Chapter 11

Mrs Oksahnah makes a starring debut into Alessandro's suite in pump and pageant, like dramatis personae in an Opera house and pitched herself comfortably into an armchair.

Alessandro and Katerina quickly plucked things on the bed and cover their unclad bodies; the former, a pillow and the latter, bedspread.

Seeing her daughter's predicament, Mrs Oksahnah waved at her company to stay behind the vandalized door for the sake of Katerina's nudity.

"Hats off to you, Alessandro!" Cried Mrs Oksahnah. "So, after extorting my daughter of an unquantified but huge sum of money, you went ahead and reeled bullets upon bullets into her foot in merriment. As if that was not enough, here you are again caught right in the act of wanting to get in her pants with that grizzly dangling sausage."

"I have a question for you, Alessandro," she said, placing her arms on her crossed legs. "Is this the person you are when you are not out there being a priest?" There were peals of laughter from among her entourage standing behind the door. All eyes were focused on Alessandro for an answer but words to defend himself deserted him.

The troll disguised by Mrs Oksahnah as a question pierced him terribly that he blinks his eyelids hard and felt like his bowels have fallen fifty feet through the floor.

When he began to speak, the words came tumbling out of his mouth.

"Katerina is my good friend; I couldn't have stood so low to hurt her, Mrs Oksahna. Someone else did it. I also fell victim to this silly robber; he parted me with large sums of money against my consent."

There was a brief moment of silence, then came a solidarity word from Katerina saying, "he was right, mother."

"Really?" asked Mrs Oksahnah with a raised eyebrow in mock surprise. "I wasn't talking to you, Katerina, you will shut up your mouth this moment until your views are sought after."

"Seize him!" She commanded, rising other feet. The security men numbering about three, matched in and got hold of Alessandro.

"You will need superhuman verbal skills to swing freedom your way at the Russian Police custody. And you, referring to Katerina, get yourself dressed back to decency and let mama drive you home."

Alessandro wriggles himself in the hands of the Policemen and begged to be freed. "Let go of me," he pleaded, "I want to have a word with you, Mrs Oksahnah."

"Free him," she said.

Alessandro went a step closer to her and reduced himself to his knees and begged for forgiveness from the bossy Oksahnah who threw her face in the opposite direction to avoid his face.

She glances in the direction of the Police chief and he nodded back at her in affirmation. She then turned to Alessandro and said to him, "I accept your apologies."

Alessandro wanted to talk further but she cut him short with the wave of the hand saying, "excuse me, I have several social do's coming up in the neighbourhood to attend to in the next five minutes. But before I go, allow me to reach into my back of tricks to advise your less experience self on getting ahead in life. She peeps into her back and unleashed a revolver and points it to his forehead saying, "if you truly appreciate the sacredness of breathing in and out the precious air given to you by the Cosmos, you will bundle yourself into the next available flight out of Russia or you will breathe your last sooner than later.

We are moving out," she announced, and so they did. They filed out in ascending order, beginning with Katerina, followed by her mother and then the Police officers.

It would be hard for someone to meeting Mrs Oksahnah for the first time not to believe she was a front-row mayhem maker.

As they match on, an official of the hotel who has been watching from the sidelines as the event unfolds hum at them saying, "Uhm, may I have your attention, please?"

Mrs Oksahnah halted and turned around to see who was talking and responded like this:

"Sure, why not?"

He then clears his throat and said to her, "who is to be held responsible for the damage inflicted on my property?"

"Him!" she screamed, pointing at Alessandro then walks away.

"Him?" He asked again in rhetoric and turned to Alessandro again and ask, "you?"

"Yes, me," he nodded, "put it on me. The hotel's official nodded in satisfaction and leaves.

"Wheew!" whistled Alessandro in a great sigh of relief. He then clothed himself and sank into the king-size bed and toss around, losing himself in a thoughtful recollection of the near-death encounter with the custodian of hell.

Life has been rosy for him before now with Katerina; throwing at him all manner of seductive words and kisses. But today, he was at the receiving end of countless brick-bats hurled at him by Mrs Oksahnah and her crazy company.

******

Deloria thought Euphrates was a unanimous hit but to her dismay, he couldn't step perfectly into the shoes that were hanged by Alessandro. She thinks he is only as good as a vegetable. This makes her dump the idea of ditching Alessandro when she thought she had found a replacement for him.

