THE SOUND

 

Tomorrow, we are cashing out big,”

Sophia told her sister Tonia with excitement and anticipation. 

Her sister, Tonia, could feel her excitement and was eager to hear the news. Sophia had been working hard for years to build her business, and she was finally seeing the fruits of her labor. She had opened a luxury fashion boutique that sold high end designer pieces. She got a loan from an old friend to get the business started, and it took her three years to build her clientele and four years to pay back the loan.

Sophia had faced a few challenges along the way. One of the biggest challenges she faced was when her accountant brought embezzlement to her attention. Someone was embezzling her money from the store. It was a large sum of money, to the tune of eight thousand dollars, and Sophia was devastated. She soon found out the culprit was the store manager, Lucia, a young twenty eight year old from the Bahamas. It quickly became clear that Lucia had a taste for the finer things in life, and had become greedy.

But Sophia was not one to take things lying down. When it came to her money and her business, she was a woman of action. She had a few miscreants on her payroll who would take care of any debtors who failed to pay up. As it turned out, Lucia suffered the same fate as many of the debtors- she was picked up at a night club by one of the miscreants, posed as a wealthy patron, and taken away in a black Mercedes Benz. She ended up in a warehouse on the outskirts of town, bound up in ropes and tortured.

“I am so happy for you,” Tonia replied.

“Dubai is the destination for celebration,” Sophia said as she stood up and admired herself in the white sleeveless top and brown cargo pants.

“I am in,” Tonia said excitedly.

“Once the transfer is complete, I will start the planning,” Sophia informed her.

Tonia nodded.

Sophia knew that the money was going to reset her life. It was the breakthrough she had been waiting for.

Sophia returned to her luxury apartment a few hours later. Tonia hung out with her and went to the sushi bar with her friends afterwards. Sophia longed to go home, take a shower, relax and watch a movie. So many thoughts ran through her mind as she drove through traffic to get to her end of town.

There was no place like home for Sophia. She walked into her apartment. The living room was dark, and she immediately turned on the lights. She walked into her bedroom and took her clothes off. Fifteen minutes later, she was in the shower. She let the water run through her body as she lathered herself with soap. Thoughts of the money that would be deposited into her bank account was largely on her mind. She had given her all in the business to succeed. Most of her friends were envious of her and thought that she had a man sponsoring her expensive lifestyle. She wished their envy was justified. She could not explain why different men kept jilting her. Every time she got close to getting a ring, she got jilted. The last man she dated had an accident on the freeway and died on the spot. She gave up on her dream of getting married after that on focused on her business.

After taking her shower, she settled into bed and fell asleep watching a Korean movie on Netflix. She was tired and also excited for tomorrow. By 10 am, she would be a hundred thousand dollars richer.

At 2am, she heard a sound, it was like music playing, first a soft melodious whistle, then soft beating of a drum. The sound was familiar, she had heard it before, first when she was ten years old, another time she was sixteen, when she was twenty one and after that almost every year. She knew the rhythm. She opened her ears, even though she kept hearing the sound, the tv was turned off, her speakers were off, the windows were closed. Where was the sound coming from?

Sophia woke up with a pounding headache, she didn’t know when she drifted back into sleep, but she woke up at almost 11am. She had fifteen missed calls, some were from the shop, other calls were from her sister Tonia. She was tempted to check her bank account out of excitement, and maybe Tonia was calling her to get an update about the transfer of funds. She decided to call the shop to know what the reason for the call was. Her new sales manager, Sharon never called her unless there was an emergency or she had a transaction that needed higher authorization.

Sharon picked up the phone on the first ring.

“Good morning Sharon,” she greeted.

There was panic in Sharon’s voice.

“Madam, the store was broken into,” Sharon informed her.

“Burgled?” Sophia screamed out loud.

“I have called the police and they are here taking reports, if you don’t mind coming to the store, they would like to have a word with you,”

Sophia knew the drill, writing reports and filing insurance claims.

“That’s fine, Sharon how much worth of goods are missing, do you know?” Sophia asked.

Sharon paused.

“More than ninety percent of the store is gone, i can literally count what is left in the store,” Sharon responded.

Sophia’s heart stopped for a minute. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She was not sure why this was happening. The money was supposed to be an addition, she had new merchandise that she had set her hearts on filling her store with, now she had to start from scratch.

Before she could say anything, she heard the tone that sounded an incoming call and excused herself from the call, telling Sharon she would be on her way to the store. It was Tonia calling.

“Sophia, wake up, I have been calling you,”

“Girl, I have no choice but to be awake at this point,”

“I am so sorry about the news, this is so heartbreaking,”

“My whole inventory is gone, I don’t know who did this, but I am ready to make whoever pay,”

“Your inventory? What are you talking about?”

Sophia was confused.

“My store got broken into, isn’t that why you are calling? Was Sharon able to get a hold of you?”

“The store was broken into?” Tonia asked in surprise.

“Sis, right now, i don’t have time for long talk, I have to go to the store, can you meet me there?”

“I am not aware of the store being broken into sis, but I heard the awful news and I was calling to see if it affected the money,”

“What awful news? What money? What are you talking about Tonia?”

Tonia paused. She didn’t know how well her sister would take the news, but it was too late to pretend everything was okay.

“Kenneth Dagbo is dead.”

Sophia screamed.