Monday morning surprise

As Samira walked to work she remembered the sermon that was preached at church the day before. The topic was about loving your neighbour. Even those that didn't love you. She knew one person like that at work. Sarah Brown. Sarah just didn't like her and the feeling was very mutual. From her first day at work Samira never got along with her. Maybe Sarah felt insecure around her because she was younger, she just couldn't tell. "I'll love my neighbour." Samira said with a long sigh. Just before she entered her office building she saw something interesting. There was a car having boot sales not very far away. She looked at her watch. She had enough time to do some window shopping. She saw a nice necklace. It looked like something Sarah would love. She thought for minute and bought it for her at a very good price.

When Samira got to work Sarah was not at her desk but she saw her favourite red bag and knew she was around. She picked up a sticky note from her desk and wrote a little note. She stuck the note to the present she had just bought, put it on Sarah's desk and walked away. When she got to hers Elikem walked by with a smile. "Is that a bomb you put on Miss Horror's desk?" She asked. Samira giggled and shook her head. Elikem always had names for everyone. Then it hit her that she wasn't the only one who didn't like Sarah. "Love your neighbour." She whispered to herself as she turned on her computer.

After a few hours there was a general meeting for everyone. Samira took a seat at the back of the board room next to Elikem. "Pay raise time, woop woop." Elikem whispered and did a little dance in her chair. Samira laughed. "You are such a child." She said to her. The CEO of the company walked in with some sheets of paper. He said he had bad news. The company was not doing as good as it used to and they had decided to do a downsizing exercise. Samira's heart missed a beat as he mentioned the names of the people who were being laid off. Her heart sunk when she heard Elikem's name. Fortunately for her that was the last name. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to comfort her friend.

When she got back to her desk she saw a red sticky note and instantly knew who it was from. It said, 'thanks for the necklace. It's so lovely. Yes you are right we started off on a bad note. So your apologies have been accepted.' Samira smiled. She turned around and spotted Sarah at the entrance of the board room. She walked to her but the CEO was quicker. Samira just stood aside and waited for him to finish talking to her. "Sarah I thought we decided on 12 people? This list is short of one." He said. "Sir that's true but I found out recently that she has potential as compared to the others." Sarah replied and smiled at Samira. "Alright, I trust your judgement, have a nice day." The CEO said and walked away...... 

Love your neighbour!

After 10 short film

After all the hard work the short silent film is ready to be viewed. I decided to tell my After 10 story in a different way so we made a video! Thanks to an amazing videographer, extremely dedicated actors and a brilliant team I present to you, After 10.

Watch it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO8_lXJDULg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My very own movie!

So for some time now I have been thinking of other ways to tell my stories. Some of these options were a radio drama, a book, animation and short film. Of these three a short film sounded the most exciting to me so I decided to work on that. I went through my short stories and found one that would be perfect for my very first video appearance. I wanted something unique, short and of minimal cost because I was ideally funding everything myself. After 10 was perfect!

 If you haven't read it yet here's the link http://azedi.blogspot.com/2011/05/after-10.html . In less than a week I will upload this comical 3 minute film online. It's not the most amazing short film but I believe it's definitely one worth watching. I have special thanks I have to give for the people that helped in shooting the video. Hilda, James brown, Duke, Ruth, Cyig, Roselynn and the biggest one to Tim :-)

Grace of Fear 3

Baaba froze. Her heart started pounding like the night before. Then a few pieces came together. The bikers must have been the robbers and they may have accidentally dropped the money.  She grabbed her phone and with her shaky hands and called Ralph but he didn't answer. He was the only one she could talk to. She rushed out of the room with the money in her bag and headed for his workshop.

   When she got to Ralph's workshop she was directed to go into the store room. "Ralph, something bad has happened. Some man got robbed and..." she blurt out as she entered but stopped when she realized he was not alone. There was a tall guy standing in front of Ralph. He turned to look at her. "A man got robbed? Where?" the tall guy asked. Baaba looked at Ralph and back to him. "Somewhere around Kaneshi School Junction, in my area." Baaba replied. "What's his name? I know some people who live there." The tall guy added. "I don't know his name but he has a daughter called Nasara. They say the robbers used a special key to open all his doors." Baaba added. The tall guy said wow and smiled. "Bikers are just strange." Baaba said grabbing Ralph's hand and sending him outside. "You heard they were bikers?" the tall guy asked. Baaba froze. She realized she had said too much. It happened a lot when she got nervous. "Ei, did I say bikers? I meant robbers." She said and faked a laugh. Ralph excused himself and went outside with Baaba.

