Living in a safer neighborhood opens up endless possibilities

I jumped when she jumped in. I could see beads of perspiration trickling down her hair through the sides of her face to her neck. She was panting heavily and had her frame pressed against the door while trying to catch her breath.

Source
“What is it?” I asked as I pulled her away from the door, turning the key in the lock twice and inserting the bolts at the top and bottom of the door.

“Treasure….” She said weakly. “The door is locked right?”

I nodded in response. My own heart had begun thudding in my chest and I kept giving sideway glances towards the door as if expecting someone to break in.

“You won't believe what happened today” She had finally caught her breath, just that her voice was almost a whisper.

“What happened?”

“I was returning home from the shop this evening when I heard a loud bang, it sounded unmistakably like a gunshot….”

“In this our estate?” I asked, my eyes darting once more towards the door. She nodded.

“I hurried to walk through the gates thinking it was safer since our security men were there. As I walked past, I could hear the chief security officer giving instructions for the gate to be shut until the fracas died down. I was quite relieved and brought my phone out to call you so I could ask if you were at home….”

Something suddenly crashed to the ground in the kitchen causing us both to leap up, trembling like leaves. I turned on my phone torchlight and went over to see what it was.

My pots lay haphazardly around the kitchen floor. They had obviously not been properly arranged, I gave a relieved sigh.

“So what happened next?”

“It was then that I heard pandemonium behind me. The security guards were running helter-skelter, looking for places to take cover.”

“Jesus!”

“Treasure, I took my sandals off and ran the race of my life. I don't even know what street I entered. When I got to a calm place, I saw that motorcycles were still going on with their normal business in that part of the estate so I flagged one down. It was when I boarded that motorcycle that the driver was trying to explain what the whole drama was about”

My mouth hung open. She rose to head into the kitchen. I could hear her rummaging through the cupboard and knew almost immediately that she wanted to snack on some cornflakes.

“The driver told me that cultists have been having clashes around here for some time now…”

“Cultists!” She nodded. I allowed the crunching noise from her chewing to die down before I urged her on.

“The man just said I should quit walking around at night, that even the security personnel have been too weak to hold them down. It's terrible o”

“Hmmm,” I sat to ponder on what I had just heard. How were we to restrict our night movements when my roommate closed from work by 7 pm and most of my production rehearsals in the Department of Theatre Arts ended around the same time?

And even if we found a way to meander out of those situations, did cultists not also clash in the daytime?

“I just wish we didn't have security issues in this country” my roommate's voice brought me back to the situation at hand.

“Is that even possible? We're not just facing this crisis in this country. It's everywhere. No matter how many jobs you want to offer the youths, some people will still decide to be possessed amongst them and cause trouble”

“You're right, Treasure. Some people just exist for the purpose of causing others pain. I hope I don't come across those kinds of people in my life. But come to think of it…” she began again after a brief moment of silence. “If there were no security issues, I would have preferred to work at night. It would have been easier for me to stay back at the shop and work on the designs I have prepared for customers already”

“Yeah, and some places would be fun to visit at night. Imagine going to a garden to sit in the cool atmosphere. What amazing inspirations I would have!”

“Then imagine taking trips at night…” she climbed into bed after a sip from her water bottle.

“I just know that if not for the security trouble in the world today, I would sleep all through the day and work at night. Maybe I would get to meet real owls then”

“You mean real witches…”

We both laughed as I also climbed into bed, grateful that we were both safe, at least, for that night.