CHAPTER TWO THE 12: The Vision Made Plain (Episode 5)

“Good evening dear viewers and welcome to the first edition of our program today,” Lewis said. “Thank you all for tuning into highlights Television where we will be giving you highlights on some interesting things going on in the children’s world. I am Lewis Morgan and this is Anastasia Molly,” her parents were watching. They smiled when they saw her.

“And to my left is faith Casella,” Faith’s parents were also watching.

“Good evening and welcome”. Lewis greeted  them.

“Good evening thank you”. They both replied.

“How do you feel about this program today?”

“Well I’m,” Anastasia smiled.“Am really happy, I’ve always dreamt of this day and its here.”

Lewis nodded.

“What about you?” he asked Faith

“Well am just like,” she laughed. “I don’t really know what to say but am happy”.

“Right, we are all happy about this day. Dear viewers our topic of today is do you love me? This program is open only for children from 1 to 18. The program goes thus, lines will be open for you to call and answer these questions,” Lewis handed it to Anastasia.

“The question is do mummy and daddy love you, and how do you know? Call this number on screen and let’s find out”

That made thousands of parents to smile as they watched their children jump up to make the phone call. Lewis went on. "Dear friends how do we know mom and dad love us? I am sure they want to hear it.”

“Oh yes I think we have the first caller,” Faith said. “Hello, say your name please,”

“My name is Caroline, am seven,”

“How do you know mom and dad love you?”

“I know mom loves me when we do homework together and when we read in bed. I know my dad loves me when I get snuggled with him in bed. I feel loved when my mum gives me special snacks.” the line went off. It was funny and interesting. It made parents laugh and even the children. The second call came in, “who is this please?” Anastasia asked.

“Its Caleb age nine, I know mom and dad loves me when they take I and my siblings out for ice cream and tell me not to eat too much.”

That brought laughter from the viewers and their children.

“Lara, age three. Dad finds my purple bear when it is lost and mum carries me when I am hurt.”

Viewers couldn’t stop laughing as the show went on and children from different homes kept calling to express their own parent’s way of showing them love. It was pretty interesting.

The next morning the twelve were putting things in order concerning their plans to tour Africa after the launching of the children’s world, they made research on the different African countries which they wanted to visit. Lindsay left from the kitchen with two glasses of carrot juice in her hands.

“If you know you were surprised as I was last night let me see you smile,”

She said as she dropped the glasses on the table and they all looked at her and smiled.

“Everybody was.” Michael replied. “God I was so impressed.”

“You know when I called this morning I didn’t know what to say.” Cindy said. “I just said congratulations and Lewis said we should be prepared for the next night.”

“When I was watching the news this morning,” Ben said. “The male journalist said he advices everybody never to miss the program. He clearly state the day and the exact time. Now this is what I said to myself what you’re looking for out there might take you years to find it. But just a night with your true self….”

“Yeah Ben, yeah” Larry interrupted him. “We know you can impact for the whole day, but for reservation sake please,” he smiled. “Reserve some for the night.”

The bell rang and maul went to check it. When she opened the door she received four envelops and signed it, closed the door and came back in.

“What is that?”Zed asked.

She shrugged her shoulders trying to open the envelope. She opened the first envelope and read. “A cheque of twenty thousand dollars,” Her eyes widen in surprise, the feeling was mutual in the sitting room though they had different expressions to it.”

“Who is it from?” Ken asked.

“Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, Lewis parents,”

The next envelope she opened. “Another cheque, same amount from Mr. and Miss Casella…….an appreciation,”

“Incredible,” Shelly nodded and the others were just smiling.

“The third envelop now. Still cheque same amount from Mr. and Mrs. Molly. Wow they planned it,”

“It’s so nice of them,” Lindsay said. “Don’t forget to send them our thanks Maul,”

“I won’t, are we ready to build our camp?”

“Of course we are,” Shania said. Maul dropped the envelopes on the table. “Thank God for the provision.”

“We haven’t thought about where we want the camp built,” zodiac told them. They nodded agreeably thinking.

“Botswana,” maul said after some seconds.

“What?” Ben asked and they all looked at her.

“Yes,” she went on. “The dream was born there; it’s only fair it has her house there,”

The girls looked at the boys, they agreed with Maul. The boys felt like crying but the joy they had didn’t allow the tears flow out of their eyes.

