HIDDEN MOMENTS by Romeo Fredson (uplifting book club books .TXT) 📖

and took out our bags and luggage from the boot of the taxi. My mum paid the driver and he drove off. We took our bags and luggage through the gate on a paved ground. Every one of the children was very happy to meet us. I hadn`t seen any of them before but I really noticed that my brothers were here before. After all the welcome address at the entrance of the gate we were about to move when something held my leg, I turned around to see what that was. When I turned I saw a monkey which was named lucky, and just in front of us came running a dog also by the name freder. This was the first time I have ever in my life seen a monkey being a pet in a home alongside a tamed dog. All monkeys I have seen were either on TV or at the zoo when I once visited there; and for dogs I only see very wild ones around where I lived. That evening we were shown our respective place of aboard. I slept in the boys house whiles for the mean time my younger brothers and sisters slept in my mummy`s room.

For some months everything new to me became normal. I learnt everything and every rule in the home perfectly well. In the mornings there was devotion after our normal house chores at 8:30am and 6:00pm every day. Soon after I got there, I started schooling. Now I knew everybody in the home and I even made a lot of friends at school also. My first day at school was very memorable my friends took me round to great other colleagues of theirs at school during break time. In class I was next to kin. I past every test and I were almost exceptional from the others and as I took every day effective studies I began to imbibe more knowledge and understanding. I was very quick in understanding mathematics and English. As for the other subjects I barely failed. This was just the beginning of my academic improvement. But as time went on something new came up in my life. My friends always came to me during break telling me that there is a girl in their class who has falling for me. By then I did not know what they meant so I just told them to tell her I accept her to be my friend. When I was with my mum she had never told me anything like this; I guess I was too young then. She was called Adzokatse and was very rich as well. I might be tempted to follow her because of her wealth because I do not have to suffer to get anything I needed, but one thing I learnt from my mum was that if you chase too much wealth you might die young. But I didn`t take that notice before the gifts started coming in their quantities. Michael who was by then in her class was the messenger between both of us. We wrote to each other many times through him. She sent gifts through him to me I was just doing the receiving. I was very poor to also give back something to appreciate her gift we never met in person and I never knew her until my mum heard of it and got furious with me and gave me a strong warning to quite what I was doing. I hid to her and then one faithful day I met her and told her she should stop sending me gifts and stop writing because my mum was very angry with me. She was not very happy about what I told her but I can`t risk to get another beating from my mum or a worse from my dad. Soon enough we were transferred to a different place called pram pram. But before we were transferred I received another from Adzokatse telling me how much she loved me and that I had ruined her love for me. This time after I read the letter I understood what she meant when she was sending me those numerous gifts. Also I got the meaning of the kind of friendship she meant building with me. You see all this time since I never knew anything about a love relationship, I did not get her when she said to me in a previous letter that and I quote, ’Romeo I want us to be friends forever ‘. She was really infatuated about me. At least I was handsome and every girl would wish to have someone like me.

One month after we left for prampram, the place that ma silke had built for us the younger ones in Adenta. By then she built just one house and was on the foundation of the second house. The land area was very wide and big and for the exact measurement I cannot tell. There was a kitchen, a summer hut, a big playground in front and a big football park behind the house. We faced many adventures at this place with the breeding of mosquitoes, frogs, and scorpions. The house had seven bedrooms, two toilets, a living room, two corridors and two bathrooms. The number of us who relocated at this place was not that many so we all slept in the same house. The dormitories were divided into two. We had two mothers taking care at that time; my mum and one other mother who had worked with Mrs. Silke since the time when they started the project in the Volta region with just 20 children and later relocated in the Greater Accra region

At prampram, we also had two cooks who followed us all the way from Adenta. Their names include; sister Gifty Asilevi, and sister Gifty Edua. We had a watchman called brother Theophilus. Those times were very memorable, we schooled outside the home. Christ vision international school complex is the name of the school we attended. It was one of the top schools in prampram. They were very competitive when it comes to academic excellence as comparing it to other schools. Kinder Paradise children were very much recognized due to our hospitality and friendliness, as well as being good academicians.

