Northern Exposure: The Divided

Northern Exposure

  The Divided

  Northern Exposure

  Luken Du Pont

  Copyright 2014 by Luken Du Pont

  10-07-2030

  Monday

  Diary entry 1

  My name is Cairo Goodridge. I have been awake for approximately 520 days, and if this book is not in my possession it means I am most likely dead. The reason I have decided to explain what happened, the things we did to each other, the things no human being should bear witness to. Is simply to enlighten your poor soul, hoping this will give you a chance. A chance to survive what is most likely the brink of human extinction. Times are harder now and as the days go by we are less of our former selves. We have become husks floating around in a lost, desolate world, still unsure of how we got here. Our fates are being decided by harsh hand of Mother Nature.

  If you are reading this, you too are probably north and very much aware of what’s going on. I regret to inform you but soon you will most likely share the same fate as I have, or even worse. Now I understand you may be wondering what’s worse than death, trust me in this place death seems like a paradise compared. I still do not know why I feel so obligated to write this, to be honest most nights I think it is just an escape from the madness, like a natural sedative it’s the only way I can fall asleep in this hell. However I do need to clear my conscious and pay dividend for my demons. I need you to know what happened to me; I need you to know what we have become and what we are capable of. I need you to know why we have chosen to kill each other, why the smell of human flesh lingers in the air like slow roast pork on a Sunday afternoon and why bodies litter our streets. Why things that seem to be so impossible happen in front of my very own eyes. Why conformity on this place is the unreal ideas people live their lives by and why I have been included into this group of youthful abominations. All of this might be irrelevant compared to what I am about to tell you. Most importantly I need you to know why I killed her!

  Chapter 1

  Early Saturday Morning I lay in bed listening to the bustling pot of a cultural dilution brewing, continually at a never slowing pace. People intertwining in each other’s lives, affecting each other without the slightest fathom of how they needed one another to sustain the comfortable lives in the city they so much adored. They moved around weaving in and out not taking the time to enjoy what they truly had. Not taking a second breath to soak in the benefits of being able to jump into a cab and drive ten blocks down to the local cinema, being able to constantly stay in contact with their friends and family through social media outlets or being able to stop at the grocery store which had their favourite foods all lined up, packaged and ready to go. But most of all, they never took the time to realise what company meant. What having people brush against your shoulders as they walked past the busy street felt like, or the joyous sound of laughing kids in the green parks. They hadn’t felt alone before, not the type of alone I was about to feel, the type of desertion which starts to feel so physical you could swear someone had put a blade to your flesh. Only hearing what the absolute loud sound of nothing truly sounded like, no birds in the trees, no noisy neighbours, not a howl in the distance or a scream over the horizon... absolutely nothing.

  I can rant, rave and explain the silence, then the chaos which soon ensued. But before we go any further I have to take you to the beginning. To the place it all happened and let you know why it happened. I have to let you know what I went through on that dreadful day and the events which soon followed. You need to how we have survived, being plunged into the bowels of hell yet still we have managed to fight on thanks to the new tools we have been equipped with. But mostly I have to explain the reason behind my drastic decision, the reason I had to kill her!

  2030, the year the world took a curve ball and smashed it out of the park! The year democracy reigned king, the year poverty had become somewhat of a faded idea. The year the Rhino was taken off the endangered list, the year crime had dropped by seventy eight percent worldwide. Humanity had beaten the global recession and was united together in a stand to bring peace and economic sustainability to each and every country on the globe. Apart from the depleting Ozone layer and whoever was responsible for the “all-boy” bands which circumnavigated throughout the media. I would say society as a whole had overcome diversity and taken their lives and planet back into their own hands. If I wasn’t a religious man and believed in the theory of evolution I would say man had truly evolved over the last past decade. Worldwide resolutions had been met, and even the most unstable and financially depleted countries started to see change. Unobtainable goals were becoming more realistic each day and people all over, from the North to the South stood together against fascism, racism and homophobia.

  The control of the seas had been taken back from the grasp of the Somalia Pirates and once more the seas where safe for pleasurable cruises from coast to coast, more importantly for trade between countries. Dictatorship had been abolished throughout all Arab and African nations, giving citizens the first taste of democratic freedom. We had managed to stabilize our fluctuating markets and for the first time in years worldwide interest rates were on the rise as inflation decreased.

