Chapter 13

Alessandro, who was surprised at Katerina's appearance at the airport asked her how she knew his whereabouts. Her answer was short and simple: "In Saint Petersburg, nothing is hidden under the sun."

"Okay Katerina, make it snappy; you've got two minutes to drive your points home before the announcement of my flight."

"It's noting earth-shattering; I just want to say sorry for the erratic behaviour of my mom the previous day and I also want to say I am back for you to get even with me, I mean, to do with me what you've not been able to do with me due to disturbance from others."

"No, it's too late for that, Katerina. Even if I weren't travelling, I wouldn't have allowed myself to receive another round of words fist-bumping into my face. I've never been put to shame my entire life like in the two previous encounters with your mom and your boyfriend. Who knows what disaster the next encounter would bring upon me?

To me, bullets and clubs never leave a lasting impression on the mind like callous words that pierce deep into the heart and stays there for eternity.

Katerina, sometimes your actions suggest to me that you are the one pushing and cheering others on me just to…"

"Just to what, Alessandro? Why did you suddenly go numb?

As she waited for a response that was not fort coming, there was the sound of an alarm: Ding-dong, and then followed by an announcement from the public address system. Alessandro's eye went up to the source of the sound.

"Passengers of flight 614DG KLM Royal Dutch airlines proceed to terminal gate one for boarding."

"Your time is up, Katerina. That was my flight announced."

"When are you coming back for me, Alessandro?" "I don't think we will ever meet again in this lifetime."

"You say what?"

"You heard me, Katerina."

"Then am not leaving you; I go with you wherever you go and if you say no, I cause a scene."

"You must be joking, Katerina,"

"Okay, watch me."

Katerina plugged his luggage and his Passport from his hands and began to walk down the terminal gate corridors but did not take long before she was stopped by the Immigration official. The show woman in her took to the floors and began to draw unwanted attention to themselves with a temper tantrum.

It took the intervention of secrete police in their scores to get Alessandro to commit on black and white and signed by him that he would come back for her on a period not later than one hundred days before Katerina was convinced to calm down and let go of him.

******

There was a frivolous banter between Matilda and her newfound love that was full of sexual oddities that turned the verbal exchange between them into fondling with each other's private parts and before they realize the implication of what they were doing, they've already delved deeply into lesbianism, henceforth, the illicit practices escalate into days, and from days into months and still counting.

Before the day she was served a court summons, Deloria, as a matter of urgency, discharged Euphrates back to his native country of Egypt with a promise of seeing more of each other when the world has come out from the throes of a ravaging pandemic. Rafeal was the happiest of them all and Matilda the biggest loser after his exit, now she is at the receiving end of an unkind intimacy that was strange to her for comfort because of a costly misstep that she is now paying dearly for.

The lewd affair was becoming a great source of concern for her. So, she took a ride from Sicily's underground electric trains to the north-eastern city of San Marino to meet with the Guru who gave her the portion for a way out.

Ordinarily, one would expect to see an imposing temple looking down on one. But here in San Marino was not the case; it was rather a multi-thousand Euro duplex, perfect for a typical Italian middle-class civil servant that stood watching.

Matilda, motivated by confidence, dialled the button for the doorbell and someone showed up at once, as if they were expecting her and it was Hindrabhad Noor himself, a man of average height, in his late sixties but still strong and healthy, with a multi-coloured turban covering his entire hair. Fixed on the turban was an opal-like precious stone. He ushered her in and locked the door.

An expansive 4k Oled TV comfortably sat on a console, a superb Italian leather settee and glorious curtains rolling from the ceiling down to the sparkling marble floors. Matilda Begot thought Noor was going to offer her a seat from one of those chairs but she guessed wrong. Noor took her to a room in the inner recess of the house where his divination tools were on display on an ancient table built from Mahogany. This is the room set aside by Hindrabhad Noor for practising his art.

In it was a large sculpture of Ganesha resting on a pedestal right behind his chair and a rising smoke from burning incense in a wide tray placed before the image. There he offered her a seat beside him carved from exotic timber.

