She Is Blind

Chapter Thirteen: Exam Time

  The exams soon started and Gift had to go back to school, but not without making me promise her that I would not love any other girl, and it was one I whole-heartedly meant to keep. When she left, Blessing and I kept studying hard together, and soon she had induced me into her lifestyle of always praying to God and hoping for the best. I prayed for a good result, so as to help me to study my dream course Mass Communication in the university, and I hoped for it so much that I saw it every night in my dreams.

It was the foremost thought in my mind and I wanted it so much that I surprised myself by fasting for a whole week when I could barely pull through a day. Blessing told me it was a sign of spiritual growth, and I had no reason to doubt her because after all, people did not call her On Point for nothing. I prayed harder than I ever had before, and soon I had this unexplainable joy around me, as though everything was okay and I would do just fine. Sadly I had put down gaming for the meantime, and my brother had to go to his friend’s house frequently just to play.

    I tried my best not to cheat during the examinations, although I did make a few exceptions for examinations I considered too hard, after all the scriptures themselves said ‘Faith without works is dead’, and so I had to do my own works. Luckily I was never caught, even when the invigilators were hawk-eyed and vigilant and could spy out malpractice very easily, and it felt like God had chosen to have mercy on me and not let me be caught because of my one week fasting. The faces of students who were caught cheating and whose scripts were subsequently torn never left my head, carrying looks that portrayed perhaps their greatest ever loss and predicted coming days of depression.

One girl I never forgot for the rest of my life had shrieked loudly when she was caught removing a little piece of paper from her brassiere, holding her hands akimbo over her head and stamping her feet as though she had heard of someone’s death, causing everyone to stare in her direction and briefly distracting them from their work. When her scripts were torn, she had fainted, but the stone-hearted invigilator had merely dismissed it as a crazy girl’s drama. It was actually the last paper she wrote and she never came back to school after that day.

Our Head Boy had also been caught giraffing, and although several of the teachers had pleaded that he had always been a very good boy, and had never been involved in such, they had made matters worse by letting the invigilator know that he was the Head Boy. The heartless woman that was invigilating tore his script, insinuating that a leader ought to live by example, and I hated to imagine what would have happened to me if I was ever caught.

    Only a few managed to escape, like those caught on days when the invigilator on duty was kind enough for second chances, or those who had found ways out as their stories carried around, like one girl every one called Area Mama because she was the oldest and student  who had the most endowed body in SS3. She was rumoured to have had a child from being a prostitute, something I felt was true because students who could afford a lump sum paid her money and went to visit her in her house where she lived alone after school for her ‘services’.

She claimed to have been caught removing a paper from her skirt by a male invigilator, and in her street smart ways, had flashed the man a view of her private part forcing him to remain mute. She also claimed he had taken her to his house and she had given it to him in style, making him beg her to visit him every day for some pay. Area Mama’s story spread amongst the students like a fire burning in harmattan, although I actually doubted it.

Another person was Wole, a former minion of James from a very rich family, who claimed to have been caught and then bribed the hungry looking invigilator who caught him. I chose not to believe these stories, although two girls claimed to have seen Area Mama seduce the man, and some people also said they saw Wole give the hungry looking invigilator the money, a very thick wad which was collected with thanks and promises of future abetting.