It was half-past ten when I woke up to a familiar room. No! It could not be. I was in my room in my apartment in Bantry Bay. Was it all a dream? Had I dreamt the last two years? That made no sense. I launched myself abruptly. The Atlantic sea view was beautiful as usual, that was not my concern, at the moment. My heart was pounding; I was scared that all this time I had been dreaming.
I started pacing in my bedroom, what happened? I asked myself. This was useless. I walked out of the bedroom and started running in the corridor for the living room passing the kitchen. My focus was not in the kitchen, though, I notice something strange. "idiot", I said to myself, I looked on my forehand to see the Apostle Mark of Service. It was not there... How in the world would a Tatau just disappear!!! No! No. No... My head started to throb, my heart beating slower, everything; sight, touch was out of place like power fading from a cell.
What was this? Panic attack? And to make it worse, my breathing became heavier. "Makela?", I managed, "Ta-hawa...", I held one hand on the kitchen door trying to keep myself from collapsing. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed... I stopped to turn to the kitchen. On the counter laid a Nimwhii crystal glass tablet from the First World, one of David Kufu's inventions. Next to it laid an armband coated in metal material I was too familiar with, adorned in hieroglyphics. In the centre of the armband, a glowing cylinder disc with the Apostle symbol glowing neon.
Next to the armband laid a three-wave beaded bracelet made from the Kali Baobab, every once in a while, black smoke emitted from the beads. Next to that laid another beaded bracelet made of Black Diamond and a Tesseract lookalike essence and yes, the Ntoma bead of bond Ta-hawa gave me for my birthday. It was not a dream, I sighed in relief. Gosh, I'm such a drama queen.
The NimPad switched on to video call, "how far, I know you would be shocked but everything is okay. It's only been twelve hours and I already miss you so much", said Makela as she wiped off her tears. I could not help but smile. My heart was seconds from exploding, thinking that all I shared with her was just a dream. I tried my best to hold a tear back though it did not work.
"Did you make it to Laodicea?", I asked while grabbing a footstool to sit, "yes… I did", she began to weep again. "Woo, I am getting too emotional. Okay, hmm… David Kufu turned the breast armour into an armband and it takes two seconds for the armour suit to extract", she said whilst wiping a tear. "The wings have been upgraded so they look similar to actual angel wings, the computing system has also been upgraded with an Artificial Intelligence user interface, but, we should keep that between us", she added.
"Since you will be among the Gentile, the golden triple wave bead bracelet adorned with hieroglyphics. Which I am sure you had not noticed", I quickly looked to see, there it was. "I thought so", she said with a beatific smile. "That's your upgraded Ark, the double wave beaded bracelet next to it is an upgraded Nimzy. The smoking triple wave beaded bracelet is the Gaddafi. No upgrades were made on it seeing that it's such a rare resource.", she finished.
We gazed at each other for a moment, it was ridiculous. All I wanted was to be there next to her.
I missed my best friend, but, I was not going to admit it to her after twelve hours. We shared an inseparable bond, none could perform eminently while apart from the other. I felt incomplete while Makela felt meaninglessly alone. "The NimPad has your entire schedule which means in a couple of minutes you will have to leave for lectures. The tablet will also keep us connected", she broke the silence. "Thanks…", I managed. "JK, there's something I want to tell you…", she started.
"Go on…", "well, I only realized it recently… I… Well, what I want to say is that I-", she was interrupted by the notifier. "You were saying?", "no… It can wait. Hurry or you'll be late for lectures and once you reach your garage, you will notice your black chrome Aventador, uh Suzy, is missing. I borrowed it. I hope you don't mind. Chat later", she switched off not wanting to hear my annoyance about Suzy, which was my favourite Aventador.
Now you are probably wondering why there would be a supersport car in my garage. As I mentioned earlier, I stole from the rich and greedy and spoiled myself. I was ready to leave the apartment about twenty minutes after the notifier chimed. I took the back door that leads to my garage. I felt slightly joyful for the nostalgic days when I saw my cars. What to drive, what to drive… I said to myself, then it hit me, I was running late. I took Nomakaya, the elegantly black matte Pagani Zonda.
Getting around the school wasn't simple, being here wasn't simple. Everything felt so normal and mundane. I took in my surrounding as I rushed up the staircase revealing this huge infrastructure, I would have been amazed if I had not been to Normmengard. information boards erected on either side, once I reached the top. I only had a few seconds to memorize the map. "the first day?", asked a girl, "yeah", I didn't take note of her, and without even a glance I kept running to my first class. "we have an app for directions!", she bellowed.
