I was Served Dinner Twice - Quite Unfortunate

 

I remember those early days. The days I was entitled to 'JS1 student'. It always felt grand to me then, new to secondary school and hoping to experience better days than those of primary school. I remained my gentle, quiet self, yet ambitious. I had grand plans for secondary school and wanted to achieve so much. One of the ambitions was to be an exceptional student. In a bid to achieve this ambition, I picked a front row, much more the first seat in the class. I was very determined and I believed this decision would do me a lot of good. However, this seat would betray me one day. I always felt good to say, JS1 Faith was the first class in the stream and first in the school. I sat on the first seat, first column of the class. Hence, I was the first citizen of BMJS. 

 

It was the fateful night of the betrayal. It seemed quite a regular night prep, with the oozing stink of the toilet, which was just by the class; the noisy crickets by the side of the class; no exams or tests approaching; a regular Thursday (no special events took place on Thursdays); hostel managers supervising prep as usual; and my ever noisy class. Every event played out normal with no hint of any forthcoming danger. However, I failed to notice the screeching sound of trouble from Pablo's warnings.

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Pablo, as we fondly called him in our last days in secondary school. He was a very principled and respected man. He was a disciplinarian, yet a friend to all. We were comfortable to call him our father in school, because he played fatherly roles in our lives. His physical structure was that of a man shorter than average. He was muscular and maintained his bald cut, he made sure his hair was shaved every week. He also had a unique tongue to pronounce 's' as 'x'. And Yes! Pablo always had this sneer on his face. His warnings were incomplete without the sneering - The way he did his mouth. It gave him this grumpy, scary look. 

Pablo's advice earlier on was for us to keep mute while reading. He maintained his opening phrase when he was to give a sound warning: "Now listen to me now!..." (The 'Listen' now sounded like 'Lixten'). "…be you a boy or a girl… If I get you making any noise, I will lie you flat and give you six!". (The 'six' was so stressed that you may feel the strokes before it landed). Of course, this warning resounded. He made sure everyone heard this. My class was no exception. 

We were JS1 students, we all feared Pablo. We all feared his cane. We all feared his wrath. At the sound of the warning, Silence sat on the throne of speech. But soon, the thought of looming danger escaped the minds of my classmates. The noise was always a great deal, it always graduated. From the ruling silence, to little whispers in requests for pencil and biro, to silent jokes and laughs between friends or seat partners, till this practice spreads to the whole class, like a contagious disease. Soon, the self-restriction to lower voices is forgotten and we are very audible to ourselves. You can hear clearly from the front seat what the people at the back are discussing.

 

You're trying me abi...

 It did not take long before Pablo got a signal from Noise - that it came from our class. He marched furiously to our class with his long and flexible cane. I was a gentle and quiet boy, careful for instructions and warnings. I did not join in the noise. I felt innocent, with a clear conscience when Pablo stepped in. It was so clear that Pablo meant what he said. He began with his rather terrifying speech, which usually ended with: "… you'll see yourself!", while he twisted his cane

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Being the first point of contact - First row, first column, he began to practice what he said. He laid me on my sky blue locker, straightened my shorts and before I could plead for mercy, the first stroke had landed on my butt. It now dawned on the rest of the class that he meant business. There was no longer room for mercy from anyone, once the first stroke landed on a person (especially on an innocent boy like me). The rest of the class began preparation for the hot strokes to befall them while Pablo completed the round by completing six. It became the turn of the next person, who sat behind me. Udochi had a very innocent and pitiful face, one so enticing and melting. She turned this face to Pablo, and of course, it melted his heart. The most surprising and least expected thing had just happened. I was the 'messiah' of my class!

Pablo had a second thought on mercy, and forgave the class. It seemed like he had forgotten the strokes he just lashed on me. While the class was now happy and relieved from the fear of an imminent danger, I sat on my chair, rolling in anguish and pain, tears flowing like a thousand rivers from my eyes, for the strokes were as hot as fire. While the rest of the class pleaded with me for the punishment meted on me, I was filled with amazement and anger. Within a micro-moment of nursing the hot strokes, I tried to think of what had just happened. I began to wander about in my thoughts and eventually got lost. It still remains a mystery till today. 

I felt so angry for being the scape goat, when in fact, I was not a part of the noise. It could have been better if I made a noise and was a scape goat, however, it was a different case. It felt like Pablo picked on me, or he had a grudge on me. Even more striking that something had just taken over him, more than even the pitiful face of Udochi. While Pablo's action was undetermined, unsure of the reason, the fact remained - My seat had betrayed me. This event left me with no reason to erase it from my memory. It is a memory unforgotten by the class messiah. Perhaps, other members of the class could remember, it would still remain one of those moments that made secondary school memorable -  A night's meal indeed.