Chapter 2

Some weeks later, Douglas began to have some strange feelings. He had been ill for three days. One day, he was reading a textbook inside his class when Greg entered. Greg had received a letter from one of the school’s prefects and it was addressed to Douglas. When Douglas looked through the window and saw him, he quickly returned the textbook and locked his locker. He did that because Greg was also known as a notorious borrower of books.

“Hi Douglas, guess what I have in my pocket” Greg greeted as he entered the class.

“Some snacks from the canteen?” Douglas guessed.

“No, you didn’t get it”

“A lost-and-found bunch of keys?”

“No, you failed”

Douglas closed his eyes for a while. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers and said:

“A short note from your girlfriend?”

“Wow! You almost got it” Greg said.

“Look Greg, I’m sick. I don’t have time for guesses now. Stop tantalizing me please” Douglas said. “How am I even sure that you have something in your pocket”

“Okay Douglas, I have a letter for you” Greg said.

“Ah, a letter for me?” Douglas asked in disbelief.

“Yes, I have a letter for you, but I will only give you the letter if and only if you give me that particular geography textbook containing the topic: “Environmental Degradation” Greg said.

Douglas opened his locker and brought out the textbook. “Okay, here is the textbook, now can I have the letter?”

“One more thing em…em… a bottle of cold drink and I”ll give you the letter”

Douglas grumbled. He dipped his hand inside his pocket, brought out some rumpled notes and handed them over to Greg. Greg collected the ruffled notes and put them inside the textbook.

“That’s the money for the drink. Now, can I have the letter?” Douglas demanded.

Greg refused to give him the letter and requested for more money. Whent it was time for break, Cliff stood up, looked at his wristwatch, yawned and stretched his backbones and hipbones. He tilted his head from one side to the other and his neck bones made cracking sounds. He yawned again and decided to go and see Douglas. Douglas was still arguing with Greg when Cliff entered his class. He was surprised when he saw Douglas struggling with Greg over a brown envelope.

“Douglas, what is it?” he asked.

“It’s Greg, he refused to give me my letter” Douglas complained.

“Greg, why don’t you want to give him his letter?” Cliff asked.

“Is it your business?” Greg retorted.

“I said that you should give him his letter!”

Greg looked at Cliff snobbishly and said:

“You know that you can’t do anything to me Cliff, you brat!” “What! You called me a brat?”

“Yes?” Isn’t that what you are, dunderhead?”

“This is an insult upon injury” Douglas said.

“I can’t swallow this!” Cliff shouted.

Immediately, he removed his wristwatch and gave Greg a deafening slap. Greg staggered but quickly recovered. Then he swore:

“Cliff, to God, I must kill you today!”

“You have already dug your grave” Cliff challenged.

Greg then removed his shirt and attacked Cliff with karate. Straightaway, they started to fight breaking some shaky chairs and lockers in the process. Douglas tried to separate them but a little blow from Greg sent him sprawling on the floor and gasping for breath. While the fight was going on, the letter fell off from Greg’s pocket and Douglas picked it up quickly. He also took the textbook, locked it in his locker and ran to the canteen. When he got to the canteen, he bought some snacks and a bottle of cold drink. Having sat on a chair, he brought out the letter to read but later decided to finish eating the snacks before reading it. As he was eating the snacks, a student, who was in the same class with him, appeared:

“Hey Douglas, what’s up?”

“Oh, I’m fine”

“Greg is fighting with Cliff in the class. What’s the matter with them?”

“Men, Greg is abusive. He insulted Cliff and Cliff couldn’t take the insult. Before I could say Jack Robinson, they were already fighting and rolling on the ground. I tried to separate them but I couldn’t”

“Hmm…well let’s see who would win at last” the student said.

“Cliff will surely win, Greg doesn’t possess fighting tactics” Douglas said assuredly.

“Yeah, that’s true but Greg is more brawny than Cliff” the student countered.

“Well, that’s true” Douglas agreed.

“Men, these snacks are better than the garbage we are fed with here” the student said after a

while.

“You’re right. I don’t know what’s wrong with our obese and inexperienced cooks” Douglas

replied.

After a few minutes, the student looked at his watch and said, “I will leave now. I think the economics teacher must be waiting. He might teach “Inflation and Deflation” today.

Douglas said, “You’re right, I’ll join you guys in a short while but one have to “inflate” his stomach first”

The student said “I’m off”

When Douglas finished eating the snacks, he brought out the letter and started to read it slowly. As he was reading the letter, his hands started to quiver, then he fell down from the chair and fainted. The sellers in the canteen were unaware of what just happened because they were attending to a large number of students.

Inside Cliff’s class was a stern and strict mathematics teacher. He was teaching Trigonometry, a topic, which the students considered as difficult, complex and boring. While the lesson was going on, a student raised his hand and said: “Excuse me, sir”

“Yes?” the teacher permitted.

