The Almost Kiss
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A Novel by Nick Nwaogu
Uche turns a Valentine date into a blood bath before midnight. Everybody thinks he is dead, but a strange text message triggers a series of twisted events, which proves that he's still alive and in the wind, and that the life of his ex, Chioma, is hanging by a thin thread.
Follow Femi as he uncovers a murder mystery that nobody even knew happened.
Excerpt
It was early in a chilly Monday morning with spotless white ominous clouds of fog wrapping every inch of nature. Long trains of soothing dry Harmattan wind receded hurriedly towards Femi as breaths of warm packs of air broke free from under his wide nostrils into oblivion.
The often vibrant tropical sun appeared to be lethargic as it slept comfortably in the blue sky. Life in the populous and poorly sanitized city of Lagos seemed to be panning out faster than the day before.
It was February 15, 2016, a day after Saint Valentine’s Day—Christmas for the hopeless romantics, but for folks like Femi, it was just a typical day of work.
Femi restlessly sat in a yellow ramshackle commercial bus prying along the unforgettable Catholic Mission Street. With his fingers and chin numb with cold, his hands found refuge in his trouser pockets. He peeped through the shattered window beside him at the busy and familiar city that stretched to infinity. He was neatly presented in an essentially decorated Nigeria Police uniform, looking smart as always. The three red ‘V’s on his blue, short sleeves indicated that the dashingly-handsome officer was a Sergeant. Waking up in the morning knowing fully well that it could be your very last day, meeting and dealing with hardened and unrepentant criminals, chasing hoodlums down the street and getting shot at—that was as close to prudence as it got when you're an itinerant 30-something-year-old police officer in an environment where many craved for fast money and illegal activities.
His bus rode pass the ever-busy Lagos City Hall, the famous King’s College with students in sparkling white uniform loitering along the corridors before assembly was due to start, and the French gothic style architecture of the Holy Cross Cathedral with a few worshippers praying before the grotto.
Though born in Lagos, this was the first time the young officer had been to this part of town.
Like every other day in a chaotic city, a tourist could see and appreciate the daily and routinely hustle of hardworking and ‘fast-walking’ locals reporting to their workplaces, even before the sun rose.
They could easily take photographs of derelict public buses prying speedily and dangerously along poorly maintained highways, leaving a trail of thick poisonous fumes in their tracks, thus awakening self-destruction.
One could even catch a sight of a stampede, as determined and desperate ‘Lagosians’ aggressively struggle to board already-moving buses that are jam-packed with noisy citizens, and fearless young men literally hanging on the edge of bus’ entrances with their eyebrows kneaded in slight worry.
Every living thing that drew breath, even the roosters, were busy, crowing and roaming around every edge of emptiness, ducking to the filthy grounds beneath their feet, perpetually in search of food.
The well-enjoyed and long-overstayed weekend break was over, and the daily monotonous routine of the chief commercial city of its nation, unfolded all over again.
Femi finally arrived at Saint Nicholas House, a white fourteen-storey mixed-use building. ‘Saint Nicholas dey?’ the shabby bus conductor dressed in slippers and a smelly undershirt, barked in Pidgin English. ‘Saint Nicholas dey,’ Femi hurled back.
He disembarked as soon as the dilapidated vehicle came to a halt. The moment his well-polished black Valentino leather shoes hit the tarred road, the bus sped off, recklessly hugging the road again.
Femi stood tall before the high-rise building.
Slowly, he raised his head, training his sight at the skyscraper rooted before him, while private vehicles and commercial tricycles pried along the expensive Campbell road behind him. Beside him was an empty white ambulance, completely buried in the faint shadow of the tall building. After a momentary admiration of the elite landscape, he inched behind two female nurses in clean white uniform, headed for the entrance of the building, chitchatting to one another in high-pitched voices and laughing. There was a large blue signboard just above the entrance, which read ‘St. Nicholas Hospital’. Femi was welcomed to a neat, orderly and somewhat quiet king-size room. His orbs bright with anticipation, flicked across every square foot of the reception hall diffused with inaudible sounds. There was an old lady, finely wrinkled, completely grey-haired, wearing an old-fashion reading glasses, probably in her mid-70s, been pushed on a wheel chair by a young female nurse dressed in neat uniform.
The room was mainly crammed with five rows of posh iron benches where families of patients impatiently waited. Some were in grief, others were in tears, but many were overwhelmed with anxiety without any verbal interaction with anyone. Seated on one of the benches was a young gentleman on blue shirt and a plain grey trouser, swiping the screen of a sleek tablet, with his eyes glued on it. Next to him was an exhausted lady dressed in a native purple attire, dozing off without a snore. Behind them was a robust woman dressed in an uncommon ankara fabric, discreetly talking to herself in despair.
There was a vending machine at one corner of the room filled with attractively wrapped foods and bottled drinks. Next to the machine was the bronze sculpture of the Late Nigerian gynecologist and obstetrician, Moses Majekodunmi who founded the hospital. In front of everyone was a beautifully-lit mini-grocery store with an equally beautiful female store-attendant wearing an enchanting smile as she read Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook. Femi swaggered further into the hall-like room, towards the stunning receptionist who comfortably sat behind a busy desk, chewing gum, and routinely stroking the keys of a keyboard, while perpetually staring at a bright computer monitor mounted in front of her…
‘The Almost Kiss’ is available wherever books are sold.