TALES OF THE ATLANTIC

CHAPTER NINE

The phone rang the second time before Boma answered it drowsily with her eyes barely opened.

“Who …who’s on the line?”

“I’m sorry to wake you up at his time, it’s me…its Tamunotonye.”

She immediately sat up on the bed, rubbing her eyes and pushing away her blanket.

“How was it, what happened…you’ve been on my mind since you left.”

“Listen, I’m not ready to answer all your questions, but the freaky initiation went on well. ‘Stage one’ is complete, that’s all I can say.”

“So where are you now?”

“I’ll see you when the time’s right…”

“What do you mean when the time’s right, can’t you come over to my office?”

“Even if I came to your office, you won’t be able to see me.”

The line went dead, while Boma stared at the phone screen, which displayed the time duration of our conversation. The time on my wristwatch showed sixteen minutes past six in the morning. The initiation had taken the whole night and the entire morning.

Strangely enough, I neither felt tired nor drowsy, while I kept walking from Rumuokoro junction to the school my mother once taught – Federal Government College Rumuokoro. For a moment, I thought about the two security guards at the school’s entrance and how I was going to come out of the whole Marine Brothers Society affair after accomplishing my ‘mission.’

Soon, I reached the entrance, which comprised of two gates – one which served as the entrance and the other for the exit.

I hesitated as I looked around the whole place. It was so quiet, so calm, and so academic. I resumed walking again and passed through the gate like a ghost. I really did not realise why I was walking inside the school, but all I knew was that I walked past the Principal’s residence, through a tarred road and soon stopped inside a small field covered with grass.

The moment I stopped, very close to the administrative block, I suddenly felt calm and had peace of mind. Standing on the field, my whole attention was on the weather, as I expected another ‘mystery in the sky,’ like the one that took place before my initiation.

My right foot soon kicked a small black box on the field, which was large enough to contain a masculine wristwatch. I picked it up and thought maybe it belonged to a passer-by who had accidentally dropped it, or someone must have kept it there, hoping to retrieve it later…

What the hell, finders, keepers, I whispered too myself, unaware of the nasty surprise about to take place. Few moments later, I was taken aback as my eyes beheld an immaculate black and gold signet ring in a black plastic holder inside the box, with the inscription – Marine Brothers Society atop the ring.

I held the ring in my right hand, brought it closer to my eyes and observed it carefully. The main body was made of pure gold, while the top was black, but for the Marine Brothers Society inscription on the circular space, which was in gold. Examining the signet ring closely,

I soon observed that my first name: Tamunotonye inscribed inside the ring, in the form of a depression.

If I tell whoever is reading this narrative, that I realised when I slipped the ring onto the little finger on my right hand, I would be telling a lie and deceiving myself at the same time.

Immediately I slipped it on, it fitted perfectly and I felt an extraordinary power within me – indescribable, invisible and invincible. For a moment, I felt like a demi-god with limitless powers, but I knew I had lost something very vital as a human being – my emotions.

While the morning began to dawn slowly, I knew I would never lose the spirit of vengeance, because it was my driving force and the main reason I’d joined Marine Brothers Society. I looked at my wristwatch and it was seven minutes past seven in the morning as I began to walk towards the car park in front of the administrative block.

I wouldn’t want to describe myself as a heartless brother, as I touched the katana which now hung by a special belt on my waist. But I could confidently say that I could kill anyone without a second thought, or at the slightest pretext, without any feeling of remorse afterwards.