Drawing Bryan into Abi.

The afternoon was hotter than any normal African summer. The seller and artist, Abigail Houston, smiled back at Mrs Yumaa who had successfully convinced her to tag along with them back to the mansion.

"Marcos!" Abi called out as she checked the opposite shop.

"Marcos?" Her voice got softer as the man summoned walked out of the shop.

"Hey, I want you to meet my friends," Abi said smiley as Marcos asked why she called out for him.

"Oh, where are they?" Marcos asked as he followed behind his cousin.

'Isn't that Bryan?' Marcos recognized him. It did been more than half a year now. 'This Mrs Yumaa...Tsyukiyomi.' He knew them all by name and residence, no one was strange to him.

"This is Bryan and this is Mrs Yumaa." Abi introduced Marcos to her fellows.

"He is my cousin, Marcos," Abi explained to Bryan who looked quizzacious.

"Ok. I'm Bryan." He extended his fist to knock Marcos.

"Do I know you?" Bryan asked.

"I don't think so. This is the first time we meet. But I do know you, you are Gindi's son." Marcos surprised Bryan.

'Well everyone should know me, who doesn't know the child of two millionaires?' Bryan sought it out in his mind as Mrs Yumaa introduced herself.

"Is nice to meet you all." Marcos stood next to Abi after having gotten along with them.

"Eeer well... " Abi responded to a suggestion as she turned to her cousin. "I want to escort them back, will you please look after my stuff?"

"Not a problem." Marcos agreed without a thought. He remembered a time back when he had needed help to save Abi from the Kolagi group, where she had been abducted, but no one had helped him. That time he even begged Bryan but he blacklisted him.

'You are not a good guy.' Marcos cursed Bryan inwardly as he agreed to Abi's wish.

"Hey. Bryan, I think I've talked to you before, but over the phone." Marcos tried to remind Bryan.

"I can't remember," Bryan replied.

"He had an accident months ago, his memory is locked." Abi intervened as she noticed Marcos was going to keep on trying to get Bryan to the past.

"Yeah. It's true." Mrs Yumaa supported Abi as Marcos apologized and wished him to recover.

"I'm sorry I can't remember." Bryan apologized but Marcos lifted his hand to stop him.

"Is ok. Nothing to apologize for. I get it."

"We are going back home now, it was a nice time with you." Mrs Yumaa acknowledged Marcos as being a social guy who made friends easily.

"Ok. Get back safe. Hope to see you sooner. We have more drawings in the store if you don't mind." Marcos got them into business now.

"We shall come back some other day. For today we shall take this." Mrs Yumaa dodged the free exhibition.

"Yeah. We shall come back next weekend." Bryan noticed Marcos now wanted him to agree to his offer but he too declined humbly.

"Ok then. Let's say some other day." Marcos could not persuade them further.

"Let me wrap it up for you." Abi requested as Bryan went on to pick the portrait from the shelf.

"Thanks. I want to carry it like this." Bryan was more than grateful as he tucked the portrait under his armpit.

"I didn't know you are so talented," Bryan said as he admired more of the drawings.

"Is just a thing I do when I'm bored. I need money to pay for my mother's hospital bill so I decided to sell them." Abi responded as she showed Bryan some more of her paintings.

"Hey! That's me!" Bryan exclaimed as he saw some drawings yet to be displayed.

"Yeah. It's you. You can have it if you want." Abi admitted.

"It looks so real. Wow!" Mrs Yumaa who came after to check praised the drawing too.

"I will not take it away," Bryan said as he studied it. "Your drawing is above my expectations. I love it."

"Thank you so much." Abi smiled as Marcos nagged Bryan to take the picture if she wants him to.

"She said you can have it. Don't be rude." Marcos punched him on his ribs softly.

"Yeah. You can have it." Abi who overheard them said as Mrs Yumaa chuckled.

"Is not good denying a gift from your friend." Mrs Yumaa said as she turned to push him into taking it along too.

"I admit I love it too!"

"I've given it to you, take it as a gift from me." Abi took the drawing in both her hands and offered it to Bryan.

"Thanks, Abi." Bryan looked at himself in the drawing. Something about these pictures made him feel weird. He looked at the picture he had picked, the man kissing a woman, the river and shallow banks, it was all like a piece of memory to him.

"Is this real?" Bryan asked Abi.

"What?" Abi asked with a smile.

