The Keepers (5 page)

-

Two weeks
passed on with Chantel trying hard to adapt to her new position as
a single mother. It hurt her, it ate her from within and many times
after realising the reality of her situation, she had thought of
killing the child but, many times too, she held back. She would
look at the child, innocent and unknowing, and she would find
something that promised that things would work-out. S
he had
not seen Rikki those seven months and she had been lucky a handful
of times after many attempts at getting him to answer his phone.
She wondered how he was, how he slept at night knowing that out
there, there might be a child of his. She had asked her friend,
without success to call him after she gave birth, she had tried
again two weeks later, and eventually she gave up.

She took the child to over the
desk in her bedroom to change his diaper. The television was on and
she overheard it.

“
According to
musicstats.com, Rikki's latest album is not doing as good as his
previous two. The main flaw outlined by critics is his now apparent
lack of creativity. “Basically, you listen to one song of his, you
listen to all of them” said recognized critic Elly Gibb. Compared
to his previous album which sold over seven hundred thousand copies
in one week, his latest has not even sold a third of that since its
release last week. We have not been able to get any response from
Rikki…” The television went on
but these news made no impact
on her.

After all, he still has
money, he still doesn’t love me, I think, and he still is adamant
about the child. You see, Channy, no difference in your situation
at all.
She considered.

Ms. Clarke had
persuaded one of her lawyer friends to handle this case pro bono
and had introduced her to the lawyer who had taken her case three
days
ago
. The lawyer, a man in his
sixties, was
lean
and
towering
and wore thick lens
silver
rimmed spectacles. Chantel looked at him and thought of how
quite energetic he was for a man of his age. He introduced himself
as David Richards to Chantel.

“
Pleased to be
of assistance
,”
h
e had said to Chantel in a charmingly quaint way. But his
efforts of charm were futile, what with Chantel in her
state.

Rikki's
lawyer
had
then been contacted through
Rikki’s secretary, Abigail and a meeting was to take place three
days later-that day- and her mind ran
wildly
about how the meeting would go. She could not imagine how she
would be able to look at Rikki. Her presence was of course
unnecessary, but she had insisted on going.

Rikki.
She called out to him in her heart.
If you would only come back and see that I'm the
one for you.

Yes. She still
loved him but in her there was that hatred building, slowly. She
and a few others in the world were the only remaining ones who
still held the concepts of love and hatred. She looked down at the
child and dammit he reminded her of Rikki terribly. She wondered if
when the child grew
up w
hether he would do
the same to some unfortunate woman. Tears from her eyes dropped
onto the child's chest.

“
Sorry,” she
said in her sweetest voice. “Mommy's just crying because you are so
special to her.” The child, calm and relaxed on the table, suckled
his thumb ignorant of the distress he had caused.

Rikki loved me
before he was rich
...
Dear whatever
force there is in the universe
...
is
love just a bargain, an admission to defeat where you have to stick
with one just because you know that no other will accept you and
you are lucky to be accepted by this one. Do I miss Rikki just
because of the wealth he has is the answer to all my problems or do
I miss him because
...
is loving
someone just an evolutionary trick to keep someone who would
benefit you. Then love is just greedy.

She thought about what would
have happened if she had gone to university – if she had chosen
wisely.

I would be a biologist right
now.

She finished
dressing the child, laid him down on the couch and went to the
bathroom for one final inspection of her face. On the top layer she
did not want anything to do with Rikki but deep down she wanted him
to see what he was losing by losing her and to attempt to bring him
back. It was far-fetched but only if she could
...

-

She dropped
the child off by her friend's and drove uptown to the address Mr.
Richards had given her. She was to arrive there at ten o'clock. It
was a day brooding ominous clouds, dark clouds saturated with rain.
It resembled her
soul
, the weather, her
ill hurt
soul
being like the cloud
saturated, itself, with sorrow and regret. For the first time she
observed how the world was, now that she was compromised. Just a
world of whores and man-whores selling themselves. She thought. A
world of whores and man-whores
whose
momentum is kept by music, television and such.

What happened
to believing that there was more to life?
She thought.
And that having a child
was a means of
...
when dying your
children are left to continue to find the purpose of
existence.

But, with such overwhelming
influence from the majority of people, it was very difficult not to
believe that the meaning of life was just what the general
population was doing.

Up ahead was a billboard, the
only one she had seen in a very long time that had not some sexual
innuendo and some sultry models. It hang from a horizontal post
attached to a two story building to the left with a billboard
hanging from it and read “Richards and partners: Divorce
attorneys.,” in large bold letters.

“
This is
it
,”
s
he
muttered
to herself and drove into
their
reserved parking
spaces.

She cast a
final glance of herself in the rear view mirror and exited the
vehicle and walked to the entrance. The building was a quite
old-time building and she found that it appropriately suited Mr.
Richard's quaint old self. There were two glass doors, one with a
mark above it which read entrance and the other exit. She looked at
her
wristwatch
, noted that she was fifteen
minutes early and entered the building into the reception area.
Contrary to what she'd expected, the reception room was a mixture
of modern art and nature. The floor was carpeted with the fur
texture of a leopard, and here and there at the corners were
African violets, hibiscus and some flowers of which she had never
seen before. The receptionist's desk was at the centre and behind
it was a small pool with fish, with a stream of water falling above
it, an artificial waterfall, the water made to sparkle
scintillating-ly from the golden lights above on the white ceiling,
and to its sides were spiralling silver metallic stairs leading to
the upper floor. But she no
ticed all this subconsciously for
her mood was much too gloomy to take in such allure. S
he walked to the receptionist.

