The mother exhaled and pulled her head up from her chest, holding her two cheeks in a way she looked directly into her eyes. “Raina Nelson..” she began. “You’re a very beautiful girl with a very bright future. I understand that your body chemistry and emotions as a teenage young girl is what is affecting you now. But I want you to understand that no man worths your tears. When someone doesn’t love you doesn’t mean that no one else will. It’s only a path to the right person. At this stage of life, you need to understand the things of the heart and know how to control them. Don’t allow your emotions to tingle for the wrong person. Concentrate on the things that matters most like your education, ambition and speculations, not on boys. Even though I know, at your age it’s hard to neglect the other gender because it’s a stage for sëxual and emotional exploration.” the mother began to smile to see her daughter smiling too. “In all, as eager as it is to explore, you must also try as harder as you can to resist the emotion of exploration. Cheer up, my dear. There are more things that matters in your life than a boy.”
“Thank you, mum.” she hugged her. “Please, don’t tell Dad.” she added.
“Of course not. This is women talk. He doesn’t need to hear it. You’re lucky he didn’t notice your late-night movement.”
Raina kept smiling broadly. “Thanks to you, mum.” she said.
“You’re welcome. Now, go to bed.”
Raina laid face-up thereby finally exposing the Brë@št which N?pplës had not fully formed. As her eyes were on the ceiling so were the Brë@št. Suddenly, the mother covered her up with a duvet and put the light off for her.
“Good night, mum.” Raina’s voice came from the darkness.
“Good night, sweetheart.” the mother closed the door.
Wow! That was a big relief from Raina through her mother. The relationship between an understanding mother and her daughter is priceless.
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The sun rose the next morning and reflected on Mr. Adams house. The man laid half naked on the bed with his wife when his cell phone rang. He blindly located it, picked it and placed it on his ear. Quickly, he jumped down from the bed and dropped the phone.
“Horny, what’s it?” the wife turned to the vibration of the bed.
“I need to see someone. It’s urgent.” Mr Adams replied, putting on his trouser.
“Who could that be that you can’t even brush your mouth?” The wife sat up.
Mr. Adams ignored her for some times. “It’s about business.” he finally said..
The man drove on the road in the early hours of that Saturday. There were no much vehicles on the road, so driving became very easy for him. After miles of driving, he pulled over at a lonely bushy area. One could see him entering into a horrifying hut. The walls of the hut had the painting of human skull and skeleton. A red curtain hung at the entrance too. You can now imagine the work done there.
Hours later, Mr. Adams and Nelson assembled at a bar. Both looked scared and creepy. Only God and a mind reader could tell what ran through their minds.
“Adams, what’s the urgent call for?” Nelson broke the silence.
“I had a call from our chief priest this morning.” Adams replied. “He said he foresaw us dead in the hands of a boy. He said if we don’t get him and kill him first, he will kill us.” he explained.
“A boy?” Nelson wondered. “Why? How? and who’s this boy?”
“I do not know. The only information he gave me about the boy was that he’s a mind reader.”
Both became quiet, thinking critically. Ah, the two men were into an illegal business that their family were not even aware of. They were drug lords. Obviously, the chief priest was talking about Crucifix. But what concerns Crucifix with drug lords? Oh, poor boy, he was busy clamouring for love while his destiny had been written somewhere else.
“We need to get and clip this mind reader of a boy before he does that to us.” Adams concluded.
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It was Monday morning, Kenny High School had her students learning in various classrooms. One could see Margret seated separately from her friends. All the students were present, looking classic except Crucifix who had not come back from exile. Before the class was Mr. Williams dressed in corporate attire.
“Okay, regardless of the absence of group A leader, Mr Odinaka, the challenge or debate commences now. So, who’s the next leader for group A?”
“Margret is” Lucy replied, pointing at the beautiful damsel.
“Okay, Miss Margret and Alice who is the leader of group B should step forward.” the teacher commanded.
The two girls stepped out with papers in their hands. Margret’s eyes caught with Rose’s and she disdained her while Mr Williams walked to one of the students’ seat and sat down with his record Sh|t.
“Okay, group A is in support of the mind being more important than the brain while group B opposes it. Okay, let’s begin with group A” the teacher crossed his legs.
Margret exhaled and glanced at her paper. “Good morning my fellow students” she began. “The debate on the difference between the brain and the mind has been going on since the time of Aristotle. I’m here to propose on the motion that the mind uniquely differs from the brain: The mind is considered pure vibrating energy, whereas the brain is considered a physical manifestation of the mind. In other words, without the function of the mind, the brain has nothing to manifest. The mind uses the brain, and the brain responds to the mind. The mind also changes the brain. People choose their actions—their brains do not force them to do anything, the mind does? Yes, there would be no conscious experience without the brain, but experience cannot be reduced to the brain’s actions; It is the work of the mind. This is a major part of the activity we pick up with brain technology. When we generate this mind energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing, we build thoughts, which are merely physical structures in our brain made of proteins. This building of thoughts creates structural changes in the brain, called neuroplasticity..”
