THE PSYCHEDELIC NAMED VIVIAN
You know that phase where you are gallivanting between the “My life is a total mess” and the “I think I should end it right here galaxies”?
That’s where my spaceship has been floating for quite a while now, and by a while I mean a total of 3 years, 8 months 2 days, 5 hours and a couple of minutes give or take a few. It was when I launched my first satellite into the orbit of illicit drug use. I made the first step, the first leap. A leap I wish I had never taken.
See, I’m some sort of genius -not being narcissistic- I know I am. There’s no point in trying to tone down your intelligence just so you perceived as humble. The adverse effects of my kind of intelligence are a series of conundrum. A very sporadic and chaotic mind, a boring lifestyle as perceived by society, because you have a difference in the things that excites or interests you.
SOCIETY STINKS. It really does. Reminds me of my favourite movie series, Mr Robot and the hash tag, #FSOCIETY.
My Therapist interjected, “But we are not here to talk about movies and society, We are here to talk about you”
Oh sorry! Got carried away.
Back to script… See I’m the kinda guy you go through when it comes to Tech, I am technically, what you would tag as a wealthy person, in terms of wealth, but I was lacking in every other definition of what wealth stood for. What I had was money and maybe knowledge. Wealth covers a broader spectrum.
I didn’t have a social life and I didn’t mind either. Then Vivian came into my life.
Everything changed when I met Vivian, the catalyst to the spiral. See, I was the head of a group of companies under the Umbrella of Sybil, a company I own.
We used to be a service company for the hosting of servers until we broadened to creating learning centers across the country, we offered courses such as ICT digital literacy, Computer Engineering and Networking, IT Security, Web Design and development, Software development, Graphics and Multimedia and a host of other long things to learn when it came to computers and Oh we were making tonnes of money and names. We made a lot of it. It was an age where everyone was flocking to tech; it was almost a requirement for white collar jobs these days.
Everything was perfect, everything was good, Teetotaller, no drugs, no woman, more work and it felt like the world was perfect, till I met Vivian, the evil seductress.
Pause, she said…My Therapist that is, “The name Vivian keeps coming up but you’ve practically told me nothing about her apart from a few cryptic titles”, care to elaborate, she asked?
I was getting there, I responded. Don’t be in haste. I’ll pay you for any excess hours, I’m rich. Remember?
She looked at me in despair and uttered, You know it’s not about the money, it’s about you getting well and making up for our past mistakes and moving beyond the past. Also, remember, no charges for you, you’re an exception. You’re dillydallying and i want you to stay on course.
Okay, Vivian first came to our head office at Ikeja, Lagos. She had just been assigned there to be the instructor on certified ethical hacking and hmnnn, she was beautiful and that was even an understatement. She was 5'6 with dark brown hair, a slightly curved body, a slightly round face, a pointed nose and the eyes, yes the eyes! Those hypnotic eyes were what got me into this mess.
On that fateful day, she casually walked into my office like she had been into a thousand offices; the composure was superb for someone coming from another location. When she spoke, she dominated every conversation. I was hoodwinked, fell for the outer composure and at that point in time I naively thought i was in love, I know better.
People like her are like Gases in a container taking whatever shape of the container they’re compressed. On the inside, there’s a whole lot of ‘Brownian motion’ going on.
Outside work, she was the most spontaneous and volatile being ever to exist. Keep in mind that at the time I didn’t know, she was different but you know the stereotype about people into computers being nerds, I fell for that because, at first she played the part.
One peculiar thing about her was her punctuality. As the undefeated King of punctuality, I was defeated not once, not twice.
I was side footed for an entire week during her first week at work. At that moment I was already thinking of our cute our babies would be.
Of weddings and honeymoons.
I finally thought to myself…. This is it Chief.
Still, I wasn’t the type to continue to concede defeat. So I set out to arrive earlier than she did to work the next day. Jackpot!, I got there before she did and I felt so victorious, though it was a one sided competition.
