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2024-10-29 19:42:56EVE | Then
Dear Alice,
There's something you should know. Something they don't really teach you in school, that only life has the luxury of doing.
Monsters come in different shapes and sizes. I remember when the real monster came into my life. It's not the kind of monster we think is under our beds or the ones we read about in fairy tale books—no, those are too pretty. A figment of our imagination. The actual thing was big, bad and ugly. And whether I liked it or not, he was my monster.
He was tall, all six-foot-six of him mocking my and mama's short frames, with serious hawkish eyes that must've seen a lot in his days. They were hard and cold, almost frost-like, but then on some days, they'd be almost as warm as a hearth. He looked oddly out of place with his burgundy V neck T-shirt and blue faded jeans that hang low around his waist and dropped to his feet.
It was the first time mama and I ever stepped foot in OutBox, a movie store a few blocks away from our home in the city, Accra. Mama's friend Doris told her about it one Friday night when we visited.
"They have all kinds of movies," she said. "I'm sure Eve would like to watch some new movies, isn't that right, sweetie?" and patted my knee while shooting me her infamous toothy grin.
I watched as mama stared at the old rickety red and white painted signboard and scrunched up her nose in disdain.
I didn't know if it was from the stench wafting around our noses or the look of the building, but mama seemed uneasy that day.
She was used to these areas, no doubt because of where we lived, but her facial expressions were always difficult for her to control.
We walked into the dimly lit store and saw him. He stood behind a glass counter, typing away at his HP computer, oblivious to the likes of us. I took in the numerous stack of CDs meticulously arranged on the shelves with a look of ecstasy plastered on my face.
Mama and I loved movies so much. I remember before papa passed away, we'd huddle ourselves up in an African print cloth, the kind we usually lay on our ironing table and watch any movie with any we could get our hands on. Sometimes they were foreign movies but mama liked her Ghanaian ones, she was overly patriotic but I preferred the former.
Mama cleared her throat to gain his attention, and he raised his head. His eyes took in his fill of us.
"I'd like to rent a few of your movies," she said, and her eyes immediately started their hunt.
He smiled, a warm melting smile that should leave your insides curdling. "Well sure, which ones would you like?" He asked.
She pointed to a stack of movies arranged in the glass case. She was gesturing to a case with colourful packaging. I squinted at the label and read, The Playful Six. He followed her gaze and retrieved it, then frowned.
"This is not a movie for kids," he smiled down at me and sent me an impish look. I quickly hid behind her, but it was no use because she was slim like me.
Mama stayed quiet for a little while and then offered a soft chuckle, "That's why I'm going to be watching it alone."
"Okay, but she'll probably be bored with nothing to watch, " he said, and reached out to his right to take something off the shelf. He handed it to her. "Here, maybe she'll like this. "
Mama took it with her right hand while the other held my quivering hand firmly. Her perusal lasted for a movement before she showed me the cover. "Do you want it?"
It had Shrek written on the cover, and I couldn't help but smile. Well, of course.
I gave a weak nod.
"Okay," she shrugged and handed it back to him. "I'll take only these two then. How much will it be in total?"
"Ten cedis," he replied.
I saw mama frown, the skin creasing atop her eyebrows. "That's so little," she said, while picking at the frayed edges of her cloth. "I thought it'll be more than that regardless of it being a rental."
"It is," he retorted, "but I won't charge you for the animated movie. I'll give it to you for free."
He looked down at me again and smiled that dazzling smile. I instantly darted behind Mama again. He's just being friendly, I told myself. I was only twelve. I looked up at him again and saw it's not me he was looking at, it was mama. He had only eyes for her, but she'd got her eyes on her blue Chanel purse.
"I don't think I like the sound of that, " she frowned. She's distrustful, I thought.
"Consider it a first timer's benefit." He coerced.
She thought about it for a second, then shrugged and pulled out a ten Ghana cedi note.
"Thank you, " she said and grabbed the packages
"You're most welcome." He smiled.
When we were outside the store and walking down the street to hail a taxi, I don't know if it was my eyes playing tricks on me but when I looked up at Mama, her hair battling with the raging cool wind and slapping her face frantically, I thought I saw a ghost of a smile on her lips, but like the wind one moment it was there and the next it was gone.
It was the first time I'd seen her really smile in two years and I had no idea that one gesture, however small it seemed, was soon about to change everything.
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Chapter 13
EVE | ThenPaul was everywhere.I saw him outside the gates of my school, on our living room couch, beside Mama in the kitchen, stirring idly at chopped vegetables sizzling in a frying pan while she poured wine for them. He went on dates with Mama. She didn't need to confide in me, I could tell I was twelve, not blind.There were changes to her I couldn't comprehend. The physical changes were hard to ignore; the new clothes, clean and straight, iron pressed each day. She looked nicer in her nursing uniform than ever before. She spent more time at Daawo's salon, coming home for a brisk lunch with hot pink rollers tucked in her hair. The bathroom even changed, a coconut milk and jasmine petals shower gel sat in a brown wooden basket, an oval-shaped stone for rubbing under her feet came along with the package, lots of scented perfumes and it was the first time I saw a facial wash on t
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Chapter 12
ANNA | ThenI met him on the street. It was lonely, almost sequestered, the kind no one wants to drive on, but there I was, standing akimbo beside my broken-down car looking on at the rising, swirling vapour emanating out of the engine.The day was warm, bittersweet but lovely in a way that I could've spent it by using the little time I had to sketch, but I was stuck on a long curvy isolated road with a car that wouldn't start and a low battery phone. It was all Raisa's fault, being my stepmother did not give her the right to coerce me into going to her son's university graduation. The thought of her getting away with it rubbed me the wrong way, but I would do anything for my dad even if it meant putting up with his stepson's perverse looks throughout the ceremony. I got out as fast as I could once the robes were thrown down and a throng of people descended on the proud graduates.After all my fake enthusiastic chi
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Chapter 11
JEWELL | Now Two weeks after Eve's funeral My head hurts. It's the first thing I take notice of when I come to. There is a sharp ringing in my head, it throbs with a vengeance I know all too well. I should stop starving myself. The cool wind sends a shiver down my spine, causing me to huddle deeper into the thick blue blanket covering me. My fingers skim over my abdomen thinking of finding it bare because I discarded the blood coated shirt earlier, however, they come into contact with a thick material. I peek under the cover to see a hoodie. It's white. A colour so pure even my soul could tarnish it. "Here, take this." I look up from my space on the dark brown sleek couch to see Ms Riley hovering over me with a small plate in her hand. Two white pills wait for me on its surface. "The Advil will take care of your headache, and here are some beignets I made yesterday for the boys. You can
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 10
ALICE | Then Eve's birthday I dreamt a dreadful dream that day, the kind that left me coated in precipitation, choked my throat with unbridled quiet sobs. Eve was there. It was like déjà vu when I met her a second time for lunch later that afternoon. My vision was impaired by darkness as black as the inside of a coffin. It felt barren like it did seven years ago and then there was the cold that bit into my skin, numbing it to the point that it was unfathomable how I survived that night. There was a power cut in my dream, an exact mimic of what transpired. Fingers curled around my shoulder blades, sending pin prickles of goosebumps running down my skin. It took long before Eve's face morphed into view, but it was pitch black. I jerked away from her. I didn't like it when Eve touched me solely because she didn't know which part of my flesh didn't sting with pain. "Really,
