We Are Able

Episode 53

Biodun must have taken my action for malice—that I didn’t
want to answer him because he struck my head with a stick,
but it wasn’t the case. The threat of the principal who promised
to change my class was what was really weighing me down. I
tried to figure out what exactly Moses said to make him
determine to change my class; maybe as a result of my
immaturity in containing undeserved punishment from my
supposed senior. Perhaps because Moses took me out of the
school compound for too long at the detriment of my
education, I pondered on. But that shouldn’t call for a grave
consequence as such, I pondered.

I couldn’t sleep throughout the night. How would I feel being
sent to the primary school just because I fought a senior who
was actually a mate? Bose—how on earth would I admit her as
my senior? Over my dead body! I snapped my fingers over
my head as if my head was my dead body I was talking about.

I didn’t tell Mrs Omotayo anything about it. It would be better
for her to know about it somehow by herself than for me to tell
her with my own hands.
The principal greeted me with a question the following
morning.

“Rose, where is your guardian I ask you to come with today?”
“She is very busy sir,” I lied. My hands shook someone,
denoting that I was telling a lie.
“That’s a lie!” the man went straight to the point.

“Y-yes,” my hands stammered. “I didn’t tell her.”

The principal came close to me and looked me in the eyeballs,
an impervious look though. Just then, Moses entered.

“Moses, take her to her new class immediately,” he
commanded him. Moses stared at his father a little while,
having no visible expression on his face too. He just held tight
to my right wrist, picked up a cane with the left and led me
away.

I wondered what Moses would do with the cane. Was he going
to cane me? I thought he was a friend, so how come he would
now thrash me with the long cane? I would have asked him
what he was actually going to do to me, but I felt it would be
disrespectful of me. I was only a JSS 1 girl about to be demoted
while he was already in his third year in the University,
studying Law. He must know how to punish someone for real,

I thought, since he is a lawyer.
Moses began to lead me to my new class. I was scared that I
would now be demoted, going by what I saw Moses and his
father doing to each other earlier—arguing. Moses began to lead
me towards the JSS 3 class, my seniors. I knew I was going to
be beaten to pulp there. I made my arm strong and halted
along the way. Moses kept pulling me along, just exactly the
way he was doing to me two years back while taking me
across the road. I wondered if he was a military man.

When Bose saw me brought amidst them, in their class, she
began to babble with her hands. Her friends laughed along with
her as they saw us. They were expecting Moses to command
them to beat me up for beating a senior.
“Bose, come over here,” Moses called.
Bose walked majestically to the front of the classroom. She was
glad seeing me. Moses asked me to lie on a desk as he handed
the cane over to her. She collected it with alacrity and raised it
above her head to lash me. I watched as her hand swooped
down, but the cane hanged in the air. I was shocked. I raised
my face to see what was happening. It was Moses. He was the
one who gripped Bose by the hand, preventing her from
flogging my back.

Bose and her mates were shocked. They hadn’t seen it in such
fashion. They began to ask why. Moses frowned at them as he
began the story:

“Bose, you deserve to be punished yourself,” Moses burst out.
“How sir?” Bose’s hands went wide agape.

“You are a very wicked fellow Bose! Rose told me all the evil
you did to her while she was in your former school; how you
stole her books and fought with her all the time. Rose told me
that you were a bully and here you still her. You don’t deserve
to be a prefect here because you are a bully and I will tell my
daddy about that. He will remove you from that post before
long.”

Bose was weeping.

“And from now on, Rose will be the Senior Prefect of this
school.”

Moses ordered me to take my seat. I was reluctant because I
felt that Moses was doing contrary to what his father had asked
him to do. Moses led my by the hand to a seat belonging to
someone who was not in class.

“Rose, here is your seat from now on,” Moses said. I stood
before the seat but Moses forced me to be seated. I was awed,
staring around me. They were looking scornfully at me.

“Do you know how much this girl has achieved?” Moses said.

“Without a father and a mother, yet she won prizes in her
former school, writing striking poems. Ask Bose what I meant
and she will tell you,” Moses told them all. They were amazed.

Moses warned them all not to do me any harm, else they
would have to face the risk of having their names expunged
from the school register. I felt like a queen, but a little iota of
doubt still stared at my face.
As soon as Moses stepped out of the class, I hurried after him.

“Sir, your daddy will be angry!”
“Not at all Rose, since he knows about this,” Moses assured. “I
told him everything about you and he wants you commended,
that is why he asked you to come with your guardian so that
he could tell her that you are deemed fit for triple promotion.

You’ll have to still come with her anyway—tomorrow.”

“Are you sure sir?”
“If I am not would I say it?” Moses said. “I am a lawyer and we
don’t say loose things. Come with your guardian tomorrow,
that’s all.” Moses hurried away.