Dear Red

Fifty Eight

I changed my nail polish to colorless before the meeting. I even found a pair of closed shoes. It was awkward to wear them after so long. I was sure I would trip over myself. Twenty minutes into the 11 o'clock meeting, all thoughts about shoes and anything else had fled. These people were out for blood and we were fighting tooth and nail to get out of the line of fire.

"The day you returned to school after the fire, five roll calls were conducted. As you checked in, you were roll called. A prefect was sent around to roll call at 3pm to make sure that the people who had checked in had beds in the various blocks they were assigned. At 5pm, the teachers whose houses you now occupy came around to brief you about the do's and don'ts on their properties and to finalize arrangements. They conducted roll call before that brief meeting. At 6:15pm, during supper, the Dining Hall Prefect and officials conducted roll call of people present. Just before bed time, when the blocks were locked, a roll call was conducted. The next morning, roll call was conducted before morning prep. The three of you checked into school without a glitch. However the next time you were roll called was the following day in the dining hall at lunch time," Mr. Okello said and added, "Help me understand how three sensible students-close friends at that-could check into school and vanish from the surveillance of the administration for a full 24 hours after which you simultaneously resurface."

I took a deep steadying breath. How were we going to come out of this one?

"Are the three of you magicians? Appearing and disappearing at will?" Mr. Kiggundu asked without humor.

"We were in school," I said calmly.

"Why did you miss roll call consecutively?" one member of the committee demanded.

"The day we reported back was a blur of activity. After we reunited on the block we were assigned and secured our beds, we went on quite the adventure," I began.

Melissa swung her gaze to mine, fearful and questioning. Was I really going to blurt out the fact that we escaped? She seemed to quietly inquire. I wanted to roll my eyes. Being on the chopping block with people who I had fallen out of trust with only recently was certainly going to be interesting.

"Do tell," Mr. Kiggundu said dryly.

"We visited our friends in other classes who were concerned about us having not seen us after the tragedy. It took us a while, going up and down like girls often do. Honestly, we lost track of time," I explained.

Mr. Okello raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Continue," he invited sarcastically.

"We also passed by the burnt dorm. Personally, I needed a sense of closure after the incident and I could never have gotten the courage on my own. I took the opportunity since my friends were with me. We spent a good amount of time on our own. It was early evening and we just talked over everything and anything. There were tears but when we finished there was joy and peace too in far greater amounts. I wouldn't trade that evening for anything," Esther said. Honesty rang in her voice and I was grateful for it. The more genuine we were, the quicker they could let us off the hook. Of course, she was spitting lies like a pro. Maybe being in front of a committee with her wasn't such a bad idea.

Melissa spoke up after a pause of silence. "After we spoke, we returned to the residential we had been assigned to only to grab our packed food and books. We ate and then began reading and discussing. We switched spots as the night wore on so that we could stay awake. When night study prep ended, there were friends we had not yet seen so we also took the chance to drop by and see them before getting back to our reading. We finished late that night-," Melissa explained following Esther and I's lead to manufacture events of the day as believably as possible.