 

                                                      

 

 

 

 

                                                             CHAPTER THREE

It did not take long before we had our own school at the home. We fled from the present school to ‘’kinder paradise Bonita school’’. A school by us, for us and to us. Now there was no time to waste when the school was just at our doorstep. I could wake up very early with the summer hut; our present dining hall. Just after devotion is breakfast time. There were only four tables (long tables with two benches at the side) and a plastic chair at the end of the tables for the mothers to those tables. After eating and at every meal we clean the dining hall in turns. The work was rotated after every week. Every table took turns to work. I was the leader and therefore I organized every one of my table members to work when it was our turn. At dining we observe some important rules such as; no talking and walking about. We sit till dining is over and then we can recollect our noise. On the individual table everyone had some work to do. There were people responsible to bring our table bowl; the big bowl in which we keep our food plates inside, then someone to wash the bowls that contained the food after it had been dished out. In fact we were trained to behave as responsible children. Discipline on the other hand was just like the journey from the nose to the eye. You would receive instant discipline when you intentionally refuse to take up your responsibility. In other words you would be instantly punished. It was an offense to leave your duties and leave for school. Since the distance from the house to the school was just like the spaces between your fingers, mothers would walk to the headmistress`s office to ask for permission for your execution out of the class to go and do your duties.

For me this was not a problem because, I wasn`t thought by my mum or dad to wake up without even brushing my teeth so certainly I cannot leave my duties undone. At school when I was in class six with my colleagues; Jephthah, Kingsley, derrick, nana yaa and Angelina, we were joined by others from Adenta. Some also came from the town. They were on scholarship but not all of them. They were Sarah, Yannick, Diata, Vida coming from Adenta and Joana, Rebecca, and Nathan Pinto coming from the town. The positions in the class were very competitive because everybody I would say was a SHARK (very brilliant). Sarah was a headache for me because since she came, she always topped the class whiles I just followed up with just one or two marks difference. Sometimes too she goes the extra mile. I just seemed not to understand why I could not retain my position in class that even the day I try harder it would just hook up to a tie. Our battles got stronger and stronger most times she comes first and I will climb up to her tail and other times I would almost win the battle but she strike it to a tie. She got the name ‘’knowledge mother’’, the short unstoppable determined lady. But I was given something a little bit humble ‘’wisdom father’’, the incredible challenging and strong humble guy. All of a sudden what seemed to me to be like a battle seemed into creating peace our names roamed the school; even to the extent of assuming us as lovers? My relationship with her became very close than before. At first I feared ladies but since I lived here I got used to talking to them every day. Even our duties were of gender balance and therefore I would have no chance of showing my fear. I simply had to work it out.

But day in and day out I studied harder and I stopped at nothing to strike a lot of ties. In mathematics I was very good so I felt comfortable yet the sense in winning the highest position in majority of the subjects bored me so much. Yet I kept myself always filled and prepared. One day for me I found lucky information that she was going home for some time to turn to some family issues and would be back soon. So when the day arrived she packed and got ready to go. She left one evening with some relatives of hers. But there was one thing I couldn`t understand about her going, that she might not come back. Upon hearing this news I was very much alarmed because even though I was happy that I would take up the position again, I was not happy about what I heard her say to me. ‘’Romeo I might not come back, pls. pray for me’’, she said. Wow this was very touchy yet very sad. I kept this message and thought of it. Why won`t she be able to come? Has she left the home forever or something really was worrying her. Now I almost every day thought of her presence and her absence as well. But I could not do anything about it. All I`ve got do was move on with my studies and learn hard to top the class again. My friends; Jephthah, and Yannick were one very good competitor in class and they were both good friends as well. They are very tight friends that not even magic could separate them. I was their friend too but I could not always be around them; I just did not like to be at one place for a certain time interval. I felt like moving around and sticking