Using the above named celebrity as a vehicle for, what I believe to be, illustrating the lack of empathy that such figure's feel for others outside of their position, for their shamelessness in accruing fame, intensity, etc, etc.
Well, the little of it that matters is that the above named celebrity simply filters through as representing popular culture iconography, and this is a story utilising my dislike for it, and my hopes for a better world- one where the dropping of her name doesn't guarantee an immediate curiosity and response.
But until then... here's a story about Nikki Minaj.
There is a steady
clicking sound as I open my eyes and see an incredible space of encompassing
dark about me. I stretch out my arms, slowly, and my fingertips meet cool solid
walls before the full extension of my limbs comes to completion. I am in a box,
I discover, that’s cold as my own sense of time and place in a child’s game.
There is no idea, and the last I recall I had just left the office… I was on my
way to buy some shoes. Shoes or a jacket, both maybe, in pink and white for the
new video. What is that clicking noise? It sounds like the spark from a
clipper.
I reach into the tight pockets of my denim
shorts, fumbling for a light that I know I have- it’s all I can fit in them,
and it’s gone. No light, no idea. I scream ‘help’ or ‘hello’- I forget which;
the words fall out of my mouth uncontrollably in a desperate bid for comfort. I
shudder to think what’s going on out there, I hear mumbled voices but they
aren’t directed to me. The clicking stops and the box lights up a little from
underneath me; it’s the vivid colour of tangerine and the surface of the- what
is this- metal? Steel? It’s warming up, thank god. I thought I was going to
freeze to death.
A grate opens above me and I'm blinded by an
intense white as I stare into it, hoping to find some clue of what or where I
am, and I see a dark eye look back at me. ‘Hey!’ He makes no reply; he just
looks at me with that big, scrutinising, eye. Bastard! ‘Let me out! Don’t you
know who I am?’
“We know, Nikki. We know
who you are, unfortunately for us and you both. And we know your shameful
deeds. This is your method of atonement, Nikki. You will die, unless you accept
your guilt, and only then will you escape.” The grate closes and I’m alone,
sweat pours from my head.
What have I done? What have I ever done
wrong? I shout ‘sorry’, I tell them I can pay, I ask, I beg, I plead to be let
out- and then I threaten, my voice gets hoarse and still there’s no answer. I
sweat so much I have to squeeze off my jacket from in this box. Maybe they’re
perverts and there’s a camera in here? Is this what they want? I refrain from
taking off my vest and shorts. ‘Motherfuckers!’ God, it’s hot in here.
I say sorry again, I think of everything
I’ve done wrong, and I talk to whomever’s out there. I say sorry for bullying
that fat girl in school, what was her name? For stealing, for being a bitch to
people. What more? I say sorry for not respecting my fans when they want my autograph.
I say sorry for taking drugs at college. I say sorry for sleeping with my
friends’ man. Then I just say sorry some more. I say sorry to God, with a hint
of expectancy, like that’s the password and the grate will open, the light will
shine on me, and it’ll get cool in here and the door opens and it’s all just a
prank.
It has to be a prank. I’m gonna kill those
guys when I get out of here. I laugh, ‘okay guys, I get it, very funny.’
There’s no answer. ‘Guys?!’ What kind of joke is this? Why is it so hot in
here? Fine you sonovabitch, is this what you want? I take off my vest, my bra
and my shorts, struggling to get them off my sticky body in this small space.
‘Are you happy now?’ I wait for an answer and hear nothing. They can't let me
die, I'm Nikki Minaj. People love me. People need me. What are they going to do
without my music? It’s too hot in here. I bang on the sides and my hands burn.
Ooh. I lay my clothes on the floor underneath me to avoid touching the hot
metal, my knees hit the roof and it burns. I scream and panic, my heart beats
faster and faster and I flap my hands around to flush cool air towards me. I
breathe deep and heavily, trying to keep calm. ‘You guys?’ The words fall
slowly out of my mouth, like a whimper. ‘Help’ I whisper, hoping they’ll hear
me. ‘Help’ I whisper because my mouth’s too dry to shout. ‘Help’ I whisper,
hoping it might come true…
