The Keepers (6 page)

Mr. Richards entered the
conference room first followed by Chantel. The others were already
seated. Rikki's lawyer stood up, greeted Chantel and Mr. Richards
with a handshake and apologized sincerely for the delay.

“
We haven't
got all day
,” Rikki said not greeting
anyone, clearly annoyed and irritated to have even been there at
all and Chantel noted his peculiar voice but let it down to her not
seeing him after so long.

Mr. Richards
ran a scenario in his mind in which he jumped across the table to
where Rikki was seated, punched him a few times in the face,
knocking off his
sunglasses
and holding
him
with
the collar of his funny looking
jacket, threw him through the window, after which he looked back at
Chantel and lit a cigar smiling.
But no,
he is just a client, not my client but a client
nonetheless
and I must be
professional.
He consoled his
anger.

Chantel did
not know what to think or how to react, she simply walked to the
desk and Mr. Richards noticing this, swiftly went to her side and
drew her a chair and she sat down folding her arms and trying by
all means to pull back her tears and to appear strong. Rikki was
not moved a bit. He just sat there, his expression hidden by his
hat and
sunglasses
.

All seated now, Chantel next to
Mr. Richards on the long side of the desk closest to the door and
the others opposite them. A glass decanter and drinking glasses and
a sound recorder at the centre.

“
Date: May
twenty fourth, Year two thousand and 20

“
Meeting
place: Law firm Richards and partners, Honneyball Street, Venuii
City

“
Present are
Ms. Chantel Wiggins, myself Richards Neville, Mr. Royke Chards aka
Rikki and Mr. Joseph Patel

“
Okay, let us
commence. This should not take more than thirty minutes after which
a decision will be made to make a deal or to go to trial,” Mr
Richards said opening his leather folio envelope and withdrawing
its contents. Chantel sat still and avoided looking at Rikki and
Rikki
’s
attention was indiscernible behind
his sun-glasses.

Mr. Richards handed a copy of
the contract he drafted to Rikki's lawyer.

“
Those are the
conditions of the settlement my client requests in order to avoid
trial. Please, it is too long, I'll summarise it and you can review
it later after the meeting

“
My client
requests that Mr. Royke Chards provide financial support for the
child. Broken down, a monthly child support payment, a home, as
well as excess payments (not much) to care to any unforeseen
circumstances”

Rikki said nothing.

“
All taken
care of on your side, my client, Ms. Chantel Wiggins, will allow
visits to take place between the child and the presumed father, Mr.
Royke Chards conditionally, as well as when she is financially
stable to suspend the support from Mr. Royke Chards. Accept these
informally, a more formal layout of the conditions, as said, is in
the contract I have just handed you.”

“
Okay. But,”
Rikki's lawyer said. “
what we are hearing
is just words-
‘
amounts
’
,
‘
payments
’
and such. I appreciate the
summary but please if you would, tell us what you want in
numbers.”

“
Five thousand
a month for child support, two thousand a month for excess and as
for a home, my client will settle for anything decent and in Venuii
City
,” Mr. Richards said and thought about
how Chantel was letting
the ‘
half-wit
’
go easily.

Rikki's lawyer
smiled. It was a good deal. A deal that would not leave a scratch
on Rikki's wealth.
He
would be stupid not to take it. The silence seeped into the
room. Chantel sat still hoping that there would not be a trail and
reason
ed
on how unnecessary it
was.

But
he
was
stupid.

“
You ain't
getting anythin.” Chantel, instead of acknowledging the words,
again
noticed
the scratchy horrible
voice.

Rikki lawyer
reached out and touched Rikki on the shoulder, trying to draw
himself towards him to whisper something but Rikki just shook him
off. He took of his glasses and
-

My God.
Chantel exclaimed to herself, noting his
appearance without the sun-glasses. It sucked everything and for a
moment Chantel forgot about everything, ensnared only by his eyes.
Those horrible, eyes. She cleared her throat and the sound
reverberated throughout the silent room. Mr Richards saw his eyes
too but said nothing.

“
I said there
ain't no deal takin place here today. I've had enough of you trying
to take my money.”

“
Young man,”
Mr Richards intervened before Chantel could retort,
“
have you even considered what would
happen if the child was yours? I mean clearly you haven't
consider-”

“
The child
ain't mine. That’s what I'm sure of.”

At this Rikki's lawyer tried to
reach out again but with the same result as before.

“
I've lived my
life, I made myself-”

But he couldn’t finish as Mr.
Richard, with as professional a voice as he could bring out of
himself said:

“
Clearly, this
meeting is over and by this meeting; this meeting was an attempt to
help the both of you.” He looked at Chantel sadly and then cast a
short glance at Rikki. He continued:

“
This meeting
was an attempt at concluding this whole debacle as best as could be
done with minimal damage. But, it is over-”

“
Rikki, why
would I lie? You even insisted on not using condoms, do you
remember that? I don't even want your money, I just want what's
best for
my
child-
our
child
. By God, the child is yours. I told you
before. I told you when I told you. I told you when you threw me
out like a vomit. I tell you now
,”
s
he said and deep drawn sobs escaped her
mouth.

“
Everyone is
trying to take my money. Even those claimin to
help
,”
h
e said
and cast an obvious glance at his lawyer.

The lawyer, red-faced and given
up was the first to stand up. He had had enough.

