THE TWELVE-season 3,episode 16

SUDAN

                    The group in Sudan had nothing doing that day, they were all very bored as they sat in the parlor watching the Sudanese news television trying to get any information that could be of use to their mission there in Sudan  then Cindy remembered she hadn’t told Maxwell of Lindsay’s call.

“Guess what happened on Saturday,” She said.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened on Saturday that I don’t know of,” Maxwell said.

“Oh really now,” She looked at Maxwell. “Did you know Lindsay called?”

“What,” They were surprised and happy.

“Where, how, when?” Maxwell asked confused by the joy he was feeling because of the news.

“I thought you knew,” Cindy told him.

“No I didn’t,”

Cindy nodded. “Well she did call and we talked.”

“How are they?”

“Ok, they arrived well, lives in good a place and Liberia is just as tough as Sudan but they are pulling through just like we are.”

“Where was Ben when she called?” Maxwell asked.

“Probably doing the same thing you were doing when she called,” Cindy replied.

“Exactly,” Britney concluded and they all chuckled.

In that mood Jimmy came barging in on them breathing heavily from the miles he had run to get to them. It scared the group.

“Jimmy,” Maxwell stood up. “What’s going on?”

“Yah why are you running so fast, did anything bad happen?”

“No,” He was catching his breath. “I came to tell you that the food supplies just came in,”

“Food supplies,” Cindy stood. “Where and who brought them?”

“Some people, they are called save the child,”

“Save the child,” Maxwell repeated to himself.

“They usually do this,” Jimmy was breathing properly now. “ They are the pack off loading the truck of food stuffs they brought and parents and children have all rushed there to collect,”

“I’ve heard of that organization,” Maxwell said.

“I think we should meet this people,” David said. “Let’s go now,”

They all doubted if they should go or not.

“This opportunity might come again but this is our only chance to meet this people, we might need their partnership.”

“Are you sure about this David?" Maxwell asked.

“I think David is right, save the child is doing a part of what we are trying to achieve, that which we can’t do right now. Why don’t we just let them know what we are up to, they might help.”

“Max,” Cindy looked at him, he was in thoughts.

“Yeah let’s give it a try,” he said.

“Jimmy, can you take us there?” David asked.

“It’s a little far from here,” he said.

“Get the key of the jip Britney,” Cindy said. “We are going to use that car offered to us for transportation,”

Britney got the keys and they rushed out to the old jip packed behind the house. They all got in and some people sat at the open back boat. Cindy was to drive.

“Are you sure you can drive this old car?” Maxwell asked her.

“A car is a car, old or new.” She started the engine and drove off with jimmy leading the way and the car couldn’t stop shaking they felt like they car was going to fall apart but Cindy was doing a great job riding it.

SIERRA LEONE

                “You know,” Marshal said. “We won’t be able to avoid preaching about the kingdom,”

They had come to mosque an hour earlier before their meeting with the children. They were opportune to stroll around the mosque more peacefully and looked through some of their books at the library.

“Looking through these historical books,” Maul said. “Proves that all this religion was meant to admonish one another, now I begin to wonder why people’s health and wellbeing have to be determined by how well they serve Mohammed,”

“It doesn’t even come by choice,” Wendy added. “It is a tradition and if we are deprived of preaching the kingdom here, we will do it when we get to the camp.”

“What are you kids doing here?” they were shaking by a heavy voice from behind. They all turned and saw the man. His face was half covered and they were scared.

“You weren’t asked to parade the mosque were you? It is against our law for strangers, worst of all kids to feel free in here,”

“Hmm,” Kevin swallowed. “We are sorry; we were just trying to……”

“Trying to exploit Mohammed’s history right?” he approached them. He was very tall and huge in their sight.

“No, not that,” Zed said. “We were just looking through the books.”

“Now I know why Omar doesn’t trust you people,” He said and the children looked at him, surprised.

“Listen to me kids, your only mission here is to teach these children all what is needed of them to make Sierra Leone proud and that mission ends in the hall out of this mosque. My name is Dar and I will watch you closely.”

“Mr. Dar…..” Zed said.

“Are you insane,” He was brutally interrupted. “Address me as Alahadji Dar,”

“Oh sorry, Alahadji Dar,”

“Good,”

“The person we met didn’t mention what you really want us to do with the children.”

“Maybe he didn’t explain very well to you fearing the fact you might not understand, but I will take my chances. The elders of this mosque have it in knowledge that you are part of the famous inspiring group, the twelve. Am I correct?”

