SILENT STREET

BLURB
As Stacey slept that night, that was the last of the human race. The morning was so empty that not even a fly lived. From Agape to Lapaz was a journey of' chaos and silence. Now that all what was living had gone into emptiness, her past began to get back at her.

CHAPTER ONE
Fog had hit the small area of Agape, a suburb of Accra. The inhabitants found the fog very unfriendly because it made visibility poor. Luckily for them, the sun made its way out of the clouds and began to evaporate the fog. This area stood on the hills of another area called Ablekuma. Both Agape and Ablekuma used to be individual towns until few years ago when they were added to the capital city. Agape, being a developing area did not have access to good utility supply from the government so had managed bad roads and other resources available to them.

The sun had totally dominated the unwanted fog, which gave buyers and sellers an opportunity to do business. The Agape lorry station was busy with few buses available. It looked like access into the available buses demanded speed and smartness on the part of thepassengers. Before long, it was left with the last bus. As the last bus approached the bus stop, the anxious passengers rushed to meet it.

'One front... one front ooh' the mate said. In a matter of seconds the bus became full. A fat woman who couldn't catch the speed rushed to sit in front.

'Madam please, someone is already there,' the mate said. 'Who is that person' the fatty groaned. Just by the front door was a young lady dressed in a green suit; Stacey Davidson. She looked aggressive. “Ma'am, please this is my seat, I have paid for it and have been sitting on it for almost a year now every morning”.

“Auntie, the lady is not lying; after all she is the owner of this bus.” A lady from the back seat supported Stacey with these words. The car was bought by her mother when they arrived in the area. She bought it out of mercy from a young man who had an opportunity of travelling and needed to raise funds for his visa and plane ticket. “So now that you know, can you clear off my path?” Stacey said sounding a little teasing.

“Madam, please get down. I don't want you to create any problems for both of us in this car” the mate yelled. Now the fat woman began to sense the heat coming from both sides. “O.k., today she has people behind her, but when the time comes when she is alone, who would save her? Wait Miss, till your evil past gets at you,” she swore as she used her fat body to push Stacey Davidson from the front door of the car. Stacey felt a chill run through her
spine on hearing the woman's curse. This wasn't the first time someone had used those exact words on her, so she feared it was getting more serious or too serious to be a joke.

“Look, what nonsense?” Stacey stood disgusted, trying to wipe off the fear she felt. She made a seat ather usual place and the bus descended downhill towards Lapaz. After about an hour in the fumes-infested traffic, she arrived at her work place.

She alighted from the car and headed towards THE KINGDOM RESTURANT. She checked the time from her Black-berry and noticed it was almost half past nine. “A little time for breakfast”she said brightly to herself. The restaurant was a two storey with an open top which served as a rest place for workers who needed some time to relax after a hard day’s work. Stacey had established herself as a regular customer and so was often not asked what she preferred for breakfast. 

She settled on a table beside the last window. Her attention was drawn to a man who was preaching nearby. With her ears corked, she turned to listen raptly to what the preacher man was saying. “Repent for the son of man is coming. Your actions today would determine where you would be in the future. It is written in the book of Revelation that a time would come when the grace of God would be taken from the face of the earth. What I'm saying is that, the son of man would take all righteous people from this world and allow the devil and his followers to reign on the earth for seven years and then Christ would bring his wrath upon them and cast them into the lake of fire.” The man preached with a rusty voice which Stacey knew only drunkards bore. After a quick scan of his surrounding, she saw a bottle of whiskey besides him which he drank after every sentence.

Stacey kept listening to the preacher as she took her coffee. This wasn't the first time she had heard such a message. She listened carefully as the preacher kept preaching through the window she sat beside. She turned with curiosity to watch the preacher's face very well. He was an old ragged man who held in his hand, a big bible which looked like a burden to him.
Stacey noticed that the bible was quiet unusual. It was about five times bigger than a normal sized bible.

People passed and put some coins into a brown box in front of him and he kept responding "let me see you up there on that day". "Madam please there is your change" the waitress said as she dropped the coins on the table. She was a young woman in her early twenties. She stood taller than the average young woman of her age. She was dark in complexion, and had long dark artificial hair. Stacey watched the lady for a while and asked herself why a girl like her was not in an office.

