Goldfish Bowl

Chapter 5

The easiest thing to do in the world was to judge someone.

Even days after, the words of the youth pastor stuck with Alisha and how he had so willingly discussed his flaws in front of boys like him, boys worse than him. Of course, at first Alisha had thought it had been a ploy, or a plan to gather sympathy and make him seem similar to the people he spoke to, to make him seem relatable. She had thought her father had put him to that lie, and that would have been easier to do so -- her father had definitely done worse -- and easier to believe than thinking the seemingly bubbly pastor could have once been a blank eyed, lost boy.

It had been so easy to judge August too, when the incident had first happened, it was in his final year and Alisha had been a year behind him in school when he had killed his step father for apparently no sensible reason. The classmates who envied his brilliance and the fact that he was loved more by the school management were the first to jump on the hate train, claiming they always knew he was a bloodthirsty murderer.

Sometime later, some girls began to come out and point fingers at him, claiming he had raped him. And just like that, August had gone from beloved son to fallen from grace son, and it had been hard being the only voice claiming his innocence, the other voices drowning hers out and Benito that once admired him became president of the hate fan club.

Before Alisha knew it, her opinion changed slowly, she stopped shooting glares at anyone that dared to mention his name in insult, she had stopped the campaign to prove his innocence, she had stopped bothering her father to get him a lawyer instead, he had been stuck with a washed up lawyer who was more focused on coming to court drunk than defending his client.

Till now, Alisha wasn't sure if she believed August was innocent but she did know that he wasn't someone who did something without a solid reason. And she made it her mission to find out why.

He was hard to find and get alone though, in all the three days of volunteer work, she could never quite get him to make eye contact with her and she could never get him alone. In fact, she rarely ever saw him unless it was during the general counseling session, but on Thursday appeared to be her lucky day. The bossy woman they called Cook, had asked Pastor Bright for help serving the boys at dinner and right away, Alisha had spotted him, eating at a table with only one short boy seating with him, everyone else tended to stay away.

August never seemed to join them for football games, he was never in the library either and the boys never spoke about him, and Alisha had heard them talk about almost everyone, from Cook, to the warden who insisted that Pastor Bright called him Mr. Balogun and to even them, the volunteers; Alisha, Elisabeth, Rhoda, Tamuno and Godwin.

And speaking of the volunteers, only Elisabeth looked the least bit happy about volunteering. Godwin still made sarcastic comments, Rhoda snuck her comic books to read in between breaks and Tamuno seemed to be napping behind the counter.

Alisha nudged him with her elbow, he jolted awake at once, blinking furiously.

"Cover for me, I need to check something." She murmured, casting a disgusted look at the boys who spoke as they chewed, seated a few distance from the counter. A boy guffawed loudly, opening a mouth of chewed food and spitting some on the trays of his seat mates. The boys used metal mess pans to eat, and left them in the kitchen for washing after meals, if those plates weren't mad of steel, Alisha was sure they would have broken all of them a while ago.

Tamuno grunted something unintelligible but he didn't lay his head on the stained counter. Alisha looked to her left and saw Rhoda arguing with a boy who insisted on having more food, she flinched when the boy raised his fists in anger.

"What kind of coward threatens a girl?" Alisha sniped at him, crossing her arms over her chest. She might have afraid to defend herself before, but not here when the Cook was just in adjoining kitchen. The Cook might have been a woman but she had a fierce temperament that would rival even the warden's.