  It was also the record breaking year for most adoptions. Becoming aware of overpopulation more people fell into the idea of adopting instead of reproducing. Laws banning families from having more than three children were gladly accepted by most people in countries struggling with over population. This in turn took a lot of pressure off the earth’s natural resources. Integrated marriages occurred more frequently, breaking down the barriers of racial and cultural stereo types. The figures were higher than they had ever been recorded, and even though so much success circumnavigated the globe, it was nothing compared to the success I had individually achieved...Well at least I thought so!

  At twenty four years old I had landed my dream job, I still cannot believe how fast it all happened. One day I was stacking fish for a living in an old coastal harbour. Next thing I had landed a sous-chef job in a four star Italian restaurant called “La Casa”. It had taken me a while to get here and a hell of a lot of internship, followed by even more studying. But I had reached my goals, I moved out into the city, the city of dreams, the concrete jungle was my new home. I had become a New Yorker! In this place anything was possible if you followed through and worked your ass off, that is. Not only had I succeeded in securing my dream job, I had found a gem buried in the city of New York, I had found the women of my dreams, the best girl a guy could ask for.

  It was truly a blissful time in my life; I was in a state of euphoria, a place I never thought I’d reach a few months back. But even though an abundance of self-esteem surrounded me like an invisible halo, and no matter how much I had accomplished through my hard work and perseverance, my biggest achievement was presented by the kind hand of fate. Meeting her was the greatest moment in my life, and many a times I got lost in thinking “’how the hell had I landed such an amazing women?” The reality was, I was an average looking guy, tall, tanned, with a well toned body, but I was no Adonis that’s for sure. I considered myself a C, on a good day a B minus at most, but she was a straight A plus.

  I will never forget the day I met her, but that story starts a little further down our trip into the past. It all starts with me moving to New York from a small fishing town off the coast of South Africa named Mossel Bay. I had just flown in from the South and relocated to the heart Of New York. I found myself standing in the hallway of a rundown block of apartments, bags in my hand and dreams on my shoulders. I was ecstatic about the move out of my parent’s garage and into what I like to think of as freedom.

  ”So Mr Goodridge, the rates are $600.00 a month, no pe
ts allowed, the elevators are out but the stairs work just fine.

  “Oh, and no freaky business Mr Goodridge.”

  ”This is a family friendly zone so no nonsense around here.”

  “The Last guy that lived here was some kind of escort male type freak so I kicked his ass out onto the street with all the other freaks in this freaking city!”

  The land lord was a short stocky man, shabbily dressed but stern in his demeanour. He wore a white wife beater covered in mustard stains and had a bold patch which caught the light from the florescent tubes above his head, which shone bright throughout the passage. He had on a cargo shorts as well as a thick pair of socks which he wore all the way to his knees and the oldest looking loafers in the tri state area.

  I stepped back,” I can promise you sir, I’m no gigolo and definitely not into any freaky stuff.’’ I smiled trying to assure him I was a funny respectable guy.

  His reaction was dull and his eyes remained fixed on mine.

  ”You better not be boy or I will have you out here quicker than you can say what the freak just happened.’’ His obsession with this word made me smile wanting to burst out into laughter. He reminded me so much of the overweight foul-mouthed father of my favourite animated sitcom which my dad and I watched every Tuesday back home.

  ”Any way boy, here are the keys, rents due beginning of each month and No...”I interrupted, “Freaky stuff?”

  He clearly wasn’t impressed with my sense of humour. He tossed the keys into my already full hands, turned and disappeared down the corridor. I did not allow his damp demeanour to effect my mood. I was too excited to let anything weigh me down. As I opened the door I was greeted by the overwhelming smell of mould which almost knocked me clean off my feet. The mouldy smell was not alone; it was infused with what I presumed to be cheap male cologne. The foul smelling concoction lingered in the air and clung to the apartments walls. I could care less about the over whelming odour though, I was too excited. To me this was the Bachelor pad I had always dreamed about, my “Casa d’oro”. I saw possibility for the old rundown apartment and I knew with a bit of elbow grease, some commitment and a whole lot of cleaning detergents I could have this place shinning in no time. For the first time I felt like a real man and not a boy, a grounded self sufficient man, who had his own place and his own life. I was no longer Mr and Mrs Goodridge kid, No! Now I was a grown up, about to shape his own identity and be someone his parents could be proud of.

