6: Mistake Numero Uno

Chapter 6:

The two idiots who were sent to warn me didn’t know what they came for. They had followed Naomi silently until she opened the door. They had knocked immediately she closed the door behind her, she had opened the door without much thought.

I wasn’t in the house when they came. I was at a business center checking my email when Naomi called me. She said some people were inside our house. I had asked who they were but the phone was immediately taken away from her. My first instinct was to call Police but i didn’t have French residents permit. I wasn’t allowed to rent an apartment in France.
I had walked back to the apartment and knocked on the door. One of the fools had opened my door and allowed me in, then he closed the door behind and asked me to head to my sitting room me.

”Who are these people Naomi” i asked.
She said they were the people who usually shake down girls for Aunty Franca and other Madams.

”Mr Man, we have come to warn you to stay away from Naomi. If she is the owner of this apartment, you better pack out. If you are the owner, you better chase her out. If we come here again because of this matter, we will deal with you” one of them said.

”You can’t do him anything, you thieves, you think i am afraid of you people” Naomi shouted.
One of them slapped her and told her to shut up.

”Stop slapping my girlfriend” i said calmly.
”Or you do what” he had replied.
I had decided to stay quiet. I didn’t know whether they came with a fire weapon or not. They also had an edge if a fight ensured. Naomi was just a frail skinny thing that only knew how to paint her fingers and not to fight. I on the other hand wasn’t a physical match for them. It would have been such a foolish thing to start a physical fight. I was supposed to let them be in control and that was what i did.
Unfortunately for both of them, Naomi knew their names. She even knew where one of them lived.
It was such a beautiful piece of news when Naomi told me that she knew their names. I couldn’t contain my happiness. Naomi had asked why i was laughing after telling me their names, i had told her that one of them looked funny. She didn’t buy into that.

Efosa and Luke were both Nigerians. I suspected that they both came from Edo state too since it would be difficult for the Madams to entrust the shake down jobs to outsiders.

”If we come here again and meet you, we will teach you a lesson you will never forget” Efosa had said as they walked towards the exit door.

”Brothers” i said. They stopped at once and looked back.
”Come back inside, let us talk more about this matter” i said.
They continued their exit out of the house.
I walked downstairs behind them, trying to make them stop but they didn’t. They continued heading to the Grigny train station which was about 250 meters away.
I made a small run and meet up with them.
”I want to say something before you go” i said as i stood in front of them.

”I believe two of You have girl friends and i believe you didn’t ask if they owed people money before getting involved with them. These things just happen. Tell your Madam that i will come and meet her face to face so that we can discuss how we will balance her money” i said.

”Will you get out of my way, i am not telling Aunty anything. Just stay away from her or you will regret ever knowing her” one of them said as he shoved me aside and continued walking to the train station.

I walked back to the apartment and called Naomi.

”Call Aunty Franca and tell her that your boyfriend wants to speak with her” i said.

She called Aunty Franca.

”Are you tired of following that useless man. You don’t want to learn from what i did to Purity. The same thing will happen to you” Aunty Franca shouted and hung the call without allowing Naomi to say anything.

”Who is Purity”? I asked.
Naomi explained that Purity was one of the Aunty Franca’s girls who had died mysteriously in her bed after refusing to pay Franca her balance.
She had started crying after telling me about Purity and her death.
All effort i made to calm her down was futile. I had left her to cry until she got tired and stopped by herself.

”Now pay attention. Aunty Franca did not kill Purity. Even if she did, it must have been through Poison and not Voodoo. You don’t have to believe in such things as voodoo” i told Naomi.
She didn’t say anything. She just stared at me like a ghost. The colour of her face had changed. I even got scared because i thought she was dying. For once, i almost thought i was witnessing voodoo in action.
My little girl was dying in front of me. It was all because of me. If i had not met with her, those things wouldn’t have been happening. I was torn between rushing her to the hospital and pouring cold water on her.

Twenty minutes later, she returned from the ghostland back to Earth. She even asked me what happened to her.

”You got scared of Your madam and almost died” i said.
I told her not to be scared of the woman since she couldn’t do anything to her.

The whole thing that happened had gotten me deeply angry. It had woken the beast in me. It had propelled me to change my mind about talking with Aunty Franca or meeting with her.
I Had instantly decided that i was going into another war with a human trafficking cartel.
If the war claimed me as a casualty, so be it.
I wasn’t going to stand and watch Naomi die out of fear and trauma.
The Gods sent me to Paris for a reason, i could have gone to any other Country but since i ended up in France, there must have been a strong unknown reason behind it.

”Get up and change your cloth, we are going to Evry” i said.

Evry was a small town where Efosa lived with his girl. It was Immediately after Grigny through the Paris RER D Train Line.

Naomi didn’t say a word. She went into the room, changed her cloths and returned to the sitting room.

I got up and pulled her up as we walked towards the exit door.
Time to meet Efosa again.

“I want us to cool down for a while before we end up in graves”