It had happened again! How could I have been so stupid? I had sworn never to do it again. Worse, I had been caught doing it. They say there are low moments of your life- when you are so humiliated that you wish that the ground opens up and swallows you whole. I had been caught, and even more embarrassing was the fact that I was topless and my companion was standing in the corner of the room sobbing.
I guess I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.
I walked into the medical store and slyly slid over a piece of paper to the person at the counter. The shopkeeper was an old acquaintance who gave me a questioning look as if to ask “what the hell?”. I just urged him on with a nod to comply with my request and said” put it in a brown paper bag, don’t want anybody to see it” The shopkeeper gave me a conspirational nod and put the package in a plain brown paper bag and slid it towards me. I hastily shoved the package in my jacket and made my way briskly to my motorbike. I drove back to my house stopping to pick up my companion on the way.
I snuck back into my house and checked to see if the coast was clear. Package in hand, I beckoned my companion as I sprinted up the stairs to my room and locked it after she was inside. I drew the curtains to shield the activity in the room from the outside world.
“Hurry!” she said as I opened the package
“Take off your shirt or it will stain!” I nodded and took my shirt off.
“Hurry someone might come soon. Open it! Open it!” she demanded
“Ok ok!” I replied as I took the package out of the brown paper bag.
As I was opening the package someone started banging on the bedroom door.
“Crap! Someone’s here! what do we do?” she asked panicking
“Stay quiet!” I hissed at her
“Open the door! Why is it locked?”
I signalled my companion to stay quiet
“I know you’re in there, I saw your bike outside.” I heard the jingling of keys and the sound of a key being put into the lock. I looked on as my companion scurried to the corner of the room, quietly sobbing, looking for an exit where there wasn’t one.
I grasped the package tightly looking for a place to stash it. Unfortunately, in times of panic rarely do you get a moment of clarity, and I ended up stuffing the package in the shirt that I had taken off.
There was a moment of silence before the voice outside the door said “Fine, if you are not opening the door, I will”
There was click of the lock and the door swung open letting in a rush of daylight which temporarily stung my eyes. My companion stood silently in the corner of the room sobbing.
My brother walked in the room and looked around briefly before he grabbed my shirt which was now stained as the contents of the package had melted. He extracted the package from the shirt, a few drops dropped on the floor.
“how could you let him do this?” he asked my companion
She gave a sheepish smile as she showed him the chocolate I bribed my sister with.
“You are diabetic, you can’t run around doing this anymore!” he yelled at me as he left the room, throwing the ice cream into the dustbin. I stared longingly as the package contents melted into a small puddle at the bottom of the bin.
“Next time don’t take off the shirt!” my sister remarked as she left the room munching away on the chocolate.
murtighazi 