  The apartment was an average to lower quality unit but to me it was much more, I saw potential. There was an open space presumably for a lounge or dining area and an open plan kitchen with wooden counter tops which where profusely swollen from the leaking sink pipes. In the corner of the kitchen was the most import thing I needed in the entire unit, an old gas stove. This is where I shone, where I could express myself and be who I was destined to be. Even though the kitchen was not in the best shape, the other rooms showed much more potential with only minor faults. The bathroom had no bath but instead a shower, which was ridden with mould, nothing a good cleaning couldn’t fix. The room was large enough for a desk, my TV and for now my sleeper couch, which would hopefully soon be traded in for a bed, that couch was the epitome of uncomfortable.

  By the time I had settled in and unloaded all my belongings, night time had crept up and the sunny back drop had been replaced by darker scenery. I walked over to the window and gazed upon the night sky. Illuminating bright like a florescent rainbow from the thousands of street lights, billboards, apartment buildings and cars which brought the city to life in the middle of the night. The excitement of the day and all the unpacking had given me quite an appetite and I was snapped out of my tranquil sate by the growing of my stomach. So I stepped away from the window, took out all my pots and pans and readied myself. It was time to brake in the old stove and take that puppy for a spin, see if she could handle my frantic cooking style. So I popped my earphones into my ears and began banging the tunes. Not before long I was hunched over the stove tasting if my penne was Al Dante. The aroma of basil and garlic filled the air, as I cook an aromatic pasta dish and jammed along to the songs on my mp5 player. I couldn’t care less who heard my screeching attempts to sing. I realised the bin bag I had hung around my door handle was full and it was time to remove the trash. Music blasting in my ears as I danced my way down the hall with not a care in the world, stopping only to shuffle then two stepped every few feet. With my eyes closed and Marinara sauce all over my shirt I put on my best moves, which in reality were far from good. But before I could hit my next move, BAM! As I opened my eyes I was a mess, a crime scene, the wall was painted blood red, carnage lay throughout the corridor as I stood in utter silence just looking.

  My emotions became intertwined I was scared yet aroused at the same time. I stood waiting for the banshee like scream that would soon pierce the silence but nothing.

  She stood picking rosemary out of her hair and cleaning red sauce off her face. I had collided head first with the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. What’s more charming, old me had just showered her in trash.

  ”I...I...I’m so sorry I was cooking, I mean dancing, no I mean trash.” Time after time I had heard about the famous cliché, how when he laid his eyes on her he lost all his word. I always thought it was a figure of speech. But shockingly I was wrong; I literally couldn’t say a word. Sounding like a jungle man who had just learned his first few words of English! It was as if she was waiting for me to say...”ME Tarzan, you Jane Me like!”

  She smiled, then looked down and began laughing; wearily I joined in not knowing what else to do in the awkward situation. The attractive women took her finger wiped a bit of sauce from her chin then licked it. As she walked past, she whispered in my ear, “tasty”. I turned around and watched her walk away. She approached the staircase turned around and just stared at me from across the hall way. “I’d stick to cooking honey, because your singing is dead awful.”

  Like an angel ascending into the heavens she disappeared up the staircase, with the light bouncing off her golden locks, being the last image searing through my head, she was gone in a flash. I so badly wanted to chase after her and at least get her name. But I was frozen in time, my body not registering what my brain told it to do. I couldn’t move and for the first time I was unaware of my conscious state.

  I hardly got any sleep that night. She was all I thought about, so beautiful. Not that magazine model beauty a different kind. A real kind of beautiful, she had pale white skin with piercing blue eyes and light freckles spread across her nose. Her sun kissed hair tumble down her shoulders and her luscious lips where plump, thick, red and oh so inviting already. She was tall with a slender figure, the white tank top she had on clung to her body emphasizing her well proportioned breast. Her tightly worn daisy dukes showed off that round, toned bottom and long leg which stretched on and on. I tried so hard to fall asleep knowing I had my first day of work in the morning but a picture of her face, her smile kept coming to me.

  Eventually I fell asleep as my brain ran a hundred different scenarios through it, I wondered if I would ever see this woman again? Did she even live in the building or was she a guest? Besides who was I kidding even if she did live in the building, it was so unlikely a beautiful girl like her would be single. Only time would tell if I would ever have the chance to talk to her again.