Approximately 3 minutes later, I noticed her at the entrance and was about to wave at her and give a mischievous grin with a smug look when i also noticed she was holding two cups of coffee. In that moment I knew I had lost again.
I noticed her bag was already across her desk, she comes in and hands me a cup of coffee from my favourite place across the street.
She came closer and whispered softly, “YOU LOSE”. Oh, she knew; that witch.
She always knew!!!
Everything that happened after was fast paced from work to dinner to dates, still we never had sex. It never came to the fore. We were completely okay with what we had or at least I was.
The real trouble started the day she indicated I was less fun and I was the kind of guy who was so engrossed in work. The kind of guy who had no time for fun, she then hinted that we could lose our spark if we continued this way. Not wanting to lose ‘my supposed future partner’, I decided to ask what she would do for fun.
“Clubbing for starters, today is a Friday” she responded. Well, I yelled “let’s get this party started”.
Knowing fully well that the excessive stench of alcohol made me nauseated and the loud club music gave me multiple loads of migraines but I decided to go along anyways. The first step in the dominos of compromises I would make.
At the club, we danced. While she danced gracefully like an overpaid Diva, same could not be said for me. I was busy goofing, dancing like a twitching oversized malfunctioned robot.
We eventually stopped and rested at the Club lounge. She ordered drinks for us, vodka and a couple of exotic beers and she paid for them all. I was there thinking wow, she was not a money monger.
That was like +1000000 cool points for me, I decided she didn’t want me for my money.
I was blatantly wrong, she was playing the long game.
She took few sips from the vodka, savouring the burning taste slowly, then gulping it down like it was a bottle of water. I was almost tempted to scream ‘WOW’ with my eyes bulging out.
Not one to be outdone or thought of as uncool, I shrugged and pretended it wasn’t anything.
I tried to do the same and well my chest felt like a hot rod was continually embedded in my chest and dragged back and forth. I coughed so hard and so much that I actually thought I would die, the people around us thought so too, but it subsided after a while.
Everybody laughed, she laughed the hardest. I joined in to laugh too, but my laughter was different, it was that kind of dark laughter of someone that just survived death.
We eventually downed so much alcohol that I didn’t even know how I got home; I had a slight recollection though of being dragged up the stairs, my soiled clothes changed.
She called next day to check if I was okay, I told her I was perfectly fine, but I wasn’t.
I wanted the adrenaline, I craved it. I wanted what I felt yesterday, the recklessness, an unplanned and undocumented adventure, not video games, real life.
So that was how it began, my therapist interjected ‘The craving for recklessness she asked?’
Yes I responded, glad she was paying rapt attention to me.
No one does that these days.
.
Well, Vivian came over the next day. It was the first time we had sex, though it was ephemeral yet unreal. It was utopia, very unreal and gradually I became overwhelmed.
In a space of two days, I went from being a Catholic poster child to A Hollywood teenage, raunchy actor.
The rest is history; we went from club to clubs. I couldn’t keep up with work but she could. She was a different person at work, coordinated and organized. She could separate her life from work, I could not. I could not keep up with running a company and having a supposed fun life, I wasn’t wired that way.
She told me not to panic that my company was safe in her hands, she took control of my part of the company. Took care of my tasks, I could not really care less. I was in love and having the time of my life.
Who cares right? Who does?
Apparently My Lawyering piece of scum friend did, he was behind it.
The sneaky devil, Vivian was a cactus with abundance of thorns planted in my life by him. The plan was to take everything from me. He always wanted what I had, from money to women to knowledge, pick any. He had always been that way.
At the time I had become a full blown thrill seeker. I pestered Vivian to introduce me to more fun stuff.
Vivian hooked me up with Weed of different stains, Arizona, Colorado; LSD and various other psychedelics.
I went from one pit hole to the other, always seeking more. An endless abyss of addictive substances and despite all these drugs, she managed to keep her cool. She was a highly normal and functioning human. I was reduced to a narcotic induced potato.
Then she introduced me to VVN, it was that moment I completely spiralled.