“I know just the right people to call to help us find a very huge land,” maul said. “Ayanda and Sifo,”

             At the studio where the twelve worked there was a lot of talk about the pervious show. When Jake walked in, after his greetings he asked the question. “Who didn’t watch the program last night? If you didn’t then I say you missed a lot”

“Means we are lucky to have watched it” Lester said.

“Yes you are if you really did and understood it.”

Rooney walked to him, “what really interest you in that program?”

“So it didn’t interest you?”

“Of course it did I just want to find out”

“Doesn’t it prove something, that our world is changing? Because for children to be so creative to initiate a program that interesting and lively, it proves something great is about to happen. Do me a favor withdraw some money from my account and send it to them. I think is another way to say I enjoyed it. Put my name and this company’s.” Rooney stirred at him because he knew where the children were coming from. As he headed to the bank he called Maxwell, they were at the practice hall at Rolex centre. He isolated himself and took the call.

“Hi Rooney, did you watch?”
“Yes I did, it was incredible. You won’t believe what just happened.”

“What happened?”
“Jakes right, he just asked me to go withdraw the sum of fifteen bucks from his account and send it to the children. He believes it’s his own way of telling them congrats,”

“Rooney I know you love saying things that will surprise us and make us happy, I understand.” He didn’t believe.

“Maxwell, why will I joke over something that concerns your vision? Listen I’m on my way to the bank now,”

“Okay,” Maxwell said, he felt like shouting the news but it was not a good time. “I believe you; my heart wants to leap out of chest in excitement. Mr. jakes is supporting us, if he finds out I’m sure he will kill himself.”

“He will surely nail himself to the cross, “

Maxwell laughed. “Thank you for calling,” then he cut the line, looked up to the sky and smiled. He went back to the others as quickly as he could, hoping he could share the good news but they were being watched as Jakes promised them.

Rubel was involved in a meeting held in Sao Paulo. The meeting was called by Moscow and he had summoned all his partners from their different branch offices in other countries. They didn’t have a clear reason as to why he called them all but as their boss they presented themselves before asking any question.

“I summoned you here to talk about something,” Moscow said. “It doesn’t necessarily concern this company. It is about the twelve, I’ve taken a responsibility to help them accomplish one of the biggest dreams in the world and I want you all to be a part of it.”

The men became more interested, they gave him their full attention.

“You see these kids have a very big plan that will help our children and children all over the world. Let’s talk about this plan,” he looked at Rubel and he immediately projects the camp plan from Moscow’s laptop through the projector screen on the wall where everybody could clearly see.

“Look, this is the kind of place they want to build to accommodate the homeless kids and the orphans around the world, even kids who have homes like yours. They want to build this place to be an environment that will nurture the gifts and talents of young people and help them realize their purpose and dreams so they can contribute in making this world a better place,”

             The men enjoyed the camp just from the images they saw as Rubel scrolled through.

“It will be a shame if men like us will sit and do nothing while we watch young kids like that put up this kind of building, it will be a big shame. The budget for this building project is six hundred million dollars, you can imagine the sacrifice they are about to make,”

The men agreed with Moscow. One of them asked.

“What will you have us do?”

“Make a contribution, please support this work. I’ll make a contribution of a hundred million dollars, that’s half of my life savings.” Moscow said and the men felt challenged.

“Twenty million,” Rubel said and Moscow was impressed.

“Fifty million,”

“Twenty five million,”
“Forty million,”

“Ten million,”

“Twenty million,”

“Thirty million,”

“Five million,”

“Sixty million,”

And so the contribution went on till all the men had pledged something. Moscow was impressed.

“Thank you all so much, I appreciate it. This will make great history beyond human imagination and we are privileged to have our kids be a part of it. You’ve done your best; I will await the replies of those I equally sent the message to.”

From that day till the next, Moscow consistently received calls from friends, family members, and associates informing him of their contributions and asked him for information on how to get the money to him. He had created a special account for the project which made it easier for the contributors to wire in their money. While busy trying to calculate the total figures he had received, Johnny walked in. he dropped his pen and attended to him.

“My secretary told me a strange fellow was in search for me,”

“Good day sir,” He greeted politely.

“Good day, what can I do for you?” Moscow asked folding his hands.

“My name is Rooney, I’m from New York City and the twelve sent me.”

“Oh really,” he got interested. “Please have a sit,”

“Thank you,” he sat. “I’m here to give information as regards to what you discussed with them during your last call.”