   "Baaba what is this all about?" Ralph asked when they were alone. She hesitated for a while and finally said "it's about the armed robbery I was talking about." Ralph looked scared all of a sudden. She told him the whole story of how she picked the money. Ralph looked a little excited and scared at the same time. Just then the tall guy walked passed them. Baaba turned and watched him. He kept stealing glances at her too. It was when another guy on a bike came to him that things became clearer to her. 

 Then she saw it, the snake tattoo on the other biker's leg. Her heart missed a beat then she heard Relph's voice. "Baaba, stop looking at them. Look here." he said. She managed to do as he said. "Yo, ma guy. We dey go come." The tall biker yelled and hopped onto the back of his friend's bike. Ralph nodded and waved as they left. "Were you part of them? Ralph what is going on?" Baaba asked almost in tears. "I needed the money so we could leave this place. I had nothing to do with the shooting. The man brought his car here and his key holder had his house keys so I just made a copy. That was all. They said they'll give me 500 cedis if they got the money. The man is very rich so it's not so bad. I swear I didn't know they would shoot him." Ralph explained. He had to get her to trust him.

Baaba listened in shock with her mouth slightly open. "I think we should send the money back. I can give it to the Police." she said. "Are you mad?!" Ralph yelled. He looked around to see if anyone heard him. If the Police find out, I'll go to jail or the biker boys will kill me. Those guys are hard. Let's just take the money and go." He suggested. Baaba felt guilty. "What if the man dies? What will happen to the girl? If we tell the Police about the bikers we won't go to jail. Just say they forced you." She said. Ralph considered it for a moment and shook his head. "Look, these guys are untouchable. Even the Police are afraid. Where's the money?" He asked, looking around. When he saw that Baaba wasn't convinced he held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "If you go to the Police both of us will die." He said.



 To be continued  ...

Bitter sweet memories

  It's 8:43pm. I'm in bed wondering if I should eat something before I sleep or not. The indecision in my head gets boring so I pick up my tablet and start playing Welcome Home by Radical Face. Just when I'm putting my tablet down I see a bunch of call cards in a basket near my bed. I pick them up and flip though. Each card carrying it's own memory of how and where I got it. Some made me smile, I rolled my eyes at some, others were not significant enough to earn an expression but there was this one. Just one that made me pause and retrieve a lot of bitter sweet memories. No it wasn't the card of an ex boyfriend. It was the card of a friend. A friend I met in the oddest of circumstances. A friend I didn't know for very long but could chat like we grew up together. Did I mention this friend was just as talented as he was humble. Those rare kind of people that you expect to rosh but they don't. Then the bitter part started to sink in. These were all the things he was when he was still alive. The call card of Dennis Dartey still lies in a basket in my room next to my bed.

My crush on Jude

 

"Relax you'll be fine." Sayram said. I nodded and managed to smile. "How do I look?" I asked with a goofy pose. Sayram laughed and told me never to do that again. I giggled. I was getting relaxed now. In no time at all we heard the guys walking to us. My heart started racing. Sayram stood up and glanced. "They are coming!" she said excitedly. I saw Jude, first or maybe my eyes chose to see him first. He was in a yellow t-shirt and black shorts. His football boots were in his left hand. His head was down as he walked. Then I saw Selassie and Henry too. It looked like Selassie was telling his jokes as usually because they were all laughing. Then Jude looked up. When he saw us he smiled. I felt every bit of his smile. Then I turned to Sayram. "Eish, I can't do this oh." I said. She shook her head.

