Web and Dust- CHAPTER 11

She had spent three days frying her brains out, trying to decipher the markings on the first page where the crazy lettering started. For all her efforts, she got nothing. She got frustrated quite a number of times and had almost given in to shredding the book page by page to pieces and then burning the remains. She would have given up were it not for her desire, the unquenchable anxiety to know what her dad had been meaning to tell her that others couldn't be trusted to pass the message across. Was this the reason he was murdered?

She had woken up on this day around three O’ clock, not being able to sleep much as her mind never gave her a moment's peace. She had lifted the duvet from off her face after several attempts to fall back to wonderland and had made for the kitchen where she prepared herself a steaming cup of coffee. It was all she could do to keep her from running berserk. She sat herself down on the kitchen table drinking away absentmindedly. A notification came in signifying a Facebook message had been received. She brought out her phone and saw the email notification icon. She clicked on it and saw that she had been given the job she was interviewed for. She didn't know whether to be happy or not. It wasn't that she really needed the job. This was all a sacrifice to make good the promise she made to her father's spirit.

A thought came to her mind and she decided to act on it. She emptied the remainder of her coffee into the sink and rinsed the cup. She then made way for her late father's room. The room had been kept locked and unused on request of her mother. Curtis had this time left the key on the lock of the door. After all, there wasn't anything really precious that had to be kept locked away, even from family members.

Tasmine pulled down the handle as quietly as she could and got in. She was immediately entangled in cobwebs even as her eyes adjusted to the darkness they met. She groped in the dark, running her hands along the wall until she found the light switch. When she found it she immediately flicked it on. Light like a thick blanket immediately chased away the darkness revealing the entirety of the room. It was as she remembered it to be with the bed and dresser in the same position. She walked towards the bookshelf where her dad had often brought out books to soothe her desires to learn. The topics were kinds of stuff relating to people management and personal productivity. There were also some fictional works and she could recall a few of them she had seen him reading. Among them was “The Rise of the Reapers”, “Paying Attention” and “Hurtful souls”. She heaved a sigh as she brushed her hands through the covers. She looked at the desk and there sat a photograph of their family when she was just a baby girl. Her mother held her in her arms and her father stood close to her, a caring hand on her shoulders and then they were flanked by the two boys, Joel to their left and Curtis on the right. They were all grinning from ear to ear and Tasmine was forced to smile. Growing up with everyone had been fun and she wished things could go back that way.

She remembered once when she had been a young girl. She’d been crying after Curtis had spanked her for spilling colour on his books. She had run to her dad’s room to seek consolation and he had taken her into his arms and patted her back till she fell asleep in his arms. She had always felt that closeness to her father more than she was to her mother. She had woken up on his bed to meet his absence with the door shut and she wasn’t tall enough to get to the handle. She had literally cried her eyes out after shouting and yet no one heard her. She had then dragged a trinket and climbed with difficulty onto it. That was how she escaped. It turned out Mr Taribo had gone out to an urgent meeting and had forgotten to tell the others that she was in his room. He thought they knew but they didn’t. They had looked for her everywhere and not found her. They were joyful when she came out and congratulated her when she said she climbed a trinket to open the door. She looked around but couldn’t see the trinket. Had her father disposed of it? It was then she saw the wardrobe and immediately had the intuition that some answers were waiting inside there for her. She moved towards the wardrobe and tried yanking the door open but alas, it was locked.

Why would anyone lock the wardrobe?

She rummaged through the drawers of the dresser, the desk, under the pillow, the bed, shoes, just anywhere a key could be kept or hid from sight but couldn’t find anything. She stood with hands akimbo. She was beginning to sweat despite the fact that the morning was cold.

Where did the keys go?

She then recalled a toolbox she had seen in the garage the previous day. The problem was that the garage was only accessible from the sitting room. To open the door would mean risking being discovered because the garage door creaked when open and her mother's was the closest room to the sitting room. She was in a strait between postponing her adventure to later in the day when no one would mind creaking doors or take the risk of being heard. She chose the latter. Her curiosity wouldn’t just be pacified. She got out of her father’s room and got to the sitting room.

The dog outside barked and she immediately had cold shivers run down her frame. She stooped down immediately and pretended to be asleep. She expected someone to come check what had prompted the barking but after waiting few minutes, no one came. She got back on her feet and with the best caution she could afford, she pulled the door back as slow as can be and crossed in while still holding the handle.

The only light available was the light filtering in from the sitting room. She had to use her memory to locate the box. She found it without much stress and began rummaging through its content but was bitter when she found it wasn’t there. She felt fatigued already. She slammed the box shut and sat on it.
“I hope all these stress is worth it.”
She put her hands on her face as she rested her elbows on her thigh. She was lost for ideas and just sat there for long.

What’s mine is yours and yours, mine? Where had she heard that from? She tried recalling until she found the memory. It had been from a book that had a Mermaid princess. She hurried back to her dad’s room not minding to shut the garage door. She found the book she was looking for; ”The trapped princess and her songs”. She shook the book and sure enough, a key fell out. She couldn’t contain her joy as she opened the wardrobe and opened herself up to a new reality.

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