Mahalia in Cape Town

HE'S THE MAN

CHAPTER 9

He’s The Man

Mahalia was unable to move a muscle as her eyes were still glued on the amount of money that was inside the envelope. It was more than just $500 and she does not understand why she was doing this even though she’s obviously untouched. She grabs her dying phone and tries to save Mickey’s number before she calls him.

His phone was ringing but it took him a while to answer. She eyes the amount of money inside and she knows she cannot accept such an amount.

He finally caves in, “Yes hello?”

“Mickey, this is Ali.”

“Ah! Sleeping beauty is awake.” Mickey’s playful voice fills her ears as he hears him speaking to someone in another language. “Have you slept well?”

“What is this money for?”

“Well, you asked for help.”

“Yeah, but… This.. This is not what we talked about earlier. Didn’t you say it is $500 for one s*x?” She is worried about how she would be able to pay such an amount to him.

She takes a pause and he is just listening to her, “I don’t understand what this is for.”

Mickey hums, “Did you forget something?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you tell me that you will do anything I want?” He questions.

“Yes.”

“Well, you did everything I asked you to do.”

Mahalia takes a quick pause as she mutters, “What?”

“Earlier, I told you to go down to my driver and head to the place where I will ask you to. I ordered you to wait for me and you did every single thing I asked, you’re just rewarded.” Mickey answers with a smile.

Mahalia could not even believe how those words are coming out from Mickey’s mouth because it was too good to be true. She doesn’t even want to believe that the entire amount of money inside this red envelope is hers.

“You’re joking.” Mahalia finally speaks.

“No.” Mickey answers. “You’re rewarded, also I added a little of it for your mother. You need it right? So just don’t think about anything else.”

Mahalia begins to cry in silence as she covers her mouth with her hand as she weeps.

“Are you crying?” Mickey questions worriedly. “Oh lovely, please don’t cry. I don’t like when girls cry. I won’t even ask you to pay for that. It’s yours. Don’t worry about any interests.” He says in a light voice to lighten up the mood for her.

“Really?” She couldn’t believe it as her voice became softer.

“Yes.” His answer was his firm. “That’s all yours. I just want to help you. I know what it’s like to lose a mother.”

“Thank you.” She cannot stop herself from crying as she is so overwhelmed with emotions right now. “I just cannot believe it.” She sobs softly. “I can’t believe that a complete stranger like you would actually help me.”

“You’re the most welcome.” He answers happily. “Well, I have to let you go now because I have some things to attend to.”

Mahalia nods as she wipes her tears, “I am so sorry for disturbing you. Thank you so much. This is going to help my mom a lot and her chemo. Thank you. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome Ali and don’t forget to dress up tomorrow okay?”

Mahalia feels shy after what she has done and how she voluntarily offers herself for s*x. After their conversation, Mahalia stays for a while and cries her pain, confusion, anger and self-pity to what she is currently going through. She calls the front desk and orders some food for herself as what Mickey told her, she ate her meal and it was so good that it makes her cry harder because she hopes that her family would be able to be here and taste it too.

After she left the hotel, she kept the red envelope safe and made sure that she had it inside her bag. As her thoughts are completely drowned with sadness and desperation with the need of more money, she decides to go to a nearby beach and buy the cheapest cans of beer to drink her problems away. She doesn’t really drink but she feels as if she needs it tonight after what happened to her mother and after what happened to her, her heart is too full of sorrow and complete hopelessness.

She finally reaches the beach and the sound of water rolling over each other as it reaches the shore, subtly calms her. She takes off her shoes and socks and decides to walk along the beach barefoot to feel the tiny specks of sand in between her toes.

As she continues to walk, she finds another person who’s wearing a black oversized hoodie that covers the person’s entire head. The person is sitting all by himself on the sand with a bottle of whiskey on his hand and Mahalia was quick to tell that it was a man because of the big rubber shoes he was wearing.

She sits a foot away from the man and decides to open one can of beer out of the three that she bought. Mahalia looks far ahead as she thinks of how difficult her life had been. She begins to weep as she sobs silently while she continues to wipe her tears that kept flowing over her cheeks.