Behind the slammed door in Deloria's bed-chamber, a figure stood there with their ear glued to the door, eavesdropping at a possible sound of mourning or a  rocking bed, but none was heard. The person knocks at the door and Deloria opens to find Matilda, the hairy Latina domestic worker bearing a basket of neatly piled fabrics from the laundry.

"It's you?" Asked Deloria with a smile. "Come in," she said. Matilda walks in smartly like a programmed robot, wearing an immaculate white gown that stops before her knees. She went straight to the bathroom where she replenishes used items and root-out dirty clothes back to the basket. Euphrates was sitting in the sturdy, not minding who and what was moving around him. Matilda looks satisfied as he was intact without any sign that they have messed up themselves. The bed tells it all as it remained neatly made as

she left it in the morning.

She has never walked into her mistress' room in this kind of circumstance. It clearly shows she was up to mischief; she begins to be jealous of Deloria's ability to attract ultra-wealthy young and handsome men to herself for a while now. It is obvious that she has a special place for Euphrates in her heart but remains a wishful thought because there was nothing she could do to perfect it. The seductive moves she makes around him yields no immediate result.

She cat-walks to him and asks, "Would you like a cup of coffee, Mr., ehm, … "Euphrates," he said, "yes, please, how lovely of you," he complimented. Matilda beams back at him with a flourishing smile. Euphrates glanced at her once more and realized how attractive she was. The cupid has struck! She has gotten what she has been clamouring for.

Matilda stands out among all the house help in terms of her beauty and hard work, which makes her favourite of the Rafeal family over the rest, especially Deloria. As a result, she discloses some of her darkest secrets to her and is even aware of some her mistress thought she wasn't aware of. This leaves Longoria transparent and vulnerable to blackmail.

Matilda rushed back to the kitchen and confided the headway she has made to the plumpy culinarian, a middle-aged woman, native of France but the cook was not impressed. She looked at her as if she has just come out of a cesspool and said to her, "your wiry boyfriend is not enough for you, now you want to start dragging the bigger ones with your madam, right? If you want to do this, do it methodically because if she finds out, you see that boiler tank? It's notorious for boiling things; am afraid you might end up in it. Don't chew more than you can bite,"

"do you mean to say I shouldn't bite more than I could chew, Mrs Blanche?"

"Yes, that. That's what exactly I mean to say, thank you for the correction.," barked Mrs Rhoda Blanche.

Mrs Blanche then cooked a strong caffeinated coffee and got it ready for service. Matilda picked it from her and went down the corridor connecting the kitchen to one of the sitting rooms where nobody was sitting in it. She then paused and brought out from her hip pocket, a crystal clear receptacle the size of a cortex bottle with a dark-blue fluid in it. She nervously opens the object with shaky hands and released two drops of it into the coffee cup and stirs it thoroughly with a gold-coloured teaspoon.

"What are you doing there, Matilda?" Demanded a voice from behind her. Matilda was scared that she nearly spill the coffee.

"Nothing, Madame," she said, "am about to serve your guest his coffee," she mumbles.

"That wouldn't be necessary, he is fast asleep, let me have it instead, am starving."

The terrifying looks on Matilda's face were enough to scare one away from her.

"What, Matilda, don't you want to give me the coffee?"

"No, Madam," she stammered, "it's just that it would be too strong for you; it's caffeinated,"

"it's okay, I can handle it," insisted Deloria. Matilda then handed over to her the cup of coffee on I saucer and walks away as if she was walking on a rope. She turns back and saw Deloria taking a sip from it.

"Sweet Lord," she said, "look at what I've done

to myself!"

To stop Deloria from sipping further from the cup, she screamed in pretence to have seen a smooth glittering reptile slither away underneath the dining table where she sat

.

"What, Matilda?" shrieked Deloria.

"I thought I saw a snake over there!" She said.

Even at that, it was too late to complain because Deloria ran away to her room clutching a cup of coffee.

That day, the entire Mansion was combed by snake wranglers to rescue the scaly fella back to its habitat.

Back in Saint Petersburg, the was now clear snow-Wise for the smooth take-off of Alessandro from the Pulkovo airport. While a routine was being performed on him by the immigration officials, he heard a friendly voice chant his name. Alessandro wondered who could that be. He looked around and, surprise! There she is again, Katerina on crutches, waving at him.

"What do you think you are doing, Katerina; why are you hell-bent on getting me arrested?"

Katerina snubbed his fears and said to him, "can we talk?"