Chapter 14

"What is taking him so long?" Emily asked, "I am tired of sitting in here."

"With the ants crawling all around anything could be happening" Jessica replied

The car was getting warmer as the sun increased its altitude. People were rushing out of the hospital some screaming others with terrified looks. Jessica chuckled.

"The police will be here soon; it will be good if we are gone before then," Emily said with a pensive tap of her finger on the car seat. "Go and fetch him so we can get out of here"

Jessica got out of the car immediately and headed toward the hospital entrance. As she entered the gate, she could see, several meters away, Otafion on the ground with Asanga standing beside him and there was another woman on the ground but what caused her to freeze in her tracks was what was happening to Asanga.

The ants had formed lines and were crawling up Asanga's body into her mouth. So Otafion had succeeded, she thought. Asanga stood seemingly immobilized as the agents of her obliteration made their way into her mouth.

Jessica ran to where Otafion was and grabbed his hand. He was still slightly delirious from the blows Asanga had given him but he stood up.

"Let us go, the police will soon be here," Jessica said, pulling Otafion's arm. There were traces of impatience in her voice.

Otafion stared at Asanga's seemingly lifeless body as the ants climbed up into her because of the sugar cube he had forced her to swallow. He shivered. He had not imagined it would look like this. Somehow, he had imagined it better when Emily had handed him the cubes. Now standing here seeing the effects of what he had done pangs of remorse rolled into his heart.

"Come on. If we stay here and the police arrest us for our testimonies we would not make it to the festival in time," Jessica repeated

"The other cube did not…" he started saying looking around for it

"Leave it let's go. Emily is getting impatient"

Ruth saw them go but could not stop them. She was still in pain from the kicks Otafion had dealt her. However, she mustered the strength to stand when she saw Asanga standing there unable to move as the ant climbed up her body.

"Hey, wake up," she said tapping Asanga's cheeks in a bid to rouse her from her trance. She would not have made any effect on Asanga if she had swallowed the two cubes of sugar Otafion had brought. The two cubes would have knocked her out completely.

Asanga saw Jessica and Otafion rush off and she could hear Ruth calling her but it sounded as if she was listening to Ruth underwater. The taps that Ruth gave on her cheeks were like strong arms that pulled her up to the surface.

"God don't let her die, please, she has to repent at least before she goes if she must go"

I am not going anywhere, I am right here and I must make Uncle Joe pay. Asanga thought she replied but Ruth did not hear any words.

"God give her one more chance, please," Ruth cried, pushing Asanga backward to the ground and disorganizing the lines the ants had made.

Asanga made a sound like someone who just came out of water struggling for breaths. She instinctively brushed the ants off her face and body with her hands.

"What just happened?" Asanga asked spitting out the ants she felt in her mouth as she looked around her noticing more ants.

"You tell me. I have seen some strange things in my life but never this sort of…I mean…it's like a dream to me"

"Where is Papa?" Asanga asked looking around for traces of Otafion

"He is gone. He and a girl rushed away few moments ago. They wanted to avoid the police"

"Oh my God, Emily" Asanga gasped.

"She is most likely with them. The girl who took Otafion said Emily was getting impatient. The police would soon be here I think it would be good for us not to be here when they come. We could come back later to see if Emily is…"

The sound of a siren rent the air. It was in the distance but it was also fast approaching.

"Let's go, Priscilla, we will come back later. Did you bring your car?"

As they rushed out of the hospital premises, the gateman of the hospital who had been observing everything that had happened from under a table at his post at the gate saw the lines of ants scurrying after Asanga and Ruth as they ran. Some of the ants went underground while some remained on the surface as they pursued the sugar that Asanga had swallowed.

*

"I need to go check on Emily," Asanga said. She was nursing a bottle of Pina colada while Ruth stared at her cup of yogurt with a worried expression on her face. She could not still make sense of what Asanga had explained: the death of big Mammy, the cutting of the Mukenge tree, Ebaneck's unfortunate death, and most importantly Emily.

They were in Asanga's parlour. Asanga was sitting on the floor beside the canapé staring blankly in front of her. Ruth sat on a stool. Both women had no appetite for the beverages they were holding.

The TV was on but the sound Asanga had it muted. They were watching to see if there would be anything about the hospital on the news but it was unlikely because CRTV never showed live news except for football matches so if there had to be anything on TV it would be at 6:00 PM. The time was currently 3:12 PM so there were a few more hours to wait.

"I can't just sit here, not knowing if she is safe or not. Something could have happened"

"I am coming with you but you need to change your clothes, just to look different in case someone saw you and recognizes you," Ruth said

Asanga set the bottle down beside her and stood up. "I will just freshen…"

Her words hung mid-way when she saw the look of horror on Ruth's face. Ruth's gaze was looking at where she had been sitting. Asanga looked.

In the spot where she had been sitting there were several heaps of fine particles of her jeans mixed with what seemed to be scraps of her body. She touched her butt with her hand and brought it to her face to look at it. There was blood on her hand.

"Wait let me see" Ruth cried

Asanga's jeans and buttocks were riddled with several tiny holes and when she stood up blood trickled out of each hole. As Ruth looked not believing her eyes, she saw several black ants carrying bits of jeans tissue and human tissue into and out of the holes.

Ruth fainted.