OPEN DAY
It was a beautiful Monday morning at Divine International College, every student was looking neat and tidy and the few dirty ones have been separated and booked for punishment. The Monday morning was not just beautiful because the sky was beautiful, it was beautiful simply because it was the day tagged open day when parents and guardians come to check their ward’s performance. Every class teacher was ready to receive as much visitors as possible and so was Mr. David, the class teacher of SSS2B, the class that comprised the Art and Commercial students as they were popularly referred to in the school.
Johnson was with his classmates on the assembly ground trembling for joy within because he was so sure Mr. David will give good reports about him, within him he was praying that his caring mommy should not be too engaged to forget about the open day because he wanted to brag about how beautiful and loving his mom was but then, he was ready to understand his mom should she not show up due to her ever busy schedules and so he was in a dilemma of whether to pray for her not to come so she can have much time with her business on which their survival depended since no family member was ready to shoulder any of the responsibilities of late Mr. Jegede or to pray that she comes. After the traditions of the assembly have been properly carried out, students were dismissed to go for their first period before the open day will commence proper.
Over at Mrs Jegede’s shop was an allegation that has led to a very major argument between Mrs Jegede and her neighbor at shop 3, over the fact that Mrs Jegede was seeing Dr Aina who happened to be Mrs Aina’s husband. The argument later died down after much persuasions from the third parties present. The allegation has been as a result of Dr. Aina always asking after Mrs. Jegede and being a very beautiful young woman in her early thirties who has lost her husband in the early years of their marriage, everyone seemed to believe Mrs. Aina more, coupled with the facts from previous allegations from Mrs. Jegede’ customers which of course were mere assumptions because Mrs. Jegede has never cheated on her husband even when late.
The argument was over and Mrs Jegede was once again back to her loneliness since her only company just fought with her without listening to what the helpless widow has to say, which automatically meant that there would be no gossip and gist today, as they have always done as friends before Mrs. Aina decided to allow the third party to have influence in their relationship.
She was about to start packing her goods outside for display when she remembered it was her only son’s open day, the secret product of their early marriage and the only thing that has been keeping her happy since the untimely demise of Jegede who lost his dear life in a plane crash few years after the birth of Johnson and their happy marriage. She became confused on what to do because she was to meet up with some orders the same morning, and after considering her options, she decided not to go for the open day since any parent that did not show up will be called to be given same report she would have been given if she had gone for the event physically, and so she decided to stay back with the hope that she will soon be called before the close of the day or perhaps after.
Over at school were parents and guardians trooping into the school inside different exotic cars. Each parent was directed to the classrooms of their wards and the school all of a sudden as expected became noisy as there were many activities going on at the same time.
Mr David was exhausted after attending to every parents that came to have reports about their wards. Some parents tipped him for the hard works in bringing out the best out of their wards, he was able to gather fifteen thousand naira during the open day. The money that almost doubled his monthly salary. He became curious as to why Johnson’s mother did not show up. He called him to ask of his mother’s number which he enthusiastically and willingly gave.
After the school hours, Mr. David who was in his late twenties was ready for home but with no personal means of transportation, he had to go with the public transport, he could have taken motorcycle (okada) to avoid the usual attention he always get from the young female students and even female teachers, both married and single but because he had little money left on him and was not ready to spend the tips he got anyhow, he was ready to dance to the tunes his handsomeness has created for him.
Getting transport from their school at Opa was not so tedious especially during the closing hours when students will be trooping out to go to their respective houses. His rented self-contain was just some buildings away from Tentacle filling station at Lagere Ile-Ife, which meant that he was in for a long short journey back home.
At phase II was Mrs. Jegede waiting patiently for both the return of her beloved son and the electric power supply which has been taken for the past four hours, it could be worse some other times but with no choice most of them have already adapted to it and above all got themselves generators, an alternative source of electricity. She was done delivering cakes to the people that placed orders earlier and was attending to the customers buying drinks and snacks, it was obvious her mindset was not fully on what she was doing as there were many cases of her giving too much change and bringing out the wrong drinks. It was very simple, her mind was on the arrival of her child which was taking longer than usual and Mrs Aina who could have been of help has just fought with her over a mere rumor that she did not bother to listen to what her friend has to say.
Just as she was about attending to the last customer on the queue at exactly 5:00pm, there was a loud pandemonium as some students of Divine International College Opa with some other students of the neighboring schools were being rushed into the teaching hospital – an accident just happened.
Mrs. Jegede became even more restless as she started making moves to see if her child was among them or not.
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