Dawn in the creek

OUR FIRST MEETING.....

My friend Alex said " I'm so sorry you had a shitty day " then I replied " it only got worse from that point" . " I went in search of senior Peter to find out why he sent for me" , I continued to reminisce. On getting to senior Peter's class, I asked one of his classmates if he was around and he pointed me to where Peter was sitting with his friends. I approached him and said "Senior Peter good morning you sent sent for me" he stared at me for a few seconds and said "You live at Biogbolo right?" I replied in the affirmative, then he said "I know your house because I stay at the house opposite yours" I smiled as I told him I was glad about that. He then went on to tell me that he had been observing me for a while and liked me. He stood up and told me to follow him that he had something very important he wanted to discuss with me so I followed him innocently not really expecting the intensity of what he wanted to tell me. He told me to walk with him and I agreed. He led me to a secluded spot at the back of the classroom blocks close to the school farm where we found a few broken chairs scattered around. After searching for a while we found one good chair which I attempted to bend down to pick. While I was at it, he smacked me on my butt and I dove backwards screaming, "what was that for!" he had this huge grin on his face that looked more like a sneer then I became scared. I told him to stay away from me but he stood there and kept on smiling. Then he told me that he liked my a*s that my butt was firm and he'd really like to sink himself into me. My eyes widened with terror cause I knew I was in trouble. Mind you, Senior Peter was two classes ahead of me and was nineteen years old. He had repeated his current class several times and was obviously way bigger and knowledgeable than I was. I didn't even understand those words that came out from his mouth but I knew they spelt doom for me.

I looked around to see if there was anyone who overheard his blunt comment, but there was no one around. The surrounding area was as quiet as the grave yard and even the birds had gone quiet because I could no longer hear their continuous chirping which is usually present because of the numerous trees in the school compound and farm. He kept on smiling at me like I was roasted fish with bolle (roasted plantain) that he wanted to feast on for lunch. I tried to distract him by asking him several questions about himself but he kept staring at me with a glint in his eyes. He took several steps towards me and terror took over my body. He smiled at the effect he had on me and said "Ebimo I like you very much oh and I see us having so much fun together". I shook my head while turning around to see if there was a way I could run without him catching up with me. He smiled at my discomfort then walked away like nothing ever happened while I stared after him in shock.

CONFUSED.....

After breaking down to tell my friends about my shitty day, they where so shocked that they kept staring at me. After a while Tari broke the silence by first taking a deep breath before he asked, "so what are we going to do now". I didn't know what to say. I was so scared because I didn't feel I would be able to go to school without being attacked or harassed by senior Peter or his group of friends. I was worried that if I told anyone at school about what happened to me the story would spread and I won't be able to walk around without being worried that people are talking about me.

My friends suggested that I told my mum about it so that she would give me advice or tell me what to do. I felt like I needed to hug my mum so I decided to go home.

I said goodbye to my friends and left for my house in a mood worse than the mood I left the house with. By this time the rain had reduced to a drizzle and the sun had also began to set.

While I walked home I stared at the wonders that was the starting nightlife. As I stared at the vendors selling fried plantains, potatoes, yams and fish, my stomach rumbled which reminded me that it was dinner time and my mum would be home by now. I increased my speed and started walking briskly so I could get home and see my mum because I needed her warmth to warm up my other wise cold day.

On getting home, I saw my mum's slippers and the basket she uses to shade her vegetables outside and I smiled. I ran into the house with a huge grin on my face ready to give my mum a hug while telling her I missed her only to find her laying on the floor shivering. I rushed towards her bent down and felt her temperature. I asked her, "mummy are you ok?" she shook her head indicating that she wasn't and I went on to ask her to tell me what exactly happened. She told me that she got beaten by the rain and there was no shade around for her to stay under to wait out the rain. She said she was totally drenched and her outfit dried on her body when she continued to sell her wares when the rain reduced to a drizzle.

I was deeply worried about her because I Knew how hard she works and knew she wasn't really taking care of herself. I insisted that she rested while I made dinner of yam pottage with the leftover vegetables she came back from the market with.

After making her eat her dinner, I made her take the drugs for cold that I went down the road to the local chemist shop to buy. While I was busy taking care of her she noticed there was something off about me because of how quiet I was. She tried getting me to talk about my school day but I kept evading the issues while raising innocent topics for us to discuss. Eventually she gave up finding out what was wrong and instead listened as I told her about the new words I had learnt.