  However that was not the case, a couple of months went by and I had happily settled into my job at Le Casa. Things around the city were not as overwhelming anymore. The incident with the gorgeous girl had pretty much faded away only popping up occasionally to remind me of what I missed out on. I hadn’t seen her since our little run in so I assumed she was just visiting one of the tenants in the building. The thoughts of her were replaced by more relevant issues and life went on. It was Monday morning I got to my couch too exhausted to even turn on the television. It was utter chaos in the kitchen at work today, the busiest day since I had arrived, actually ever
since I started working in the culinary business. All I wanted to do was relax, have a nap then later hit the gym for a swim and sauna session, but then it happened.

  Suddenly a disturbing sensation came over me, as if gravity had disappeared and reappeared in an instant. I lost my footing and fell hard to the ground. The earth was moving; I heard screams coming from throughout the building. So I jumped up to see what all the commotion was. While running towards the window I lost my footing as another tremor hit the city and sent me tumbling to the floor. My head collided with the edge of my stove and split open on impact. Blood trickled down my eye brow. But I could not just lie there, so I placed my hand over my split brow, sucked it up and proceeded on. I had to go see what was happening; it was clearly an earthquake that much I knew. Staring through the window I saw people fleeing from the opposite buildings across the street. Then they started pouring out of my building. Flocking to each other like a herd of terrified sheep.

  The craziest thoughts filled my mind; I kept thinking “what the hell could this be”’. The rumbling sensation soon eased down and a small sense of relief filled the atmosphere. Immediately the grip of fear caused people to start spewing out different theories of what had just occurred. I heard the distant conversations from my window; some were saying it must have been an earthquake which did not happen that often, others opposed the idea saying that we would have been warned on the news or on the internet. One man shouted out insanities that it was the military doing bombing drills in the outskirts. But that idea was shut down fast, people didn’t feel right bad mouthing the government. If not Mother Nature and not man, what could be the reasoning to the events which had just taken place?

  Police, medical assistance and rescue teams soon arrived throughout the street, reassuring people everything was okay and it was safe to go back inside. I wanted to see firsthand what was happening on the streets, so I grabbed my jacket and ran for the door slamming it behind me. As I made my way to the staircase I wiped the blood from my face and continued. My body was so full of adrenaline I could not worry about the injury. Then an overwhelming feeling surged through my body, something wasn’t right. I slowed down and grabbed the banister, taking deep breaths as I proceeded downwards toward the next corridor. I noticed the buildings lights were still off and it was in complete darkness, I was scared, I have to admit I felt so alone, the more I walked the stronger the fear grabbed hold of me. I could vaguely hear frightened peoples conversations from behind their closed doors and had to restrain myself from banging on their doors and begging them to let me in.

  The passageways were empty, nobody wanted to come out and those who did were already on the street. So I continued my walk, I was bent over trying to get a lower sense of gravity in case the shaking began again. As I got to the second bend of the passageway I saw a figure in the distance. In the darkness it was hard to tell what it was, or if it even was human, it moved so clearly it was alive. I took two deep breaths and slowly made my way towards it. The closer I got the easier it became to indentify it was a person. A women with their back to the wall and head in their lap crouched up shivering and moaning.

  I approached her and took a knee,” Excuse me, excuse me miss are you okay?’’No response she just kept rocking back and forth into the wall.

  ”Miss it’s alright now, it’s all over.” I tried sounding as passive and compassionate as I could ,but the more I tried to console her the more erratic she became, rocking faster and hitting the wall harder.

  I reached out and grabbed her shoulder trying to calm her down. She lifted her head; I retracted my arm and fell over wide eyed. It was her, after all this time, all the situations I could have met her in, I meet her now in a panic scared for her life. She stared at me, frightened to the soul. Her eyes staring into mine; begging me to save her but before I could say a word it happened a third time. The building began shaking this time harder, large slabs of concrete separated from the roof and you could hear the violent thudding sounds as they met with parked cars below. Screams echoed throughout the town louder than before and panic set in. She leapt across the floor, threw her arm around me and started digging her nails into my back. The more it shook the harder she tightened her grip. I put my arm around her back and the other on the back of her head. I tried reassuring her everything was okay, but she could hear in the tone of my voice I was as petrified as her.

  Just as before the shaking quickly came to an end. Slowly she peeled her face away from my shoulder; her face was masked with runny mascara and her bright blue eyes where now red, bloodshot from all the crying, for a moment she just looked at me through the dim light.

