THE CITY OF PANDORA

Chapter 2: Training to be best

I was a very brilliant you man. I had excelled in my secondary education and managed to join one of the most prestigious universities in the country’s capital. I was admitted to pursue medicine. This has been my dream career since childhood. However this dream was never meant to be. My mother’s health was worsening day by day. I couldn’t afford to be that far from her. Our financial capabilities had also gone down. All expenses were channeled towards her costly drugs.

Life with a single mother who could barely fend for her children was hell on earth. My sister and I were so used to smooth life. We never at one point thought that disease would rob us the joy of going to good schools and pursuing our dreams. I had to hustle my way up the hard way. With only national identification card and a birth certificate, I secured a casual job in town .Life was tough on me and i wished I had a father or a relative to support me. There was no time to rest.Today we delayed on traffic as I was coming to work. I knew well enough that I won’t get an easy ride with the bosses of the restaurant. It was past 8am. The streets were busy. Commotion was the order of the day. Every morning looked like a crowd of people had been poured and lost within the city center. I pushed my way through as I rushed to work. On arrival, everyone looked astonished. All my colleagues were already performing their individual tasks of the day. From the look on their eyes, I was well informed am in hot soup. I had received several warnings on coming late. This are the moments that make me question why us! Why was I born to suffer? My heart was throbbing at very fast speed. I did not have a clear picture of what to expect.

I went straight to the reception where I was supposed to sign against my name as well as indicating the time. A smartly dressed tall chocolate man sat adjacent to the reception. The coat cut him to size as he watched my stealthily move just below his oversized pair of spectacles. His face looked as though he had been consuming an illegal d**g.

I cleared my throat softly then looked partially to his direction. “Good morning sir.”

The silence in the room escalated so quickly. Mistakes are to be corrected but on this maybe I had doubled up my flaws. At some point I felt like running out to the point of no return, but again asked myself what’s the worst that could happen? Sweat ran down my spine as I tried to scribble my name. I was not sure whether I was doing the right thing. Just as I was completing the sign, I felt a very hot slap on my cheeks that sent me sprawling to the ground.

“Good morning Mr. Latecomer” He said. I had a lot in mind including getting to a fight but then I also remembered the situation back home and accepted the punishment. My day had already been ruined but had to begin my duty before clients start streaming in. I was washing the squalid male toilets before joining the rest of the staff to serve customers. I had to fake smile the entire day. I knew vividly that CCTV cameras were on me for every move I made. The clock was a little slower but eventually evening came. Having a pulverized program can lead to death. As I thought I was done by the day’s activities, here came a class almost the same hour I was exiting the restaurant. I had enrolled as a student at Magic Media for evening classes. My focus did not allow me to derail myself based on what was running down my mind. I quickly rushed to the almost full bus next to our exit door and it sped of being rush hour. Within no time I was right in front of this magnificent building. All greatness of architects around the world were collectively displayed here. It was my first time knocking to the revolving doors. The atmosphere was different. Success! Security was tight right from the entrance. I presented my admission letter since my students ID card had not materialized. Putting on a bright smile, I was quickly frisked before hurriedly matching in. The design of the astounding tiles was a special order and maybe designed for a few. Slippery was never an option if you had plastic sole shoes. It was clear the place did not entertain indolent workers. The hygiene was top notch.

“Son of a popper had already made it” I whispered to myself. I imagined this in my dreams if not watching in movies.

The greatest gamers like Isaac Otieno, Prezo B. Lunayo and Priscilla Makebe have gone through this institution. I was a proud fellow and was too snoopy in any gathering or sound that came about. On the left side, I stopped by to hear what the mixed gender was talking about. Something caught my eye. A masculine man smartly dressed with a well kempt hair stood right in the midst of the crowd, as if demonstrating something. Besides him, quit close was a short chocolate lady. Even the blind was could see the two are indeed lovebirds. The public glare was so definite. It was the chief executive officer of Magic Media. He also doubled up as columnist in one of the local dailies.

“Welcome to the Magic Media. We make the world a better place by creating different kind of games for purposes of entertainment and job creation.” A sharp deep voice split the air. Around his were young gamers, maybe first timers like myself. I admired the gentleman and wished I was in his position.

“I am the CEO of this amazing company.” He continued. “I have been at the helm for a decade now.” He asked us to remain focused and take everything seriously. He assured us of frequent visits as and would as well be participating in tournaments. Everyone was a little astonished. He went ahead to introduce his significant other with a lot of humility. We all cheered up as we dispersed .

I noticed this young beautiful woman.She was of medium height brown skinned and curvey.She was wearing a black sweat pant, white Air max shoes and black hoodie. I wondered why such a beautiful young woman was standing alone. When she saw me looking, she raised her hoodie and covered her face, I immediately concluded she did not want any attention.

I gathered all the courage I had, convinced myself I was the most handsome man around, then walked right up to her.

"Hey am Edgar, " I said as I stretched out my hand to shake hers.She had her's in her pocket, she did not reply or show any emotion on her face. She just stood there and kept on staring at the building.

I slowly withdrew mine as I looked around to see if anyone had noticed my embarrassment. When I was sure there was none I went back to my mission.

"I like your shoes," I tried again.Still I got nothing just silence. After what seemed like forever but am sure it was just 20 seconds, she started walking.

"Hey ,hey, atleast tell me your name. "I said as I followed behind her.

"Anita, and will you stop pestering me am too old for this games,"she finally replied.

"Okay thank you,"I said as I retrieved.I was happy at least I managed to get her name.

She entered the building and I was left alone. I spotted a bench that had space for at least one more person. I hurriedly walked to it and made myself comfortable. Someone announced from the offices.I couldn't tell from where specifically,no one could. He just gave us instructions on which way we would go to get to class. The everyone headed for the main entrance, some took stairs some secured the elevator, the class was on the third floor. We entered a hall, pretty spacious to occupy two hundred of us. Which was pretty much our total number.

One middle aged man bald- headed with. a moustache was seated on a table in front of the hall, his feet hanging, his left elbow placed on his left thigh. He had a big round stomach almost resembling a big round ball. He was dressed simply in a blue shirt and Blue Jeans. His blue buttoned shirt was straining to cover his insides. On the contrary he had a very thin lower body.Funny shape in deed. If at all this were the minds behind the big game project as they called it , then this short bald-headed man would not be one of them judging from the looks.But let me not jump into conclusions ,at least not yet. I looked around to see if I could find any unoccupied seats.As I expected there were several but I willingly choose one, near Anita. She frowned when she saw me approaching the seat but I sat anyway.

"Settle down please we have limited time,"said the man in front,still maintaining his sitting position .His voice was soft like that of a lady. I felt like laughing but I choose to ignore that thought .This place wasn't high school that we used to make fun of our teachers. The hall was suddenly silent with almost two hundred of us.

"Let's begin.We all know the reason why we are here. Could someone please volunteer to tell me." he asked.

The hall was quiet for a while and then one light skinned guy raised up his hand.

"First of all am Chris but in the gaming world I am Extravaganza." Everyone in the crowd laughed.

"We are here to train for the game,"he explained then took a seat.

"Thank you for that extravaganza, and as you heard we are here for one reason only,THE CITY OF PANDORA. Now there is a list going round please fill in the name you will like to use in the game."

He continued explaining other technical game staff as the list went round. I didn't pay much attention as I was busy thinking about the name I would write. The list finally got to me and with much hesitation and uncertainty I wrote Chaka. I noticed Henry Lumumba and Karen Lumumba had wrote behemoth and Leviathan respectively. Anita had written Elena. After perusing, I passed the list.