Alissa

I have this little angel, for me, she left her wings. She has no idea how much happiness she truly brings. She brightens up my days with her smiles and her laughs. She helps me to remember all the blessings that I have. It seems like only yesterday with a teardrop in my eye that you were born into this world. She is the apple of my eye, the reason that I live. She is all that I could wish for, my heart to her I give, I promise I will find a way to save you.

“Drive! Drive!” Chris’s voice echoed throughout the car.

“Fuck! I’m trying.”

The car just wouldn’t start, the engine continuously growled back at me each time I attempt to start the car. Nothing was going to plan; I couldn’t afford to get caught not here right now.

“Argh this stupid piece of shit!” I hit the steering wheel. Thoughts of my daughter surfaced, I couldn’t believe I was going to let her down.

“Oi! Omar, get it together we can’t stay here for much longer.” Chis said as he got out the car with a small drawstring bag. It contained 10 diamonds stones worth 700 thousand pounds. We had just stolen it from an exhibition that is meant to be taking place in a few hours. It will only be a matter of time before they notice they are gone.

“Omar! Listen, if you don’t get out that car, Alissa won’t get the money she needs.”

Alissa was my daughter, I only agreed to this so I could pay for her medicine. The doctors have been trying to find a suitable donor for her kidney for months now. It’s important for us to keep her healthy; although expensive for the medication, my angel is worth it.  

It didn’t take me long to regain my chain of thoughts after all the shouting Chris was doing. “Yeah, let’s go,” I said, as I hurried out of the car. Chris was in front so I was pacing behind him, making sure that I was following where he was headed to.  

It was a scorching hot afternoon; the muggy heat was bound to everyone that was outside. We were dressed in all black, so you can imagine what this heat was doing to us as we were running. We began cutting corners just to get to somewhere that we could relax. Sweat trickled down our necks and backs like melted ice; I didn’t know how much longer I could carry on in this heat.

“Chris how much further man, we’ve been running for a good while.” I had finally caught up with him.

“We’re almost there, nobody can see us I know these back roads like my own dick.”

“Really nigga!”

Chris always liked to give me vulgar statements for reasons, I will never know but I’m used to it although I’ll never be comfortable with it.

Suddenly I see Chris take out his phone, and he’s muttering away, which left me confused. How has he got time to be running and answering his phone? Does he even understand the predicament we’re in right now? Idiot

“Three, Two, One…” Chris counted, and then a big white van appeared in front of us with the back doors opening simultaneously. “Get in quick!” A voice said and with that we were lunged forward into the van.

“We made it, thank God.”

“Was this your plan all along Chris? You should have fucking told me!” I yelled out in the van. I had to regain my composure since he did keep his word of getting us back home safely.

“Relax man, I didn’t tell you because you would have started asking too many questions and you know that shit annoys me” he begun adjusting himself amongst all the boxes, bags and other equipment that surrounded us.

“True, I have to thank you for everything bro. You know this it means everything to me that you agreed to do this for Alissa.” I couldn’t stop thinking about Alissa now; I just wanted to get home to give her the biggest kiss ever.

“Okay, it’s going to be a long five-hour journey back to Manchester so make yourself comfortable mate. I’m going to sleep, as breaking into places is tiring” He repositioned his body against the boxes all around us.

“Yeah do your thing man, I’m wide awake so doubt I’ll be going sleep anytime soon,” I said, but then I heard snoring noises. I was talking to myself all this time Chris was fast asleep. I dipped into my pocket, pulled out a picture of Alissa and stared at it thinking of my little girl.

Hours gradually passed and before I knew it, we had reached Manchester.

“Chris, wake up already we’re back in manny. He sat up, rubbing his tired eyes.

“That was quick, I was about to fuck this model man!”

I didn’t want to hear the crap from his dream; I just wanted to get home to her. We got out of the van ten minutes later after it stopped round the corner from where I lived. Chris paid the driver money for dropping us and he drove off.

“Okay… so this is the plan, I’m going to meet the buyer in two days so if you want you can come.”

“Yeah no worries I’ll come with you, just let me know where and when” I started to make my way home.

I’ve known Chris since I was 14- years old. He’s gotten me through some real rough patches especially after my wife died. That’s why I agreed to go through with this; he had everything planned to precision.

I felt a raindrop fall against my skin, followed by several others, so I decided to jog the rest of the way home. Finally, I got to my front door. As soon as I put my key in to enter my house I was given the warmest of welcomes.

“Daddy, Daddy!” Alissa blurted out as she ran to give me a hug. Her arms felt so soft the way she wrapped them around me, she held onto me so tightly. These are the moments that I cherish with Alissa. I felt like all my worries lose their keen sting and my optimism raises its head from the dirt. Maybe the hope had been there all along, but without love, it was trapped. I was days away from curing my baby girl.

“I missed you too, Alissa.” I now picked her up and walked into the house shutting the door behind me.

“Oh, you’re back now!”

“Yeah, I’m finally back thank you so much for looking after she whilst I was gone,” I said as I walked into the kitchen holding Alissa. There stood Maria was washing up the dishes.

