(June 6, 2011)

click clack The keys of the keyboard. click clack This clacking had been going on for an hour, devoted as I was to uandishi the novel I had started a mwezi ago. It was called The Network and it was about this guy that creates a super fungus, lets himself become infected kwa it, and starts to take over the world using the land and sea as his media. The humans controlled the air, just to make it fair.

Engrossed as I was in in the adventures of Dan Cooper, known as "Mini" due to his immense height, I didn't hear Scar call my name the first time. It was when she alisema it the third time that I finally heard her.
She was looking at me like I was insane. And I guess I could be, for uandishi this novel. wewe have to be seriously messed up to write this.
"Babe?" she asked.
I saved the file and closed the laptop. I put it on the side meza, jedwali and looked at her.
"What's up, Scar?" I asked in return.
"You remember that siku that we came nyumbani from the vet after the dog bite thing?" she said, looking me in the eyes. She was alarmingly direct.
I hesitated. "Yeah..."
"You did something to me that day." It was alisema as a statement of fact, rather than as a question.
I alisema nothing and just nodded.
"That day, I was too depressed to notice what was going on. But today, while wewe were uandishi on that novel, which is kinda strange kwa the way, I was thinking about that entire series of events and I found something that didn't make too much sense to me.
"When I was in that bush, crying and trying to be left alone, wewe went inside and got a bowl of water. It wasn't just water, was it?"
I didn't answer at first.
When I didn't, she jumped up on the kitanda and got nose to nose with me and asked again.
"Was there something else in that bowl of water, Colby?"
I went cross-eyed trying to keep my focus on her, she was so close.
I still didn't answer and tried to sit up, but she put a paw on my chest and pushed me back down.
"Colby!"
I nodded once.
"So there was something else in that water?"
I nodded again.
"Speak!"
"Yes," I mumbled.
"Yes, what?" she demanded.
"Yes, there was something else in that bowl of water."
She nodded like I had revealed some big secret.
"Now that we've got that on the air, what was it?"
I looked at her, my mind speeding like a NASCAR race.
"Colby, what was it?" she asked again.
I stumbled over the first few words.
"I-it... I-it w-was a..." I paused.
She dug her claws into my shoulder as inspiration to keep talking.
"A... Sedative." I finished the sentence.
Her eyes widened. This clearly wasn't what she had expected to hear.
"It was a what?" she growled lowly. Her eyes shone angrily.
I repeated it.
She snarled furiously. "You drugged me?!"
I nodded meekly. Her claws gouged into my shoulder, which hurt a lot, but I was determined to onyesha no weakness.
"Goddammit, Colby!" she yelled. "How could wewe do this to me?!"
I opened my mouth to answer, but she snapped at me. I shut it in a hurry.
"Colby, this hurts. This hurts a lot. I trusted you. I believed in you. I thought that wewe would protect me-"
"Scar-"
"-but it seems I was wrong. I mean, how could wewe drug your mate?"
"Scar..."
"There is no reason good enough for that. None at all."
I swatted her paw off my chest and sat up angrily.
"Scar, wewe don't know what I was thinking-"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT wewe WERE THINKING!" she shrieked. "God damn you, Colby! I'm done."
Her last two words put a pause in my mind.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm done. I can't trust you," she alisema angrily.
"What are wewe saying, babe?" I asked.
"Don't call me babe. I'm not your "babe". Not anymore."
That hurt. I felt my eyes getting moist.
"But, Scar, I need you," I alisema plaintively.
"Yeah, well, I need wewe like another hole in the head!"
I gasped. That was unbelievably cruel. Before I could say another word, she slapped me in the face, jumped off the bed, and left the room.
"Scar!" I called desperately. "Scar, wait, please!"
I got no response.

The tears flowed freely now. I couldn't believe she was leaving. I ripped the tubes and IVs and wires off and struggled into a pair of jeans and t-shirt. It hurt my leg, but I didn't give a shit about that. My only priority was catching Scar and making her see some sense.
My gun and its holster were in the nightstand, one of the things that Scar had picked up for me when she and Jon had gone back to our, now my, place.
I clipped the holster to my belt, cocked the pistol, made sure the safety was on, and put it in the holster. I slipped my feet into a pair of crocs, which were perfect for people with casts on their legs. The last bit of the disguise I would use to get out was a pair of prescription aviator sunglasses and a backwards Jeff Gordon hat.
Seeing that I was due to be released the inayofuata day, it wouldn't really matter that I left now.
I managed to make it out of the hospital without being spotted, but I was stalled at the front door.
My phone rang.
I pulled it off the ukanda clip and looked at the screen. It was Scar!
I answered it.
"Scar, where are you?" I demanded.
She didn't tell me where she was. "I'm going to Jons."
"How?" I asked frantically.
In the background, I could hear a train horn. "This train makes a single stop in Kettle Falls in 3 hours. wewe have that long to get there. If wewe aren't, I'm gone forever." She hung up.
I immediately made a call to my CO, Mike Metcalf.
"Mike, I need your car!" I alisema kwa way of greeting.
"Why?"
"Scar left me and I have to get to Kettle Falls in 3 hours, au she's gone forever!"
Over the speaker, I heard Mike fishing through something loud. I got the perfect set of wheels. I'll be there in 10." He hung up.

I sat down to wait on one of the benches outside the hospital.
In no time at all, it seemed, Mike was pulling up in one of the most beautiful cars I'd ever seen; the Ferrari 599 GTO. He got out, I got in, and I sped off.