Continued from here
"Brrrrrrr! It is so damn cold.... brrrrrrrr!"
Timi looks in the direction of the voice as he steps out of the doorway into the grey light of dawn and sees Rachael, seated on a plastic deck chair, smoking. She is wearing a puffy white jacket with a furry brim around the hem of the hat, her uncovered thighs tightly squeezed together in an attempt to keep them warm.
She is all by herself, talking to no one in particular as she puffs at her cigarette.... seemingly lost in her cold little world. She does not even seem to notice him as steps outside. He is tempted to say something to the effect of it obviously not being too cold for a smoke but thinks the better of it and walks on to start his car.
The DJ at the club earlier had announced his place as the after-party venue and most of the cars at the cafe's parking lot had found their way to his address. Timi hadn't really been interested in an after-party but had let Mo convince him. Besides, he didn't feel too confident about driving for an hour in the state he was in and did not want to risk getting stopped by the police. He did not need another DUI citation. The last one had cost him way too much. And then, though he'd be hard pressed to admit this was the compelling reason, he had overheard Rachael's friend telling Tony that they were going to that after-party.
Now, as he walks to his car, he wishes he had driven home, the risk of getting that DUI notwithstanding. The after-party had merely been an extension of the dance-session before it, only with, perhaps, a more varied selection of music and the absence of a formal bar. He had not gotten into the music and the one beer he tried tasted like old piss, not that he would know what that tasted like, but it couldn't be far worse.
He'd tried to talk to Rachael and had gotten snubbed. She had even lied about her name. Purity, she had said to him when he shook her hand and told her his, then she had turned to her friend and acted as if he weren't there.
He had watched with mounting resentment as she'd slutted herself around the basement cum disco floor, bumping and grinding her big ass against every other guy, it seemed, in a most suggestive way. He had turned around in disgust when, while dancing to some reggae song, right in front of Timi, she had twined her legs around Ma's waist and flung herself back so that the tall lanky fellow, holding her firmly by her buttocks, swung her back and forth, in an emulation of a scene from a porn flick. From where he was standing, Timi could clearly see her black underwear, exposed as her dress got drawn back up her waist.
Yet now, as he sits in the car waiting for it to warm up, just as after he had found himself a couch then and tried to fall asleep even with the music blaring, he can't bring himself to stop thinking about her. He remembers that first time when she had blown her cigarette smoke at him. She probably didn't recognize him, or perhaps she was just playing hard to get. After all, she has no way of knowing that he does know her name.
*********
He's woken up by the sound of a door opening and loud voices as several people get into the car. He looks up and notices that it's even brighter than when he'd first walked out of the DJ's house.
"Dude, wake up," Mo as he gets into the front passenger seat, "we are taking these ladies to breakfast."
"
Ati what?" Timi can't believe it, he doesn't remember signing up to be anybody's chauffeur, "and where exactly do I come in?"
"Ah! Wee acha kuwa hivyo," Mo replies, unimpressed, "when was the last time you had such beauties in your car."
"African beauties at that,' A voice chips in from the back amidst some feminine giggling.
Timi turns around to see Ma grinning at him from the back seat, ensconced in the middle of Rachael and her light skinned friend. Rachael is leaning back in the chair, her eyes closed as if asleep. The giggles belonged to her friend who at the moment looks quite inebriated. "C'mon man, " making a show of batting her eyes, " be a gentleman and help these damsels in distress."
Timi turns back to Mo, " You are paying for my breakfast,'" he says resignedly, "where are we going?"
They end up at an empty Denny's whose night-time or early morning shift obviously aren't expecting anybody to show up this early. Coffee takes all of twenty minutes to be served, by which time two more carfuls have joined them from the after-party. Timi can't help but pity the poor waitress who's all of a sudden swamped by a rowdy crowd of hungry party animals who go on to tease and cajole her for the next hour and a half as she serves them breakfast.
Everyone is in a pretty good mood, and the banter is quite playful. Timi, although reluctant at first, is quickly drawn into it. As luck would have it, he is seated right next to Rachael who's in a corner seat by the wall.
"O.K. I think I know what I want but they don't have it on the menu," Her voice sounds more accented now, probably because of her fatigue, or because there is no loud music to mask it, but just as deep if not more. She pauses a little as if for effect and when everyone turns to hear what, she continues with a smile "Ugali and maziwa lala."
They all burst out laughing then everyone, as if vying for an originality title, names the Kenyan dish that comes to mind regardless of its absurdity as a breakfast meal. Some suggestions actually border on disgusting. Some he hasn't heard of in close to a decade.
"Are you ready to order?" Timi looks up to find the tired looking waitress looking expectantly at him, probably having singled him out as the most approachable of the group or something,
"Sure," He answers while trying to find the omelet he'd picked from the menu.
