I was visiting my parents at their high-rise condo on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago's Gold Coast when my mother woke me up early one morning to tell me I had a visitor, which I found quite strange seeing how I hadn't informed anyone I was in town.
I was surprised to see my visitor was Dina, with whom I had know since the late 90s when we both worked as servers at Lettuce Entertain You's famed crabshack and BBQ, Bub City at their original location on West Weed Street.
Dina, who I hadn't seen---except for our occasionally crossing paths on social media--since 1996 before I moved to Spain, apologized for coming by unannounced and said she had something important she wanted to talk to me about.
She said that she and her life partner, Lisa, had been made a once in a lifetime offer to become majority shareholders in Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises but there was a peculiar caveat in that Dina would have to marry a man in order for the deal to go through.
Dina confessed that she and Lisa were ready to shun the deal and its absurd condition, but decided that an arranged marriage wouldn't be that much of a sacrifice seeing the magnitude of the end result.
Dina also confessed that choosing me was a no-brainer as she had once held romantic feelings for me before meeting and falling in love with Lisa. She then went on to say that while she chose a very different path, she never really lost the feelings she had once harbored for me.
To prove her emotions were sincere, she discreetly closed my bedroom door behind her and gently eased me onto my bed where she began kissing me passionately.
After the romantic encounter, Dina told me I needed to be at City Hall the next morning where we would be married and then go to the Lettuce headquarters for a formal ceremony whereby she would be made the new CEO of the restaurant group.
For my part in the scheme, I would made a partner and head of overseas operations in Africa, where my first resort was nearing completion in Sudan and where I would be travelling in the days to come.
I arrived in Khartoum and was met by a few of the staff members from the old Bub City with whom I had worked years earlier.
We split up into a number of different vans that were driven by members of our Sudanese staff who were carefully vetted by the company.
Driving along on the motorway, a van pulled up next to ours being driven by a masked man, another man wearing a mask an waving a silvery pistol sat in the passenger seat and began taunting us.
Our driver told us that it was normal to see these kinds of things in Sudan but said they rarely materialize into dangerous situations and as he said that, the driver pulled a sawed-off off shotgun out from below his seat and brandished it in the window. Seeing the gun, the van with the masked men sped off blaring their horn and soon disappeared in the distance.
Later, I found myself walking around Khartoum and just as I was about to walk into what looked like a café, a sandstorm blew in and I took refuge in a large building I soon discovered to be the American Hospital.
I walked around looking for a cafeteria or vending machine but came upon a staff lounge and was invited in for a hot beverage by several women who were sat around a table eating.
One of the women began pouring a steaming hot liquid from a thermos and offered it to me asking where I was from.
I told the woman, as the other's looked curiously on, that I was from Chicago but had been living in the Netherlands.
One of the women, a dark-skinned nurse wearing a pristine white uniform said she was from Curaçao and had lived in Amsterdam for many years.
I thanked the nurses and told them I needed to find my way back to my hotel and the nurse who had given me the hot drink handed me a odd type of surgical mask adorned with clown print and eye holes that covered the whole head. She said it would keep me safe in the sandstorm and filter out the sand.
By the time I made it back to the resort, the storm had passed and I found my team setting up the outdoor dining area on the beachfront. I was pleasantly surprised to find the restaurant was decorated in the style of the original Bub City on Weed Street in Chicago.
Just then, Dina walked over to me telling me she didn't mention she and her wife would be coming to Sudan just in case I felt awkward about seeing her after what had happened back in my bedroom in Chicago.
I told her it would be our secret and she handed me a crystal bottle opener telling me I would need it later.
Then I woke up.
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