The Last Trip Down The West 2

The agreement had been reached, her "uncle" had collected the money and left. Mary looked at the mansion that stood before her. One of the perks of being a house maid was that she had gotten to enter some really beautiful houses in her own time.


 Even though she had mostly had to sleep in a side building, maybe the boys quarters or the security post. She had come to learn that the rich people were not all the same. Some were more animals than humans, others were more human than animals. But all rich people were essentially animals. She had worked in a lot of houses before then but as she stood before this big beautiful house, she knew this was still the most beautiful building she had ever been. it was huge and every inch of it smelt like money. Mary smiled inwards as the man who was to be her boss walked into the house, signaling for her to follow him. Life has a way of playing jokes on humans... now that she had decided to run away, she was lucky... or maybe unlucky as the case may be to be put in such a beautiful house to work for this totally handsome man.

Talking of handsome men...

She looked at her new boss who had seated himself in a couch opposite from the one he had motioned for her to sit. He was a well built man. he reminded her of Oseni. Oseni the local wresting champ of her village. Full of ripped chest muscles and vibrating tendons. Oseni, her secret crush and sweetheart. he had followed the older hunters on a trip in 2006, she had been so proud of him when she heard he was going. Even though Oseni had always followed the fair skinned girls, the chief's daughters... she knew he was hers to keep. She knew that someday... Oseni would find that she and only she loved him like no other. She shook her head and blinked twice. She looked at the man in the chair. He had been saying a lot if things and she hadn't been paying attention. Presently he was saying

" Can you read and write Mary?" he was asking

"Oga... i dey try small small " she answered in faltering tongue. she would not disclose how much she knew to him. she wanted to be untraceable when she did decide to vamoose out of his fine house.

"okay... that is good. but can you also keep secrets?" he asked

The room suddenly started to spin around her and spin her around. The sentence repeated itself through the mouths that suddenly grew on the walls. around and around, louder and louder , she started to hyperventilate and as much as she tried to stop it, she couldn't. she remembered those same words...

"can you keep a secret!!"

"you should keep this a secret"

" your coming here is a secret. nobody knows... if you tell them, tjey wont believe you"

"keep it a secret and maybe ill be nice to you..."
" secrets... secRETS...SECrets...SecrETS... SECRETS!!!!"
M-A-R-Y!!"
it was her new employer calling out loud. She started and looked up hastily.
" Are you sure you can handle the duties that would be given to you around here you seem distracted? " he asked, looking like he was ready to put her on e next vehicle back o her "uncle".

"oga...!" she said as she sat up quickly and tried to compose herself.. " no vex abeg... na that so... so... travel wey we travel dey do me like this. abeg no vex."she said timidly. He looked at her and decided she might be right. Maybe she was tired from the journey.

" okay... i will ask the cleaner to show you your duties. and your room" he said and stood up, stretched and started to leave the room. Mary looked at him, surprised and unsure how to react. did he just say cleaner? if there was acleaer in the house... why did they need her? what was to be her role exactly?

"oga..." she called with arms outstretched. He turned around and looked at her. "as you don talk say na cleaner go dey show me wetin i go dey do... if una get cleaner... wetin i go come do?"

He looked at her and smiled. It was a sad smile but it was a smile all the same. He turned around and went back to the chair he was in. He motioned for her to sit too and said...

"Mary... you are not here to clean or cook or anything of the sort. you are here to help me keep a secret. " he stood up and started to walk out of the room" Come with me." he said.

Mary stood up ad followed him. they went through a long hallway that had portraits of a lot of people on the walls." These people must be important... big big men..." Mary thought. at the end of the hallway was a door that stood alone. Strangely apart from the rest of the building. Even before he opened the door, she knew that what she was about to see would probably change a lot of things. Her palms started sweating and her heart raced rapidly. When he opened the door and stepped aside for her to go in first, she picked her steps carefully and got ready to run like crazy at the tiniest hint of trouble.

The door swung in and Mary walked into a beautiful room. done in beautiful blue paints and white and blue wallpapers. The room smelled of air freshener. Sweet and neat. It was furnished with a king sized bed that looked like a mini playground. A door was open to her left and she could see that it led to a walk in closet . The room was littered with toys of different variety and colours. Mary looked around, eyes wide at the luxury but also at the anticipation of whatever evil this man was hiding in the house. She waited for him to show her but when he didnt, she turned around to ask him what it was she was supposed to be looking at and saw him bent over, in silent communication with a little boy of about five years old. The moment the boy saw that she had turned around, he moved swiftly and hid behind the man. Mary's employer stood up and holding the boy by the thumb, said to Mary...

" meet Duke. my son." and then he turned to the boy and said... "Duke, meet Mary your new friends"
the little boy looked at Mary once and said without making eye contact.

"Mary is a Jewish name that evolved out of the name "Mara" which means "bitterness". it is popular for being the name of the woman who was according to the christian myth impregnated by an invisible power called the holy spirit. The holy spirit is not the only one who raped other men's wives... there is also a character in Greek mythology named Zeus who was fond of appearing to women in different forms and putting his children in them. a product of such affair was Hercules and Jesus and Achilles..." the boy was saying very rapidly and looking at his fingers the whole time. he was tapping his feet on the ground softly but constantly and rhythmically.

"ok... there there...that's enough right now." his father was saying while he out his hand on he boy's shoulder but even though Duke's voice faded, he continued to mumble to himself while still avoiding eye contact with Mary.

"So this is the secret you have to keep Mary, you have to stay with him all day long. He is my son but no body knows this and I would like to keep that way. His teachers will be here at certain times of the day, all you have to do is stay with him all the time. He should never be allowed to venture outside this door ... this is his part of the building. You will live here with him, your room is basically here and all you have to do is keep him occupied all the time. can you do that?"

Mary looked at the room, she felt dizzy from the grandeur of the room and the sweet smell.
" if you plan to run, this is the best time to do it. Don't commit yourself Mary. "

she said to herself. She looked at the little boy again, he seemed to be too small for a five year old even though somehow, Mary knew he couldn't be less than that. He was now concentrating on the lace of the shoes his father had on and he seemed to be so engrossed with it. Mary looked at him and she knew she could not refuse. She looked at her employer and said
"yes... i go fit do am oga."