Vengeance Mission

Chapter five (the school life)

Chapter Five

The school life

Through the help of Mr. Lambe, Lanre got admitted into the state university. As promised, he footed the bill for the first two semesters.

I went for the course registration, though online, but I had to make physical appearance in the school.

After registration I had to come back home and see how my siblings were fairing.

I knew it was not going to be that easy having to go home every day from school, though the distance was not too much, but it will only be good that I go home every weekend.

Two weeks into the lectures just while I was walking along the lecture theater, I heard someone called Lanre behind me.

Behold it was Bolakale, he lives in the street next to ours back home. I was surprised to see him.

Are you on visit? I asked him. Bolakale replied, I got late admission to the school of medicine.

I told him that I equally gained admission into the same school but I am done with my registration.

Bolakale was a teenager, taller than Lanre. He had well-built muscles.

He always looked serious and hardworking, though he doesn't take nonsense from anyone around him. He was equally brilliant.

Most students were scared of associating with him as if he was a bad guy but on the contrary, he easily influenced the people around him.

Some may want to say he was a rascal, but, on the contrary, he was only being strict. He hated people being cheated or unduly punished anywhere close to him. And that he was not ready to compromise with any other thing.

Bolakale moved closer to me and said can you put me through with my registration? I said I will.

I asked him to wait outside the lecture theater for me. I returned shortly because our lectures would be in the next two hours.

I quickly took him round the offices and he was done with his registration that same day.

Tola and Seyi were the only female students in our department. Both of them had been so close to me maybe because they saw seriousness in me academically.

Bolakale was tough, though he was equally good academically, but he moved with hard guys.

That made me uncomfortable moving with him, but he does not always get too far from me both at the lecture rooms and in the school hostel.

Everyone in the department realized the fact that they had to be very studious and hardworking.

The first and the second semester examinations attracted more of our classmates to me. I became the best student of the school of Medicine from the first year to the third year.

I went home to see my siblings at the weekend and I decided to put a call through to Mr. Lambe, but it was not successful. I decided to drop a text message on his line.

Two days after the message dropped on his phone and I was expecting his call back, but he did not call back.

At this point, I was beginning to wonder what the case must have been.

Babatunde got admission into the state Polytechnic, which was about two hours’ drive from home. For him he would not have to live in the school hostel.

Mr. Lambe has been faithful to his promise to sponsor us all in school. Babatunde was equally doing well in school.

One afternoon a call came on my line, the person acknowledged the receipt of my message to Mr. Lambe, stating that he was on his way to USA at that time for medical attention. He added that he was Mr. Lambe's first son.

He paused for a while and said, the doctors did everything to salvage his life, but all to no avail as he died last night.

The news was like a sledgehammer on my spine. I could not bear it and I bursted into tears. I was speechless so the line went off naturally.

My siblings rushed in and asked me what the matter was?

I told them of the demise of Mr. Lambe "our benefactor".

All of them could not hold their tears from flowing. It was a rude shock, Babatunde said.

I still could recall vividly the last time he credited my account with three hundred thousand naira for my school fees.

It was more than enough. Each of us still has nothing less than two hundred thousand naira each in our various accounts.

It is only God who can reward him for us.

Each of us could still recollect how he had been so helpful to us and we have all been so prudent in our spending.

Lanre said to everyone thank God, in the next two years Babatunde would graduate from the polytechnic and in the next four years too I will go for my internship.

Anyway, we still needed to get connected to the family maybe help would keep on flowing from the family or not.

The help that Mr. Lambe had been to us cannot be over emphasized.

His death means everything was on the negative side to us as a family. Lanre told his siblings.

We no more have anyone to sponsor us in school again.

The monthly supply of food items to our house was gone.

No hope of survival in all sense of it.

Our living standard would definitely reduce after sometime.

Our uncle and his family members would laugh us to scorn.

Even, if our parents were alive by now, they probably might not have been able to do more than this for us.

He was more or less our foster father.

Life must continue with or without a helper. Lanre told his siblings.

Way back in school, Tola and Seyi were both very pretty. I always sat in between both of them in the lecture rooms, but I honestly do not have any flare for any of them, but the closeness was too much.

They always wanted to be at any discussion group I organized.

One day, Professor Gbade, invited Seyi into his office and made s****l advances to her, but she would not agree.

This was repeated continually for a long time, so he drew the conclusion that she was dating Lanre.

In our fourth year, the unusual thing happened to Lanre's results. He failed the two courses professor Gbade taught them.

He went to his office to find out the cause of his failure, the professor said because you don't know more than following girls about on the campus. Note, you may not graduate from this university, he said in the plain language.

Lanre pleaded innocent of the allegation, but professor Gbade would not listen as he promised to deal with him. He even said it openly before other students.

They all knew it was unfair. Lanre tried to avoid Tola and Seyi from following him, but it proved abortive.

Does it mean my hope of becoming a medical doctor is going to be jeopardized by professor Gbade? He was the Head of department, so who do you report him to? Both the students and lecturers alike knew it was an unfair treatment.

Two weeks later, professor Gbade's car's four tyres were punctured with an inscription written and hung on his wind screen, "be warned".

I was professor Gbade's first suspect, so he accused me openly of being a cultist and he therefore threatened to show me way out of the University. I pleaded my innocence but he would not believe my story.

A couple of days later his firstborn was kidnapped on his way back home from school.

Two days after, his adopters demanded for five million naira ransom from Professor Gbade.

It was hard getting the money but he had no choice than to appeal to the university authority who granted him loan to the tune of five million naira.

It was categorically stated by his child adopters that there was no room for negotiation as they threatened to waste the boy if the father should delay or involve the police.

They called him again on the ultimatum day and Professor Gbade told them that the money was ready. He was told where to keep the money and he was warned not to play any smart game.

They watched him dropped the money from afar with a telescopic lens. As soon as he dropped the money, they asked him to run and never to look back, that his son would get back home in an hour's time.

Again to Professor Gbade, Lanre became the only suspect behind the kidnap of his son. He reported the case to the university and Lanre was booked to face the university senate to defend himself and if found guilty he would be expelled from the school.