     "My goodness Mavis are you wearing makeup?" Selassie asked immediately they got to us. "Sela, don't be a fool." Seyram said and we all laughed. Sela walked closer to me and stared at me. "Oh but it's not bad oh. Come for a hug." He added. "Eww, take your sweaty self away." I teased and moved away from him. Jude came to sit next to me. "Sela is right. It suits you." he said. I smiled. I noticed Sayram was giving me a weird signal. She handed Henry a drink and they started talking. "Where's my drink?" Sela said walking to her. I turned to Jude. He was stretching. "I'll get you a drink." I offered and picked a coke from Sayram for him. "Ask the boy la." she whispered to me. I nodded and walked back. Jude was smiling when I came back. "What was all the whispering about?" He asked and took his drink. He looked at Sayram and turned to me. Sayram turned away quickly and he giggled, yawa. This was pretty awkward.

   You see, Jude isn't one of those hot guys you just see and have a crush on. I mean he's the best player on the football team but that's not it. I've known him for 2 years. We were so close so many people thought we were dating but we weren't. I must say he is one of the reasons I broke up with my last boyfriend. My ex didn't like the fact that Jude and I were so close. He claimed I had feelings for him. Maybe he was right. A lot of feelings can stir up when you and someone spend a lot of time together. I can't blame Jude though. I mean we are both on our Uni football team, cancer awareness club and hostel. It wasn't normal of me to ask a guy out but Sayram told me she heard from Henry that there was another girl trying to make wild. So yeah, here I was about to tell him I liked him and face either acceptance or rejection. According to Sayram, anytime she spoke to Jude he mentioned me. That was comforting but really I was one of their few common friends. Mavis you can do this!

   "Oh don't mind Sayram. Sela's silliness has caught her too." I joked. We turned to look at her. She was holding Henry's drink away from him and he was stretching for it. I laughed. "See what I mean?" Jude laughed and nodded. She saw us and winked. Henry got hold of the drink now. As usual we split up and walked back to our hostels. As Jude and I walked back I played the words in my head. We were talking about a new movie that was released. Then from nowhere at all we both said "There's something I want to tell you." at the same time. Was this fate. We giggled and played the 'you go first game'. "Ok how about we write it on a piece of paper and read it at the same time. Jude squinted. "Isn't that a bit too dramatic?" He asked. I shook my head. "Well, but it's fun. Come on." He agreed so I brought out a piece of paper from my bag. I split it into two and gave him one and a pen. "Go ahead, write it." I said. He did and gave the pen back. I smiled and wrote, "I think I like you. Is the feeling mutual?" Not romantic at all eh? I know!

   We stood in front of my room with each other's note nicely folded. Just then, Jude's phone rang. He answered it. It was his roommate. The annoying guy had lost his keys so he needed Jude's set. He told me he had to go and he'd read it when he got to his room. "You know what, don't open it. I'll call you when I get to my room so we can do the reading thing. Cool?" He suggested as he walked off. I nodded. When I got into my room, I feel on my bed and watched the note in my hand. I turned and looked at my 'not ringing phone'. I shook my head and unfolded the note. So it read...

  My heart sunk. My eyes teared up. Why? I dropped the paper on the floor and closed my eyes. Just then there was a knock at the door. I wiped my eyes dry and opened the door. It was Jude. "Yes, May the feeling is mutual." He said and walked in. I couldn't help it. My tears betrayed me. Jude saw his note and hugged me. He wiped my tears with his thumb and kissed me. Someway somehow I wished his note had said he liked someone else. At least that way I'd still have him around as my friend.


 Can you guess what Jude's note said?

Grace of fear 2

 The bikers rode around yelling at each other for about 10 minutes and left. When all was clear Baaba looked for her keys and made a run for it. Luckily for her they didn't return. She breathed a sigh of relief when she entered her Auntie's house. Her hands were still trembling with fear when she laid down to sleep. After another 30 minutes she managed to fall asleep.

 Baaba went about her morning chores very quickly the next day. It was Saturday and she wanted to tell Ralph the good news. As she did her usual trip to the market for her auntie, she was so tempted to buy herself a thing or two with the money. She knew her Auntie would suspect her if she did so she left praying that where she hid the money was still safe. She called Ralph and asked him to meet her at the market. When she saw him she smiled and told him to guess the good news she had for him. He didn't seem amused at all. In fact he was quiet unhappy. This was strange.

