The Alpha’s Dynasty

Maya

St. Felicity’s Center for Visually Impaired Children was a very small establishment that survived on donations from a few people like myself. There were two buildings facing each other. One of them had three classrooms and a small dining room. The other had toilets, a common room and the offices. Behind the classroom building was a playground with several games and there was a wall fence made of red bricks and sand. The school enrolled mostly preschool children and helped them learn enough to start school.

Most people never realized it but a lot of children with disabilities were abandoned in the streets almost every day. Some were left at the doors of shelters and orphaned children’s home because their parents were afraid of the costs of taking care of them. Others could not access education because a lot of people were ignorant of schools with special needs education which were very few and couldn’t cater for all those who got enrolled there. They did not realize that these were just like other children and deserved as much love, even more. You’d be surprised that even in this century, there were people who made fun of these children.

St. Felicity’s was basically a day care study center. Parents brought their children in the morning and picked them up in the evening. It was for low class parents who couldn’t afford special needs education. There was a shortage of teachers and for that reason, I volunteered to teach writing so that the children could tell their stories to the world. Teachers were always quitting because they didn’t have the patience required to teach visually impaired children. I took a short Braille course after finishing high school, a few months before joining college.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Good morning, children.” I said as one of the male teachers went to sit at the back of the class. It was hard to teach alone especially when you were not a professional teacher and your pupils had sight problems. The youngest class, comprised of four to eight year olds. A lot of visually impaired children of lower class families in the city either received no education or started later than their peers.

“Can you tell who’s speaking?” I asked.

“Yes,” the children shouted in unison.

“Who is it?”

“It is Miss Bennett,” they said and I started to feel goose bumps. Tears welled up in my eyes and my smile widened. I was so happy that all of them remembered my voice. My little precious darlings now knew me and that filled me with elation.

Ten minutes into the lesson, I noticed a camera kind of flash and rushed to the window to see who it was that just took a picture of me. By the time I reached, the person was gone. I saw a medium height boy jumping over the fence.

For the rest of my lesson, I could not stop worrying. I wanted to rush to the company so that Mr. Carrington never saw that picture but I couldn’t leave these children. If we were going to lobby for more funds, getting the children to properly share their own stories would really help.

When I got back to my office, it was ten minutes to the meeting with the company partners. I had to stop by the pharmacy where Anne worked for pills to reduce anxiety. I had swallowed the pills but my nervous system was still a wreck when I got back to work. I felt uneasy. I picked up the flash disk with the data and statistics I had been analyzing. With the senior actuarial manager, I needed to to present the actuarial figures to the partners of the company.

Five of the ten chairs in the boardroom were occupied by the time I got in. My eyes met Harry’s and I gave a meek smile before taking the seat next to my new superior, Mr. Kinney who had replaced Aaron.

When my turn to give a presentation came, I took a deep breath and walked to the front. I had not felt that nervous to present since I left college. I couldn’t stop worrying that Zane Carrington was just waiting for me to finish before firing me. For a few minutes as I talked about statistics and numbers, I was free from worry.

Zane Carrington was watching me intensely, a little bit too intensely, might I add. That added to my anxiety. The man was like a hawk, with sharp eyes that made you feel like he was looking directly into your soul. I wondered if he had been told that I had broken the rules and was just waiting for the right time to fire me.

Later, Harry walked in to my office. “I can tell that something is wrong with you. What’s it, Lee?”

My elbows were resting on the table while I held my phone in my hands.

“Nothing you should worry about. I’ll be okay.”

I looked up at him. Pressing the unlock button on my phone, I looked at the time. It was already five. Time to leave. I lifted my hand bag from the floor to the table top. “If I haven’t told you what’s going on, it’s because I know there’s nothing you can do to make the situation better. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.”

Standing up, I threw my phone into the bag and carried it. “I have to go.”

Harry walked towards the door and stopped two steps away from it. He turned and stared at me. Raising my eyebrows, I spoke. “What now.”

When his didn’t say anything, I attempted to pass by him but he took a step forward and snaked his left arm around my stomach. My breath hitched and I looked at his face. He gazed into my eyes and I did the same to his before turning my eyes to the door. He had no idea what his hand was doing to my insides.

“Harry?”

Slowly, he withdrew his hand and with one last glance at him, I left the room.

What just happened?