“Sir, I don’t understand how you got that minus one I think it’s supposed to be minus two” “Oh you think? Okay, keep on thinking” the teacher answered bluntly.

“But sir, five multiplied by sine forty-five and forty-five multiplied by sine five are they not the same?” Another confused student asked from the back of the class.

“You are a stupid boy. Your father and your mother are they the same?” the teacher answered. The students continued to bombard the teacher with silly questions but Cliff kept on thinking about Douglas. He tried to excuse himself from the class:

“Sir, please excuse me I want to go and ease myself”

“No, I don’t agree with you. Wait till the end of the lesson” the teacher said.

Cliff waited for some minutes and forged another excuse.

“I said that you should wait till the end of the lesson” the teacher answered again. When the lesson was over, Cliff went out to search for Douglas. He was about to enter the school’s library when his stomach began to make some noise. He dipped his hand in his pocket, felt some notes and went to the canteen. When he got there, he bought some snacks and a bottle of cold drink. He sat down on a chair and began to eat the snacks. He saw a student lying on the floor but he did not know that the person was

Douglas. When he finished eating his snacks, he examined the person lying on the floor. To his amazement, the person was Douglas!

“Douglas!” he shouted.

There was no response.

“Douglas, please get up and let’s go”

Still there was no response from Douglas. Cliff became afraid and sought the students’ attention. He looked around, saw a piece of paper beside Douglas, and picked it up. The letter read:

27th February, 2005.

My dear son, Douglas

It is with a heart full of sorrow that I am writing to you. All the same, I want you to take heart as you read this letter. How are you coping with life in boarding school? I hope that all is well with you over there.

My aim of writing this letter is to inform you about what happened some days ago. You can recall that your father had been suffering from all sorts of diseases because of his old age. We have been trying all that we can traditionally, since we do not have enough money to go to the hospital, but all to no avail.

Yesterday, at about 6 am, he gave up the ghost. You are therefore, through this medium, required to come home straightaway as soon as you finish reading this letter for the funeral rites. Come back home immediately!

Your mother

Theresa.

Cliff was filled with awe and gloom when he finished reading the letter. His heartbeat increased tremendously. He folded and pocketed the letter. Thinking quickly, he gave Douglas a jerk but there was no response from Douglas.

“Douglas don’t you hear me? I said that you should get up and let’s go…Douglas! Douglas!!” Still there was no response from Douglas. In a flash, an idea came to him. He remembered the first aid assistance to be given to a fainted person. He carried Douglas up to a bench. He raised his head slightly above the level of his legs and supported it with a piece of wood. Then he rushed into the canteen, bought a sachet of cold water and sprinkled the water on his face. After some time, Douglas opened his eyes, looked around and dozed off. Then he got up wearily and staggered towards Cliff who was sitting on a short wall beside the canteen, buried in thoughts.

“Ah Cliff, I thought that the time for break is over? What are we still doing here?” he asked.

Cliff thought for a while and said:

“Well Douglas…em…in fact, let us return to our classes”

Douglas’ mind was not at rest. He kept pondering what kind of event must have happened or whether there was some bad news in the air.

“Cliff, tell me, what exactly happened? I observed that your countenance was dull…I have the feeling that something is about to happen or must have happened”

Cliff was silent. He did not know which of the difficult questions to answer first. He was thinking on how he would tell Douglas about the whole event.

“Cliff, am I not talking to you?”

“Oh, are you talking to me?”

“Yes, I’m talking to you and you’re absent-minded”

“I am not inattentive to what you are saying. I only thought you were merely soliloquizing” Cliff replied. He dipped his hand into his pocket to ascertain whether the letter was still there. Douglas kept on disturbing him. At a point, Cliff began:

“You see…Douglas…there’s nothing wrong with me… it is just that I don’t know how to unfold some unpleasant news to you. Actually, it is urgent, a matter of life and death…”

“An urgent matter of life and death?” Douglas wondered.

“You can come to my dormitory during the siesta for the news” Cliff said.

“Is it bad news or good news?”

“Matters of life and death are not usually good news, Douglas” “Alright, I will come during the siesta” Douglas concluded.

“See you then” Cliff replied and took a bend towards the direction of his class. Douglas kept on thinking about the ‘unpleasant news’. He remembered how he collected a letter from Greg but he could not remember exactly how he handled the letter. As he was thinking about how he handled the letter, he collided with the school principal when he took a bend towards the direction of his class. Douglas turned and started to run. The school principal was a pot-bellied, heavily bearded and bald-headed man. Majority of the students hated him for his strictness and peremptoriness.

“Come here student!” the principal ordered.

Douglas stopped and then approached him slowly.

“Come here I say, fast!” the principal shouted.

Douglas was still coming slowly.

