In the space of time - Episode 5

 

6th July, 2006
Adaugo stretched her arms as she got up from her bed. She was so tired, she felt like sleeping back, but the word, Examinations soon! kept ringing in her ears. She looked at the time on her phone that was placed under her pillow before she slept. It was 9:40am. Wow she had planned on waking up by nine. She had barely three  hours sleep because of the overnight reading she did last night . A face briefly flashed her mind. She remembered him, Odogwu was it? That was the name his friend kept calling him. But he had introduced himself to her as Chukwuma. He was up all night reading and she felt like she didn’t read enough before sleeping off. Had she embarrassed herself in front of him. She shook her head, as though she was trying to shake the feeling off. Did it even matter? He was just another random university boy. Besides it wasn’t her fault. She had set out to read Dr Bello’s course, and that course was the most boring course in the history of boring courses. She loved English literature, the course she took as her major, but she didn’t expect all these to be branches of learning. She wanted to be a writer. At such a young age, she had written many articles, some for her department which was published in the faculty yearly magazine. She remembered her secondary school days where they called her, ‘small girl with the big pen’

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/in-the-space-of-time

. This was because she wrote on national issues and always presented them at the early morning assembly. She had attended a federal government boarding school in abakaliki, Ebonyi state. The school had taught her a lot and helped build her into the smart and hardworking person she presently was. She was grateful to her parents, they always took education so seriously. She was the only girl amongst her three brothers, but never one day did her father make her feel inferior or less than her brothers in any way. He gave her task filled work to do and also sponsored her education right from the nursey, education where she currently was. She wanted to make her dad so proud of her. That was why she tried so hard to pass the jamb examinations so she could beat the UNN cut off mark and that was why she was working so hard now. Dr Bello’s course wouldn’t stop her from achieving her set goals. 
Adaugo yawned and sat up. ‘’finally up nne?’’, it was Gloria. Gloria was Adaugo’s roommate that had followed her to the new science theatre yesterday for the overnight reading. Gloria complained throughout. She hated staying outside her precious comfort zone, especially at night. But she had followed Adaugo because she didn’t want to walk alone or rather It wasn’t safe for her to walk alone even though those were Adaugo’s words. ‘’yes dear, I’m up. Thanks for last night, I know it wasn’t an easy choice to make but you did it because of me anyways’’, Adaugo was really grateful, one, because Gloria had walked with her, and secondly what would she have done, alone with that Odogwu guy? He kept staring at her it became creepy. She could swear that he even stared while she was asleep. Who was he? Some form of guardian angel or what? ‘’I have heard. I don’t know the kind of chemistry you two were practicing there, I wonder what would have happened if I wasn’t there’’, Adaugo was silent. Chemistrty?  She doubted that. Gloria would know better, she thought. She was a lot older than Ada. Sh ewas in her final year doing a five year course, pharmacy. And she was already engaged. She wasn’t just a roommate to Gloria, they had grown so close, during the course of one year, they were more like sisters. ‘’I don’t know what you’re talking about’’, Adaugo said and got up to leave the room for the bathroom. On her way out she mistakenly hit Bola with her bucket. ‘’sorry’’, she said and hurriedly left the room. If she hadn’t hurried, she knew they would turn her matter to subject of conversation. No offense, she loved her roommates but sometimes all the teasing they gave her, was too much and just made her uncomfortable. 
Adaugo was a really pretty girl. Light skinned with soft skin and she had grown considerably tall over the years. Because of this, last week she was nominated as the most beautiful girl in the whole department of English. She was the only part two student in the nominee list. He roommates, Gloria, Bola and Chinwe had constantly teased her about this, calling her ‘Queen Ada’. Added to this the class rep of part four had asked her out to be his date for the dinner that would take place after their examinations. Adaugo wasn’t in for all these. That was not why she came to school. She was nominated for an award going to be presented at dinner she wasn’t even going to. Well good luck to the other nominees, but she, Adaugo Cherry Uwazuronye  wasn’t interested. Gloria had said previous times that Chinwe and Bola should stop the teasing but she always started it. Adaugo  didn’t understand her, honeslty! She was the mature one amongst them, and Adaugo admired her, mostly because she was doing well in school, and the way she carried herself around people was admirable, but sometimes she just acted like a frustrating elder sister. Adaugo had invited Gloria home once for her father’s birthday party. It was huge. It was his 50th birthday and Ada’s step mum, Gladys insisted they organized a thanksgiving party for her father.  She had remembered had frowned upon the fact that Gloria wasn’t Igbo.  ‘’where is she from?’’ she had asked Ada, ‘’she’s from Edo state’’ Ada responded, not knowing what to expect. This was last month. She had gone to a public university, did Mrs Gladys really expect that everyone there would be igbo? Or was Ada expected to mingle with only the igbo people there?  Mrs Gladys had frowned about a lot of things actually, so her not liking Gloria, didn’t bother Ada so much.
 Growing up with Mrs Gladys wasn’t the best feeling, but Ada survived. And she was finally out of the house, in another state entirely. She was glad. The only times she visited home was when she wanted to get something she needed for school or when she really missed her dad and her little brothers. Nedu and Fredrick weren’t like their mother at all, especially Fredrick. They treated Ada like their elder sister, gave her the respect that she deserved. They were both still young in secondary school, Fredrick was in ss2 now and Nedu, jss2.  Ada loved them very much, even though many times, Mrs Gladys got on her nerves, insulting her and over loading her with work. It wasn’t the fault of the boys that their mother was like that. If there was anybody that should be blamed, it would be her mother. She had just suddenly discovered that her father, Mr Nwachukwu wasn’t good enough for her, so she left him for a younger and richer man, abandoning her only daughter, her only child. At least that was then, now Adaugo often wondered how many more children her mother had. Nobody had seen or heard from her since she left. Adaugo wasn’t even up to four years then. How can a mother leave her three year old daughter behind? Just like that? Anyways, Adaugo didn’t care anymore. She was living her life well, without regrets, so Adaugo should live well too. 

