Tasmine got to Curtis's room. It turned out he was still a bad sleeper. You could carry him up and change his position without him stiring. Anyways, that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the gist. She applied caution even though she knew slight mistakes, sounds would go unnoticed. She found the key in the top drawer of his reading table. That means he was equally as bad at hiding things. Or perhaps, he wanted it to be found. She didn't know what to think and she found that even thinking could be a distraction. It would be best to get into the room and finish off before someone woke up and caught her in the act. It wasn't that they would be upset but she needed to be discreet as she wasn't sure she would be able to lie to her family if they asked what she was up to. She knew they wouldn't believe if she told them that a dog with the resemblance of her dead father had asked her to look at his body.
She obtained the key from the drawer and just as she was about pushing it back, Curtis stirred. He stretched his body, getting up halfway but there was no chance he had seen her as she had ducked in time from his line of sight. She waited with her breath as low as possible. When she was sure he was sound asleep, she tiptoed her way out.
The room was as she remembered. Her dad's room had been a sort of Palace to her. It was spacious and had a very good view of the road from the window. They had applied some sort of lotion to prevent further decay and the smell was as pungent as hell. She nearly cursed out loud but only the *fuck* came out, though merely as a whisper. She had to hold her breath as she examined the casket. It was sprayed silver with the rim painted light gold. Those were the colours of her dad's uniform where he worked. It had been the official colours for official events where the company were attending as guests of honour. It had come to be Mr. Taribo's best colours too.
The lid was fastened with a special kind of lock she had never seen anywhere. It was fashioned to hold tightly such that no air could penetrate inside. The lock in addition had some funny combinations she found a hard time discerning it's use.
*Why would anyone protect a corpse like this?*
She tried all she could, trying all combinations she could remember to no avail. Sadly, she couldn't tell who had done the combination and having being away for so long, she couldn't quite guess what date or event would mean much to the dude that had locked the coffin. She was tired already and sleep was slowly nudging at her consciousness. She slouched down putting her hands on her head as she closed her eyes.
Pictures came darting in and out of her line of sight lasting kisses only split seconds. One of them was from few weeks ago when she had been accused of fleeing her pithole of a country to whore her way to prominence like most people with the black skin do. This trash talk was just because the guy had asked her out and she had politely declined. It had taken the wind out of her sail and she remembered crying her eyes out that night. What pained her mostly was that this dude was half cast, born to a Nigerian mum by an English father. He was only different because he got the white coloration.
Tasmine allowed the thought to slowly leave along with the feeling of inferiority it had brought. It was then that she remembered that the dog had whispered something that sounded like *trees on seas*. It could mean three on six with the on being zero. She tried it and gave a sigh of relief when it clicked open.
Inside was the white image of her father. She nearly burst into tears seeing him like that but she held herself. She just allowed the tears to flow as she looked him over. He looked pretty much good except from the whiteness. It gave her the chill to think the corpse could become animated any moment and snap at her for desecrating it's rest. Tasmine was about to close the lid when she saw something remarkable. At the side, just under the ear was a hole, no doubt a bullet hole.
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