“
Good
morning
,”
t
he
receptionist said warmly before Chantel could say the
same.

“
Good
morning
,” Chantel replied, “I am here to
see Mr. Richards, I
...
uh
...
have an appointment with
him.”

“
Your name
please.”

“
Chantel
Wiggins.”

“
O
h, Ms. Wiggins. You’re quite early,
but Mr. Richards is free at the moment, follow me
, I’ll lead
you to his office
.” The receptionist stood up and
walked to the left staircase gesturing for Chantel to follow
her.

Even he uses
sultriness
,
Chantel thought as she
looked at the short and tight skirt the receptionist was wearing
shaping and cupping her buttocks, her high-heels showing
beautifully French tipped toes and accentuating her
cal
ve
s, to her blouse, which she had not
noticed when the receptionist was seated but now from the back,
told of a tightness which could only be caused by large breasts.
She looked at the receptionist’s hands and saw that they also were
French-tipped and coloured pink.
Very
sexy
,
s
he thought
cynically
. She turned around as they climbed the
stairs smiling, and now attentive Chantel observed her
red
lipstick
and her eyelashes
...
and wondered if she had been hired based on her
qualifications or on her
sultriness
. She
compared herself to the receptionist.
I
look like a single mother. Oh, my shoes, when was the last time I
ever had on nail polish.
How will Rikki look at me. I
thought I had done a good job before I left
.
The last time was on the day Rikki
accused her of trying to take his money when she told him she was
pregnant.

“
I don't like
Rikki's music, I think it's degrading not only to women but to
mankind itself
,” The secretary said
catching Chantel off-guard.
So she
knew
, Chantel surmised,
what else does she
know?
.

“
It's easy to
make money
,” Chantel replied in such a way
as to shut off the subject. The secretary took queue and said
nothing until they reached the upper floor.

“
Mr. Richards
is at the corner office, the other's lawyers haven’t arrived yet,
but when they arrive, the meeting will probably take place here.”
She gestured to her right at door with the words
‘Conference room
’
written on it.

“
It's a very
lovely place.” Chantel said again in
a tone that told she
wanted the secretary to ‘shut up’
and the
secretary did not reply.

They reached
the corner office, which was on the left of the corridor they were
walking on. The door was opened and Mr. Richards was seated behind
his desk,
seemingly
busy on his
laptop.

“
Mr Richards,
Ms.Wiggins, ten o'clock.”

“
Yes come in.
Good morning, Chantel, please take a seat
,” and before Chantel could do so, he walked swiftly around
and drew the seat for her.

“
Thank
you
,” Chantel
said
and sat down.

“
Lily be so
kind as to get us some coffee. Haven't the other lawyers called
yet?”

“
No, but they
could have while I was escorting Ms. Wiggins. I'll go see. How
would you like your coffee?” she replied and asked
Chantel.

“
Two sugars
and black
,” she replied.

She took leave and closed the
door behind her.

“
The
conference room has already been made
,”
h
e said more to himself, than to
her. “They are late. Anyway, let’s use this time to go through what
is going to happen today.” He sighed and continued
,
“Today, you have to understand, we are only going
to try to avoid a case, we are just going to talk to Rikki about
making a deal beneficial to the both of you, he'll probably try to
scare you by coming with a dozen lawyers but that's unnecessary.
But if you are not satisfied with what he offers then we'll go to
trial.
”

“
Okay, Mr.
Richards, but I don't know Rikki anymore. He is adamant that the
child is not his. He has never even called to check up
since
...
since I told him that I was
pregnant.”

“
Personally,”
he said with a grin on
his face “I don't like the guy, I'm an old man with old solid ideas
and I don't like the guy and all that he stands for. He's a cancer
to society, that's what he is. And cancers need to cut off and
disposed of.”

Chantel only
nodded
, but the idea that the father of her child was
thought of as a cancer to society hurt her.

-

“
Can humanity
not see that even if there was no god, living as though there is
one would be the best thing that could happen?
” The Voice
says.

-

“
We are
here
,” the driver announced. Rikki turned
and looked at Abigail and then at his lawyer. The lawyer had
advised him that going into the meeting with his secretary was
unnecessary and so had agreed that she should wait for him in the
car. He wore large sun-glasses and a golf cap over his green dyed
dreadlocks for disguise and exited the car and so did the lawyer
and headed into the building. He had also been given advice to
dress formally for the occasion by his lawyer which he refused
citing his
‘
realness
’
and after that his lawyer consoled his irritation by
accepting that he was
here
just for the money that Rikki was paying him.
They walked into the reception room and headed for the desk. The
secretary greeted them and told them that they had been long
expected; a nicer way of saying they were late. Rikki's lawyer
grunted a grunt which told that it was not his fault and Rikki told
her rudely and ironically that “time means money” to him. She cast
a glance at him, looking at his apparel, very colourful and very
childish and very dis-respectable. She led them upstairs to the
conference room and then headed down the corridor to alert Mr.
Richards of their arrival.