  Then she spoke, “You!’’, I smiled she had recognised me from the day I spilt my trash all over her. “How are you feeling?”” Do you need some water, I can go get you some water?’’ I was so eager to please.”No stay, stay here I don’t want to be alone right now.”

  So we sat there in the corridor for at least an hour. Saying nothing, just listening to the commotion happen all around us.

  Slowly people started to emerge from their doors, the lights returned and questions started circulating. Everybody wanted to know what was going on, no one felt safe and as humans do when ever a panic sets in speculation soon follows. Just as I had heard the people on the streets do, people in the building also began speculating what was going on.

  ”It’s them, you all know it but hell, you people are too ignorant to acknowledge it, they are coming for us, they did this to us.”

  A group of people had formed just a few meters away from us. The speaker of the unsettled mob was an overweight paranoid woman who went by the name Mrs Jenkins. She lived her life thinking most normal everyday occurrences were the plans of extra terrestrial trying to make our lives living hell for no apparent reason. The tubby lady’s only companions were six or seven cats and no one took her serious. A man from the back of the mob interrupted her with a more sound theory; he said he heard something about explosion going off in other large cities due to the build up of methane gas from under the sewers, somewhat a spontaneous combustion effect causing them. Then another woman spoke out and believed the shaking was from an earth quake in the ocean bed just a few miles from the city, she believed a tsunami would soon follow and panicked while trying to get everyone to take heed.

  But Mrs Jenkins shut down all of their Ideas and began screaming even louder, this was the platform she always desired, this was her chance to deliver her message. “Are you so blind you cannot see its them, they are doing this to us, I tell you it is the aliens!”

  ”Shut up you crazy bat, aliens my ass!”From the back a cocky mans scratchy hard voice came.

  ”A sudden shaking of the ground, no reports, perfect weather outside, like hell it was aliens.””There’s only one logical explanation for this and I’ll give you a hint, they damn sure aint green, think a little darker meat sweet cheeks!” Mrs Jenkins quietly disappeared into the back of the mob as the man approached the middle, clearly she did not want to argue with him.

  A tall old man entered the middle of the crowd. His face was petrifying, his arms wrinkled and marked from top to bottom with faded tattoos. On the side of his neck was a large swastika which looked as if it had been done in a drunken stupor, by a prison mate, with only a knife and pen ink as his tools. The man’s eyes fixed towards another man standing in his doorway. Who was quietly minding his own business listening to the crowd.

  The man exited his doorway and confronted is accuser. “What are you implying sir?”

  Sharif took a step out of his apartment, only centimetres from his door now. His children peeped from behind him and his wife stood right by his side. She was beautiful, like an Arabian princess her hair was tick and black, the skin as silkily smooth as olive oil, her eyes green contrasting against her dark skin. Even through all the commotion and with this mystery woman I had dreamt about for days now at my side, I could not stop myself staring at the Arab man’s wife who was a picture of true beauty. T
he conversation was getting heated and I had once again focused all my attention on the two men involved.

  ”You know damn well what I’m implying!”“Your terrorist brethren have something to do with this, this was done by your kind, admit it you Al-Shibaab, Al Qaeda, son of a bitch!”Sharif simply smiled at the man infuriating him even more than he already was.

  ” You ignorant old fool, something goes wrong and it is Arab related, do you not take into consideration that there hasn’t been one terrorist threat to the United States let alone the entire world in the last five years! Has it not occurred to you that it could just be the obvious hand of Mother Nature doing what she has done throughout time?”

  ”That don’t mean you goat marrying sons of bitches aint responsible for this one “the argument heated up. Both men readied for a physical confrontation.

  Sharif pushed his girls back into the apartment and stepped out getting ready to tackle the man to the ground. But he was too sly for the Arab; he had slowly slipped his hand into his pocket and reached for his switch blade. We were about to whiteness a blood bath right in front of all these children, somebody had to stop this.

  “ENOUGH!” The men ceased their squabbling .I could Identify the voice without even seeing him, It was Mr Smith our Landlord, The aggressive short man made his way through the pack.

  ”You back inside”, Sharif stared the man down

  “Mr Muhammad back inside” Sharif turned his back and unhappily made his way into his apartment, his eyes still burned red hot with fury, he had been embarrassed in front of everybody and what was worse, he had been embarrassed in front of his family.

  ”As for you” he turned his attention towards the man who started the confrontation.

