RESOLVE

Chapter Four.

~Kene's POV~

Aside from the noise the workers made outside and the soft sound accompanied by the breeze from the ceiling fan in motion above, with its occasional creaking making it seem like it was bound to drop any minute, the room also served as my makeshift office was very much silent.

From the open window, my eyes were on Tejiri, Emma, Jude and the rest going to and fro, carrying the smelly half-dry timbers, Delivered by the lumber trucks yesternight.

They carried the bronze-coloured timbers from the storehouse–large enough to accommodate a church congregation stocked up with different kinds of woods, to the massive acre of unrestricted land space behind the tripartite building to lay them under the sun to kill the smell.

The land was guided by a line of trees used as a windbreaker and a zinc fence a foot behind the trees.

The dirty black cloth Tejiri wore on his head repeatedly dangled as he struggled with dragging mahogany, his teeth gritted and muscles bulging and glistening with sweat. The shiny surface made the fabric look wet from his position under the sun.

Although my eyes were on them, I wasn't paying attention. Instead, I was brooding, quietly calculating who would be up to a creepy stunt like this.

The unknown number had called me when I was still in bed this morning without getting a single word from the caller for about a minute before the call went off. But, of course, I'd been silent too for that whole minute, waiting for the caller to speak first, which could be expected in Nigeria.

The number had called an hour ago and done the exact thing, but I'd muttered a series of hello this time.

I'd ignored the weirdness that morning, thinking nothing of it and going about my normal activities.

But now, it wasn't calming.

I checked my phone for missed calls and wondered what kept Akan at the market. I'd sent him to the warehouse I usually got my materials from to get Velcro, glue, buttons, pins, leathers and fabrics for upholstery. I'd already paid for them and given him proper directions to the destination. But, unfortunately, he was taking too long already, over 10 hours, and he wasn't reachable on the phone either.

I sighed, walking to my desk, which was situated at the left corner of the room if you were standing opposite the entrance door. It had my laptop and camera and some sheets of papers clipped together, my copy of the agreement, which I'd written my signature on at the late hours of the previous day after my collection of woods had arrived here safely.

There was an invoice close to the wood-carved animal that was painted with various splashed colours.

Tunji had dropped the invoice there over two hours ago after arriving with the new set of saws and drills.

I should have known better than to send Akan to a place he didn't know. But, even though Tunji didn't know the area, he was at least savvy while Akan was, well, Akan.

The clock in the room ticked, and my eyes flew to it. It was already 3 pm, and I was starving. I let out a small yawn, my stomach making gurgling noises signalling that the worms it was accommodating were not at peace.

I collected the flask containing food Ifeoluwa had dropped on top of the small fridge this morning while I was parking sawdust at the second large building we used as the workshop, close to the storehouse, and I opened the flask peering inside.

My stomach grumbled again as the message passed to the brain from my nose when the atmosphere was filled with the smell of jollof rice and fried meat. I was tempted to dig in, but after Ife and her Iya-Ife had nearly killed me with pepper the first time I ate their food, I'd refrained from doing so again to any of the food she brought directly from her shop, always passing the food to Akan who was forever in love with their cooking, they were great cooks though, but the pepper was hell.