“Can you listen to yourself?’ Alice interrupted her while everybody directed their eyes to her as she made her own point. “You just said it by yourself that there would be no conscious experience without the brain.” she turned to her fellow students. “The mind is associated with the brain. The two terms are often used interchangeably. The brain is considered to be a physical thing which can go through scientific methodology while the mind is just considered to be mental, something that cannot be seen or touched, then how can you prove its existence? Even if the mind becomes creative, only the brain makes the creativity of the mind a physical and real product of reality. So the brain is the epicenter of human life not the mind. Moreover, The brain is composed of nerve cells and can be touched, whereas the mind cannot be touched. In my recent clinical trials, we saw how energy in the brain changed as the subject of thinking, stimulated neuroplasticity. The brain was responding to the person’s stream-of-consciousness and nonconscious activity. Only the brain can do this, not the mind..”
“Please, excuse me!” Margret interfered. “The mind is a stream of nonconscious and conscious activity when we’re awake, and a stream of nonconscious activity when we’re asleep. It’s always functioning, it’s immortal; it doesn’t stop existing unlike the brain that stop working when you’re asleep. The mind It’s characterized by a triad of thinking, feeling, and choosing. When you think, you will feel, and when you think and feel, you will choose. These three aspects always work together and only the mind makes it happens. There will be no irritability without the consciousness of the mind. While the brain is never the same because it changes with every experience you have, every moment of every day. In summary: Your mind is how you, uniquely, experience life. It’s responsible for how you think, feel, and choose. And your physical brain merely responds to these unique experiences. When you learn how to manage your mind, you can make feelings of depression, stress, anger, and anxiety work for you instead of against you. You can bring balance back into your brain and life. Finally, only the mind makes it possible to love.” Margret smiled conclusively while students began to applaud for her. Obviously, group A had the higher chance to win the competition.
“Alright!” Mr. Williams hurried up. “I enjoyed both your points. “You did your research very well. “Both of you did well, but group A has more convincing points. Hence, they are the winner.” he announced.
Students began to rejoice especially group A. Lucy first ran out to hug Margret before others followed while Alice shamefully walked inside. Margret wished Crucifix was around to rejoice with them, so remembering him, she hurriedly left the classroom to the principal’s office.
Mrs. Kate looked up at her. “What do I owe this uninvited visit, Margret?”
“I want you to cancel Crucifix’ expulsion.” the girl replied unabashedly.
“Are you out of your mind, young lady?” the principal leaned back on her seat.
“Mrs. Kate, Crucifix was blackmailed. He didn’t just read your mind purposely. It wasn’t something he did on his own accord! He wasn’t proud of it!”
“But he can invade into people’s privacy with his ability.”
“That will be a good thing!” Margret spread her hands.
Mrs. Kate widened her eyes. “How do you mean young lady?” she folded her arms.
Margret dropped her bag on her table and began to express her reasons dramatically. “First, when people know that someone might read their minds, they will stop thinking about bad bad things when they’re around the person. Secondly, crime, gossip, fight will reduce. Thirdly, we can channel Crucifix’ ability to the positive side; that is, apprehending evil doers even before they start doing it. In conclusion, Jimmy deserves the expulsion instead of Crucifix. Please, Mrs. Kate.” she concluded.
The woman exhaled and leaned forward. “Good points, Margret. I’ll think about it and see the young man back.” she said picking up her pen.
Margret rejoiced once again. She rushed to the old principal, kissed her on the cheek, grabbed her bag and happily ran out of the office, leaving the principal smiling broadly.
“Teenagers” she mourmoured.
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In the afternoon, Crucifix arrived back to town with his bag. He saw his grandfather seated in front of the house then he stopped.
“Good afternoon, Papa.” he greeted.
“Oh, you’re finally back.” Geb said mockingly.
“Yes, to continue the story of my life.”
“Good for you.”
Crucifix smiled. Just before he entered inside, he heard his name from behind. He turned to see Emmanuel with a black girl. She wore a white elastic gown that stopped before her knees. She cut her hair afro style with a bold ear-ring on her ears. Her teeth sparkles white like the collision of electrical wires.
“Emmanuel!” Crucifix turned and shook his hand. “How did you locate here?” he asked.
First, the visitors greeted Geb before Emmanuel answered. “I got your address from principal’s desk, from your file precisely. This is Linda, my friend” he pointed at the girl.
“Friend?” Crucifix smiled.
“Yeah, not from Kenny High though. From my neighborhood.” Emmanuel replied.
Crucifix directed his eyes to the black beauty. He was tempted to read her mind and he did. He couldn’t believe what he saw. He saw nothing but darkness. In other words, he couldn’t read her mind. That reminded him the words of mama Obiageri…..
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TO BE CONTINUED
