“I slept off.” He sits hunched, guilt oozing off him for having taken some ease while his family’s fate remains unknown.
“Djavan called. She was approached by an airport employee. Apparently, she told her that there was a call for her from Johannesburg. The girl does not remember the man at the kiosk.”
“And he of course was not the usual guy.”
“No. The man who runs the kiosk was inside. But he often sends out his office boys for such call errands, so she didn’t suspect anything. The man at the kiosk remembers Steph rushing out of a booth and asking him to connect her to New York.”
“To Me”
The twin ignores the breathed out words.
“He said that he remembers her because she had this most blinding smile. He could not get through to the number. He kept getting the busy signal.”
A rushed intake of breath. “That explains the persistent calls to buy credit cards.”
“She walked out saying she will try calling from outside the airport. Djavan is not clear about the sequence of events from there on. But something or someone convinced her to take a taxi. The taxi driver remembers her because she got down outside a block of offices and then walked back the way she came. There was a traffic light just ahead of where he dropped her and the light had just come on. So he noticed her walk back till almost the end of the block and then lost her as the light turned.”
The younger twin pauses and sneaks a look at the brother with a reputation as the stoic in the family. He is still hunched down on the sofa but his face is angled slightly to the window beyond. Benny isn’t sure what he can say but no words can be a balm now. He gazes for a while at his brother’s face and then resumes with a sigh.
“Djavan is down in Johannesburg. And Abaeze is there too though he believes they have been flown out of Africa…
The sharp trring of the cell phone startles them both.
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