HEAL

Chapter Five

   
(unedited)

As it is often said; After moments of pleasure and ease, we tend to forget doses pains and sufferings.
    This is exactly the case for Hassan, a week after the visit to the Cleric's place. His sleeping habits went back to normal, he found himself more alive and everything generally became more interesting to him, waking up every morning and being aware that he exists itself excites him.
    It was then that he remembered that he had some friends that he had to visit before going back to Bala, only then did he remember who was throwing a party and whose wedding was coming up.
     Within that little space of time, he was slowly forgetting what being depressed felt like and the pain of knowing something is wrong with you and but yet can't figure how to express it.
     He had no idea about what the Cleric did or how he chased the Jinn out of his body but he accepted the result Cleric's treatment; a life without nightmares and bleakness, and so like one disposes a useless article, that phase in his life was gone.
    And as if he was stroked with a luck charm, his letter of transfer came through while he was still savoring at the delight of his old self coming back. He was finally leaving Bala. Although Principal didn't specify where he would be transferred to, he hoped he would be transferred to one of the big industries in the city.
   Throughout the bus ride back to Bala to collect his letter of transfer, he kept imagining himself working in a big company probably as an IT consultant and sending huge sums of money to his mother because of course the pay would be big.
    The idea of settling down and marrying crossed his mind, he thought of his ex-girlfriend; Nana and starts to form ideas on how to win her back.
   A bump on the road drew him back, he looked outside the window and from the vast yellow sands and sparse vegetation, he knew he was close to Bala district.
*****
    The grey haired principal beamed as he saw Hassan enter his office.
   "Congratulations! The principal said as they shook hands.
    He thanked him and gave him the remaining sum of money as they had agreed on and the principal gave him his transfer letter.
    The whole plan was to get the Principal write him a letter a rejection which will make the State transfer him to other places, it was the Principal's idea and of course he had to pay him, that was also part of the agreement.
    He wasn't patient enough to get back to his lodge before reading the content of the thin paper in his hand. And so, he tore the envelope open immediately he was out of principal’s office.
    He took him three turns of reading the printed words before he grasped what it reads.
   Although he had been transferred from the Secondary School and has been posted to a Government hospital as an information and logistics guide; he was not leaving Bala because as the letter reads; the hospital is located in Bala.
      Bitterness descended down on him momentarily and he mocked himself for trying to raise his hopes up that something good would ever come his way. Him not getting a transfer to a better place was another proof that he wasn’t made for something good.
    He didn’t want the disappointment get the best of him. He tried to think of the positivity of working in the district hospital but he found none; the hospital is still in Bala. He had been there once and never wished to be back there again because the hospital brought back the bad memories he had just learnt to bury.
    He walked out of the school compound dejectedly and tried to ignore how his fingers was quivering.