It is unusual of you to pay me two visits in short intervals in a month."

"Yes, Mr Noor," said Matilda, rubbing her left palm against the other out of nervousness. "There was a problem in the application of the syrup you gave me for civil purpose; the problem was largely due not to my carelessness but evil manipulation by my enemies, I think.

This cute young man dating my mistress I set my eyes on that I could not resist his charm fell in love with him but he did not feel the same for me, so, I decided to snatch him from her either by the crook or by the hook which led me into pouring into his drinks two shuts of the cocktail you gave me. But as it would happen, my madam appears from nowhere, collected the special preparation from me and gulped it down her throat. Now am in trouble; she is after me, day and night as if I were her wife, indulging me into sexual vices. But the good side of it is that I am now in money, a millionaire if you want it that way."

Guru Noor looked at Matilda for a few seconds after she had finished narrating her ordeal and then said to her in a solemn voice,

"my dear, what do you want me to do for you?"

"I want the spell reversed because that was not what I bargained for. I am sick and tired of that."

"Like you rightly said, my daughter, it wasn't entirely of your doing; evil forces were working against you. Nevertheless, that is not a problem. The antidote to destroy the spell lies in the hands of someone in the house you work and live in, someone with blue blood in their veins that matches that of the lady that shreds your bum to pieces every night. That person is no other than your boss. You will need to do the unthinkable for him to get down with you, and the potency of the preparation shall no longer be effective on you, but on condition that you do not have him inhale or drink any substance that will defile his system or take his senses away from him through dubious means so that he doesn't know what he is doing. In other words, you will have to use your natural powers of seduction to achieve this."

"Impossible, Mr Noor. It's like asking me to chase shadows in the dark. My boss, Mr Rafeal is obsolete and no longer have even a drop of feelings left in him anymore."

"Ha ha ha," laughed Hindrabhad Noor thunderously. "You think so, Matilda? A man would always be a man. Please, permit me to use some vulgar terminologies that are unprofessional of me to use but for the sake of making my point of view more clearer to you: If you allow Mr Rafeal to see your nakedness by accident, that is when you will know he was capable of scrubbing that narrow tunnel between your legs vigorously that you may think he was powered by an electric turbine." Matilda threw her face away from his gaze feeling bashful.

******

Back in Lady Stefflon Don's home, the mood was a sombre one on returning from the court session. They had a bunch of assorted meals, with the chief dish being spaghetti Bolognese. There was something strange about the family set up at the dining table. A familiar face that was not part of the usual gang that occupies it causes Rafeal to simmer in anger, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The kitchen crew were also as surprise as Rafeal except for Mrs Blanche, who knew everything that has been going on but kept her lips clipped. She dares to tell no one or she lose the juicy spoils she gets from its proceeds.

Mr Rafeal wanted to get rid of her before addressing his family but can't figure out how but Longoria sensed it. So she spoke to Matilda into her ears. Without wasting time, Matilda stood up and went in the direction of Deloria's boudoir. Left on the table were Deloria, Lady Stefflon Don and Rafeal himself.

"My love," he said, "you've got one of the best jobs on earth, not only working for the government but also the arrowhead of its sniper regiment; the envy of all in Italy. I tried to fathom what disaster tricked you into working for a miserly mafia-like Epifany my good friend."

"Babbo," she said, "in as much as I detest Don Rocco Epifany for taking away from me my better half, I can still stand for him for one thing: his generous nature. Don Rocco is a government in his class, paying his workforce more than any government can pay its citizens around the world. He built my account with wraps of Pounds and Euros, and not forgetting the mansions and estates built in my name. To cap it all, Don Rocco is a demy god, Papa."

"This conversation is over, damn it!" Said Rafeal, abruptly standing up, with his teeth firmly clamped on a Cuban cigar. Lady Stefflon didn't say a word. She steps up to him from where she was sitting and lit his cigarette with a customized diamond crusted lighter. She then adjusted the chair behind him backwards to make room for him to move out.