Deadline
Part 1- The Clock on the Wall. Time keeps Ticking.
Kevin’s apartment was silent except for the steady ticking of the clock. The deadline for his College English Class final project was due at midnight, and the pages on his screen mocked him with their emptiness.
Every time he tried to type, his mind drifted. He thought of the job he needed this project to secure, the bills piling up, the promise he’d made to his parents that this time he wouldn’t fail.
11:00 p.m.
He stared at the blinking cursor.
11:30 p.m.
He typed three sentences then deleted them.
11:45 p.m.
Panic set in. His hands shook. He could almost hear the ticking turn into laughter.
11:58 p.m.
In desperation, Sam stopped thinking. He poured words onto the page. raw, messy, unpolished.
12:00 a.m.
The screen froze. Submission window closed. Deadline missed.
Sam buried his face in his hands. The world hadn’t ended, but it felt like it had. Then his phone buzzed. an email from his teacher “Late submissions accepted within 24 hours. Penalty: 10%.”
Sam laughed, half in relief, half in exhaustion. The deadline had felt like a wall, but it was only a door. One he barely managed to push open.
And in that moment, he realized: sometimes the real deadline isn’t the clock on the wall, but the point where you stop trying.
Written by: Dickson Adetuwo a.k.a Dicky D.
One Man Two Lives
By day, Thomas was a banker. He wore grey suits, carried a black leather briefcase, and spoke in careful tones about opening and closing chequing and savings accounts. His coworkers admired his discipline, though few truly noticed him. But when night and weekend came around. Thomas became someone else. He was no longer Thomas the banker he was Johnny the car thief and scammer.
For years, he kept both worlds separate. No one at his banking job knew about his fraud and scam business. No one in his car theft gang knew about his banking job. He lived both lives carefully, afraid that if the two different works ever collided, he would lose control and his life will be shattered.
One day he and his fraudulent friends stole a car and sold it to a lady named Stephanie. They pretended it was Thomas former used car that he did not want anymore.
The following weekend the lady was stopped and arrested by police and charged for driving a stolen car. The lady explained to the police that the cars were sold to her by Thomas and his friends that she did not steal the car.
The Police Officers did their investigation and found her innocent and agreed to release the woman on bail if she called a family member to bail her and take the police to meet Thomas. She called her brother timothy a bank manager who happens to be Thomas boss. Timothy came to the police station to bail his sister Stephanie after she and the police officers explained what had happened and together they all went to Thomas house.
Immediately Thomas saw the police officers, Stephanie and timothy he fainted. The Police Officer called the paramedics to revive him. After he was revived, the police arrested him and charged him with car theft and scam, timothy his boss fired him on the spot. When asked by the police officers and timothy why he was stealing and scamming he said cost of living was very expensive and he could not get a second job. Police arrested his friends and he and his friends were taken to the police station, their mugshot photos were taken and the photos were published on television, blogs, social media and he and his friends were put in cells to wait for court trial. News about Thomas arrest spread in the workplace and his former boss timothy and his former coworkers all gossiped and made fun of him.
The End.
Written by: Dickson Adetuwo a.k.a Dicky D.
Excellence 