It was already dark when Chike walked into the
house like a defeated solider. His mum was in the
kitchen and his dad had his eyes glued to the
plasma TV in the sitting room as if his life
depended on it. It was 9pm and the news was
awash with the recent massacre of policemen in
Lafia. “What is this country turning into?” The
man hissed when his son greeted him. “Daddy,
good evening,” Chike repeated but instead of a
reply his father said, “Do they want to turn this
whole country into a burial ground?”
When Chike was sure that his father had heard
him, he made to leave but his mother surfaced at
that instance. Unlike her husband, the woman
was about asking her son if it was just JAMB
result he had gone to check for the past seven
hours. She still had words in her mouth when
her husband shouted, “Jesus Christ! What a gory
sight!” The woman rushed to the direction of the
TV without concluding what she was saying to
her son.
Chike did and sign of the cross and said, “Thank
God I’ve escaped yet another night.” He shuffled
to his room immediately without trying to find
out the scene that got his parents screaming.
Whatever it was, he knew it will form the fulcrum
for that night and no one would want to find out
how his JAMB had turned out at least for that
night.
Chike, who for the past one week had been trying
to conceal his sadness from his parent, went into
his room and lay down like a log of wood. His
eyes darted from the wall clock to the ceiling and
back to the wall clock again. He kept shifting from
one end of the bed to the other. Time rolled
away, but the young man did not even
remember to join his other siblings for diner. It is
said the he whose house is on fire does not chase
rats. Chike was disturbed so much that nothing
else mattered.
Time wore on but no one cared to knock on his
door to inform him that food was ready. This
had never happened before. Is the evening news
too bad that his parents decided to go to bed
without eating? “That’s not possible,” he said
aloud and dismissed the subject by assuming
that someone, probably his younger brother had
come to knock but he was too carried away in
his thought that he did not hear him. When he
could not sleep a wink after an hour, he stood up
from the bed and turned the light switch on. He
opened his bag and brought out his JAMB result
were he hid it. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he
unfolded the piece of paper that contained his
score; the white piece of paper that determines
whether or not he would go to the University to
study his dream course.
For the first time in years, Chike cried like a baby.
Although he had seen it many times but the
moment he unfolded the white piece of paper
and beheld his score his threshold opened and
cried bitterly. He blew his nose and sighed. “I’m
finished!” he mused. Just then, he began to say
aloud his score as if that would convince him and
probably douse his sorrow. “Aggregate 180. This
cannot be! How can I score 50 in English and 50
in Biology?
“No no, somebody should explain why I will
score 20 in chemistry and 60 in physics?” he said
with aggression.
At the peak of his sorrow, his blackberry beeped.
And suddenly, like a man possessed by an evil
spirit, he rushed to where it was on top of the
TV, picked it up and smashed it on the floor. “You
are nothing but a black devil!”
The knock on the door made Chike Jumpy. He
wanted to ignore it but when his father called out
his name repeated he answered the door. “What
was that sound I heard?” the man’s eyes kept
searching the room.
“It… i… it’s my phone. It fell from the ceiling, nor
from… from…. it fell from the TV,” Chike
stammered.
“Oh, you’re crying,” the man said when his
searching eyes rested on the son’s face. “Come,
sit on the bed and tell me what the problem is,”
he picked the scattered pieces of what remained
of his son’s phone.
When Chike sat on the bed, his whole body was
shaking. So at last his father would find out what
he had been hiding for days…
TO BE CONTINUED

following you for in the back

Nice Write-Bros ..
Chop knuckle ... *GBOM*
*following*

omo dat time wen he do me thank GOD