Maria was Alissa’s schoolteacher, whom I have gotten close to. She helps out from time to time for which I really appreciate.

She was all about simplicity, making things easy, helping those around her to relax and be happy with what they have.

“No problem, you know I always like to help. I’m just going to wash this up quickly then I’ll be off. Your food is in the microwave, and Alissa has already eaten.” She said cheerfully.

“You really are a blessing, let me tuck Alissa into bed and I’ll show you out.”

“I don’t want to sleep, though.” Alissa started whining.

“Eh! Alissa! Remember what I told you? You need to get a lot of rest so you don’t get sick.”

“Fine daddy, I’m feeling a bit tired now.” She yawned.

I took her up stairs and put her in her bed, not before praying to her. She loved to pray even at her young age of nine.

“Goodnight Alissa I love you,” I said sincerely

“Daddy wait!” she blurted out.

“What’s wrong?” I said, hoping she wasn’t in any distress.

“I had a dream about mummy, she said she wants you to be happy with Maria and that she knows how much you love me and her.” Alissa shut her eyes. 15 minutes after seeing Maria out the door, I decided to have a quick shower and get ready for bed, as I still hadn’t slept since the day before. Once I was comfortable in bed I felt the sweet release from the worries of the world. It was only 9:30pm and I knew I had to be up early to drop Alissa to school so away I started to drift.

The following morning I was up and out for my early morning jog. The coolness of the early morning is deceptive; the sun has barely risen and this altitude is always cooler. Me jogging this early is normal, I liked to keep fit and busy since I was getting old. Something felt odd this morning, I tried to shake it off but I couldn’t seem to for some odd reason.

“Don’t stop jogging, act natural and this will all be over with quickly.” Said this man who started jogging by my side.

I had no idea where he came from, could he have been following me all this time? It would make sense why I had an unsettling feeling all this time. I couldn’t see his face properly because he had his hood up and although he was jogging by my side, he made sure there was enough space so he couldn’t be seen.

“Okay, so what happens now?”

“I know you helped Chris steal those diamonds, I just can’t prove it right now. If you help me, I can get you full immunity from all charges.”

My heart sunk instantly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How did this happen? I can’t betray Chris, I refuse after he paid for Alissa’s first operation. I owe him everything.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, are you even part of the police? Look this is where I leave you and enter my house.” I picked up the pace when I saw my front porch, but that’s when I heard him say, “Check under your plant pot my card is there.”

With that, he turned around in the opposite direction and jogged on. I rushed to the plant pot and just like he said the card was there. A sudden rush of heat overwhelmed me; I was so confused. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. When I got inside, I started pacing up and down thinking endlessly of going prison.

“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Alissa said catching me off guard.

“Nothing, don’t worry about me. How do you feel about Maria taking you to school this morning?”

“Yay!”

“Alright go and brush your teeth, I’ll come and give you your bath and get you ready for school.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that I called Maria to come take Alissa to school for me. After calling Maria and getting her prepared for school, I felt a bit calmer but there was still a lot I had to do. 8:30am came and Maria had just popped by and taken Alissa for me, all I needed to do now was call Chris and tell him what happened.

“Bro! We have a huge problem the police know we were involved but they can’t prove anything yet. We need to get rid of them diamonds tonight!”

“What! No way, I can’t afford to go prison my wife will take the kids away from me. Fine, I’ll set up the meet for tonight I’m so sorry things had to come to this bro.” He sounded very apologetic like everything was his fault, which was strange because this guy in all the years I’ve known him had never apologized for a thing.

Time seemed to have no patience and before I knew it I was already on my way with Chris to make the drop. Alissa was with Maria, so I had one less thing to worry about already. As we drove to the location the silence in the car was making me nervous. It was unusual for Chris to be this quiet he would normally always crack some sort of vulgar banter but I guess he was in his zone.

“We’re here,” he said without even flinching or looking at me which I found weird. We were in the middle of nowhere by the looks of things, I just wanted to get this over and done with. I could see two blacked out vans ahead of us with what looked like three men standing in front of them.  A few moments later we were standing a few meters in opposite them not too close, but close enough to have a good look at them.

It was evident the guy in front was the leader, the map of wrinkles on his face told of the most incredible journey that one could only wonder about. His eyes dead eyes reflected the charcoal clouds above; I just knew this man was not to be messed with. In his hands, he clasped two large suitcases and my heart skipped a beat when he lowered both to reveal the money. Chris brought out one diamond from the bag; I guess that was their ways of showing they had the real things.

“Let's do this and be on our way,” Chris said, as he put the diamond back in the bag. The man just nodded, as he closed the briefcases again. Chris now turned to me, he handed the bag to me and gave me a hug saying, “Sorry I had no choice, I can’t lose my family.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that until I heard a swarm of cars pull up.

“Freeze! Don’t move you are under arrest!”

I turned to Chris realizing that this had been a set up by him. All the apologizing he was doing was because he had this all planned out. I fell to my knees with thoughts of Alissa sleeping away from me and wondering how my own friend could betray me like this.