The Move

Adeola Iyiola

May 2006

The sex was stale, David thought as he entered the elevator. He was tired of making love to a log of wood, that is, he also thought, if he can get the log of wood to open up between its split ends. She was tense, passive and uncaring. The sexual deprivation he had endured recently was becoming a crisis for him. He was tired of waiting for the entrance. He was now ready to seek a different entry point. He wanted something smoother, sexier, more vibrant, and maybe younger. His relationship with Cindy was complicated by the fact that they had lived together in the last one year.

He watched the elevator slow to a stop and he exited on the 12th floor. They had decided they wanted a bigger place and had both moved out of their apartments into a bigger one. He had grown to love the apartment. His fear was simple. If he breaks off the relationship, will he be the one to move out of the apartment? He did not want that. He wanted the apartment he had grown to love, to himself.

He would get something to eat, he thought as he opened the apartment door, grabbed the file he wanted his colleague Greg to work on, sit around a while and head back to work.

The New York sunshine shined brightly through the open curtains in the living room. He was surprised to see television was on, the Jerry Springer Show blaring loudly from it. He didn’t know Cindy was off work that day. Besides, he did not know too much of what was going on with Cindy these days. She was evasive about her schedules and he felt it was deliberate.

He walked towards the bedroom, opened the door and found no one there. He walked towards the bathroom. "Cindy," he called but got no answer. She was not in the bathroom. Maybe she went out for a while or had forgotten to turn off the television set, he thought, and turned to walk back towards the living room. It was after he turned off the television that the sounds became audible. Very low tones at first but when he remained still, walked towards the possible direction of its source and listened intently, he could hear it distinctly. Moaning sounds came from the direction of the guest room.

As he approached the guest room, the sounds became louder. Maybe, he thought, Cindy was entertaining herself with pornographic movies; after all, he wasn’t getting any sex from her. Something, he was sure now, must be pleasuring her. He smiled at the thought of catching his girlfriend watching pornography behind his back. He was slightly excited, lightly aroused.

"Cindy," he called as he opened the door and then stood still, staring at the two nude figures joined as one. He watched them quickly detach and scramble to get dressed.

"David!" Cindy called as she hurried to get off the bed.

David simply turned back and walked out.

"Oh, God," he could hear Cindy chorus behind him. He walked over to the cabinet his mother gave him when he first moved out of her home, his first most priced possession. He opened the third drawer and removed his second most priced possession, the gun his friend Marvin gave him. He walked back towards the guest room. At the turn into the corridors, he confronted the man who had been sleeping with his girlfriend in his home. He was walking towards his possible and hopeful escape. He had managed to get his pants on and in his hands were his shirt and shoes.

David stopped, raised the gun towards him and commanded, "Turn around and walk back into the room! Now!"

He stopped, stared, but did not turn back. David raised his gun higher, unlocked the gun with a noisy click. "Now!" he commanded again.

The man turned back and started towards the room. David followed him. Cindy was still inside, fully dressed, buttoning her shirt.

"Wow, Wow, what do we have here? How long has this been going on? "

They did not respond.

"How long?" he asked loudly.

"Six months," the man answered.

"Six months!" David exclaimed with a frown, "And we’ve only been living together a year."

He sat down in the chair in the corner, gun pointed. All the while he was trying to figure out what was wrong with their sex life, he thought, she had been having sexual relations with another guy. She was screaming and panting in pleasure in the arms of an alien body while he drowned in sexual deprivation. He felt cheated and fooled.

"Strip," he commanded them.

They were reluctant and slowed to heed his command.

"Strip!" he commanded again, raising the gun once more, "or I’ll blow your brains out."

They started to strip and he watched them and waited, his anger diminishing slowly at the sight of their helplessness.

"Sit," he commanded after they were naked. They proceeded to sit on the bed but he stopped them.

"No, on the floor," he said and pointed downwards.

They sat, their naked buttocks touching the brown rug. The man tried to cover his private parts with his hand.

"It’s too late for that now, don’t you think, open up!"

"Is this really necessary?" Cindy asked in soft mellow tone.

"Shut up!" he shouted towards her, turned towards the man and commanded again, "Open up!"

The man uncovered his private area and allowed it to touch the rug.

"And you too," he told Cindy.

"No one in this room is a stranger to your display. Open up!"

She did, slowly.

David stared towards Cindy. "I have to commend you Cindy. You pulled this off–for six months." He pointed the gun towards the man and asked, "What’s your name?"

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