The cloak of darkness

“Another glass of brandy please,” Frank yelled from across the room. A young lady, who was the waitress, ran to the counter to attend to his orders. “You are drunk, man,” Steve said trying to stop his friend from popping another bottle of alcohol. “I need boldness to take this step and so I need to get high to achieve the level of boldness I need,” he replied to his friend while yanking his hand off the bottle so he could pour himself another round. “You are so stubborn,” Steve said and gave up. After drinking himself to stupor, Frank stood up abruptly and staggered to another table towards the end of room. Frank and Steve had made it a habit to spend their evenings in a club house to drink, play cards, dance with ladies and feed their eyes with the strippers’ moves and mostly get to spend the night with any of them. They had lived their lives on the basis of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and that made it difficult for them to see anything bad with their way of life. They had tons of girlfriends and had lost count of the number of flings and ‘eat and destroy’ they had had and yet they could not seem to ignore the sight of a beautiful woman. Frank finally got to his destination after tripping twice and bumping into men and ladies alike who were also having fun in their terms at the club. The table was occupied by a man who dressed like a titled chief with his cap and beads. He looked slightly above sixty with his neatly shaven beard and a pair of eye glasses which looked more like his only source of illumination into the happenings around his surroundings. The room was not properly lit as there were only coloured bulbs and loud music so, the colour of his attire cannot be clearly determined but it looked more like a lemon green traditional wear. He was in the company of two young ladies who were seated on his either sides and were busy caressing his head, face and potbelly and he was enjoying the gesture. Frank banged the table and that gave them a jerk. He was about saying something when two able-bodied men appeared behind him and bundled him outside. Steve, who did not leave his seat, watched the entire scene closely and he was afraid of what would become of his friend. ***** 3 hours earlier Steve and Frank had arrived at the club at about 9pm and were so excited about the thought of the fun they were going to have that night. They had carefully selected a seat that would give them access to have a clear view of all that would play out at the club that night. They had called all their girlfriends and were disappointed by all of them but they didn’t allow that to spoil their euphoria as they were optimistic about the idea of tasting a new fish that night. They sat down and placed their orders to get started for the night. Just then, a lady walked in, in the company of an elderly man and Frank’s mouth went agape. He was flabbergasted to see Rita, one of his girlfriends, who just told him that she had travelled to the village to visit her sick mother and that was why she could not spend the evening with him. He stared and stared until his eyes turned red. He gazed at their every move and could read in between the lines that Rita was actually dating him alongside an old man and that pained him to his bones. “You might be mistaking someone else for her,” Steve said in a bid to get his friend’s eyes off them and also not to ruin their evening. “I’m not blind at all. I can recognise that dress even in my sleep because I bought it for her with my hard-earned money,” Frank said soberly and that made Steve giggle as he had never seen his friend broken because of any woman. “He might be her dad or uncle or just anyone and not what you are thinking,” Steve said and he also did not believe what came out of his mouth because he knew that no reasonable father would bring his daughter to that kind of place at that time of the night. “You sound like a dunce right now,” Frank said with so much disgust and Steve agreed because he knew it himself. “Don’t let this girl ruin our evening please,” Steve pleaded with his friend as he looked into his eyes and saw rage which he knew would make him become irrational. “I’m going to make sure she doesn’t get away with this,” Frank said while gulping down the content of his cup and turned the bottle of brandy on the table swiftly, emptied the content into his cup and made to drink it before Steve held his hand. “You have little resistance for alcohol so please take it easy and don’t drink yourself to a pulp,” Steve said, still holding him. “She played with my intelligence and made me into a fool and I won’t take that,” he said and yanked his friend’s hand off before forcing the alcohol down his throat. “I can’t take it!” He exclaimed after catching his breath and Steve could sense that he was getting drunk and that would not do him any good because his friend behaved like a fool whenever he was drunk. “You are known for playing with women’s intelligence and their hearts so I wonder why you are so pained that just one woman deceived you and you are acting as though you loved her,” Steve said with irritation, wanting his friend to snap out of his pity party and allow him to enjoy the night. “I’m the only one that has the right to play women. They have no right to play with my intelligence,” Frank replied in anger. Steve tried all he could to make his friend snap out of his rage and fury but his entire attempt proved abortive. And after drinking himself to a pulp he walked over to the table to confront Rita but he had been whisked away by two macho men and Steve was scared to go out to see what they were doing to his friend because he knew he won’t be able to overpower such men. ***** Steve finally summoned courage to see what had befallen his friend. He took his jacket and car keys after paying the bills and stepped outside. He walked through the alley and checked the back of the building but he saw no sign of his friend. He then searched through the parking lot and still could not find Frank. He was almost giving up when he saw those two men standing across the road and he walked up to them. He saw his friend dumped in a gutter and his sight left little to be desired. He made to walk away without them noticing him but he was too late and it was when he heard them say “na him friend be that” that he took to his heels but they caught him and he had a taste of what they dished out to Frank. He sat in the gutter and watched his friend snore his life out in the dirty ditch. He wished he had not even attempted to look for him but it was too late as he was already facing the consequences of the action. The men stayed with them as though they were under strict instructions and he could not reach to his pocket to get his phone because he feared they might smash it and he could not risk the pain of losing his phone as it contained vital informations regarding his life. After what seemed like eternity, the men moved away and when he rose up he saw that the chief was exiting the club in the company of those ladies and he looked down at his defeated friend who was still sleeping soundly in the gutter. When the coast was clear, he gave his friend a hard slap that made him to jerk and he walked away. Frank could not register his environment but he saw his friend walking away. He tried to stand up and then the pain in his body sent him falling backwards into the ditch filled with mud and then the stench rose to his nose and he tried to cover his nose but his hands were all covered in mud. The smell of the place made him gather all the strength he could muster and he was able to get on his feet and crawled his way out of the pit. As he walked towards the direction he saw his friend walking to, the images of what happened came to him like a flash and he gritted his teeth in anger while tightening his fist but he was only a toothless dog that can only bark. They were able to get some water to clean up and he was so apologetic to Steve who just blamed him for ruining his evening and laughed him to scorn as he showed him the picture of the chief walking out of the club with Rita clinging to him like a pest and that infuriated him the more. He promised himself that he was going to deal with Rita and make her pay for the pain that was inflicted on them but Steve just laughed at him in disbelief as they got into the car to drive home. The night had been ruined and they could not go into the club to drink and get girls again because the time was fast spent and most of the beautiful girls would have been carted away leaving the old and used ones and they would rather sleep alone than deal with such. They were also relieved because it was a Friday night and so the bruises on their faces and arms would have healed a little before resuming to work on Monday which will save them the pain of cooking up a lie to cover up the disgrace of being beaten up in a club because of a girl.