Acts of a man

This is a story of a young boy from the west coast of Africa , In a small city in Nigeria an elevated highland called plateau state , Jos city , born into a Muslim home and a family of moderate income , his father been a doctor and his mother a teacher at the time he was born , there always had been something different about Jahel , not in the way you may call him a handicap but his mind , It had always been a very peculiar and overactive place . At the point he was born his dad was working as a medical doctor , he had a very phlegmatic personality , impulsive and impatient . His mother on the hand a gentle and sweet soul , a little bit of a perfectionist but she wore her heart on her sleeves and two elder siblings , one boy which was the immediate and the eldest a lady . This story begins when he was much younger , he was in grade 6 at the time most schools in Nigeria call it primary 6 . He was not the smartest lad academically maybe because he never saw the need to but at the same time he never failed , it was time for common entrance examinations into high school and Jahel’s parents been very orthodox said to him “ you’ll follow suite as your elder siblings and you will attend a missionary school “ at the time the best in the state actually , that was the beginning of everything . He wrote the exams of course it was never in doubt he passed exceedingly well and got admission into high school on the first list. Came September after the summer break he was finally ready to go to high school , his life as he knew it was going to change with no clue how it was going to shape him up , the Friday before he resumed he packed his things excited off to boarding school , on Saturday his parents dropped him off and his mother said to him “remember the child of whom you are “ those words where in a constant reconnaissance around his mind and they never left him . In this particular high school with a very religious and good front was everything sadistic and cruel and he was just about to find out . Now he was bound to wake up at 5:00am for what the management calls “morning work” and church everyday . He never had a problem with this because he always had been a free minded young man never been a fanatic as a matter of fact he enjoyed it . His first encounter was with a senior of course at the time bullying was very much prevalent in that environment ,the senior said “ come here boy ! , I heard you’re a Muslim and I’ve always hated your kind , you f*****g Muslim!” He never knew why someone he had met for the first time would say such terrible things to him and the senior of short stature said “ follow me to my room you bastard “. Jahel was subjected to stand under a florescent lamp for over 5hours and in of this he never spoke a word in defiance. Jahel cried him self to sleep that night , the world was not as straight forward as it seemed and he was just getting started . A few weeks later a boy about 3 classes ahead of him called him back as he entered the dining and said to him “ your people killed me father in cold blood “ he was gave a dumbfounded look on his face , “what people he asked “ and he said lay down under my bunk immediately dinning is over this was at about 3pm . With next to no hesitation he obliged right under a double decker iron bunk , the space underneath was just about 0.4meters . He always had a phobia for clustered spaces suffocating down there the senior entered with rage in his eyes , but do you blame him ? He was nothing but a child he had just lost his father to the cruelty of another man and an innocent kid was paying the price . On that very day he broke exactly 12 hangers on the body of young Jahel . A man would ask why didn’t he run to the authorities , but he realized very very few of the staff treated him any better . In all these mayhem he found love in the eyes on a young lady called Maryann at this point Jahel had a cute face a real ladies catch of very slim build and just about a foot and a half tall considering he was nothing more than 12 years of age . In the various desks of each class a student had locker to them selves he one day bought a card and 10 chocolate chew candy telling her how beautiful she was , the most surprising thing about the strength of the mind of this young man was no one knew about his ordeals . He had friends but his mind was always his safe space . After a month passed parents were allowed to come visiting he couldn’t sleep that night , Saturday came and from a distance he saw his mother come in through his eyes ,the fist time he had cried even through all the horrors he had to face most people thought it was just a young boy that missed home but oh no those were tears saying a totally different story. His mum hugged him and in her warm embrace he said to her I don’t want to be here anymore . She never understood she felt it was just a home sick child talking, and then she looked closer and saw a bruise he said “ oh I was playing football it’s nothing serious “ she never doubted cause he had always been a football enthusiast. As a reader you’ll say to yourself why didn’t he just tell her , but like Jahel we have never believed in fate or destiny but if he would have left he would have never become the man we was meant to be . You call it destiny he called it providence , as time went on he realized he began to grow a shell as he began to warm he’s way to the socialite of his peers , neat trousers and properly ironed shirts even at a very young age he attracted eyes . One faithful day Maryann his first love , she was as beautiful as an Angel , flat chested of course like most ladies of her age . She walked up to him and said “ I saw the gifts you sent and I loved them “ he smiled from molar to molar and said “ you are absolutely gorgeous “ with a certain stutter in his voice , she chuckled and held his hands “wanna take a walk with me she asked “ he stood up immediately holding her hands they walked through the path ways . All he could think about was at least I found something worth smiling for here . A few weeks passed and he hadn’t had a major altercation with any one at the very mostly collective punishments . Jahel loved movies on spare weekends when he wasn’t in despair he’ll take Maryann to the movie spot just to vent . He hadn’t had any form of profanity from his peers until this very day after a soccer game his team lost the game and one impulsive team mate said “ you bloody Muslim go back to the mosque “ with no filter , judging from the structure of the sentence you can tell he wasn’t a very smart boy to construct a sentence of that quality but of course Jahel was not calm enough to put that into consideration , he launched with everything he had a very powerful punch and burst his lip . The coach rushed to separate them trying to conceal what had just happened from the other staff around but the bitter young man on the floor let it all out my yelling for help . Before morning it became public knowledge and he was arranged before the disciplinary committee , of course he was left to the blame they asked what happened Jahel in your own words he said “ he called me a bloody Muslim and I punched him “ in a silent tone one of the committee members said “are you not “ turning his face away . No amount of begging would save him ,he was condemned to two weeks of constant hard Labour and the other boy nothing but a slap on the wrist . These moment Jahel asked him self how can I be hated so much for something I didn’t choose , I was born into this I had no choice in this moment he realized that geography is kiln and we are the clay , it’ll mould you to what ever it dims fit . Sadly he’ll come to realize that the problem was not with the school but a much bigger and dynamic problem. Jahel never questioned his faith or religion he had always believed what he had been told . Now a curious mind to know why something that speaks about so much love and peace could brood so much hate and stimulate the depth of hatred . He had always been a different kid when most kids cared about comics he read history in depth , giving every single detail of each century as they had come , relevant people and names also . At that time the most intriguing thing he found were the Vikings, the way they lived , there size and most importantly their fierceness in battle. He read all their conquests down to when they met their doom in early England. An inquisitive mind always seeking to know why and how , finally he began to question the existence of God and the authenticity of religion in general . The most defining moments for him , he had not started grasping straws but so much was he yet to uncover .