Spring/3

I have caught up with Ugo and Eddy who are standing in front of the entrance of the Intourist hotel and talking; “I told the babes that we’ll be waiting for them outside of the hotel. They should be showing up any minute from now.” Ugo is saying as he looks at his watch.

“…I’ll see you guys later…” Barry says and continues into the lobby of the hotel, where he catches up with Sampson, the Ghanaian guy, who has started to climb up the stairs. The party is taking place in the ballroom on the second floor and already you can hear music wafting from there into the lobby area each time the front door opens.

“I hope say these people no go say Africans don come again with their noise!” Eddy is saying, commentating on the noise and wondering whether people will complain.
“If say na problem dem for no allow the party at all. And besides na better music wey most of them never hear before…”Ugo responds saying that if the noise were a problem that they probably wouldn’t have allowed the party to take place.

I am no longer as excited about this party as i was this morning. In fact the whole upbeat mood, which I had been experiencing has disappeared with the news of Philips death and I no longer care about this whole issue of finding love. Its all seeming suddenly so frivolous-the party and the love business-when put before the bigger issues of life and death.

I am beginning to see that there are a lot more important things going on around me for me to wallow in my self-pity and be so concerned about assuaging my own selfish desires; there are bigger issues, which have already claimed one casualty and which now seems to be slowly driving Barry out of his mind.

I can almost swear that Barry is losing his mind; i can sense that something is not quite right with him...yet i don't know what i can really do. If i tell him about my concerns and advise him to seek help he will tell me that I am part of the conspiracy and that I want to help "them" get rid of him.

The other day he said that he is convinced that "they" are watching him...and when i asked him to elaborate, he had told me to forget about it. I am worried for him because its difficult to say what he will do to defend himself from the people whom he believes are plotting to get rid of him. And I am also worried about what he can do to Omar if he gets hold of him seeing that he believes that Omar is part of the overall problem, which he has to solve.

I am thinking about these important things and then three lovely ladies are walking towards us. I notice that one of them is smiling at Ugo and I recognise her to be Sveta, Ugo’s new girlfriend. The other two are talking animatedly about something and as they see us standing at the entrance of the hotel waiting for them, they have become more subdued.

I can make out Natasha-the beautiful red head from Novercherkassk that Sveta had introduced to Eddy only last week. And then I notice that the tall slim beauty whose slightly dark features suggests a mixed parentage is looking at me; she seems to be checking me out. And I am thinking that this must be my date. I am thinking that she is beautiful and at the sight of her my heart has started racing…

I am now smiling at her and she has started to smile back as they walk towards us.