That Incident

SEVEN

❦

𝘈𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘕𝘈

I stared hard at the card made of cardboard paper in my hands.

Triton Damilola. I had found it stuck in the pocket of my blazers when I did my laundry on a Sunday morning after a breakfast of toast bread and burnt omelette. I knew a lot of normal people did their laundry on a Saturday but I am always the weird one. Sunday are the best days for laundry though my mother deeply hated the fact that I stayed behind to do my laundry while she went to church alone.

I don't know how I got to be this way. Being really far from God and everything. I had drifted apart when we lost Gabriella.

Should I call him? Was he even serious by what he said? Was this a joke? I thought staring at the digits written in his dainty writing.

Is that an eight or a six?

I should call him. It won't be that bad.

Aubree, are you even mad? What are you even thinking of? You are not planning to be a blabbermouth by telling him about the issues in your life and how you can not understand yourself right from your existence?

I sighed dropping the card on into my jumbled drawer.

      ❦

"Aubree Okali, the student council invites you to their afternoon meeting in the second auditorium." Gretel Nwachukwu, the Ss3 class prefect had said when I was on my way to the poetry class.

Poetry class.

My forever best class where I was allowed to express my thoughts and criticism over a text we were reading and receive praises from Mrs Audu. And I would lift my head high like Athena, the goddess of knowledge staring at the mere non-intellectual mortals.

It felt so good.

We had an interactive class on a beautiful poem by Maya Angelou: I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS. And I had never been late to an interactive literature class

I was late already because of the nosey substitute poetry teacher was trying to find out details of the reasons I've been away from school for a term.

Funny, the way she pretended that she was so understanding but I knew her true intentions. She wanted me to trust her like no one knew she was the head gossip teacher.

"What for?" I asked staring at the chubby tall Gretel. Her lips shimmering like she feed on juicy pork meat. Obviously the lipgloss.

Her lips perfectly outlined with a black lipliner.

"We just want to talk. You will know when you get there. Be sure to be there on time. 1:30pm. No African time." She said walking away. Her skirt swishing from side to side as she walked.

I admired Gretel a lot. She was super confident and hardworking. She was exceptionally intelligent, always coming out in first place. It was just last year that we found out about her abusive father. He had always beat her for any slightest mistake she had made.

Her body covered in scars no wonder she never took off her blazers and her skirt was way lengthy. When she asked about the scars on her leg, she often said it was tripping on the staircase or her dogs.

Thank goodness, he was rotting in jail. Who knows what she had gone through those days? Probably traumatised and scared like me. How was she able to be so confident and happy?

You could never tell what she thought about. Her face left expressionless. I wonder how she could hide that so well. The fact she always went home to an abusive father. A ruthless beast.

She was dying inside but yet no words.

We wear the mask like Paul Lawrence, the poet said.

"Miss Okali, you are late? And that is so unlike you." Mrs Audu scowled when I stepped into the class.

"I'm sorry, ma. It won't happen again." I apologised grabbing a printout of the poem analysis piled on her desk and finding a spot to sit when Alisha waved at me to come over.

"What took you long?" She whispered.

"The student council invited me to their afternoon meeting."

"What time?"

"1:30pm. No African time."

She chuckled, " I know you. African time is always involved."

"Alisha Aliyu, can you keep quiet? Who would read for us?" Mrs Audu said. Aliyu was Mrs Perpetual's given surname for Alisha. She always thought Alisha was a Muslim Hausa even when Alisha had corrected her a lot of times.

Alisha so much disliked it. I could tell because Alisha always glared at Mrs Audu which she did today again with gritting teeth.

"My favourite student! Would you be kind enough to read for us." Mrs Audu said sitting down with her legs spreading out. It didn't take me too long to notice that she had a baby bump.

She was pregnant again. This was like the fourth time. Last year she was pregnant and the same with last two years. Seems like every year she was pregnant, to me.

She doesn't take a break, does she? My mother said one day I will understand when I get married. I am not even sure that's going to happen cause marriage is a whole lot of things that one should be prepared for. Talking about my dad for example.

Her favourite student? That's me. Athena, goddess of wisdom and good counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour and knowledge. The Roman goddess Minerva.

I proceeded to stand up when Alisha dragged me back down.

"She doesn't mean you, silly." She mouthed quietly and pointing towards the direction Mrs Audu was staring at.

Stunned in disbelief, I stared as the Greek god of the sea took my position. How is he even concerned with this? He was supposed to deal with the sea or whatever that had to do with water or water bodies not knowledge.

His face beaming with a radiant smile as he picked up his text from the desk before him.

Clearing his throat, he began to read in the sexy voice of the 43 years old Jason Momoa in the movie Aqua Man as Arthur, a half human and half Altantean. He had a really deep voice.

"You probably hate this guy, don't you?" Alisha whispered.

"Probably." I said lost in mixed thoughts of how beautifully he read, bringing the poem to life and admiring every poetic expression on his face.

I'm sure —probably sure that Maya Angelou would be just proud.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 ! 💕
𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦.
𝘏𝘰𝘸'𝘳𝘦 𝘺'𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 ?

ᴀ ʀᴇᴍɪɴᴅᴇʀ:
𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘱 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘴. 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩.