A NEW BEGINNING

The sports car parked in front of the mansion and I looked out the window, disappointed and a little bit pissed.

The moving trucks stopped behind us and my mom smiled and said,"We're here."

My brother; Alex was having the exact opposite sentiment, he was excited and happy as he loved to travel and see new things.

Hi, my name is Felix Oppong and I am a six year old boy who presently lives in a town called Axim in the Western Region of the West African country of Ghana.

When my mirror twin brother; Alex and I were born, everyone was stunned by our looks. They even encouraged our mother to sign us up as baby models, which was a great success.

Every company wanted us to advertise their products, baby related or not.

But the most unique part of us was our sea blue eyes, which lasted long after we turned six months old.

The doctors conducted several tests on us when we were supposed to have a eumelanin dominated pupil radius regulatory muscle colour, aka brown eyes, but found nothing wrong.

There was no medical condition and they had no explanation.

This led us to be famous even at the tender age of three.

But the downside of our life was, we never had a father. We had no idea where he was and our mother was very secretive about him.

Whenever we asked about him, she changed the subject, but also didn't want to remarry.

Because of this, I became depressed and an antisocial introvert, which made me have a great difficulty in relating with other people and making friends, that's why I cherished the friends I had so.

Alex on the other hand, was outgoing and friendly, he made friends easily and everyone knew him, despite this difference in character, the two of us were the best of friends, we understood each other.

Our mom took us up the stairs to a gigantic room which was meant for the two of us.

It was full of toys, gadgets and anything a six year old child could want. I could literally see the sequins in Alex's eyes as he squealed.

My mom smiled and said,"Go on."

He ran in without being told twice.

I was selfconscious and looked at the room then shyly hugged my mom.

She squatted and said,"Don't worry, my room is right next to yours, you can call me if you ever need anything."

I looked back at the room and slowly walked in.

I felt a heart ache as I remembered leaving all my friends and coming to this new place.

I remembered how my friends let me ' borrow ' their dads and how happy I was to have one.

Now, I had nothing.

I knew my mom tried everything to make me feel happy, but all I wanted was answers.

I crouched in the large clothes closet and sobbed silently.

I just wanted all of this torture of life to end.

My brain throbbed painfully after I had cried for thirty- nine minutes, but I didn't stop until I felt a tap on my knee.

I looked up to see Alex, looking at me with his head tilted.

He asked,"What's wrong?"

A new stream of tears flowed down my cheeks as I said,"Everything."

Without another word, he sat down beside me and gently placed my head on his shoulder and said,"Don't worry, I'm here now."

***

I kept poking the rice with the spoon at the dinner table. I was hungry, but didn't want to eat.

My mom called me and asked,"Please could you eat? I don't want you to go to bed hungry."

I mumbled without looking at her face,"I'm not hungry."

"Pardon me?"

"I'm not hungry mom."

She stood up and walked to me then fetched a spoonful of the food and ate it then asked,"Mmm, this tastes delicious! You should try it."

"I don't want to."

"Aww, come on, one bite...just for me?"She said, bringing the spoon to my sealed lips.

It took a few seconds but I eventually opened my buccal cavity and she fed me.

She kept saying ' one bite, just for me? ' till the whole plate was done.

Immediately after I was done, I stood up and sprinted to my room, where I hid under my bed covers.

A few seconds later, my mom and Alex came in and sat beside me. My mom said,"Oh honey, you didn't eat dessert."

I wiped the tears on my face and said from below the blanket,"I don't want any."

Alex said,"Mom bought your favourite... chocolate ice cream."

I slowly came out and my mom sighed and asked,"Have you been crying? I am so sorry."

I hiccuped and hugged the both of them.

The next day, Alex and I had a photoshoot for the cover of a magazine.

The director found something wrong and asked me,"Oh, won't you smile?"

I tried my best to do just that but all my efforts were futile. Just then, Alex said,"Watch out...if you don't laugh, the tickle monster will gobble you up and will torture you with its peristaltic movement!"

Just then he started stimulating my nerves and I laughed and tickled him back. The photographers saw the perfect shot and took the pictures.

The magazine sold like hot cakes because of the adorable twins on the cover.

Soon after that, our mom enrolled us into an international school called Golden Gate.

On my first day, I realized there was this one boy who was two years older than me yet in my class, who had this tendency to express his own problems, insecurities and or or low self worth on other students by bullying them.

It annoyed me how someone could use their strength to hurt other people who had done nothing wrong and couldn't defend themselves, but I was too shy to do anything, so just kept my own thoughts and emotions to myself.

Alex on the other hand, reported him and quickly became several teachers' pet.

Alex and I skipped a grade because of our performance in the entrance exam so the bully had just been held back once.

The school had this characteristic of sending all its students on educational field trips across the country for a fee, at the beginning and end of each term, so it was no surprise that the school announced a field trip to the Akosombo dam which made the largest man made lake by area; The Volta lake.