UNTAMED

Part Thirty Five

      He was carrying a bag. He placed the bag on the table close to the chairs, then brought out two flasks, two spoons and two bottled water. He was not looking angry. She stood waiting for him to get mad at her for leaving her room.
“Time for lunch. Thanks to Jason, I won’t be preparing lunch.” he said pointing at a seat opposite where he was sitting down.
“Halima let’s eat unless you want me to eat yours too. Come. I’m waiting”
She dropped the book on the round chair and sat down where Beast was pointing at. He opened the smaller flask and pushed it towards her, then opened the bigger flask. Immediately, he started eating.
“Eat Halima.”
He was not saying anything about what she did. She looked at the flask and saw it was jollof rice and a big meat. She took her spoon and started eating.
“Good. As for your drugs, Doc thinks you are okay. So no more drugs.”
As she ate, she took a peek at him.
“Halima eat” he said making her look at her food.
Soon Beast had finished his food in the flask. He opened one of the bottles of water and finished it in one gulp making her gasp. He stood up, carried his things and left the room but came back few minutes later with a bottle of Fanta. He placed it close to her.
“You can drink it while you read. If you don’t like it, then go take your choice from the fridge. I have so many newspapers to read” he said leaving the room.
He did not come back. The Fanta she knew was in a glass bottle but the one Beast brought was in a rubber bottle. She opened it and took a sip. It was so delicious. She could not remember the last time she had a drink. She went back to her chair and continued her book. She read for long and was almost through when Beast came back again.
“Halima is time for dinner” he said.
She rushed to her food but she was too late, Beast had seen she had not finished it. He went to the wall and pressed something and the room became dark.
“I don’t think you know it’s dark already. Is the book you are reading that interesting?”
The room became bright again. She nodded in response to his question.
“I can see you did not finish your food” he said taking a spoonful of rice.
“It’s still tasting fine. So just have it as dinner and go to your room” he said leaving the room.
Something was wrong. Beast was acting weird. He was not acting like the other man in the other house.
She was back in her room after taking her flask downstairs and washing everything. She went to the window for the garden. Outside was still bright even though it was night. The light suddenly went off and it became dark, even the other side became dark too but there was still light in her room. She entered the bathroom to take another shower and discovered for the first time that there were two taps with hot and cold written on them.  Under the taps was a big strong bowl. She turned on the hot tap and put a finger but quickly removed it. It was too hot. She quickly turned on the cold one and placed her burnt finger under it to reduce the burning sensation. She left the bowl and the taps and used the shower.
She tried to sleep but could not. She kept thinking about the girl. What if the man was loving her at that moment? It was her fault she did not tell her the truth. She climbed down from the bed and sat by the wardrobe. She felt sad for the girl but also felt sad for herself. She still had Beast to deal with. She was still skinny but what if Beast changed his mind and decided to touch her? As if Beast knew what she was thinking, the door opened and Beast came in. She was right. He had changed his mind. Fear laced through her as he came closer. He bent down close to her, covering the whole space.
“Halima, what’s with the wardrobe? Why are you still awake?”
She had nothing to answer, his deep voice was making her shake with fear. He raised her up and took her to the bed. He joined her after placing her on the bed. He held her like the other night but there was a little difference. Her head was under his jaw and he was closer than the other night.
“Halima this is the last time I’m coming to make you sleep. So listen to what I’m going to say. I’m not going to touch you as you call it. I will never touch you Halima. I hope you know why?”
She nodded.
“Tell me”
“I’m skinny. You won’t touch me until I’m chubby”
“Let’s change that now. I will never touch you because you will never be chubby enough, even if you become chubby, you are still very short and you will never grow taller than you are right now. I like chubby, fair and tall girls. And you are not any of the three. So I will never touch you. You did not meet my standards. So you can stop worrying about that. Okay?”
She nodded. He still held her. It was too good to be true. He would never touch her, she felt elated but her fears came back immediately.
“Are you going to whip me if I disobey you?” she asked before she could stop herself.
He held her tighter and she could feel his breathing had become very fast. She wished she had not asked. He was angry. She waited for him to strike her but he did not, slowly he released his tight hold on her.
“Halima that is never going to happen. Only a coward and a weak person whip people like you. There will be no touching and whipping”
She must be dreaming. There was no way it was real.
“Now that I will not touch you because you are not my type and I cannot whip you because you are too small, what do you think I should do with you?” he asked.
It was true, he would not whip or touch her.
“I I I” she stammered thinking of what to say before he changed his mind.
“It’s okay Halima. Don’t rush, settle down and think. You can tell me tomorrow. Now is time to sleep. I will leave once you are asleep”
She felt instant relieve. She would come out with something tomorrow. Her eyes felt tired and heavy and immediately she closed her eyes, she slept off.
  She opened her eyes and discovered Beast was gone. There was light coming from the window. It was another morning. She quickly ran to the window. She saw Beast at the man. They were pouring water on the plants using a pipe. He turned and looked at her almost as if he knew she was there. She immediately left the window and went to the other window. The girl was not riding the bicycle but was running on a surface. She kept running but did not leave her position. She could not understand how that was possible. She looked her way and waved at her smiling. She was looking okay. It meant the man had not started loving her. She still had time to tell her to run. She waved back at her and smiled back. But she stopped immediately. Beast had told her to think of what he would do with her. She quickly left the room and slowly climbed down, then ran to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and saw some eggs and some tomatoes. She tried to pick the salt and onions but it was too high. She went to the dining and carried one of the chairs.
