Stories About Women

HARD HEAD FEMINIST

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Mimi

Inside a dusty, abandoned Catholic Church at the far ends of the North, Mimi stood on a creaky podium, its planks threatened to yield as she paced up and down. Her forehead was lounged in her palm and her heart pumped furiously. It had been a stressful, pulse racing week preparing for this day.

She gazed back at her congregation, every face had an expectant demeanor.

"Brave women of the cause," That was all she needed, her confidence was back up. "We have been trolled!" her eyes gradually widened and her steps firmed. Planks creaked under her weight. "We have been called names, spat upon, denied basic rights," she counted on her fingers. "We have been seen as the tail." Her gaze brushed on the familiar faces and stopped on Gloria; the doctor in a white coat. She paused longer than necessary then brushed her gaze to Chidera who sat beside Gloria. She tamed her voice, "They said we are no better than the female dogs and goats." She shook her head and paced along. Planks creaking. "That ends today!" She pounded her fist in her palm. "That ends today!"

Suppressed murmur waved around the forty-something women perched on the rows of dusty benches. Altogether, they occupied ten benches; five on each row. The back benches were scanty.

Her voice overshadowed the murmur. "They have compared us to animals." She emphasized the last word. "And we shall behave like one. Our action here might prove an irony, but we would show the world what they want to see."

The crowd remained cold. In that silence, She sensed the uncertainty and nervousness that was embodied in their exhaled breath, and unfortunately, it was spiced with fear.

She knew what to do; she needed to refresh their memory. The planks creaked as she paced to her MacBook sitting on the stone alter, open. A can of water stood next to it; its cap barely corked. She directed the cursor to an icon that read 'Mark Antony' with about seven exclamations.

†

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Mark
(four weeks earlier)

The moon was full and the halo around it shone effulgently. Inside apartment 9, sitting on a long couch facing the TV, Mark blindly reached for the popcorn cluchtched between his thighs. He was engrossed in the visuals of 'Vanish'. The movie, he already knows by continuous watching, would end on a sad note.

Instead of being grumpy when the movie ended, it promoted a different type of emotion in him-Gave him de Javu. He bit his lower lip at a memory of his Ex. His reaction was absurd considering that the woman in the said movie never came back to her husband even after death.

He picked his phone and clicked on Facebook. He had a message. It was From Her. A simple HI. He smiled. Exactly who he had in mind. He responded with a smiley emoji. And she replied immediately.

Gloria > I just wanted to check on you, hope you are fine?

It was never more than that, Mark thought before he began to type.

Mark > I just thought of the night we
He stopped and erased it. How are you?

She didn't respond until later that night after mark had completed two other movies and was about to switch the third. Saturdays were just for movies; his complete escape from the thoughts of work and people.

Her message didn't look like something that needed reply since it was plain, I am fine.

He messaged her anyway. We should vid call whenever you are free