THE TWELVE-Chapter 3,episode 3

The next day, the twelve had a meeting with all the elderly people they now had in their lives. They sat in Rubel’s meeting room to talk about their departure which was the next day.

“So you’re leaving tomorrow?” Moscow asked, he also acted like a father to the twelve and it gave him great joy for all he had been blessed with in this life, there was an emptiness of not having a child in him but ever since he met the twelve, it felt to him like the void had been filled.

“Tomorrow is that day,” Shelly said.

There was so much sorrow in the hearts of them all but they could not express it.

“What are the things you will need for the journey?” he asked again.

“Nothing for now Mr. Moscow,” Ken replied.

“I should run some errands for you,” Lennon pleaded. “As your lawyer……”

“Formal lawyer,” Shania interrupted. “As it is now, we don’t have a lawyer,”

“Common Shania,” Ro said. “Even so, you need people like him to prove to the government officials that whatever you’re doing is legal and that they can trust the welfare of the street children and orphans in the camp,”

“We understand your point but thanks,” Cindy said. “It won’t be necessary.”

“It is necessary,” Rubel told her. “For a lawyer to or lawyers to back you up in ventures like this,”

“Mr. Rubel, we understand your point,” Maxwell said. “But believe me we don’t need that right now.”

“If we ever need help in that area,” Michael said. “Mr. Lennon will be the first person we will call.”

“I’m so ashamed of myself,” Lennon said. “You kids have grown up already; you now know how to handle your affairs all by yourselves,”

“Why won’t they?” Jakes asked him. “You left them and they had to survive with or without your council and as you can see they did survive, they are over you.”

“No, no, Jakes,” Chris said. “That’s not a very nice thing to say.”

“What, I said nothing but the truth right?”

“Stop picking on him Jakes,” Jan said. “That’s not the reason why we are here.”

A brief moment of silence escapes the room.

“Twelve,” Leon said. “I am sorry for whatever wrong I did to you. I am so proud of you kids, glad I was a part of your life,”

“Thanks Leon,” Lindsay said.

Benedict and Harrison were still feeling embarrassed to talk so they kept quiet all through.

“What about your ride?” Moscow asked.

“I booked tickets for them on different planes,” Ro said. “They all will be leaving tomorrow afternoon.”

“What about accommodation?” Rubel asked.

“W e will take care of that when we get to our destinations,” Larry replied.

“You know I still would have loved if somebody elderly could go with you,”

“They can’t.” Maul told Moscow. “We are going to be fine and we don’t want our fans to know about our departure, we don’t want a crowd at the airport please Mr. Harrison and Benedict,”

“Why do you think we will tell the fans about your leaving?” Harrison asked.

“I don’t know,” Maul replied. “For some reasons you always do,”

Everybody else smiled except for Maul and Harrison.

“How will you handle the ones in the plane?” Chris asked.

“We can bear that,” Zodiac said.

“Ok,” Moscow stood. “With all said, we will meet you guys at the airport tomorrow.”

“What time?” Chris asked.

“2:00Pm,” Ro replied.

“Thank you all for your support,” Shelly said. “We lack words to express our heartfelt gratitude.”

They all smiled and nodded. The twelve stood.

“We beg to leave you now,” Ben said. “We still have things to pack.”

All the gentle men and the lady stood as well, as they gave their goodbyes with much sorrow in their hearts knowing that by that same time tomorrow the twelve will leave them for a land that is so unpredictable.

         With tearful goodbyes parents hugged their children who had been chosen to go with the twelve to explore Africa. Though the parents didn’t have a full idea of the kind of mission their children were embarking on, they felt sad to see them go out of their sight for that length of time. As they dropped them off at the airport, the children assured their parents of a safe return and with lots of experience too and the parents didn’t doubt that, after all they we going to do the tour with the twelve. The children were twenty four in number, some had both parents, some had single parents and others just foster parents with no biological parents. They were there two hours before the departure of the plane and the twelve arrived some few minutes after them. With the perfect disguise designed for them by Ro and Jo, they had managed to bypass fans without them noticing even at the airport. When the twelve met the other children, they were happy to see them and their parents were happy to see them as well. The twelve went around hugging the parents and thanking them for letting their children go with them and they could see how excited their children were, the parents were most grateful to the twelve for making their dreams come through.

Few minutes later Ro and Jo met them. The kids were with their parents having their last chitchat for the next six months.

“We had to pack the car well,” Ro said. “Some of you will be in the same plane, you will have a transit flight, and did you check it?”

“Yes we did,” Shelly said.

“Everything alright,” Jo asked.

“No,” Cindy said with a hissing breath.

“Why?” Ro asked and they all became anxious.

“Common guys don’t you really see what’s wrong here,” She said. “We are leaving each other,”

They felt the same way she felt.

“I feel terrible,” Shania said.

“I remember the last time I felt this way was when I lost my parents and when we heard about the dead of our lawyer.

“Fake dead,” Cindy said.

“Are you still mad at him?” Maul asked her.

“Ok…… ok……” Zed said. “That’s the last thing we should be talking about right now.”

The tension died down.

“I’m going to miss you both for that,” Zodiac break the silence and they all laughed.

“Right,” Lindsay said. “I will miss you all. This is something I never dreamt of but it’s happening,” a tear welled down her cheek; she smiled and brushed it off.

“Girls,” Michael said. “Words cannot describe the amount of love and gratitude we have for you, you have been God sent all the way and the biggest breakthrough of our lives. It is almost getting to a year now since we made this pact right?"

They all nodded, each fighting with tears.

“It’s so hard to say goodbye,” Maxwell said and they all laughed again brushing the tears from their eyes.