She has always pitied herself for what she has gone through but has never lost her faith in her God. She lowers her head, bites her inner cheek as she keeps telling herself to stop crying and instead be thankful for what she has received. She chugs an amount of beer down as it drips over her chin but instantly wipes it with the back of her hand. She wipes her tears too as she continues to look up to the dark night sky and reminds of how desperately her siblings were in need of help but were not able to.

“Ano ba naman ‘yan Lord!” Mahalia screams to the empty space and completely ignores the other person on the shore. Her tears are still streaming down her cheeks as she keeps wiping them off. (TRANSLATION: What is this Lord?!)

The other person slowly looked towards Mahalia as he hid under his hoodie but tried to eye her intently even though it was not his business. He knew that it did not matter to him but he seemed interested as soon as Mahalia was speaking in another language. His ears are attentive but his eyes are trying to mind his own business.

“Nakakapagod na eh! Nakakapagod na talaga!” Mahalia screams to the vast space again. (TRANSLATION: It’s getting tiring! It’s getting really tiring!)

The other person feels a little bothered since he wanted the beach to be all to himself but then a random and drunk looking woman comes and ruins it for him.

“Parang ang unfair mo naman, Lord! Parang palagi mo nalang akong pinahihirapan eh! Na-eenjoy mo ba akong panuorin na nahihirapan?! Ha?! Putang ina naman ‘to oh! Nagtatagalog na ako at kinakausap kita! Hindi naman talaga ako nagsasalita ng tagalog! Naloloka na ‘ko!” She continues to rant about her hardships in life as she cries, wiping her big tears as she sobs. (TRANSLATION: It seems unfair of you, Lord! It’s like you’re always torturing me! Do you enjoy watching me struggle?! Huh?! f**k this s**t! I am already speaking in tagalog and I’m talking to you! I don’t even speak tagalog! I’m going crazy!)

“Pagod na ako Lord!” She stands on her feet as she looks up to the sky and continues to rant as if she was actually talking to someone. (TRANSLATION: I am tired, Lord !)

Her action frightened and startled the other person who was just sitting there trying to find peace. He looks back at her and thinks that she is drunk so he tries to feel a little responsible for what might happen to her. He begins to feel annoyed as he lifts the bottle of whiskey to his lips and takes another chug.

Mahalia finishes her bottle and screams her heart out, “I am so tired of everything!!!”

She falls to her butt intentionally and cries as she hugs her knees with her arms around her leg. She rested her forehead against her knees and just lowered her head as if the entire world was on her shoulders. She feels secure with her position and she feels as if no one can break down her walls.

She cries for a while as her hands are clenched hard onto the red envelope that contains a lot of money. She recalls back to her terminally ill mother and her siblings, then in a snap of a finger she is catapulted back in finding her strength and the reason why she is doing all of this.

She stiffens as soon as she feels a deep breath and a subtle hit on her back. “You know…” His voice is muffled as he fixes his mask back on his mouth with his hand still grasping on the bottle of whiskey. “The entire beach is not yours.”

She feels a little on her guard as she grasps a little tighter on the red envelope because she didn’t want to lose the money that could help her mother. She notices instantly that his voice was muffled and that it was subtly difficult to understand what he is saying especially with the waves crashing on the shore but she was able to comprehend what he said.

“Who are you?” She asks right away.

“Someone who wanted to look for peace until you came.” He responds.

“What do you want?”

He sighs, “Didn’t I tell you? I came here to look for peace and you ruined it by screaming out like a freak.”

She breathes as she wipes the escaping tears off her cheeks, “I’m sorry.” She looks up to the night sky and still feels the man’s back pressed subtly on her back. “Are you a good listener?”

“What?”

“Are you a good listener?”

He didn’t answer.

“Someone actually told me that it is easier to tell these unwanted feelings to a complete stranger. There’s no judgment, you just have to be a good listener.” She mutters and feels the alcohol kicking in her system. She stares into the red envelope.

“Are you?” She hears the man ask.

“I am a good listener because everyone has stories to tell.” She answers.

He sighs, “We are all going through some s**t. All you have to do is to not give up. He’s up there after all. He’s listening.”

She tries to process what this man is saying because she was then reminded that he has had a bottle of whiskey. She thinks to herself that maybe he is drunk and that the alcohol is taking, which makes her feel to be more on her guard, especially with the amount of money she has inside the red envelope.

