Chapter Twenty-Five – It Takes Guts To Be a Hero

Lara’s plan was simple; gather as much evidence as possible. Was it foolproof? No. But at least there was a plan.

A great philosopher once said, something is better than nothing. Okay, I’ll confess that I don’t know if it was actually a great philosopher that said it. Someone said it and I think it’s pretty smart. Although, no sickness is better than sickness. Also, no news is good news. I’m going completely off now. The point is, in this case, a plan was better than no plan.

“Here’s what we’ll do. You must screenshot every chat, record every conversation and document every single thing that happens. If he calls you to his office and there’s no way you can escape, you record with your phone. If there was some way, we could get a camera in there, we would. When the time is right, we send all the evidence to the authorities. It’ll take a blatant disregard of human rights to ignore the evidence.”

“But what if my A changes back to an F. In any case, I would still be in some trouble because the grade did change. I went to see him. I gave him my number. I answered his call. I didn’t change the A grade.”

“At this point, you will still get some fallout but better to have an F than to be turned into a sex slave which is what this is. He’s going to hold it against you till you graduate. Any time you want to break away, he’ll fail you so you come running back. We can always use the evidence to make you seem like a naïve level 100 girl, which is what you are. That’s why we need to plan exactly how you respond to him so that you will always come out as an innocent victim.”

“I’m scared, Lara. I don’t think I can do this. If I report him and he gets dismissed, no doubt the other lecturers would hate me. If he doesn’t fail me, they will. I’m so scared. Those who do the same thing as him will hate me and those who are his friends won’t believe me.”

“I know, Mara. Just think about it okay. We can always start with just recording and screenshotting. Can you do that at least?”

Mara nodded. Having this new concern, the past was forgotten and the two embraced.

Lara was an action woman and so she wasted no time in calling one of her friends who was a lawyer. She knew many but some of the men were as dangerous as Mr. Mintah was. The best person to help in this situation was a fellow woman, someone who could relate to the struggle.

Lara walked into Miss. Gyan Esquire’s office and took a seat. Miss. Gyan asked her to repeat the story and nodded in understanding.

“Your friend’s concerns are right. The victim is always made to look like the guilty party. A big businessman rapes his secretary and there’s evidence to prove it was rape but everyone will see her as the secretary who destroyed a good family man’s life. Why did she tell? What was she wearing? She must have thrown herself at him. I wish I could tell you that I can protect your friend. I can’t. The best thing I can do for her is to get that man dismissed and even that is a long shot. If it works though, other victims might feel more motivated to come forward and it could spark something.”

Lara rolled those thoughts over in her head as she returned to the room. The issue of sexual assault is so infuriating and disturbing. Even after years of victims coming forward, it was always still somehow their fault.

Men have managed to convince the world that they’re somehow not in control of their own conscious decisions. They cheat and it’s because their partner wasn’t doing something. They rape you and it’s because you were asking for it with that skirt. They assault you and it’s because you were rude in refusing their advances.

How grown men cannot take charge of their own decisions is annoying but not shocking. A boy breaks something; boys will be boys. A girl breaks the same thing in the same way and it’s “be better. You should be ashamed of yourself”. Boys will be boys and that’s why they’ll never grow into real men.

Mara was left thinking about Lara’s plan. It sounded good but at the same time it was too risky. If it had been any other person, she would have said they’d be a fool not to do it but this was her. If she did this; if she exposed Mr. Mintah, her life would be over.

No, she couldn’t do it. She would record their conversations and screenshot their chats in case of emergency but there was no way she was going to come forward and speak her truth.

She dropped her phone before she realized that her hands had been shaking violently. She sat down and put her hands together to stabilize herself.

An hour later, Mr. Mintah called. Her heart was racing as fear gripped her. Though she was trembling, she managed to hit the record button.

“Hello my love, how’re you doing?” Mr. Mintah asked chirpily. “I’m fine thank you, sir” Mara replied with a trembling voice.

“Oh, why do you sound like that? Are you afraid of me?”

Mara’s no was more frightened than her last response. “Why are you sounding like this? Ah, are you afraid because of our last encounter. I was just playing with you. Are you a child like that? Come on now, grow up. This is the real world, okay?”

“Yes sir” Mara responded, trying to steel her voice.

“Are you a virgin? Ah, you’re a virgin? You are lying. I don’t believe you. I know what your generation has been doing. Don’t try to act coy with me. It will not work. Come and see me tomorrow and let’s talk some more.”

Mara was so shaken and dizzy by the time she cut the call. It’s a wonder how she was able to forward the conversation to Lara.

“Wow. Okay. I’m coming over.”

Mara had cried so hard; her eyes were bloodshot red. It broke Lara’s heart to see it. She spent a long time consoling her. When she got her to calm down, she pulled out a small device from her pocket.

“This is a camera, Mara. My friend who handles these kinds of things gave it to me. When you go tomorrow, just place it somewhere in the office. Preferably somewhere where you can see the entire room but don’t make it obvious.”

Mara started to shake her head vehemently. “I can’t. I can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can” Lara replied firmly but lovingly. She pulled out Mara’s hand and placed the camera in it. Mara stared down at the tiny device, feeling sorry for herself. An F would have been better than all this. How could one visit alter her life in such a way?

After class the next day, she walked timidly to Mr. Mintah’s office. Lara offered to stay back and wait for her. When she got there, his secretary said he was in another meeting and asked her to wait. This gave Mara time to think.

If by some divine intervention she mustered the courage to hide the camera, where could she hide it? The bookshelf would overlook the room but if Mr. Mintah decided to pick a book, he might see it. This was too much. On top of the door was out of the question, she couldn’t even reach. How on earth was she going to distract him long enough to put the camera there?

She stood up suddenly as his office door opened. A young lady came out and as their eyes met, they instantly knew. They were both victims. The other girl quickly averted her eyes, but Lara stared long after she had left.

It was the sound of Mr. Mintah’s voice beaconing her to come in that brought her attention back to what was going on. That second of interaction with this girl gave her some new kind of zeal. She was angry. She wasn’t the only one this was happening to. There were countless other girls; many before her and many to come after her.

Why should this bald old man get away with traumatizing these innocent girls? How could he go home at night and look his daughter in the face and kiss his wife. Bloody bastard!

Now that she was determined to do it, she whispered a prayer. All she needed was for a distraction to be able to slip the camera into the bookshelf.

Mr. Mintah asked her to sit and just when he was about to speak, his secretary walked in and said the dean wanted to see him. He asked Mara to wait for him. God really does answer prayers. She waited for the door to close shut before springing to her feet and slipping the camera in.

Once she felt it was secure and well placed, she picked her bag and ran out.

When both girls were safe, Lara checked the cameras to see if it was working.

Mara one, Mr. Mintah nil.