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10th July, 2006
Adaugo was in Chitis, an eatery on campus, to get snacks. She sat on one of the stools there, while she waited for the second round of meat pies. Apparently, she was late and the last one from the first set was sold less than two minutes before she got there. While waiting, she decided to finish a novel she was reading for African literature. The test was coming up next week and the book she was reading, behind the shadows was the only book left for her in that particular course. ‘’Always reading I see’’, she looked up. It was Chuma, or Odogwu, whatever his real name was. ‘’Oh, hi there!’’,  hi there? Adaugo, seriously? Was that the only thing you could come up with? She let out a sigh. ‘’hi’’, he replied. ‘’Ada, is it?’’, he asked letting out his hand to shake her. ‘’Adaugo’’, she replied smiling and accepting his handshake. ‘’And no, I’m not always reading, now I’m just going through a novel while I wait for the second batch of snacks’’, he shrugged, then took a seat. ‘’uhm, is this book a part of your selected texts”?  he asked, ‘’well, yes, but that doesn’t mean I cant just read…’’ she stopped as though she had just remembered  something. ‘’Wait, how did you know its part of my selected texts, I didn’t tell you my course that day did I?’’, she asked looking somewhat confused. ‘’No no, you didn’t, but I saw your book that day, it read Eng 202, so I figured out your course and of course level’’, Oh, so that was how he knew. ‘’seems like you already know a lot about me’’, she began to notice how fine this guy actually was. He looked like a top model from a Vogue magazine. No joke. ‘’nah not at all’’, he said smiling. ‘’just a few obvious facts actually’’,  facts? She wondered. ‘’facts?’’, she voiced out. ‘’Yes dear, you’re Adaugo, 200 level student from the department of English. You’re obviously a very intelligent woman and of course, you’re very beautiful too. I can’t seem to get my eyes off you’’.  What? He was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. Seemed like a perfectly practiced line to her. He was obviously a flirt or playboy. Because why else would he be talking to her? ‘’nice lines’’, she said, replying to her earlier statements. ‘’Is this what works on most girls?’’ He laughed. He was laughing. Why was he laughing? ‘’is something funny?’’ she asked. Was this his way of mocking her? It was just Adaugo’s luck to meet this type of guys. I mean where are all the good mannered guys on campus? She thought. Then she picked her bag from the stool next to her, got up and turned to leave. 
He held her hand and held her back. ‘’don’t go’’, he said. She turned to face him. ‘’I’m sorry I laughed. Its just that…’’, he was scratching his head. Probably looking for a lie to say, Adaugo guessed, ‘’ wait I have a question, why do you girls always think that every guy who walks up to you is either a flirt or a playboy? I mean this is the kind of cliché thinking that needs to be corrected, seriously. He could simply want to create conversation, I’m just saying’’, he concluded, lifting his, hands up. Adaugo was embarrassed.

Read " Kenny's Story " by the same author ( Ijeoma Okorie )

. Was he just trying to make a conversation and she had misinterpreted his actions. ‘’you said I was beautiful’’, she said in defense, ‘’because you are’’, she lifted a brow. ‘’you stared at me all night’’, she said giving a straight face like she was making a point. ‘’how would you know?, you slept through most of it’’, he countered, wearing a smirk. Now, Adaugo was really embarrassed. ‘’look, I have to go’’, she turned her back after taking about three steps. ‘’it was nice meeting you Chuma’’. Just as she was about to turn around again, she hit the waiter who was carrying a tray of the snacks and drinks she had ordered. She was about to fall, she struggled to maintain her balance, until she felt a huge figure grab her. ‘’Another fact, you’re not very careful with your steps’’, it was Chuma.  She discovered that he had also heard the tray and stopped the bottle of fanta from breaking. Just who was this guy? The embarrassment has had now tripled.  Great! Just great!