“Who are you to them?” he was direct.

“I’m one of their designers,”

“Hmm, they most really trust you to have let you in on something as vital,”

Rooney smiled. “Of course sir, I am for them and I’m out to help anyway I can.”

“That’s good, and then we can talk.” He leaned forward. “What’s the info?”

“They got a venue, the place where they want the camp built.”

“That’s awesome, where?”

“In Africa, Botswana,”

“I can understand why. Does Botswana have a land that’s big enough to accommodate the camp?”

“They got people to look for it,”

“As soon as they find it, tell them to let me know.”

“Definitely sir,” he stood up. “I’ll be on my way now.”

“Oh, so soon, Care for some leisure?”

“No thanks sir but I’ve got a blizzard of work waiting for me back there, maybe next time,”

“I understand. Thanks for coming and take care,” Moscow told him.

“You too sir,” Jo replied with a smile and left.

              The twelve got home that evening from practice, they didn’t know they were being followed and watched by Randy who stopped his car at a close distance. “So this is where you live,” he spoke to himself. The twelve got into their house and shot the door and Randy drove off. They were all tired from the long practice they had with Duncan, botched and ready to sleep. They said goodnight to each other and went into their rooms. After Cindy had freshen up, she sat to brush her hair then she heard her phone ring. She wondered at who might be calling at that time, then thought of Anastasia before going to pick up the phone but the number was strange, she didn’t want to pick at first but she found herself click the answer button.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi Cindy, it’s me Jan……”

“Oh you……” she went back and sat. “What can I do for you?”

From the tone of her voice Jan knew she wished she never picked the call in the first place and now that she did, she wished she could drop it.

“Please hear me out; I won’t take much of your time.”

“Ok,”

“I’ve got something really important to tell you but particularly not like this. If you can steal out some time and come to my office tomorrow before you start practicing I will be grateful.”

“Ok Jan, I will do that.”

“Really,” Jan didn’t expect it to be that easy. “Thank you, thank you so very much….. Goodnight,”

“Goodnight,” When the line went off Cindy wondered why Jan was thanking her with so much energy.

             The twelve had their second practice with Duncan. They were already in the practice and Cindy was very much conscious of an appointment with Jan and she was thinking of a way to sneak without their supervisors noticing her absent. She walked to Maxwell who was trying to get his voice warmed up at the corner beside the piano.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” She interrupted him.

“Oh yes sure, what about?” Maxwell paid attention.

“I want to step out for a while; can you cover for me if anybody looks for me?”

“Where are you going?” He asked.

“To see Miss Jan in her office,” she whispered. “She called me last night and said she has something very important to tell me, that I should come see her today.”

“That can be dangerous,” Maxwell whispered as well.

“What will she do, kill me in her office and bury me there?”

“No but…..”

“Just cover for me okay, I have a feeling this something is very important as she said it is.”

“If it gets dangerous, run out as fast as you can,”

“Don’t worry I’ve got my phone in a safe place, I will call you if it gets dangerous,” she smiled and left but Maxwell was seriously worried about her, while she was gone maul made a call to Botswana, she called Sifo

“Hello Sifo, it’s I maul…. Remember me?”

“Twelve, how could I forget?” he was at work, taking some people on a tour at the park in Botswana.

“Yeah, how have you guys been?”

“We’ve been great and Botswana is elated by what you made out of those six boys you took from here,”

“No, we didn’t do anything,” she smiled. “We need your help on something,”

“Anything for you twelve,”

“Thank you, there’s this huge building project we have and we want it done in Botswana.”

“Wow that’s great,” Sifo smiled, he could imagine the benefits.

“It’s a camp to be precise, big enough to contain five thousand or more kids….”

“My goodness that’s huge,”

“Said it at first, I will email you the project so you have an idea of how big the place will be and then you will know the kind of land we need.”

“That will be good; I will start working on it immediately I get all the details.”

“I knew we could trust you. Thanks a lot.”

“My pleasure,”

And the call ended.

Maul went back to the others and told them about her discussion with Sifo.

She got to Jan’s office with the help of a male worker there. When she got in Jan hurriedly closed the door behind them.

“I’m here, what’s that thing you wanted to tell me?” she folded her arms and looked at her. Jan fidgeted; she walked to the other side of the room.

“You see what I want to tell is very sensitive and I can’t do that here and now.”

“Why?” she asked.

