Pleasure's Charm

Pleasure’s Charm

(This movie was conceived in a dream)

After a bank robbery, the robbers weren’t the biggest winners. When the robbers left, Mr Opajobi, the bank manager discovers the vault containing diamonds worth $2million unopened. Mr Wike, the transaction manager advises they keep the diamonds and declare it stolen. The thieves stole only N70million.

5 years later

“Pleasure, let’s play a game” the scene opens with Opajobi’s voice to his daughter. He gives her a code to decode: N-Alp36-9,LG3-church1deadback-T-lowokasha.

Pleasure after several drilling with her dad tries breaking it down. “N-Alph36-9, I guess should be Nigeria, 36 states, the 9^th state in alphabetical order. LG3, the third local government, church1….first church?” she asks her dad and he nods in approval. “deadback- hmmm. Dead at the back. A cementry!!! Then it must mean a tombstone” “Yes” An impressed Opajobi smiles. Lowo Kasha, the name on the tombstone.

Opajobi gives his daughter a necklace and says “Remember today, it’s your lucky charm”

“it’s beautiful daddy”

“This is a gift and a key. A very special kind of master key. Let’s go have dinner”

Opajobi is shown to be free with his kids and the puzzle game was normal with his kids.

At dinner, Opajobi phone rings and he excuses himself to take it.

Opajobi: what!

Wike: Hey. That is not how you greet a friend

Opajobi: we are not friends Wike

Wike: You won’t consider me enemy. Will you? Moreover it’s dangerous to fight the governor's elect

Opajobi: if you calling pertaining my shares of the diamond. You know my answer.

Wike: I wonder why a genius like you can’t figure it’s a beautiful investment.

Opajobi: See the economy, poor people everywhere and all you plan doing is syphoning. You shouldn’t be there.

Wike: Hey, you aren’t a saint brother.

Opajobi: Fear of you was the only reason why I agreed to keep the diamonds and I’m probably giving myself away.

Wike: oh! So you don’t only have plans of spending your miserable life behind bars. You also have plans to disrupt my political ambition? You know Tella will have a field day.

Opajobi: Wike, I really don’t care.

Wike: well I didn’t call you to persuade you to invest your diamonds

Opajobi: That’s better

Wike: you know we could have been a great team. Your genius brain helping me taking money without trace but I’m sorry you wouldn’t be hearing about it

Opajobi: what do you mean?

Wike: I always tell you to have at least a gate man or security. How you would have needed one now. It stops strangers from entering. (Opajobi looks outside the window and sees armed men entering through the gate)

Dropping the call and running down the stairs, the men were already assaulting his daughter. He attacks the man but is shot dead. The men flee immediately.

Inspector Ndidi, the corrupt IG of police, apparently on the payroll of Wike refused to have the case investigated claiming it was an armed robbery attack where the victim was accidentally shot and the culprits fled out of fear.

A few months later, the four armed men returned. ‘Where’s the diamond?’ roared Tobi. Pleasure gives herself up when they put a gun to Andy’s head and the little boy’s eyes well up with tears and innocently ask his mum if he was going to die. She tell them she doesn’t know where the diamonds are but gives them the code in which after consultation with their boss agrees it could be a trap. So two of the men are left home holding the family hostage and another two (Tobi and Uche) follow Pleasure in search of the diamonds.

Pleasure and the other two quickly board a bus enroute to the 9^th state. The passengers quickly start buying things they hope to consume on their journey and one fat woman, irritating and making a nuisance of herself with her stupid laughter, talking and feeding. Tobi buys some snacks from a seller and as he tries to pay money notices a beautiful fish tattoo at the wrist of the seller.

On the way to the 9^th state, Uche tries talking to Pleasure but she gives him no audience even when he tells her he’s doing it for survival since he has a daughter to feed. They come to another spot where there are buyers and as the fat noisy glutton woman in the bus resumes her hobby of buying anything at sight, Pleasure sees the same fish tattoo on the risk of one of the sellers and it gets her edgy but she remains quiet.

Another observation in the bus, she discovers majority of the passengers are sleeping and the ones awake are thuggish looking. One ugly looking man pulls up his sleeve to check the time and Pleasure sees the same fish tattoo on his wrist, just then she realises they were already captives to a fraternity. She wakes Uche who in turn wakes Tobi and tells him what is happening mostly now they are off the road.

Pandemonium begins when Tobi draws out his gun and asks the driver to stop the car but the fat gluttony woman is screaming now. A ‘fisher’ pulls out his matchet from the back and butchers Tobi’s head who in turn accidentally pulls the trigger and blows the head of the fat woman with blood splashing on the passengers and the window going off.

The fishers now take over the bus and a pastor is stabbed and thrown out of the bus and cracks his skull on a rock as he falls. He won’t stop cursing the fishers. Finally the bus stops and a fisher says ‘welcome to hell’.

The driver alights the bus and bows to the man known as fish. They are subsequently led into a slaughter house where they see different clothes, shoes, slippers of different specs with blood and foul odour. There in the house they see an old thin man who’s been there for 3 years now. He weeps as he sees them because he’s waited in vain for the day he will be taken and whenever he makes friends with new recruits they never last.

One by one a fisher comes in and leaves with an intake never to return back. Soon, he came for Pleasure and Uche attacks the fisher and kills him. Trying to atone for all he did, he tells Pleasure he’s going to cause a distraction and the rest should run as fast as they can. He goes out screaming giving the chance for the intakes to flee, eventually getting killed himself.  The intakes flee except the old man that says he has no life left in him. One by one the runners fall except Pleasure. She gets to a halt when she sees a flowing river but looking back she sees fish coming at her with a very sharp scream and dagger. She jumps into the river but he catches up with her and stabs her shoulder but she manages to defeat him and stab his eyes. She escapes to the other side and sees different cars of fallen people but no keys and she hears fish screaming ‘kill her kill her’. Though shaky, she finds a box where the keys were held but can’t open it. Then she remembers her father’s word about the pendant as a special kind of key. She tries it and she opens it. Trying the automatic button, a car responds, now the fishers are swimming her direction very close. She throws the other keys into the river. Trying to move away with the car, a fisher angrily gains ground on her but she knocks him and kills him and she drives off. Escaped! Whew!

Getting home, the blood soaked Pleasure screams at the two men who held her family hostage ‘Get out of here!!!’ and the stunned gunmen fright away. (As simple and stupid as it sounds, it was the most iconic moment of the dream).  She just tells her mum they need to see the police as she has friends to save.

They go together to see Inspector Ndidi who initially refuses them audience but succumbs when he hears of a slaughter house. He takes them to his office which was very hot and complained about the epileptic power situation of the country. Just as Pleasure was about beginning her story did Nepa bring the light and the ferocious blowing fan blew away sheets of paper revealing a hidden calendar confirming Ndidi as a member of the fish confraternity. Shocked pleasure drags her mum out of the office to the shock of the other people as they could not understand.

‘Ndidi is one of them. Maybe it’s time we go look for the diamonds’ she says.

THE END

SOMETIMES WE RUN TO THE ENEMY FOR HELP

I still remember the soundtrack from the dream