9 Cast Of Two (2/2)

'Oga make I go check this woman,' he suggests, 'She dey waste

our time . . .'

Oga hesitates; he looks at his watch again, and decides, 'Okay,

make it sharp . . . and hurry her up! Let me call the station . . .'

He dials his girlfriend's number, frowning at his watch – she would be waiting.

The young recruit leaps up the stairs, his bladder now fatally swollen. He does not look for her; he dashes straight for the toilet.

She is in there, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, staring at the flapping curtain, smiling ominously. She looks up, with a start, when the constable bursts in.

He stops.

'. . . it was our wedding anniversary yesterday. I don't think he remembered. Fifteen years. And you end it with a walk through a twelfth-floor bathroom window. Taking all those years with you, everything . . .'

In the middle of her lament she suddenly reaches out and s.n.a.t.c.hes the policeman's side arm from its holster on his hip, and in the same fluid motion points it at her face.

Even the policeman had never used the regulation .38 Police Special pistol before; it had just been part of his uniform. He had never heard a shot fired so close; it is deafening!

BANG!

The force and abruptness of the sound pushes the urine from his bladder, and the liquid explodes all over his new black trousers.

He cannot hear himself screaming – he is deaf.

The flapping curtain has fallen; now it is just s.h.i.+vering gently, at half mast, as the breeze drops.

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