  Within twenty minutes, she had prepared egg sandwich as Beast called it. She carried everything to the dinning and something flashed in her memory. She had done something like that before. She set Beast’s food and her food, then prepared a cold tea for Beast then a hot tea for herself. As she was placing the bread on the table, she heard Beast’s voice but he had entered from the kitchen.
“Halima what are you doing?” he asked from her back making her jerk.
She turned to talk to him but her mouth did not move.
“Wow, you made breakfast?” he asked walking towards the place he had sat the other day and where she had placed his food.
“But why?” he asked.
“You said I should think of what you can do with me. I want to be cooking for you” she stuttered.
“Hell no. Think of something else. You have today and tomorrow. I don’t want a cook. I can cook for myself” he said.
She wanted to tell him he was a bad cook but she kept her mouth shut, instead she nodded.
“But you’ve already made breakfast. I won’t to reject it. Sit let’s eat” he said already filling his bread with the sandwich.
She watched and waited for his reaction. He closed his eyes as he took a bite. He picked his cup with tea and drank from it.
“Wow, you even knew I like cold tea. This is delicious. Halima why aren’t you eating?”
She quickly picked her cup of tea and sipped from it.
As she ate, she risked a glance at Beast. He was really a big eater. She had a lot she would want to find out but was afraid to ask.
“Halima, you keep opening your mouth like you want to say something. What is it? Tell me. I’m all ears. Remember I don’t whip girls.” he said taking another sip of his cold tea.
“What is love?” she asked the first thing that entered her mouth, although that was not how she wanted to put it.
He dropped the cup on the table and started coughing. She knew it. She shouldn’t have ask. He would get angry.
“Halima where did that come from? That was out of the blue” he said after he stopped coughing.
She kept quiet not knowing what to answer.
“Did you hear that from Cindy and Jason?”
Cindy was that girl, which meant Jason was the man with her. She nodded.
“See what they have caused, now I’m made to face the consequence” he said looking at her.
“Love, what is love? The love you are asking about is not the general term, it’s because of those insane lovers. Okay. What really is love? Hmm I think love is the emotional feeling you have for someone. Like you love that person. What am I even saying? I’m using love to define love. But I should know what love is. Okay, love is when you have a feeling towards someone. You want to always be with that person, you feel happy around that person and you don’t want to ever lose that person. Yeah. I think that’s love” he said filling another slice of bread with sandwich.
But that was wrong. That was not what Chief said. And Chief was always right. Was he trying to deceive her?
“Do you love me?” she asked.
He was already putting the sandwich in his mouth when she asked. He dropped it immediately and started coughing. Why did he cough whenever she asked her questions? He was the one who said she could ask.
“Hell no Halima. I don’t hate you but I don’t love you. Based on the love you are asking about. No I don’t love you and I will never love you. Abigail was the only woman I’ve ever loved and it will remain like that” he said.
She gasped as he mentioned Abigail. That meant Chief was right. She was instantly happy he did not love her. Immediately, she believed he would never touch her because he did not love her. But she was sad for Abigail. She must have been tall and chubby that was why he loved her and had killed her when she tried running away. She gasped again when she remembered Cindy. Cindy was in danger.
“The way you are reacting shows that you have another meaning about love. What is it? What do you think love is?”
She shook her head. He must not know she knew the real meaning of love.
“Halima, you can tell me. I promise I won’t be mad. You know I keep to my promise”
He was right, he had kept to his promises.
“Love is when a man sees a girl and take her and lock her up. Then he shows her love by whipping her back and buttocks and touching her after the whipping, then he whips her again, then after that, he tells her he loves her, then she must tell him back”
Just when she stopped talking, a plate flew past her head making her scream from fear. He was not just angry, he was very mad. She shouldn’t have told him. He was angry she knew the truth.
‘I’m going to kill him slowly” he shouted.
She came down from her chair and shook from fear waiting for him to strike her. She heard an unfamiliar noise and turned but screamed. She felt someone pull her up and pull her close. It was Beast that held her. She did not know when she pushed herself closer. She preferred Beast to what she was seeing. It was moving around the splattered food on the ground and swallowing it into its big mouth.
“Halima, I can feel your fear. Breathe. It’s nothing to fear. This is a machine that sweeps and cleans the house. It must have come from the store or kitchen, I don’t know. But that man you saw with that girl can make a lot of things. That’s why I told you not to sweep. You are safe Halima. Just breathe okay” he said.
She studied the machine. It was true. It had cleaned everything, even the broken pieces of the plates had disappeared. The machine started going towards the kitchen after moving round the parlor and dinning.
“You see. It’s just a machine” Beast said gently pulling away from her.
“I'm late for a meeting. Finish your meal and clean up the plates” he said leaving the dinning.
He walked towards a glass door and pressed something, it opened and he left.
She slowly went back to her seat. Was Beast still angry with her? She did not even ask about the gold thing she saw in their hands. She made up her mind to never ask him again but she would find a way to tell the girl.
As she entered the kitchen with her empty plates, she looked around for the machine. It was there by the fridge. How come she never noticed it? It was not moving at there was no light coming out of it.
She placed her plate on the sink and as she went to pick Beast’s plate and cup, she felt somehow happy for herself. She was safe. Beast did not love her.