  “Jacob you racist son of a bitch, if I ever ,I mean ever hear you speak about someone who lives in this building like that again it will be the last time you step foot in here.’’

  “Now get your ass back to your apartment!”Jacob smiled and got right into Smith’s face.

  “Or what little man little man?’’

  Smith was certainly not the type of person to be easily intimidated, his years in the military had made him hard; he had seen more than his fair share of combat worldwide. He would most probably still be out there if he could have his own way. Smith was deployed on numerous occasions to different parts of the world fighting for the United Nation. But he was no relief, food brining truck driver for the U.N, no Smith was sent into the pits of hell, he was sent into places no sane person would go, from remote Congo jungles to icy snowy peaked mountains of Serbia; he took down many ruthless men and even rescued a Mexican Diplomat who had been captured of the shores of Los Cabos by the cartel while on holiday with his family.

  Smith Actually lead the team that took down African Dictator Vincent Mandul and his Militia, which had run rampant in Ethiopia for at least a dozen years or so, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Ethiopians. Smith was a hard man, a man that believed in protocol, rules and direction. He was the perfect man to run a place like this and even though his days of combat had passed he still possessed the skill and frame of mind to hurt you if chose to disobey him.

  “Or ill break those tooth picks you call legs and kick your crippled ass out onto the street.”The men’s eyes were deadlocked, poised on each other, like two testosterone filled bulls ready to lock horns.

  ”If you say so, you the sheriff around these parts’” Sarcastically Jacob raised his arms in submission then further mocked Smith by saluting him just to stop half way and run his fingers through his hair.

  Jacob then turned his back and walked to his apartment.

  “As for the rest of you please relocate to your premises turn on your computers or televisions and stay there until we get instructions and information.”

  ”Being out here is only further risking your own safety and that of your families.”

  “For now I ask you all to make sure you are not directly standing or sitting underneath anything that could fall onto you, no fans, cabinets etcetera and in the event of another tremor take cover under something sturdy like a table or door frame, thank you and please everybody be safe.”

  The crowd dispersed at the orders of Smith and not a single tenant disobeyed him, soon the passageway was empty and eerily quiet. I was astounded how quickly the place cleared out and in the creepy utter silence only this women and myself remained. I picked myself off the cold clammy concrete, realising only then how numb my bottom was, we had been seated on the hard surface for quite some time. I then helped the girl up, there was still a slight shake in her hands, and her fear had not completely subsided yet. We started walking, she began gaining some composure but was still glued to my side, and she gripped my hand tightly. Our shoulders rubbed as we walked down the passage. Not before long she looked down only than realising she was holding a complete strangers hand. Immediately I could sense the situation getting very awkward very quickly. However I never panicked and just played it off smoothly as if nothing was weird about the whole ordeal.

  We both acted as if it was the norm and carried on walking down the passage, she stopped at B22.

  ”This is me,” She said then she slowly and reluctantly let go of my hand.

 

  As our hands separated I felt lost, knowing I would most probably never spend another intimate moment like this one with her almost drove me to tears. I could not understand why I had such strong feelings for this woman? Why was I so caught up by her?

  ”Hope you feel much better now, I’m sure all the commotion has subsided, things should be quite chilled from here on out.”

  ”But if there’s anything you need please don’t hesitate to come give me a buzz.”

  ”I’m actually just one floor above at flat A61.”She smiled again and opened her door

  “Thanks ...”

  “Cairo, my name is Cairo”

  ”Like the city?”She laughed,

  “Yes like the city,” I replied.

  She waited for me to respond. But I stood there wide eyed, caught in the moment not saying a thing. Not knowing what to do, bottle up by a concoction of infatuation, fear and many more emotions. She took control of the situation realising I was had no intention of doing so

  ”Well Cairo, the hero, who just strolls around saving maidens in distress are you going to be a real hero and make sure I’m okay in here?” “Or are you going to leave me here all by myself?”

  Her flirtatious manner overwhelmed me, I wasn’t ready for this. All I was expecting was a thank you at most a hug then both of us going our separate ways. So once again I found myself staring at her with no words, nothing but a lump in my throat I tried my hardest to string the slightest of sentences together, but what came out sounded like the moans of a cat being castrated! She knew I was nervous and she knew I was not going to make a move, from there on she knew I would do exactly whatever she wanted me to.

  She had me caught, hook, line and sinker.

  “Oh and by the way my name’s Layla.’’