Aaron’s eyes narrowed into slits and he examined the four lines of fine brownish powder that Souzane had poured on the table in front of them. He analysed it with his eyes only before quickly dipping a finger and taking up an entire line of brown powder.
Just as he was about to lick his hand, Souzane slapped his hand away from his mouth.
"What the hell," Aaron complained as he watched the powder at the tip of his finger float in the air as they dispersed.
"Don’t do that!" Souzane chided him. "That’s an entire line and I don’t know how much you can take. Don’t do that."
Aaron raised his eyebrows in confusion, utterly befuddled by what was coming out of Souzane’s mouth. He didn’t know what this substance was and that was why he wanted to taste it to find out. He was sure that nothing was going to happen to him, but Souzane didn’t have that information.
Souzane saw him as a normal human being like herself.
"Why not?" he asked, curious as to why Souzane was being so insistent on him not touching it.
She lowered her head, sighed and facepald, all before raising her face at Aaron.
"You want to know why it’s sought after?" she said. "Why every person want to get their hands on it?"
Aaron looked at the brown powder for several seconds with sharp concentration. He was starting to understand the importance and value of the substance he was looking at just from Souzane’s reaction at the mont.
He turned towards Souzane and nodded, his face projected a serious countenance and his ears opened, giving Souzane’s all his attention.
Souzane took a pinch of the powder and showed it to him.
"Because of its addictive nature. It is said that those who take it can’t let go of it once they have started."
She rubbed her fingers together, dispersing the powder into the air inside the room.
"Opium is like a young beautiful maiden who is pure yet hot and sexy. So enticing that she makes heads turn and necks wreak as they try to get a glimpse of her. You can’t seem to let go, no matter how much you try."
Aaron folded his arms. For the first ti in a while, sothing about this world fascinated him. Now, he wanted to know more, and not just about opium but drugs in general.
While Souzane was trying to make him see why he shouldn’t taste opium, Aaron was gaining another type of knowledge that he intended to apply sooner or later.
As the mouth of the buffed lady before him moved, all Aaron could think about how a speck of powder could control a person’s entire being.
Yes. He knew about drugs but he knew drugs as functioning to affect a specific part of the body that required treatnt.
For the first ti, he was hearing about a type of drug that takes over the whole body as he knows it.
Certainly, that was sothing to be intrigued about.
Aaron sat back and listened to her go on and on about why he didn’t need to do anything other than sell the product. At the sa ti, Aaron chewed and yawned, showing her that he was getting tired of the long talk.
Souzane was starting to sound even more motherly than his mother, Alicia.
"I think I’ll call it a night," he said, standing up from his chair and making his way towards the door.
"Hey, pretty face," she called.
With his hand on the door, Aaron turned.
"Yeah?"
Souzane’s face imdiately changed colour to a colour that was more of a shade of red. She rubbed the side of her neck, turning sideways and looking at the floor more frequently.
"Yeah?" Aaron answered again, seeing how the cat had got Souzane’s tongue.
"I... I..." she stuttered.
Souzane rubbed her neck a few more tis and eventually said what she wanted. Out of sheepishness, she rapped out her words, so fast that the information may have passed Aaron by. Nonetheless, he heard everything.
"I was wondering if you could give a massage," Souzane said, hiding her hands away from Aaron and twiddling her fingers.
Aaron sighed and said nothing. He proceeded two steps towards the door when he finally opened it.
"I will pay!" Souzane exclaid intending to buy him over for the sake of him granting her request.
Aaron did nothing as he stood at the door with his back turned to Souzane.
"I will pay double the price!"
"Triple even!"
Aaron chuckled and walked away, slamming the door shut behind him.
BAM!
****
The next morning, Aaron set out into the Herb village. He wanted to take a walk and get a breath of fresh air but that was not all anyway. Aaron also wanted to study the village in the little ti that they had before their eting in a few days.
The Herb village was fussing with different people hustling and bustling for their daily bread.
The structures of the Herb village were a lot different from what he knew in Bambara and that was one of the most noticeable things about the place. They had their own unique culture and ways of doing things.
He stepped out of the courtyard house that served as the inn where they had lodged for the night, and more nights to co, and looked around, seeing everybody in their historically thed attire going about their business.
Aaron stepped out into the shower of the warm glow of the sun, looked to the sky and hmd before walking to the bridge that stood in front of him, not so far from the inn.
It was a short bridge with a river flowing right under it and a few boats moving through. However, he paid the boats no heed and entered into the market scenery of the village.
"Oi! Young man! Want so good at!" a man yelled at him as he walked past his shop.
The area was strong with the sll of at and bustled with flies that perched on everything.
Aaron turned to the man and shook his head.
"Your loss!"
"Yo! Co this way!"
"Co buy this."
One of the buyers even flirted with him as she tried to sell off his clothes. "This fabric would suit your handso face," the lady said, rubbing and feeling the smoothness of Aaron’s face.
Aaron shook his head, rejecting the young lady’s advances and cloth deal, much to her disappointnt.
After several minutes of walking, Aaron ca out of the market. He turned back and heaved a sigh of relief for having survived such an actively exhausting scene.
He stretched his legs for nearly another half an hour until he reached the place he was headed to.
Getting there, Aaron took his first two steps, placing him at the beginning of the flight of stairs that less to the establishnt.
He glanced at the sign atop the courtyard building.
"There’s no mistaking it. This is the place I saw in her mories."
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