"This drawing." He showed her the face and she laughed slightly.

"What do you think? Hehe."

"I look real." Bryan went on to say. "This place looks familiar."

"Of course, that's the grill! You can't remember the place, there up that hill." She pointed at the opposite hill facing the market.

"I've never heard of the grull," Bryan said disappointing Abi.

"Not a problem. I will take you there one day." Abi gladly told Bryan.

"I wish to." He looked at the picture and for a moment he saw himself and Abi in the article.

'Is this real.' Something about the picture made him feel uneasy. A feeling of something locked away from his memory, why does it look so real.?

"Ok. Bryan! Let's get back. It's getting late." Mrs Yumaa said as Bryan snapped out of his thoughts.

"Ok ok. Next time Marcos." He bid Marcos who walked them some steps away before running back to serve some customers.

The sky was getting dull with the sun's rays fading into orange.

"It's been a long time since we last had a meal together." Mrs Yumaa tried to begin a new conversation as Bryan just walked beside Abi, both silent, talking about no important thing.

"Yeah, I miss Old Miss Gindi," Abi said as she hurried up to catch up with Mrs Yumaa.

"Bryan, you walking so slow..." Mrs Yumaa mocked him as she told Abi how lazy Bryan was begetting.

"Hey! Why do you have to tell her that!" Bryan complained as the females ignored him.

"I think I won't go beyond here." Abi realised they were just ten minutes away from Bryan's home.

"It's already late, let's get home and we shall have you driven back." Mrs Yumaa suggested.

"Why don't you sleep over?" Bryan disliked Mrs Yumaa's suggestion. This made Mrs Yumaa smile secretly in the fading light.

"Is Miss Old Gindi home?" Abi asked instead. She still couldn't stop imagining Bryan dumping her for a high schooler.

"Yeah. She is home." Mrs Yumaa answered as they now walked on the road leading to the huge gates.

"We are here." Mrs Yumaa pulled the bell on the gate as the gateman came to answer.

"It got late so early. We didn't even hike." Bryan complained as the gates opened up.

"Next time... Abi promised to take you to the grull." Mrs Yumaa reminded him

It was not like Abi did want to take Bryan back to the grull, but she just wanted him to recall her. She knew she had wronged him so bad, beyond reconciliation, but it would be better to live without guilt.

"Yea. I will take you there when you want to." Abi agreed as the three walked up the pavement.

Ding dong

The door was opened by Miss Old Gindi herself.

"Where have you been?" She asked as she opened the door.

"We went to the market grandma," Bryan replied as Miss Old Gindi noticed the third party.

"Hey! Hello dear!" She pushed past Mrs Yumaa and Bryan to hug Abi.

'One day you will be my daughter-in-law.' She knew Bryan was glued to this girl.

"Hello, Old Miss Gindi," Abi responded as Grandma hugged her to a suffocating point.

"I missed you so much. Please feel at home." She welcomed Abi. Her behaviour was seld sending Mrs Yumaa into a daze.

'Since when did she get soo attached to Abi?' She wondered as she followed Bryan behind into the living room.

"You be leaving tomorrow." Miss Old Gindi informed Abi as she drew her to sit.

"You being so kind..." Abi too noticed this was not Miss Old Gindi's welcome. She used to just sit and engage in conversations, not talking much or less.

"Mrs Yumaa, help me get the food served." Miss Old Gindi requested. Despite the master-servant relationship, Gindi never showed disrespect or slavery to beings. Everyone was equal.

"After you." Mrs Yumaa followed obediently leaving behind Bryan and Abi to get along.

*****

"There is something I want to tell you." Miss old Gindi whispered to Abi as she stirred the soup simmering in the pot.

"What.?" Mrs Yumaa was all but curious.

"You did a good job getting Abi back," she congratulated her.

'What is wrong today!' Tsyukiyomi wondered.

"I noticed Bryan had mailed in some odd stuff from town... I need to get him to sleep with Abi."

'Jesus! She also learnt of the sex toys!' Mrs Yumaa was surprised, in this house nothing could be hidden from Miss Old Gindi.

"What do we do?" Mrs Yumaa asked. She had not expected her Mistress to have had the same thoughts of getting Bryan into Abi too.1

They were surely immoral adults, but they had no other option, this had to be done to save Bryan from losing his interest in a real woman. He needed flesh, not plastics.