   Ralph liked meeting up with her and was usually happy when she initiated it. "Ah, what's wrong? Did Bra Yaw ask you to pay for something again?" Baaba asked concerned. Ralph shook his head and shrugged. Bra Yaw owned the fitting shop where Ralph worked. He was very stern and would make his workers pay for every tiny mistake they made. Bra Yaw was another reason why Ralph wanted to leave for Kumasi. "What is the surprise? I have a lot of work to do." Ralph snapped. Baaba felt offended. Why was he taking all her fun away? Just then, Ralph's phone rang. He signaled at Baaba and walked away to answer the call. He was speaking very low so she wouldn't hear what he was saying. When he walked further away and turned his back to her she left. "I'll keep everything to myself then." she muttered as she walked away, a little heart-broken. B

 Baaba took the long route on her way home. She wanted to think. It was hard to think with her auntie yelling and screaming in the house over trivial things. As she walked home she couldn't help thinking about Ralph. He was the first friend she made when she moved to her auntie's house. She enjoyed his company because he was always full of smiles. He would always listen to her complain about her auntie and reassured her. Baaba didn't understand why he was acting strange. Maybe there was another girl. One who entertained his leaving town plan more than she did.

As she walked, she saw a large number of people in front of a house. She recognized one of the people, Agnes. Agnes used to work at the bar with her. Baaba walked to her and asked what was going on. "Some people robbed the man who lived here yesterday oh. They said the robbers used a special key to open all the doors. We are not safe anymore oh. The man and his daughter were asleep kwraa. They stole some plenty money the man had and shot him too." Agnes narrated. Baaba listened. "Ei, is he dead?" Baaba asked. "No he's been sent to the hospital. I feel sad for Nasara, his daughter. Her mother left the father last year. They said she preferred the father. Now she'll be forced to live with the mother. That woman is terror." Agnes continued. Baaba's heart sunk. She knew what living with a terror woman felt like. She noticed the time and rushed home.

 When she got home she was scolded for leaving a single plate unwashed. Baaba could not take it anymore. She was leaving, with or without Ralph. She went to her room after cooking the evening meal. She noticed Ralph had called her a number of times. She rolled her eyes and put the phone aside. She took out a pen and paper to write a list of what she needed to run away with. Then she locked her door and took out the money. She hadn't even counted it. The piece of paper around the money had something written on it. Baaba noticed it was a list. It read, "tomatoes, fresh fish, cabbage, light bulb, story books for Nasara..." Baaba froze.


 To be continued ...

Grace of fear

  Baaba kept her head down as she walked home. That part of the road had so many potholes. She had to watch out for them before she tripped and fell. She had fallen before. It was darker that night than usual because she stayed an extra 4 hours at work. It was because her head was down that she saw it, a bundle of 50 cedi notes and a piece of paper attached to it.

   At first she wasn't sure it was money so she bent down to take a better look. She gasped and picked it up. She instinctively looked around. The lonely street was just as it always was at 2 am. She put the money in a secret compartment she had in her bag. She made this compartment for her money just in case she met any robbers. Luckily for her she hadn't met any yet since she started working at the bar but today it was very late so she didn't feel safe.

 Baaba walked faster now, completely forgetting the potholes. She was busy imagining what she was going to buy with the money. She was sick of working around drunk men. She guessed the money would be at least 2,000 cedis. When her house was in sight she broke into a run. She was planning what to do next. She would hide the money inside her mattress. There was no way her auntie would find it. Then she would run to Kumasi with her boyfriend, Ralph. He had been bugging her about running away for so long. She smiled as she run.

 She was just five minutes to her house when she heard the sound of motor bikes moving in her direction. Baaba was so startled that she missed her step and her bag fell. She picked it up quickly. Bikers at this time was never a good thing. She turned and looked in the direction of the sound. She saw shadows and lights getting brighter. They were moving very fast but she knew they couldn't see her yet. She dug her hand in her bag trying to locate her keys. There was a chance she could rush in before they saw her. When her shaking hands couldn't find the keys she shook her head and dashed into a bush nearby.

 In seconds they were on her street. She could hear them talk but couldn't make out what they were saying. They went up and down the street slowly. Baaba just sat in the bush with her heart beating faster and faster. She clung on to her bag like it was her baby. From where she was squatting all she could see were their feet. One had a tattoo of a snake around his ankle. Baaba closed her eyes tightly and prayed he wouldn't come any closer.


 To be continued...