“You’ve got work to do and things might really get nasty with your emotions when I tell you…. You might not even be able to sing and if that happens people will get suspicious.”

Cindy thought for a while. “I still don’t know what you want,”

“Ok promise me that you will keep whatever I will tell you here very discreet…..”

“By discreet you mean I won’t tell my brothers and sisters,”

“Not here, not after I tell you….”

Cindy started off, Jan rushed and stopped her.

“You have to listen to me,”

“But you are not saying anything,”

“Okay…..” she took a deep breath. “It’s about your lawyer; Jakes told us something about him that I think you all should know…”

“What did he say about our lawyer, are they responsible for his death?”

“No, your lawyer….. Lennon is not dead,”

“What!” She exclaimed bitterly.

“Yes,” Jan tearfully said. “According to what Jakes said, he went into deep hiding because of the shame of what he did to you girls…..”

Cindy started shaking. “What did he do?”

Tears welled down Jan’s eyes and the thought of the betrayal made Cindy cry. Jan held her like a mother comforting the daughter but she hadn’t told her what she wanted to know, slowly she took Jan off her.

“What did daddy Lennon do?” she asked, her voice was shaking.

“He sold you girls, your talent to Jakes because he owed Jakes father a huge sum of money….”

Cindy felt her knees getting weak, she couldn’t stand again, she went down sobbing. “No, no, no, no that’s not true, that can’t be true.”
Jan bent before her. “It is true, Jakes said there was a written document signed concerning the agreement and Lennon kept it hidden in his old house…”

To Cindy Jan revealing the truth felt  like her heart was been pierced with a dagger.

“That is why he can treat you the way he likes because he knows he has a legal tender to back him up in any court room you guys might want to bring him.”

“Jakes told you all these?” she asked tearfully.

“He told us, I, Duncan, Chris and Randy. Your three marketers are not an exception because they knew it all from day one.”

“He is not dead and he sold us out? What did we ever do to him?” Cindy wept and Jan comforted her without Cindy fighting her off this time. She submitted to her embrace as she wept bitterly on her.

“You have to be strong; you don’t have to act like you’ve heard anything. I took a great risk telling you this truth because I love you kids so much and I want the best for you.”Jan took her off. “Look at me, please look at me.”

Cindy looked at her.

“You have to go back and practice and don’t let anybody suspect you, when you get home tell your colleagues about it alright,”

Cindy nodded.

“From there, we can find a solution out of this. Wipe your eyes now.”

She helped her up and gave her a tissue, though it was hard for her to suppress the pain she was feeling inside and the tears that was streaming down her face she knew she had to fight it for it was the best solution at that time, she wouldn’t want anybody else to know until she had told the rest of the twelve.  All through practice Cindy was being hunted by the things Jan had told her, she fought them real hard, she smiled while people laughed when things became funny but each time she looked at Jakes and the directors she felt a huge cloud of sadness cover her and she couldn’t fight the thoughts neither could she fight the tears anymore. The rest of the twelve had noticed her different change of moods but couldn’t understand why, Maxwell thought it might have had something to do with her meeting with Jan but it wasn’t the right time to ask her. They started working on a karaoke with Duncan and they each had a part to play, while that was going on, Jakes came to correct some things. He said he felt like there was some passion missing especially when it came to Cindy’s part, when Jakes came to correct her directly they were shocked by her expression. Tears came running down her face like someone who had been hurt deeply; they had never seen anything like it before.

“Cindy,” the twelve rushed and surrounded her. Jakes was confused and so was everyone who saw her in that state.

“Cindy, are you alright?” Shelly asked

“What’s going on,” Shania asked. “Why are you crying?”

“Do you feel sick?” Larry asked.

Cindy cleaned her face and looked at Jakes who was desperate to hear her responds.

“I” she stammered. “I feel sick; please can we close for the day?”

The twelve was looking at Jakes for a positive answer.

“Please Mr. Jakes,” Michael said. “We’ve covered much today right, for the sake of her health…..”

“I will bring her to the hospital,” Jakes said. “I think we can close for today.”

Duncan agreed.

“I feel sick but I won’t need a doctor, I just need to rest and take some antibiotics.”

“Okay, go home now.” Jakes told them. Michael and Lindsay held Cindy as they left the practice room. Cindy sobbed all through the ride with the excuse of not feeling too well. When they got home, she was lead into her room to rest while the others prepared dinner. Thirty minutes later Cindy came down stairs.