They nodded.

He went on. “We all know your story and how you became twelve, very touching. We want you to tell the children what it took you to get to this level, share them your experiences and all that you know, make them become like you and after that you walk away…… you have just one year to make that happen.”

The children were shunned by the surprise of what they heard.

“You mean…..” Nora tried to speak.

“I mean,” He interrupted again. “You will make Sierra Leone proud of its children, completely wipe of this country from the list of countries being affected by the children’s crisis and when you are done you can go back to your lives. We will pay you if you want.”

“That is completely different from why we are here,” Maul said.

“The reason why you are here has just been defined to you, we will organize the children tomorrow from street children to orphans so go home and gather your materials, prepare yourselves.” He started off. “Don’t parade the mosque or else the wrath of Mohammed will descend on you and make you forget to way back into stardom.” He left.

“This is unbelievable,” Zed said. “God, how do we deal with this one?”

“One year?” Marshall shook his head.

“We can’t stay here for a whole year; we will have to battle when the time comes.” Maul said. “Let’s go, we need to plan. We never prayed for this and so we have to be very sensitive, we will start with their mission and end with ours. These five months is all we have left.”

“Yeah,” they all agreed and hurried out of the mosque.

SUDAN

                   When Maxwell and his group reached the park where the food stuffs were being shared, the crowd that was there with bowls and bags to carry their own share of the food was enormous. Jimmy had rushed over to get his while they stayed back and watched the hungry crowd scramble for a bowl of rice and salt, few cubes of magi and tin of oil. This went on for some time and the sharing was soon over. One of them in charge spotted them, they were different, and not carrying bowls and neither looked like they needed whatever they were sharing. He approached them with a very wild gaze.

“Who sent you here?” he asked recognizing the fact that they were part of the twelve. “This is no place for people like you,”

His manner of approach was scary.

“If you feel anything for these ones you should’ve just sit back and send your support just like others did. Go home; go back to your stardom because you don’t belong here.”

“You’ve not asked us what brought us here,” Maxwell said.

“I don’t care about what brought you here,” he said. “Go back home,”

“Oh yeah,” Cindy said. “We don’t plan on spending the night here but we are not leaving until you listen to us,”

“What are you going to say that I don’t know?” He looked at Maxwell and Cindy. “Do you think you can change this, what will you do? Build an empire for them?  Don’t even think about it unless you want to die early.”

“Did you miss out on the story of the street boys who believed in their dreams and worked hard, met opportunity and their dreams became a reality?” Daniel said. “That’s a summary of how the twelve came about. This group I’m sure you love so much.”

“Yes I know that story, but it doesn’t work all the time. You were lucky and I’m glad your cases turned out different. I love you the twelve and that’s why I’m advising you to go back to where you came from, go back to your career, go back to making young people see themselves in Disney world when they are not actually there.”

“What actually caused the children’s crisis?” Cindy ignored what he said. “Do you think it’s because years ago they had food shortage……….”

“I won’t listen to you,” he started off and they followed him.

“Please wait,” David touched him and he stopped. “Listen to us please,”

He turned to them. “Can you go a day without food?” he asked.

“Neither can they stop depending entirely on man without knowledge,” Maxwell told him.

“We believe that this crisis can be averted and we need people like you to help us out,” David said. “We have a dream to someday see all of these children become what they were created to be, get to know the hidden potentials they have, using it to bless themselves and others. Living in a world where they love themselves and are being loved in return, where freedom, hope, patience and courage will be the backbone of their expansion. This world can exist in a child’s life; they are bigger than the rice and the salt you are giving to them. Food is important we know but we are looking for that future where food will no longer be their greatest need.”

He looked at David without batting an eyelash and then he said. “I can’t help you,” He walked away.

Wendell held David on his shoulder. “That was good David, very good.”

David breathed away and wished he never said a word.

“Don’t get discouraged Dave,” Winnie said. “Not everybody will believe in our dream.”

“Even him?” he asked looking at the direction he took.

“He is not significant,” Cindy said. “Worse situations will come, expect them.”

“It’s ok David, they are not leaving just yet and we won’t stop persuading him till he believes. Let’s go,”

“What about Jimmy?” Britney asked.

“I don’t know where he is and we can’t find him. I guess he will find his way, let’s go.”

They followed Maxwell into the jip and Cindy drove off.