“What is your name? In what class are you? Why didn’t you tuck in your shirt properly? Your hair uncombed? Where have you been? Where are you coming from and where are you going?” the principal fired.

“Sir…I, I am, I - I…I have been…meanwhile…I am coming from… I, my friend, my friend, we are …” Douglas stammered.

“What? I can’t hear you properly. Who is your friend? What is his name? Speak louder!” the principal ordered.

Douglas stammered again. When the principal flogged him furiously, he answered all the questions correctly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When the school dismissed, all the students went into their dormitories except Mark. He was gingerly and noiselessly trying to unlock a locker at the end of his class. In a moment, the principal caught up with him:

“Hey Mark, what are you doing there?”

“Aw… sir… I - I am trying to unlock my locker. I lost my keys” Mark answered.

“Are you sure that it is your locker?”

“Yes sir”

“I see. Okay, let me see your English textbook”, the principal said. “I don’t have an English textbook, sir” Mark replied quickly. “Can I see your chemistry textbook, then?” “I lost that some time ago, sir”

The principal looked at Mark for a long time and said: “Alright, wait for me Mark, don’t move an inch” “Sir … do you mean to…are you doubting that I’m…?” Mark asked, shivering. As the principal

made some steps towards him, he became afraid. At a point, he left the locker, jumped through the window and took to his heels. The principal stood hands akimbo and watched Mark as he fled. He looked up to heaven, sighed and said: “Mark, you thief, may God have mercy upon you and your descendants!” Then he shook his head, sighed again and went into his office.

During the siesta, Douglas got up from his bed and went into Cliff’s dormitory. Cliff was reading a novel when he entered.

“Hi Cliff” Douglas greeted offering his hand for a handshake.

“Oh Douglas, what’s up?” Cliff responded.

“Cliff, you always like to read novels and newspapers. What’s it all about?” Douglas asked.

“Oh…it’s just about two intimate lovers whose hope of marriage crashed on grounds of tribalism” Cliff said.

“That’s amusing” Douglas said. “I would like to read that” “Sure, you can have it anytime you want” Cliff said.

The two friends discussed for some minutes but Douglas suddenly changed the topic. “Em…Cliff, I have come for the news”

“Men, you’ve got to take heart as I unfold the news to you” Cliff said, “I’ll go straight to the point, it’s needless to beat about the bush”

“Exactly, exactly” Douglas supported.

“Well you received a letter from your mother requesting that you should return to the village immediately, that is, as soon as you finished reading it. However, I guess you didn’t finish reading the letter before you fainted.

“I fainted? I was unconscious?” Douglas wondered.

“Yes, you fainted and I spent a great deal of time bringing you back to consciousness”

“That brings you to your previous question, boy”

“Please forgive me if I sound childish, but are you sure of what you are saying?” “You need not to doubt what I’m saying, Douglas” Cliff maintained.

“Remind me: what’s the content of the letter, Cliff?” Douglas asked, bewildered.

“Well, em… you see, it all about the death of em…a member of your family…em…you see…in

fact…”

“In fact, what?” Douglas asked impatiently.

Cliff sighed and continued: “Calm down Douglas, calm down. We don’t deliver this kind of news hurriedly; many options are usually considered and weighed before delivery. In fact…”

“In fact…?”

“Anyway, Douglas I suggest you come to my class during night prep for the news. I can see you are already tensed up”

“Cliff, stop tantalizing me. Hit the nail on the head”

“Alright Douglas, the letter reported that…in fact it’s hard to say…” “What is hard to say? Spill the beans!”

“Well Douglas, the letter reported that your father is dead” “What!”

“That’s the ‘beans’”

“Oh, my God! I’m finished” Douglas cried.

“It’s a pity, Douglas, but take heart. Remember you are a man, so bear it like a man. Man born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble, from birth to death. We can only do our part and leave the rest to God. We pray the good Lord to comfort your family”

“Oh! I’m finished. I’m finished!” Douglas exclaimed, slumping on a bed he cried uncontrollably.

Cliff and some students consoled him but he cried the more.

“Take heart, dear, take heart. The death of your father is not the end of your life. You can still succeed in life despite his demise. Your mother is alive or are you the only one whose father died?”

“Cliff, you may not understand the impact and the vacuum my father’s death will create in my life, it’s better imagined than felt” Douglas lamented, sobbing intermittently.

“I’m sorry my dear, I’m really sorry. I sympathize with you because I can feel your pains. It’s a pity that he’s gone but will you kill yourself because he is no more?” Cliff persisted.

“Cliff, be considerate!” a student shouted, “He’s bereaved. You shouldn’t talk to him like that. You should be more sympathetic than emphatic”

“That’s true, I understand but he should relax and bear the loss as a man. Grief does not bring any relief” Cliff maintained.