Living In The Ghetto - Episode 24

 

Immediately Chimaobim got to the gate, he stopped and a thought ran through his mind. It's been long you visited Tobi, the thought clicked.

He nodded in an affirmation.

Don't you feel visiting him now will make him feel somehow? What if he didn't make the admission list? It will seem like you came to mock him. He will never take it in a good light no matter how good your intentions are . What do you think? the thought clicked again. 

Chimaobim felt his brain rummaged and rotated dizzily. He touched his forehead then calmed down a bit. "I think the voice in my head is right," he thought out loud and sighed.

He pulled his hand away from the gate and made to walk away but turning back, Tobi and his sister stood and stared at him. He shook and his gaze fixed on them. Their face had a soft smile masked in a feeling he couldn't come to term with.

"Hey, Chimaobim," Tobi said.

"How are you?" his sister said.

"I am fine," Tobi replied them at once.

Tobi's sister stiffened her face and nodded. Her face looked sober as if something bad had happened. She walked into the compound, opening the gate with a force immediately and banging it against the wall. Chimaobim bent down slowly to dodge whatever was happening

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. He reacted to the adrenaline rush and felt the thing was about to hit him. "I hope all is well?" he thought. 

Tobi smiled. His smile looked bland. Tobi was a shy boy but he had never failed to show how happy everything was. He tried so hard to conceal his sober face but his dimmed eyes gave him away. Did he fail? Chimaobim thought to himself. 

Silence slithered through their presence for a while before their patched throat finally freed as Tobi coughed. Tobi smelt of unhappiness and Chimaobim could perceive it. Chimaobim wanted to ask how he had fared about admission list but his voice stuck in his throat. He quickly gasped.

Tobi stared at Chimaobim and felt Chimaobim's disconcerted look. He saw the worries written in his eyes and shook his head. "My mum is dying in the hospital. She had been sick for several days. Since we finished writing post utme, I have been running to and fro to the hospital everyday with my sister. I don't even know what to say again," Tobi said and tears trickled down his eyes slowly.

Chimaobim heaved a sigh of relief. At least, it wasn't something he was thinking it was. He had thought it was them sensing he had come to break the news about his own admission whereas, Tobi wasn't admitted.

"Are you seriously kidding me?" Chimaobim said. His eyeballs sunk deeply, while his brow furrowed. "I'm so sorry. I hope you are all right," Chimaobim said again.

He gestured and held Tobi tightly. They sat on the pavement outside the gate and he consoled Chimaobim till he felt he had done enough. 

"I'll be on my way home," Chimaobim said.

"Good-bye," Tobi said.

Chimaobim made to stand and Tobi tapped him. "Have you checked the admission list?" Tobi asked.

Chimaobim turned slowly with slightly brightened look. "Yes. How about you?" he said

"It's been a double woe for me. I didn't meet the merit cutoff mark and I'm few marks short of my catchment area. I'm still waiting on the second list."

Chimaobim nodded sadly. He told him about his own admission, and gave him some words of assurance before he departed. 

While walking home, Chimaobim walked by the side of the road whilst, he grabbed the grasses by the side, one after the other as he kept walking. He would peel off the grasses and throw them on the floor to while away boredom that accompanied walking alone. It looked like he just came out of a trance. He wished he shouldn't have gone to visit Tobi. His emotions had been messed up.

"I wouldn't have known all these stuff if I didn't. It's not palatable to the ear," he said.

Getting home, Chimaobim saw his mother happy and whistling, with a broom on her hand.

Read " A Tale of Five Bandits " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. He flashed the soft smile at her and she smiled back. Whenever he smiled, his dimples bared in a cute way. "Hey, Chim, come in," she said.

Mama had prepared a peppered jollof rice and fried turkey to celebrate his admission to the university. Chimaobim loved peppery food. Mama would always tease him if he was a Yoruba boy for his fondness for peppered food. "I made your favourite food and it's peppered. You'll love it," Mama said.

She hit the head of the broom, bent down slowly and continue sweeping the passageway. "You'll see a covered plate on the table. It is placed on the top of the tray. My UNILAG boy," she said smiling. She had been calling her, "My UNILAG boy" since he got admitted to the school.