. My mission? To get the nasty brown sludge off of me as soon as possible and then use the objects close at hand to plot revenge against the evil witch who used to be my best friend.

  “Angel!” Even though I’m almost sprinting along the trail that leads back to our camp, Neil still manages to catch up with me. Darn him for his long luscious athletic limbs! Oh! Alright! I have nothing against those gorgeous limbs.

  Neil catches me by my elbow, halting me mid-stride. I swing around to face him but before I can say anything, he crushes his lips to mine. Double darn it! He’s not playing fair. He knows I can’t resist this. Because…it’s just…so…so so good. He wraps his arms around me and my body melts in his embrace. Every time he kisses me it’s like he’s opening a part of me I hadn’t even been aware of before. I have never felt more alive. More loved. More wanted.

  “I want you,” I break off to whisper in his ears, trying hard to put all my love, all my longing in those three words. He pulls back to gaze into my eyes and then in one swift motion he picks me up, carrying me in his arms the rest of the way.

  A guy like him? He beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy I’ve ever had. More than what a girl like me had ever dreamed of.

  **THE END**

  About the Author

  Rucy Ban was born in 1978 and still continues to thrive. Ever since she first met Francine (the protagonist of her favorite novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Rucy fell in love with the written word. Rucy has a B-school degree in Marketing which she now puts to good use teaching lovable rowdy rogues and negotiating with her equally belligerent adolescent. At present, Rucy lives in Sao Paulo, travels often, speaks decent, if not quite fluent, Portuguese and really hates talking about herself in third person.

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  Note: Hi! there, dear reader, please do take some time out to write an honest review on AMAZON. To sweeten the deal, if you e-mail me a link of your review, I’ll send you my next novel in the First Things series for free! E-mail me at rucyban@gmail.com