Joel Sowah silently stared at the portrait which hanged on the wall. It was two men from different tribe; he recalled the tribe's name, the Southern Zulu and the Northen Zulu. The two men looked peaceful. Joel shifted in his chair and smiled silently to himself. It's been two decades since his discovery of the secret realm.
A knock on the door snapped Joel out of his thoughts. Jumping from his chair, he walked to the door and opened it. Joel breathed a sigh of relief. "Please come inside". He said to the young woman who stood in front of him. She had natural black silk hair tied up into a pony and her brown eyes matching her perfectly light honey skin. Her white blouse tucked into her big band vintage loose pant and white sandals matching her blouse. Joel, mesmerized, stood aside for the lady to walk in. She sat on one of the couch while Joel went to the kitchen to pour her a glass of fruit juice.
Joel has been trying to tell the world about his discovery of the secret realm for twenty years, but to no avail. It was either he got frustrated after going from bloggers to the next and got back home or people thought he was crazy and they would take him to asylum.
After Joel's traumatic experience, all he could do was sit on his rocking chair and stare at the picture on the wall and smile to himself until a lady called him and told him she'd like to write his story. Joel jumped up and down, went back and forth in his room very excited and truth, she was indeed here.
"I can bet you really are determined to write my story." Joel said, handling to her the fruit juice. "And what did you say your name was." He finished.
"Emily Gansah". She said and took a sip.
"Well Miss. Emily, I presume you are ready to travel in the unknown for what you will hear would not just sound epic but scarry." Joel said with eyes wide open as he sat in his rocking chair.
"Please, Emily". She corrected and continued, "And yes, I have not head anything like this so I guess I could try it. Truth applies to fact". Emily answered and took out her voice recorder together with her not pad and pen. She put on her glasses and looked directly into Joel's eyes.
Emily, looking at Joel, drifted somewhere else. The look in his eyes showed how sincere he was and not just making things up. Emily thought it was a big shame that all the press brushed away his motives with which he was going to tell his story, but he never gave up. Emily thought even if the press wouldn't publish anything like that, she would have to convert it to a novel.
Trying to suppress her thoughts, she couldn't. The fact that there was no turning back now made her wonder what it would feel like to be in a place no one would want to even hear his name. Whoever will jump into the unknown and collide with their culture only to come back for us to believe? The secret realm was surreal, and she was going to explore every part.
She was brought back to earth when Joel choked on his coffee. Well, it was nothing serious just to bring her back to reality.
"Please let us begin" Emily nodded for Joel to begin after covering her face, embarrassed.
"Every family has their way of celebrating their holidays. It doesn't matter how it was celebrated but the outcome. With my family, it was different. We celebrated no holidays or festivals but it was on one particular day everything changed ".