"Language is fundamental to the point that it serves as a metronome and without it, mankind is as irrational as animals, and the next time Mr.…. Kufu, if you decide to join my lecture late remain in the back row!", snapped professor Madikani. She was a plump short-haired African woman who had a bad taste for fashion, ironically, she was qualified in Applied Linguistics. Professor. Madikani was like your atrocious primary school teacher who would always paint it in your face, "you won't go far in life!".
I just walked into the classroom, and that alone was enough to instigate a problem. I could have sat at the back, but by default, I don't like sitting at the back, anywhere.
Madikani was a feminist Atheist or a feminist who was also an atheist, which meant that I and her were not going to like each other. "Apologies…", trying my best to mollify the situation yet to no avail.
She scorned at me as if I killed baby pandas for a living, "who adheres to this statement and why. If not state your perspective...", she said flatly daring anyone to contradict the quote from her feminist atheist book she authored. "No one? Hmm… How disappointing. How about you, Mr Kufu?", she scorned at me, I guess this is what loathe at first sight felt like.
"I completely disagree", this was me just picking an argument with a teacher for no apparent reason (dear reader, if you are a teacher, do forgive my behaviour. My victims are usually teachers like Madikani. I am rather a nice student, I swear.). "The statement requires revision. Language is a powerful instrument that enables human beings to express themselves limitlessly", the silence in a room filled with at least a hundred or more young adults was mortifying, well, for her, not me.
"A phenomenon we take for granted every day, symbols and patterns which enables us to convey our opinions and alter our environment.", I continued, I also noticed that I was entering into a battle as students gave mixed emotions. "Language is a weapon to destroy yet a tool to build. As for metronome, only God–", Madikani snapped her pen at hearing the word, God. – "is the metronome of the universe and without Him, our existence is at none", I concluded.
Dear reader, you are probably wondering, how is JK so knowledgeable? The simple answer to a simple question is, I am an Apostle. Apart from assassinations, we spend time at Manetho, remember? Alright, let us carry on…
There were gasps and whispers from my peers, "you just poke the Dragon Lady… bad move, newbie", whispered a redhead, Caucasian girl. I hit a boiling point, Madikani was not going to let it go.
"Another believer…", how she loved to loathe me. A scorn so heinous, Scrooge would have appeared feeble. "God! Where is your God? Have you bestowed glimpse upon your God? Can you stroke the hem of your God? How can something be real if you can neither see nor touch it? Indulge me, Mr Kufu!", she sneered. "Professor Madikani, I assume that you have a brain", gasps throughout the classroom by anxious students, like, a calm riptide before a tsunami. "What!? I have earned four masters and five Ph.Ds., obviously", she said flatly. "have you bestowed glimpse upon your brain?", I asked. "well, no…", her voice became timid.
"upon your prestigious accolades, have you stroked the threshold that leads to your mind?", I asked, "no…", she muttered. "I do not intend to sound disrespectful but, professor, after observing your answer to your scientific school of thought, professor Madikani does not have a brain", I nailed a punchline.
"Well… What!? How dare… You insolent…", she started doing that thing that was commonly exclusive to white women and judging by her American accent she grew up with Caucks. She began to internalize her frustration which made her look as if she was malfunctioning.
"Professor, your school of thought is based on facts that contradict logic, and, science is logic. Using empirical assumptions based on perception and touch to justify existence is ridiculous", someone next to me begged me to stop, however, I was not finished.
"let's take your book for example", "what!", she bellowed bitterly. "I have read only the first four sentences of the abstract and it is evident that the purpose of your book, much like feminism, is to demonize the masculine gender by generalizing a few demons among a vast of men, whom, share benevolent views", I concluded. Madikani was mortified, the silence in the classroom could echo miles yonder the vicinity of the University of Cape Town.
"Lectures have ended!", she snapped and furiously left the auditorium. The students gave me a standing ovation. "And it is Sir. Kufu!", I corrected smugly.
Back in high school, everyone would have known what went down during lectures, I was shocked that the same thing occurred, I mean nobody cares about anybody in university.
Madikani must have been some kind of a Badass Dragon Lady like my Afrikaans teacher at Spes Bona.