Unexpected hostage

 Confused with what seemed like a movie to him, George trembled with fear and all what he was supposed to do vanished from his memory. He did not know whether to proceed for his medication or go back to peek what had transpired at the company. He finally resolved to incline on his common sense that the latter option was dangerous. He thought of what could have happened had he been at the Big Blue. A clear revelation soothed him on the fact that he had left his phone at the Big Blue and could not be traced .' Escape! Run! You're saved!' An inner voice disturbed him that seconds later no one would have believed that this man was sick. He ran down the road into a far place that he could think and visualize about his fate more clearly.

 Aimless running drenched him in perspiration and uncontrolled panting. He manoeuvered feeders that diverted further away from this main road without any amount of care for the turning heads along the road.One would easily mistake him with a deranged man or one of the surviving addicts of a narcotic stimulant.

 His human ability and energy in his exhausted and overworked limbs depleted just some few kilometers to the city center. The lungs and the heart also must have endured the unexpected long sprint and they too were calling for an emergency rest. He found himself in a lonely narrow lane that inerveted in a residential estate. He could not tell how long he had been running but was sure at least four to five kilometers were down. It reminded him of his youthful days when he could really run like a real time athlete . Now the call for adulthood and the merciless creeping aging complexities stiffened his bones and he couldn't run or better said, find the time for it. 

 He planted his posterior on the concrete finishing of a calvert that was just in front of a poshy estate gate. He let out a mighty sigh and began to recollect of what real had happened. Bruce and his crazy imagination of investment still loomed in his head. Here he was.All money given to Bruce and left without a single coin.He imagined with utter bitterness , of how he has lost his job altogether. He lamented even further to the realization that his girlfriend Angela, had already discovered his hand in the whole plot of Claire's missing. How he longed to reconnect to her . But how can he apologized? She has already filled in the blanks of the questions in her mind and perhaps had slotted him in a very heinous category and never to be out of it again.

 These thoughts were cut short when he heard a group of men talking loudly and carelessly as they opened that gate next to him and trotted out. They had aggregated themselves into small group and theirs outfits depicted clearly that they were not the dwellers of the estate.They were casual workers in the estate and George certainly noticed this from their talks. The last group had only three men and contrary the the antecedent ,these men were courtesy and humane enough to greet him. The first two men greeted him and the third, stood for a moment in hesitance as though he was straining to bring something into his mind. He finally snapped his finger in remembrance and shouted wildly. " Yes! George! Ya! George!" This caught George abshed. He wondered why things were becoming so unreal and confusing like that. " What a coincidence! What are you doing here my friend? So alone like this!" The man continued while ignoring the confusion he had threw into George. 

 " You don't remember me?" He went on to ask now lowering his voice a little bit. " No! I'm trying to... remember.." 

" It's Jackson your classmate. How dare you foregt me Gorggy?" He reminded while addressing him with his old pet name that he loved back then. George was shocked beyond words. Was this one case of evils spirits or superstitions spoken of in his upcountry village? Was this a real Jackson? How comes he was reminiscing about him some moment ago and now he is here in real life?

 "It cannot be! Jackson?" George continued to wonder.

" Jackson ! Yes the one you know."

"I can't imagine. I was thinking about you some moments ago. I had started streaming my thoughts of old days back in school. Now here you are. Really?" He stretched to give him a casual hug with slight pating on the back of his shoulder.

 The two men chortled happily as they thought of their old days and each of them couldn't miss to point out how the other was really grown and bearded with full manhood. The two friends of Jackson who were standing by grew impatient and Jackson had to release them to proceed with their journey as he reconnected with his childhood friend.

 "No! First you must tell me who are you waiting for her at this gate." Jackson implored when he realized his friends was deliberately averting something ominous. "It's a long story Jackson! I don't think we can be able to speak of it all here."

"I don't want short stories either. You must tell me Gorggy! However long it is."

"Okay were you going home? I can make an escort to you maybe as we talk."

" Great! We let's go."

 George composed himself breathed in heavily before starting to narate the ordeal that had fallen into his life.The two men walked passed the estate and came to a narrow path that later joined the main road that George was trying by all means to avert. Jackson was perplexed when George squirmed a little apon the realization that he had come back to the same road but only far much than the spot he was at first. He made Jackson stand for a moment and and stretched his eyes towards the West where the sun was bidding good bye to the face of the earth. The road was now less busy than it was and a conspicuous mirage appeared way further to the West. He knew that was the direction of the The Big Blue ."Jackson!" He called him with an urgent voice." We should not go to this direction. That's where I'm running from." He pointed to the west as he looked at his friend with a need of his friend to change the direction should he have wanted to proceed that way.

 " Why? You're so strange? We're going down this other opposite side but what are you running from? You're not okay!" Jackson observed with curiosity and care.

 " From what I have been telling you, that's is the point that I was heading to. I was just about to tell you the danger that I'm in."

" Danger?"

"I'm running from the police."

"Police?" Jackson stepped back a little bit.

" Yeah and I need help my brother!" George continued." I don't think I'm going back to my house."

"George! Don't tell me you want me to hide you in my house. The police? No! No!" 

 It took consistent persuasion for a couple of minutes before Jackson understand George's situation and empathized with him. He finally agreed to host George at his house provided that he did not do anything that would render to him being apprehended. The men walked along the road with each of them having different envisions. 

 Jackson wondered if hosting his dearest friend was really a wise decision to overlook the fact that he was placing himself on the edge of the law. But his friend was more valuable given that their relationship grew from childhood bond. He would rather help George and maintain this rekindled friendship than to let is friend suffer. George's imagination was how he was going to put up things again. How he was going to make his life again given that now he has no job, no income, no clothes, no food or house to keep his life going. As if loosing all those were a loss loosing Angela added to it and gave him an incurable heartbreak. He depended entirely on Jackson now . An angel in the name of a friend to rescue him and. guarantee him the unexpected hostage.

 " I live some distance away from here." Jackson broke that awkward silence that each was contemplating over the outcome of George.

" So we still have to walk ?" George inquired with signs of fatigue and hunger creeping in.

"Ya! We're walking for some distance before we can take a public van to my place." Jackson recounted and continued. " Are you already tired?" 

" And hungry also!" supplied George with exhaustion. Jackson remained quiet for some time and finally assured.

"You'll rest and eat! Don't worry. Just keep up!"

 With silence the men continued their journey down the road until it inerveted into a sprawling busy shopping center. From where they were, George could spot the vans parked on a road to the east of the shopping center and that renewed his inner hope. He sighed in relief when they crossed the road to access them and continue their journey to Jackson's dwelling.