Till this very moment I had no idea how I signed off the company documents to Vivian.
Then she changed. Never visited, never checked up on me but I didn’t care either. At least not at the time, I found love in this drug infused Eco-system, it was utopia.
With the Company gone, Vivian gone, it was hard to keep up with the habits I had acquired.
I tried seeking out Vivian or going back to work, the very security men I had employed were told to usher me out like I was some rabid dog. Next I went to where she stayed, same treatment was meted out to me by the gate-man.
A couple of months later, she married my friend. That “Lawyer-ing” piece of backstabbing scum. It became clear, he had intended to ruin me from the onset. Screw them though I just wanted more drugs. I just need enough money to drown in them, that was what my life had been reduced to.
I set out to break into their home and rob them of their possession, the possessions that were rightfully mine. I was caught by a neighbour trying to sneak in and before I could open my mouth to utter any form of statement whatsoever, there was a mob.
I was dazed with a couple of aimed punches at my face.
I was hit with various sorts of sticks and the air was perfectly knocked out of my windpipes.
I was on the verge of being burnt when Vivian and my “Lawyer-ing”piece of backstabbing scum of a friend came to my rescue. The dialogue with the mob was a loud one and even in my dazed, half between heaven and earth situation, I could make out a few words. She was explaining how I was a mentally ill relative who sometimes wandered into places.
Maybe I was mentally deranged, who wouldn’t? A rumble in the ring with drugs and a head that has been creatively hammered with blows.
No one ever becomes normal after that. No one.
I was then lifted by a couple of men and dumped outside the estate gates…
I tried looking for jobs, that didn’t help much either. For St. Pete’s sake who would hire me?
I looked like a cross breed between an under the bridge beggar and a three year old professional lunatic.
Few minutes, hours, weeks, months or years was when your men in white uniforms bundled me into the back of their vans and here I am.
Wait, that is what I am? That is what I am? Where am I?
Where’s my company? Who are you? Why am I restrained? I want my lawyer? Do you know how rich I am? Where’s Vivian? I need to talk to her right now.
I’ll sue you all for this………..
- ******
Dr. Ezoho walks out of patient A-124’s room and scribbled some notes and handed them over to the new intern.
“Submit this at the reception; tell them to add to the files I sent yesterday”.
The new intern bursting with enough energy and a superhero syndrome combination of “so much good is being done here and I’m so glad I am part of this good” walked diligently along the stairs heading to the reception.
Well this was a government owned rehabilitation centre for lunatics, she had heard so much about the place and had volunteered. She had seen people get cured for no fee at all, she was glad to be part of this good, she was glad to be doing the good.
Curiosity got the best of her though, she opened patient A-124’s files and the first thing she noticed was Dr Ezoho’s notes.
#Session 10
Patient’s story keeps changing. Drugs have been constant in every version.
Facts checked patient’s story never checks out. No Existence of Company nor a Vivian.
Repetitive existence and mention of a Vivian.
Polished English and sign of affluence.
Patient may have suffered the loss of everything that ever mattered.
Patient acts delusional.
Patient thinks there is a conspiracy against him,
Patient is one of the group of patients suspected to be under the influence of VVN(Vaviarn), a long term-acting potent drug which induces a kind of long term amnesia which induces blurry vision, short bursts of aggression, unbury memories in fragments and victims may think there is a conspiracy against them.
Vivian may have been the psychedelic been referred to.
Patient seems to be at loss with reality, patient seems to have lost everything.
*******
The Intern feeling so bad for the patient dropped the files at the reception, something odd struck her, A woman fitting the descriptions of Patient A-124’s Vivian was standing beside a man dressed in a dark coloured suit who looked pretty much like a lawyer were just signing off on some documents of consent of a particular patient.
She could almost swear it was her.
Maybe it was just sheer coincidence, perhaps she was getting delusional. Or she was only looking for an excuse for this man who had lost everything.
The man who had lost everything to a psychedelic named Vivian.
Thank You For Reading. More Stories To Come Up.