“
No matter how
much you pay me,” he said, “
doesn’t mean
you can shut me up when I'm only trying to help you. But,” He
laughed
contemptuously,
“clearly, you are
your own lawyer and now I wish you good tidings. I quit.” He wished
Mr. Richards and Chantel good luck too and “By the way Rikki, if
the child is yours, you are definitely going to lose.”
A
nd he went out the conference room door
and left.

“
Chantel it would be a pleasure to represent
you
,
” Mr. Richards said, his voice
directed more to Rikki than to her. “Go home and rest, do not worry
about anything. I'll take it from here.” He stood up, grabbed the
recorder and waited for Chantel, still sobbing to stand too and
escorted her. At the door he looked at Rikki still
s
ea
ted in his chair, tired and wearisome
looking.

“
I believe you will find your way
out
,
” Mr. Richards said and “see
you in court
,
” he added.

-

“
Greed makes
you not human. Mammon is self-destructing and mammon is to be
controlled, not worshipped
,” says The Voice.
Rikki did not know this.

During the
months from the meeting leading up to the seventeenth of November
the same year, a paternity suit was filed, papers were served to a
Mr. Royke Chards, and blood tests confirmed Mr. Royke Chards as
father to the child
Neville Wiggins
and
then just to be safe, a suit for full custody for Ms. Chantel
Wiggins was filed. Rikki did not show up for the latter and she
won.

What is
momentum? The spirit? The force? Luck? That which many talk about?
That it helps. The law of attraction? The grace?. If one said that
humans were much smarter before science, would you disagree? What
if the meaning of life, just on a need to know basis is to take
over? Would you disagree? Some of which that we do not know is just
for our own good. Is it that for a real human being such things as
capitalism, communism, money, power, and greed have no meaning?
Those who are atheist, are they so because they just gave up
searching for something to believe in. Truly one who is such is
dead. Order, civilisation, discipline. Those were the days.
C
onsider a ball moving. The ball has momentum
associated with its mass and velocity. Consider a human being
living, does not the human being have a momentum too? Only a fool
would say no. Lies bring more lies. Truths bring more truths.
Murders bring more deaths. Life begets more life. It was when
science took over that humans felt they ‘are too old to believe’
but what humans knew not was that below religion-any religion-
there is a scientific reason why. But then could one say for a ball
in motion that nothing moved it from the start? That the ball has
always been in motion. Absurdity. Then why is that some say nothing
‘kick-started’ life? Absurdity.

In this world
there are always two ways. One or zero. On or off. In or out. In
this world, there is good and bad, and good and bad are relative.
For example, for one who kills, building weapons is good. The
opposite is true for one who does not kill. Now, consider the whole
population of humans. To live, good and bad must be defined. Note
that the relativity here lies on
‘
living
’
and that anything that does
not promote living is bad. God and the devil. Why is goodness and
badness given not just nouns but also a pronouns? Humans are alive,
should not the momentum of living creatures be alive also? Good and
bad (That which makes living and that which does not) should they
not have momentum associations? Then, if they do, good and bad are
themselves alive. Were we smarter back then? That is the reason why
goodness has a name and goodness is alive. Alive. That is why
badness is alive, because we are alive. Skeptical? Do not be
skeptical. You know how badness lingers on one. How it seems to
never leave and how it seems to bring more badness to one, in other
words, how it reproduces. The basic definition of life is having
the ability to reproduce. And how goodness reproduces, creating
more goodness. Then to answer the question that has been ask for so
long a time;
God is the momentum
.

Rikki played with fire. Because
the momentum of badness is in itself self-destructive.

-

I say hell to
the world. Hell to the world, everyone in it, anyone who’s been in
it. Hell to the whites, hell to the blacks, hell to all. I am
Rikki. I hate this. What happened Rikki?
Who is asking Rikki the question?
I
was screwed over. That’s what happened. But I am rich and I have
all my bitches.

“
Sir First, I
believe that this, no one understands.”

“
It is a most
peculiar case. Never in my ages of keeping has this been seen at
such a degree.”

The First took a deep breath
and let out a deep sigh.

“
Yes, I say it
is a most particular case. I guess the strangest. When badness
completely overshadows goodness.”

“
But what do
we do?” asked
The First
-rank-opposite.

“
We cannot
eliminate him. The minimum calculated consequences are not in the
desired minimum range.”

“
If we do not
do so, are we then not keepers?”

“
I believe
that we are keepers of the momentum and that being wise with power
is a virtue, that is all. Just be patient
,
”
h
e tried to shut him up.

“
Then we have
no power, then, do we?”

“
Would you
mess up a billion just to get rid of one? We have power. It’s just
the delicacy of the momentum. I mean if we were to eliminate him he
would become, by some peculiar physics of the momentum, immortal.
His influence, to be correct would be immortal. Yes, his popularity
is dwindling, but to eliminate him” he stopped to catch his breath
“to eliminate him” he continued “ would increase it again and it
will be bigger then
-”
He had run
out of breathe.

“
Okay, with
respect , Sir First, I shall hold to your better judgement, for
your rank.”

“
It would be most wise to do so. Just be
pat
ient, then we will nail him,
”
The First said
.

I am Rikki.

Rikki, of course, knew nothing
about such things as self-destructive momentums. No, all he did was
live his life. But his life was self-destructive. We have already
analysed how goodness and badness can be alive.