Neighbours

‘So none of you have welcomed the new neighbor?’ Selena peeped through our spy hole at the flat opposite us.

‘Welcome him how?’ I ask from the kitchen where I am chopping up fruits for a salad.

‘Ah ah! Get to know him, find out his age, if he’s ready to settle down…’

‘He’s rented an apartment. He lives alone. He’s ready.’

‘Hmm. I just don’t want to marry someone I’m older than.’ She moves to a window to get a better view. ‘I think he’s home. I just saw a curtain move.’

‘Come and eat,’ I move the salad to the living room. Binta and Sumbo are there waiting.

Selena bounces over with a bright idea. ‘Let’s go say hi.’

‘You don’t just walk over to a guy’s house like that.’ Sumbo has acquired sage status by virtue of marriage. Binta and I nod.

‘Who says? I do it all the time.’

‘And has any of them ever proposed to you any time after those meetings?’

‘That doesn’t matter. Look, unless you’re out there, you’ll be left out there. That you managed to marry does not make you an authority.’

‘So, assuming you want to go there, how do you do it?’ Binta seems interested in getting out there.

‘Simple. Say, his generator is on, you ask to charge your phone. Or you ask if he has a phone charging cable, that general one that charges all phones. You can ask to use his toilet. But that’s rather dicey to me.’ Selena waves her hand in that motion that indicates something not being stable. ‘He won’t want to touch you after you’ve been in the toilet.’

‘Touch levels already?’ I’m shocked and enthralled at the same time.

‘I mean shake your hand when you are going. It’s good to get physical contact. You never know if you’ll feel those chills up your spine when you shake him. That helps you know if the dream is worth chasing.’

Sumbo smirks. ‘And how many times have you had chills.’

‘Too many to count.’ Selena effectively dismisses her by returning to the window.

Selena’s person of interest moved in one week ago. He says hi on the staircase but minds his business. All the ladies in a five block radius have him on their radar. Selena doesn’t live in this estate. But if anyone can crack the code, she’s the babe for the job.

‘Guys,’ she declares suddenly, ‘cover me, I’m going in.’

We all gather at the window facing his front door, hiding behind the curtains. Sumbo complains only half-heartedly while Binta and I wish her luck.

Selena swings open my front door and swans over to my neighbour’s. She knocks and calls out. I guess he answers because she quickly glances back and shoots us a thumbs up sign, then enters the flat. We open the curtain completely and watch for her return.

‘Mehn. Gal’s gat skills!’ I exclaim, wishing I had followed her. I would have been the envy of all my estate singles, and some married women too. The guy was too fine to miss.

Three minutes stretched to five, then ten.

‘What is going on in there?’ Binta frowned. ‘Has she forgotten we’re waiting for her?’

‘Perhaps the touch has gone beyond the handshake level.’ I half-joked.

‘She should know better than that.’ That from Sumbo, a.k.a. Mother Teresa.

‘You get it daily, so cut us some slack please. I don’t think shell sleep with him, not with us waiting.’

‘You’re sure?’ Binta has a point. Selena is the least practical of our bunch.

Movement on the stairwell between the flats catches our attention. My eyes go wide when I see my neighbor coming up with groceries. He’s fishing his keys out of his pocket before my thoughts arrive at the fact that someone else is in that flat with Selena. I’m out my unlocked door just as he fits his key in his own lock.

‘Hello.’ I don’t even know his name.

‘Oh, hello.’ He’s waiting patiently for me to get over his good looks and give my reason for interrupting him.

‘Erm, when you go in please help me tell my friend to hurry up.’

‘Who?’

‘My friend went over to your flat to ask for something. I guess she’s still with the person who let her in.’

He’s staring at me, I wish it was a ‘you’re so beautiful, would you marry me?’ look. This was an ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ look.

Binta clears her throat and he notices them in my doorway.

‘There’s no one in my house.’

‘Yes there is. Our friend is in your house.’

‘I just came upstairs. No one lives with me. I’m about to unlock my door.’ He is stating the facts very patiently to three imbecilic women. His eyes narrow. ‘Are you guys messing with me?’ He looks around for a hidden camera. ‘That’s not cool. At all.’

‘No, we’re serious. Selena is in there. We saw her go in.’

He pauses, sighs and turns to unlock the door and swing it open. ‘Come in.’

If he did this any time before I saw Selena go into this flat I’d have been over the moon. Now… ‘Sumbo stay outside. Binta come with me.’

‘Rhoda, are you sure?’ Sumbo’s wisdom cannot handle this mystery. Right now, I’m in charge.

‘Wait here.’

Neighbour waits for us. ‘Sorry, what’s your name?’

‘Jonathan.’

I look at Sumbo to be sure she heard the name. She nods. Beckoning on Binta, I bravely enter the flat.

And I am disappointed. There are no chairs in the living room. No carpet. Nothing is organised. Just cartons on the floor. Meaning there’s nowhere to hide there.

‘You can search the house.’ Jonathan’s cool voice makes me jump.

‘You’re sure?’

He just nods. ‘If you’re making a funny video, I don’t plan to make a fool of myself over anything you do. Just so you know.’ He folds his hands and stands by a wall.

We search the kitchen, toilet, bathroom, bedrooms and balcony. We find not one sign of our friend. We are glad to leave that flat.

Jonathan just sees us out and closes the door. He is not amused.

Well neither are we. We cannot find our friend. We cannot call her because her phone is in my flat. No one saw her leave the building, but people saw Jonathan coming back. People remember speaking to him about the time we saw her step into the flat.

The story spread like wildfire and is now an urban legend in my estate. Jonathan struggled to complete his one year in the flat and moved the minute his tenancy expired. The landlord has had trouble renting it out to date.

I climb the staircase on the way up to my flat. It’s the second anniversary of Selena’s disappearance. My parents refused to move and I’m still unmarried. They said we must have missed her leaving the flat. I’ve gone over the incident in my head enough times to know that there will never be an explanation. At the landing of our floor I cannot resist looking at the door of the flat.

It is closed.

I sigh and turn to my own door when a sound makes me catch my breath and look again.

The neighbour’s door is falling ajar.

 

 

Photo Credit: Proof.nationalgeographic.com