"I'd like this," He says pointing it out to her, " and this nice lady here" turning towards Rachael, "Will have whatever ugali you have that's left over from last night, with a glass of diet milk."
"She'll have what?"The poor waitress looks at him, bewildered, as the whole table bursts out in an uproar that has the cook peeping anxiously from behind the kitchen doors. It takes her twenty whole minutes, and as many different hues of red, to take their order as people make up and then change their minds. Timi is almost sorry that he started it but she seems to be taking it all in stride.
By the time they are done with the breakfast it's already eight in the morning and the regular patrons , mostly older white couples, are already walking in and seeing the disheveled youths at their table, are finding seats as far away from the noisy lot as possible then going on to throw their looks of disapproval from a safe distant. The rest of his friends, as far as Timi can tell, are unaware of their loudness, or even of the presence of other patrons in the restaurant as they continue to joke and heckle as they have their breakfast.
The scene turns more ridiculous when its time to pay. Nobody will take the check from the waitress and this time she seems intent on avoiding Timi's eyes, perhaps not wanting to be embarrassed again."I'll take that," He calls out to her, putting on as straight a face as he can muster. She hands it to him hesitantly, and winking at her, "these are my kid brothers and sisters, I'll take care of it for you."
She's shaking her head as she scurries out of there. Clearly this is a new experience for her. He looks over at the check and sees that most of the meals roughly averaged twelve dollars. Turning to the rest, "kila mtu, fifteen dolla" he demands fifteen dollars from each and goes on to tell them that there is no exception and that he is not taking any argument. That doesn't stop them from giving him shit, saying he's fallen for the Mzungu 'white' waitress, and asking if he takes charge cards.
Ten minutes later he walks up to her and hands her the check with the due money plus a twenty five dollar tip. She smiles gratefully at him and he can see how relieved she is as his party files out behind him still heckling as loud as ever.
Rachael, who had asked for the keys and excused herself earlier, is already in the car when they get there. She's in the front passenger seat so Mo, Ma and her friend, whose name apparently was Crystal, pile into the back of the bimma and promptly go to sleep.
"Great!" Timi thinks to himself as he gets into the driver's seat. He'd already made up his mind back at the after-party that he did not like this girl. Finding himself sitting next to her at breakfast had thrown him off a bit, but he had gotten over his hang up fast. He'd noticed that she liked attention and was constantly doing things that brought her the center of attention.
Now as he backs out of the Denny's lot and goes in search of the turnpike, he decides to ignore her, but her flipping from one radio station to another is rubbing him off the wrong place.
"Aren't you sleepy?" He asks testily.
She tilts her head sideways to look at him and fixes him with a deep penetrating stare as if she's trying to read from his face what is behind his query. Finally, she shakes her head, "Nope! I never sleep." She says and continues to look at him as if waiting for him to contest the claim.
He doesn't say anything so she continues, "I haven't slept at all since Thursday."
This is said in a tone that suggests that she finds that fact quite amazing herself. Timi doesn't show it on his face, but he doesn't believe her. He wonders why she feels the need to lie to him. Does she think that he might be impressed by her super-insomnia?
"So, how come you haven't? Didn't you have to work on Friday?" He asks her, noting that she is still observing him from her side, as if waiting for a certain reaction.
"I did." She answers, then goes on to explain how it had been her sister's birthday and that they had stayed out so late that by the time she had gotten to her apartment, it had not made any sense to go to sleep when she would be getting up in a couple of hours anyway. She goes on to tell him about the many parties that she and Crys, as she called her friend, had been to on Friday.
"Oh my God!" Putting more emphasis on the words than Timi thought was necessary, "I don't even know how we got to Springfield. Our car is somewhere in Worcester."
Over breakfast he had learnt a few things about the two girls... one being that they were both Burundians or from Burundi and that they both lived in Marlborough, a city twenty minutes or so northeast of Worcester. Another, and this had come as a surprise to him, they did not know either of the twins in the back from before. How do you get into a car with a bunch of strangers just like that, he wonders.
"Somewhere?" He asks skeptically.
"I know.... it's crazy," She says, her words mirroring his thoughts. He's about to ask her how she aims to find out where the car is or how to get home but notices that she is no longer paying attention to him. She is singing along to some RnB-ish gospel song, having chanced upon a gospel channel. She is now leaning back, more towards her side at an angle facing towards him. Her face is turned upwards and her weave has fallen evenly around her small round face, slightly covering the outer edges of her closed eyes giving her a trance-like angelic face.
