A Past That Breathes by Noel Obiora

Author:Noel Obiora
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2021-05-21T20:17:03+00:00

29

There Was a Man

On the last Monday in March, Amy woke up with nausea and called the office to say she was sick. Without court appearances, hearings, meetings, or out-of-office visits, she did not want to take the chance she might throw up at the office. Rebecca, the division secretary, called her back. By then she had thrown up, rushing herself to the toilet in a manner she had not done before. There was not much in the retch except a slimy yellow puke with some semblance of what she ate the night before.

“Can you make it to the office briefly?” Rebecca asked.

“I think I’m really sick.”

“I believe you, but the woman who lived next to the musician that died, the one you have been trying to find since we filed the charges, is here, in the office,” Rebecca said.

“Rachel?” Amy asked.

“Yes, she’s here with her sister.”

“It’s okay, she doesn’t have to see me, just let Kate know.”

“Kate isn’t here, but they met with Melissa and said they will only talk to you. Melissa is not too happy with them. She’s ordered me to make sure they don’t leave before we slap a subpoena on them.”

“I can’t. I am really not feeling well.”

Amy had felt nauseated a few days last week but never vomited until today. The month of February had passed without her menses. While it was the first time since law school that had happened, she had told herself that it was not entirely a cause for alarm because she had just begun a new job and received the most important assignment of her career, during which she was blackmailed by a militant African American Muslim leader and his followers. She had finally consummated her relationship with the man who had courted her for three months, then met the first man she had been truly fond of in college, and allowed herself the dare of fantasies she had thought impossible with him, only to be paid a visit by his father who convinced her that the American Congress of Black Muslims would hurt him if she continued to see him, especially if he lost this case, which he was more likely to lose given the facts of the case, not to mention the realities of the American judicial system. Kenneth’s father had confessed that he had not seen or spoken to Kenneth in a while but had been in constant communication about him with his mother and if Kenneth found out he had paid her this visit, the path back to a relationship with him would be made worse. Even Nancy hadn’t wanted him to visit Amy; Nancy only asked him to speak to Kenneth. But he knew that only Amy could stop Kenneth from proving he was “man-enough” to stand up to Mallam Jackson, when he was not. At no time in her career had she been so challenged, and no other eight weeks of her social life had been so complicated. All of which understandably caused enough stress to keep the curse away.

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