She picked it and nodded in satisfaction and then headed out of therestaurant. "If you want to be a part of this great journey, please give yourself to Christ. 'Give yourself to Christ' is something we have always heard but I say to you today my brothers and sisters, He is coming soon. Forget about things of this earth and fight for a place now in the coming Kingdom. Why waste your time on things which would not last forever and lose your soul that will never perish. Be wise, my friends and save yourselves the wrath of God." The preacher said and he picked the bottle of whiskey and started drinking. Stacey dropped a five cedis note into the box and noticed that her money was the only note in the box. "Milady, please, when the time comes, please be strong and stand firm even though Christ would not help you. Be firm for you might be victorious. I pray that you win when the time comes".

It was as if the old man had pronounced a death sentence on Stacey when the man finished thanking her. Her legs begun to shake and she felt a sudden warmth in her veins. She lost control of herself and fell to the ground. She didn't understand what the preacher meant but it sure didn't sound pleasant. All the same, she wanted to convince herself that it
was perhaps, too much wine that made the preacher talk that nonsense, but she knew the man's words where clear and he meant what he had said. This was her second warning from two different people this morning; she knew there was something amiss.

Stacey sat on a desk in her office. She picked her designation plate from her desk and studied it. It had the inscription 'MANAGING DIRECTOR, MISS STACEY DAVIDSON'. She threw it into her dustbin as if it was some filthy thing. At twenty five, she had already achieved her life time goal. She had always been happy until this morning, which had left her with fear of an upcoming event.

'Damn it, why is everything turning out this way?' she shrugged. She lost a part of herself way back about ten years ago. She stood on her desk and started recalling her old school days. Her first year was the worst nightmare of her life, with so many problems and a newly introduced life. Before those times, she was used to having the normal routine of every child, which was: go to school, come back and do your homework, have your lunch, play for a while, have your supper, stay around and watch T.V till nine and go to bed. She became used to this way of life so much so that the boarding life became hell for her. First, she didn't know how to manage her things, she didn't like the school food and she didn't know how to socialize with people so she made many enemies in the dormitory and in class. And these were one of the days her mum had travelled to China for a traders' workshop.

She remembered the first time she caught her lesbian school mother making out with a form two girl. The senior she trusted so much, not knowing was so perverted. Now she didn't have anyone to confide in and her school mother created so many stories about her to her fellow mates. She became all alone and suffered alone till God graciously granted her the end of the term.

“Madam, the manager of G and C Company is here to see you, should I let him in now?” A
male voice asked from her telephone. Stacey quickly used her handkerchief to wipe the tears which had run down her cheeks.

“Let show him in” she replied.

Stacey stood there prepared but she remembered she had dropped her designation plate into the dust bin. She picked it and cleaned it with her handkerchief. The man knocked on her office door. “Come in” said Stacey as she waited anxiously. The door swung opened and a fat heavy man in a dark suit entered. Stacey noticed that the man looked well dressed and seemed to mean business.

'I greet you…Mrs... “His eyes went straight to the designation plate. “Em..Miss. Davidson”.

“Very good day it is” she responded undertone, “well I had your proposal reviewed”. She opened the file cabinet and brought out a letter. “There you go sir” she handed the letter to the stout man. “Mr. Adjei Oppong, I'm really sorry, your proposal cannot be granted due to certain measures we would be taking.”

“What!, after all the business I have done with your bank, you want my goods to be left at the harbor ah!' the stout man yelled. “No, I would not let this go easily. No, I would not!” “Mr. Oppong, I'm really sorry, it is because our bank is facing some financial problems which need to be dealt with immediately. So the board of directors and I have come to a conclusion that we would use this month to fix these problems. Also, your savings here is
not enough for us to give a loan of such an amount.”

“Well madam, for creating this mess for me, you would hear from me and even if you don't, no one would be around when your day of sorrow comes. Note one thing, I know a lot about you”. The man kept on yelling. “Even your end my dear manager.”

“What is the meaning of all these threats Mr. Oppong?” Stacey asked, raising her voice at the fat man. “Security ... security, come and get this ill-mannered man out of here immediately” she shouted, as she pressed the receiver. Oppong picked his suitcase beside him and said “You know I'm already out of here” then he banged the door behind him.

It was 1:35pm, Stacey stood at her usual table at the corner of the restaurant besides the window. She felt like the day had been ruined with load of incidents about something she didn't know of. Where is this "place" that she would be left alone and even when? She picked her mobile phone from the table and dialed a number.

“Hello Max, I want you to meet me at our usual place tonight okay?” she waited for the response from the phone. “O.k. bye” for once, Stacey began to feel uneasy. She had a nagging feeling about an unpleasant situation that would be happening. What might that be? She pondered. She turned to check if the old preacher was there but he was gone.