CHAPTER THREE : THE SILENCE
708 Words
Monday morning arrived with all the excitement that usually accompanied the first day of a new term.
Students filled the school compound with laughter and endless stories from their holidays. Everywhere Kemi looked, groups of friends were gathered together, exchanging experiences and comparing photographs from their various trips.
Normally, she would have been doing the same thing.
Normally, she and Derinsola would have found a quiet corner to catch up on all the events of the holiday.
But Derinsola was nowhere to be seen.
At first, Kemi wasn't worried.
Perhaps she was running late.
Perhaps traffic had delayed her.
Perhaps she would walk into the classroom before the first lesson began.
With those thoughts in mind, Kemi settled into her seat and waited.
As the minutes passed, she found herself glancing repeatedly toward the classroom door.
Each time it opened, her eyes immediately searched for Derinsola.
Each time, she was disappointed.
Assembly came and went.
The first lesson ended.
Then the second.
Still no sign of Derinsola.
A strange feeling settled in Kemi's chest.
The absence felt unusual.
Derinsola was many things, but she was not the type to miss school without informing her.
Especially on the first day of a new term.
During break time, Kemi checked her phone.
Nothing.
No messages.
No missed calls.
No explanation.
She reminded herself that there was probably a simple reason for the silence.
After all, they had spoken only a few days earlier.
On Saturday morning, they had chatted briefly and Derinsola had sounded perfectly fine.
Later that same day, Kemi had sent her another message.
There had been no response.
At the time, she hadn't paid much attention to it.
People got busy sometimes.
Then on Sunday evening, she had sent another message.
Again, there had been no response.
That was what had begun to worry her.
Derinsola never ignored her messages for that long.
Never.
By the time school closed for the day, Kemi felt restless.
The excitement she had felt that morning had completely disappeared.
As soon as she arrived home, she hurried to her room and checked her phone again.
Perhaps Derinsola had replied.
Perhaps everything was fine.
Her heart sank when she opened w******p.
The messages remained unanswered.
Trying to hide her growing concern, she recorded a short voice note asking Derinsola if everything was alright and reminding her that she had been absent from school.
She sent it.
The voice note delivered.
Only one tick appeared.
Kemi stared at the screen.
One tick.
She waited.
Nothing changed.
The second tick never came.
For several minutes, she continued checking her phone, hoping the message would eventually go through.
It didn't.
A knot formed in her stomach.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
That evening, while helping her mother arrange a few things in the dining room, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
Even during dinner, her mind remained elsewhere.
Damilola noticed immediately.
"You've been unusually quiet since you came back from school," she observed.
Kemi sighed.
"Have I?"
"Yes. What's wrong?"
For a moment, Kemi hesitated.
Then she explained everything.
She talked about Derinsola's absence from school.
The unanswered messages.
The ignored voice note.
The single tick on w******p.
By the time she finished speaking, Damilola was listening carefully.
"You've been overthinking," Damilola finally said with a reassuring smile.
Kemi frowned.
"You think so?"
"Of course. Maybe her phone is off. Maybe she misplaced it. Maybe she's travelling."
"But she said she'd be in school today."
"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."
Kemi wanted to believe her.
She really did.
Damilola gently squeezed her shoulder.
"I can as well visit her , can't I ?" Kemi suggested
"Give it some time. You'll probably hear from her tomorrow." Her sister assured
Kemi nodded slowly.
Her sister's words were comforting.
Yet the uneasy feeling inside her refused to disappear.
Later that night, she checked her phone one last time before going to bed.
The messages remained unanswered.
The voice note still showed only one tick.
As she placed the phone beside her pillow, she whispered a short prayer for her friend.
Then she closed her eyes.
Sleep eventually came.
But somewhere deep inside her, a feeling she couldn't explain continued to linger.
A feeling that something had changed.......
- Writer