“He?” She chimes.

“God. The Almighty. The man up there, you know.” He answers right away. “He’s listening, isn’t he?”

She releases a heavy sigh, “I don’t know.”

“Do you believe in God?” He asks and Mahalia feels a little surprised that a random man could actually ask her a sensible question. “You called out to Him, right? And ranted out something that I didn’t understand.”

She breathes heavily but doesn’t let her guard down.

“He provides so you don’t have to worry. He listens and He watches, all you have to do is have faith that things will get by.” He adds.

“How do you know that?”

“I was once like you. Whatever you’re going through right now, you’ll get through it in the future.” He responded. “I assure you.”

There is silence as the sound of the waves fills the entire place while Mahalia listens intently to it. The sound of the waves crashing makes her feel a little relaxed and as she watches the lovely night sky, she is taken back to the times that she spent with her family and it makes her mold up a new form of strength and hope from the simplest of a random drunk man that had encouraged her. Her heart is calmer now and her tears have stopped falling as she feels a little steady as her heartbeat.

“Do you believe--” She looked back to where the man was sitting but then he was gone.

She looked around the entire beach and realized that she was alone as the wind brushed through her hair and her skin. Her eyes were looking everywhere but then the man had disappeared in just a matter of seconds. She rethinks to herself if she was hallucinating or not, but then she was sure that she had seen a man and had even talked to him.

“Hello? Hello?” She called out but the sound of the waves answered her in return. Her eyes scanned every corner but the man was totally gone and it was too dark to even see anyone in the shades. “Asa man to siya nipadung oy?” (TRANSLATION: Where did he go?)

As she moves around, her hand accidentally hits a bottle and as soon as she stares at it, she sees an empty transparent bottle that has a rolled up paper inside. She looks around again, searching for the man but he has completely vanished.

The following morning, Mahalia woke up at almost eight and she had a slight headache, until she had realized that Mickey had informed her that she needed to see him in the location he instructed him to. She grabs her phone and finds a message from Mickey which says: Don’t forget to go to the address x

Mahalia rushes on getting a quick shower, putting on her yellow midi dress that she has only used once in Cape Town and her pair of worn out sneakers. She goes to the nearby bank and sends the entire money to her family without leaving a penny for herself as long as her mother would have her chemotherapy as soon as possible.

Past 9AM, she reached the location and had found out that it was a famous resort in Cape Town that holds the best luxury title. She enters the building and looks around for Mickey before she grabs her phone and finds the courage to message him.

MAHALIA: Hey Mickey, I am so sorry that I’m super late. I still went to the bank to send the money to my family. I’m in the lobby. Where are you?

After five minutes, Mickey responds and she excitedly opens it, having a positive feeling that he is interested in taking her out. She has her hopes up and she seems giddy with the thought of it after the kind gesture that Mickey had shown her.

MICKEY: A woman named Alex will come and get you.

“There you are!” Mahalia pulled her head up as soon as she heard the female’s voice that was close to her. “He has been waiting for you!”

“You’re Alex?” Mahalia asks.

“Yes and that’s Ms. Alex to you.” She barks as she puts a I.D sling on Mahalia without telling her. “Hurry up and follow me.” Her voice was demanding.

Mahalia didn’t know what was going on as she chased Alex along the lobby while her eyes were staring at the I.D which says staff. As soon as she reaches the west wing with Alex, she reads the sign that says “NO ENTRY” and it was heavily guarded but they were allowed to pass through. Alex leads her to a big room and just as Mahalia was about to ask what was happening, Alex opens the door and they walk in together.

“I’m sorry I don’t understand what is going on. Can you please tell me?” Mahalia mutters as they walk along the room’s hallway.

Alex ignores her and as soon as they reach the end of the hallway, Mahalia’s eyes travel to a photo shoot set and lay her eyes on a man wearing nothing but his Calvin Klein briefs as he poses sensually in front of the camera. He flexes his toned and well-carved muscles and Mahalia darts her eyes on his abs.

“Casey, your new personal assistant is here.” Alex hollers through the clicking sound of the cameras.

It was Casey Stefano wearing a white brief as his eyes meets the stunned Mahalia.