CHIBOK (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER ONE

April 15th, 2014...

An alabaster moon glistened over the slumbering town of Chibok that cool mid-April night. It was finally quiet, after the bustle of the school day, and the unending group discussions.

Everyone except Aminat was asleep. She had three roommates. Raliat and Juliet shared the opposite bunks, both girls sat on the mat by their bunk with their heads leaning on the lower bed, they were reading before the light went out.

Lucia had just finished a sccatato-like wave of snoring, Aminat waited for the next wave, and in the meantime enjoyed the silence which allowed her to appreciate the gently rustling of the palms outside, the swish motion of wind prodding the leaves, promising the possibility of another rain, the squeak of the roofing of the lab from far away, the scurry of small rodents in the roofing, and a particular one nesting in her cupboard. She nearly killed the rat last week, cornered the grey vermin between the door and a wall with a large broom in her hand. A wide strong swish and she could have had it wriggling on the floor bleeding from eye and ears, but she had seen those watery brown eyes, the frightened look in it. it got out, the rat, and she let it bumble away with Its broken tail. Aminat was sure it’s the same rat that had returned, she first saw it yesterday, the same grey broken tail. She tapped lightly on the metal frame of her bed, the rat stopped whatever it was doing, then resumed again.

She looked back at the books before her, and noticed the LED lamp was dimming faster than she would soon be able to read with. It was all she had and could trust, the lamp light. Electricity supply to the Government secondary school Chibok was frustratingly epileptic, no different that the situation in the town. The stand by Generator basically just stands by rotting away, it had never worked since she enrolled in the school, and that was three years ago.

Her examination ID marked the page she last turned. She sighed. Thoughts of the impending exam still leaves her heart beating faster, it felt unreal that she was finally at the end of her secondary school education. The possibilities before her, should she pass the WAEC examination, was endless; it made her head swoon. The exam was the reason they had all stayed in school for the extra coaching while other students were on vacation. As much as she missed her family, and watching her father tend to the sick, she was happy and dreamy. Soon. She told herself. Soon.

Aminat Warkarwa, took one last glance of the basic hydrocarbon structures that stared at her from the pages of the chemistry text. She switched off the lamp.

Lying down, she trailed her hand on the window, and felt a bit of dew moistened her finger. She wrote her name on the pane. Spring was by far her most favourite season of the year, rain begins, hungry harmattan wind departs with its miserable cold, and plants grow, small, precious and green, then the flowers!

A wisp of cloud hid the moon for some seconds, soon, she was out aglow again.
     
Before she fell asleep, Aminat tried recalling the last things she read, tried picturing them as they were in the books. They were all there, as she had read them over and over again. The names, the physical and chemical properties of each compound. She left Orgainic chemistry to recount her list of transition metals. They all came effortlessly, with their weird names and whatnots. Chemistry is not an easy course, she had only gotten better because she gave too much time to understand what each topic was about rather than mindlessly cramming. She felt proud of herself. Her dream of becoming a medical doctor in the nearest future was closer than it was yesterday. Thus, Aminat’s dreams were filled with theoretical structures which mostly includes carbon (The upper case C) with its usual four limbs which always find their ways of attaching to anything, and when there was not enough element to attach to, two limbs could grab an element as lonesome as oxygen, (The upper case O).