Rebellion

5. Collision Course

“Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together?
Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences.” – Emery Allen.

•••

Here we go.

“I want everyone to settle down. Please, let’s all settle down into our respective seats.”

Dayo commenced his address with a note of caution and imploration. The writing academy initiative was set to kick off with his short speech. It was Wednesday, and his third day in office so far – yet it seemed like he had resumed work since forever. Although the task he took on Monday wasn’t too daunting, Tuesday’s schedule however was indeed fazing. His time-table consisted of meetings with renowned local authors who had deals with the agency, the launching and commissioning of a new Leaf Book-store in Pen-Cinema, Agege and finally an emergency meeting with the staff at HQ.

Today however was set to be even more promising in term of activity. The academy was set to commence Monday, of the coming week and he had assembled all the qualified and eligible candidates today – for a short address and enlightenment of the looming camp ahead.

“I hope everyone is on their seats now.” His gaze navigated the large receptive room of HQ, altered into a make-shift hall. The candidates in question were fifty in number, and they all occupied seats on five columns. He descended from the podium, and advanced towards the middle column before proceeding.

“Majority of us here know why we’ve been summoned, very few of us don’t. Now for those few people who don’t know – I want to bring it to your notice that you’re only here because you’re special. You have a unique talent that qualified you to be here, and not only because you’re in possession of that talent, no it’s because you’ve made reasonable use of it. That fact is the propellant in your discovery, because there are numerous people out there with similar talents like yours who are very lazy about it. Now, what’s this talent again – of course we all know it’s literary skill.

Every single person here is a novelist. Either on Wattpad, Radish, Commaful, Quotev or any other online platform; and you were all picked because of the promising talent we’ve discovered In your works. But don’t for a moment feel on top of the world, or think the race is about to be won. Believe me, you’re nowhere near the starting line. You still have a long, steep path to follow before you even qualify for the race. And why are we here? Why are you summoned? What’s the motive? This initiative was established to help you qualify for that race. What am I talking about here?”

Dayo paused for a brief moment as his words reverberated in the dimly-lighted room of teenage writers. As his eyes skimmed the intrigued faces of his listeners, he couldn’t help but notice once more that there were more females in the assembly.

“There is an academy coming up, in your own terms – a camp. Now don’t fret, it won’t take much of your holiday – just a week, and honestly I think that’s too little a time to devote into a significant aspect of your life such as your skill. In this camp, we’d be teaching you how to hone your skill. Now don’t get me wrong. We won’t give you a template of a story to work on, or suggest the method of story you should adopt, no. What we would be doing is to speed up your writing technique development. If you didn’t know this as a writer, then you should know that you only get better with time and more experience – and that’s the process we’re hoping to speed up.

I myself, and a couple of other eminent Nigerian authors would be present from time to time to assist you in your respective endeavors, and I promise you – it’s an experience you would cherish so much. It’d also include a large amount of social activities, and of course permit a wide range of social interactions also. It’d also offer quite the number of academic incentives. Believe me you don’t want to miss it. For those of you bothered about getting permission from your parents – just leave that bit to us, we’d handle it efficiently. Any questions?”