After submitting my answer sheet yesterday, I happily counted my steps back to my seat and to where I had dropped my school bag before the exam to leave but the bag wasn't there anymore. I remembered vividly well what led to my dropping the bag at that very spot, and my course mates who saw me do.
I rubbed my eyes with the back of my right hand and looked again... The bag was gone!
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I ran to Ohakwe Grace to know if by chance she helped me carry the bag, but she didn't.
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We started going round looking and searching for the bag but didn't get close to finding it. It was then something pricked my eyes and my tears started running down my cheeks.
I ran to Ebigbo Prosper, my course rep.to report to him but he gave me no listening ear...(It was just then I knew what it really meant to be ignored. I apologize to all who I have ignored. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I will make it right from now onwards.)
"Prosper! Prosper! I have something really urgent to tell you.!"
"Amarachi, I don't want to hear anything from anybody!" He yelled back as he walked away.
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"Stop calling him. Leave him alone." Grace told me in a tone close to whisper as she patted my back.
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We ran to report him to our H.O.D but she was gone before then. We've always wanted to report him, he had had this personal issue(personal akpo) for Grace and I, but me especially since The Bleeding Pen Lit. Scty. came into existence...
It wasn't about the Club, it wasn't about the way I write...he has a thing for writing... He writes better... He said it was about my not being serious with my studies anymore... He started the 'akpo' from then, fixed lectures and tests by 7 or 8am every day knowing too well that I was going to miss them. That aside, I go to school from a place very far from my school... Most people in department do too and most of them meet the lectures and the tests.
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Seeing that my H.O.D was gone, I fixed my good-for-nothing battery into my phone and I dialled Prosper's number...
"You have a very wicked heart Prosper... You didn't even wait to hear anything from me. You will be rewarded heavily for all your wickedness."
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He tried calling back but I was too in a bad mood to speak with him.... The hurting words from mouth always had their ways to escape when my anger has taken over me.
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As my heart still bled, I typed some words on my phone and sent to him as a text message... I ended the text message with something about Karma...because I realized that no matter how much wicked I told him he was, it would never fetch my bag from wherever it was or from whoever was having it.
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My phone rang... It was Prosper calling. I ignored his calls but he never gave up on calling.
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"Amarachi, will you let me talk?"
"I don't think I should. Its late to make amendments now. I'm inside Ceremonial Ground, stranded. Prosper, my phone's battery, my assignments(about 5 or 6 of them, my textbooks, my ATM card, my transport fare, everything in my bag is gone. I don't think I should listen to you."
"Amarachi let me talk."
"Say whatever it is you want to say and end this call."
"I won't talk to you like this Amarachi... Calm your mind. Let me know when you have..."
He was about saying something I want very interested to listen to when I heaved a big sigh in anger and hung the call. It was then I began to think again, how foolish I have been... One, I have never heard Prosper talk to anyone in the manner he just talked to me...the definition given to his going in my class was 'Rude'... Two, he has been calling with his airtime, and that was something that had nothing to do with him. My mind calmed and I called him again.
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"You're calmed now, Amarachi. Tell me the assignments in your bag."
I did.
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"I will take care of those. How will you go home now? Tell me where you are in school so I can get a transport fare for you."
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"Thanks for the assignments. As forthe transport fare, don't worry, I will look for someone to borrow from and if I dont get, I will follow Grace to her house to spend the night there."
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"Listen to me Amarachi, don't do that. Don't worry, I'm comimg back to school right now."
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"Alright. Alright..." I said to him amidst laughter.. I was enjoying his humbleness, "I have a cousin brother in this school and he stays in Jumbo lodge, let me call him... I believe he will be of help." I told him.
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"Alright. Call me back immediately you call him."
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I hung the call and laughed away my sorrows.
After some minutes, I called him back.
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"Prosper, I have just called him and he is around. I will just collect some money from him." I lied.
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"Alright. I'm very sorry Amarachi. I have never ignored nor shunned you before. I render my apologies please."
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"Thank you. Bye."
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After HND students exam yesterday evening, I and Grace still went around in search of the bag...
I decided to go home since I couldn't find it... It was getting late too. It was then I realized that Grace's mobile phone was missing... Bright, my coursemate's bag was missing too.
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Grace borrowed me some money to transport myself home.
As I got down from the bus from my school to Douglas and walked my way to where I would enter a Keke na Pep to my home, I began to remember on how I had beat and shouted at my kid cousins and neighbors who had gone to school with their bags and came home empty handed... "What if they hear about this..? I kept asking myself until I got home.
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At about some minutes past tye hour of 10pm, I began to receive debit alerts from my bank... The criminal had gone to withdraw from my account and the whoever ended up withdrawing almost everything.
I screamed like someone had stabbed with a sharp knife from my back when I got the first debit alert.
I felt like my world had come to an end. I felt there was no need living anymore. I kept thinking about how I would be able to sleep. I called Dr. #Campo and narrated everything to him. My Dad called my gnaw and told him all, and with the help of these two people, my ATM was blocked immediately.
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Hmmm.. What a story!
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I want to tell us something... I learnt this yesterday too... Its not everyone who doesn't make out to laugh with you nor to talk to you really hates you... Most really do care. Most times, some people just want the best for us no matter how much we try to run away from it.
And, its not all who smile and laugh with you really likes you... Salutation ain't love.
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Well, my Pastor do say that we should be grateful to God for whatever happens because the worst would have happened if whatever happened hadn't happened. .. Maybe, yesterday would have been the end of my life on my way home from school...(no one knows where death will decide to shake hands with him/her).
Its a new day today... A new level and semester ahead... I thank God for where I'm going..