Her lips are barely moving but he can hear the murmured phrases over the car stereo. There is something more to her than meets the eye, he figures. Dismissing her as a tramp or a hood rat as he almost had would be missing something, if only he could figure out what. His mind again went back to that initial sighting at Higgins Industrial Park, then quickly replays the scenes from last night to this morning.
*******
"You better slow down Timi, there is a cop ahead of us." Rachael calls out urgently.
"Oh crap!" Snapping out of his reverie, Timi taps the brake pedal automatically as he fast approaches the blue cruiser parked alongside the turnpike. He glances at the dial and realizes he was doing close to 80 when she warned him. He taps the brakes again as he passes the cruiser.
He has a terrible feeling, even as he crosses his fingers and even before he sees the cop car pull out right after he goes by that cop had clocked him. He watches in his rear-view mirror as the trooper gains on him and when about fifty yards behind, flashes his high beams then turns the flashing blue lights on his dashboard on. Timi slows down and indicates with his right side blinker before pulling onto the breakdown lane.
"Aww! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Timi glances at the back seat where the three are still sleeping. Mo is leaning against his door on the passenger side, his head leaning hard against the tinted glass. His mouth is slightly open and there is a thin line of drool running from the right edge of his mouth and disappearing into his chin.
Crystal is laying against him, his jacket pulled over her body, covering all but her face. Her legs are splayed over Ma's lap, who is sleeping seated up straight. Timi shakes his head at the sight as he turns his attention to the copper behind him in the rear-view mirror. He is taking his time coming out. Probably running his plates to see if it's a stolen vehicle.
Feeling Rachael's gaze on him, He turns and finds her in that curious pose again, head tilted to one side as she contemplates him with her half open eyes. He is not sure what he sees in them, pity, empathy, admiration... it could be anything, or nothing.
"He's coming to your side," He says to her as he catches sight of the black state trooper in her side's side mirror. He lowers the window on her side and the trooper after peering into the back seat, stops just before he is full view and stoops to look into the front. He barely glances at Rachael who is now leaning her small body as far back into the chair as possible before glaring straight at Timi.
"Good morning Sir! Do you know why I stopped..." He begins his standard speeding motorist salutation. Timi has often wondered if this is taught at the police academy. The policeman, however doesn't finish, before Rachael excitedly cuts him off.
"Oh my God! Benson, is that you?" She exclaims, before bursting out in laughter.
Timi sees that the officer is just as startled as he is, as he gives Rachael another look and starts to smile as he recognizes her. "What the....., Rachael? Step out of the car gal, where the hell are you coming from?"
Timi, still anxious, watches as Rachael, not bothering to hide her excitement unbuckles and jumps out of the car and gives Officer Benson, standing almost a foot and a half taller than he,r a hug. "Must be an old pal," He figures as the two start talking all at once.
Rachael: "Is this where they transferred you to?"
Officer: "Still partying hard I see...."
"Please shut that window." He glances back and sees that Crystal and Ma are awake and she is shivering, even with Mo's jacket wrapped around her. He reaches out and rolls up the window, and Crystal fills them in on Officer Benson and Rachael outside.
Benson and Rachael's boyfriend had been best friends and had served together in Iraq, three years back. Benson had made it out, Rachael's fiance at the time hadn't. On his dismissal, Benson had applied to the State Trooper Academy, and in that first year, he and Rachael had become close, but due to the connection, he had opted not to get involved with her romantically. As far as Crystal knew, they hadn't seen or talked to each other since he'd graduated.
Timi watches as the two embrace after exchanging numbers. The tall policeman opens the door and pokes his head in and looks in the back seat. "What's this Crystal, you don't wanna holla at your boy?" He chides her.
"Ah aaah!" She answers leaning forward between the two seats and kissing him lightly on the cheek, "This sista ain't stepping out in that cold fa nobody, Mr. Officer, Sir" she replies flippantly.
"I see how how it is," The officer smiles as he backs out and lets Rachael in. He waits till she is buckled up before leaning in and addresses Timi this time, "Take it easy man, this is my gal right here, " smiling at Rachael, "you don't wanna be messing with her."
Timi nods as he shuts the door and steps back. He watches as Benson walks back to his cruiser before shifting into first and driving off.
*******
"Phew!" Timi is relieved, "That was close....."
He glances sideways at Rachael who is bunched against her door, staring straight ahead, dreamily, her lips smiling slightly. He notices the goosebumps on her exposed thighs, and turns up the heat.
She notices the gesture and smiles gratefully at him.
"I miss that boy" She says absently.
There is a heaviness in her tone as she says those words that tugs at Timi's heart. He wants to ask about her boyfriend but decides against it.
"O.K. Who am I dropping off first and where?" He asks loudly to no one in particular as they drive by a green sign that states 'Worcester, Next 3 Exits'
