Gangering Dobbelganger

I sighted the crowd from afar. The school gate is about two hundred meters away. I eyed my watch and it said 5:15 pm I was surprised and inquisitive about what would be causing the crowd at the school canteen. I increased my pace curious and eager to be part of whatever it is that is happening. Being part of any story is always interesting better than being told. The crowd was made up of students, the canteen keeper a woman of about forty-three. I was still about twenty feet from the crowd when I started hearing: "Why didn't you answer when I called you?" the man in traditional wear I was to understand within minutes of joining the show was local area police chief and the man the question was being directed to is school chief security officer.

My quick prodding made me understand that the officers showed up without notice and the real root of the problems was nothing but establishing authority before us the students to know who is who as far as security and respect in that vicinity goes. The officers were demanding respect from the chief security officers before his boys and us on that cool August evening. Both were seizing each other up when the police chief suddenly grabbed the man's neck pushing him inside the security room next to the canteen either to put fear in the man that is showing everything but fear or maybe to impress us students of his authority over our security paraphernalia or both. No one is sure. 

We know he can't do anything to the man more than he had done without incurring the wrath of the state and school authorities. The man being roughed up is in his territory performing his assigned duty. The officers are visitors that supposed to coordinate efforts with the security guys not send enmity signals to them.

When the chief security guy wasn't answering their questions more than with Yes and No, and occasional nod of the head, the officers decided that they had crossed the red line enough for the day, and they left with assurance to be back soon.

The problem they used as excuses which many found funny is that one retired civil servant Mr.Obi reported to them that the students of the institution were plucking without permission the man's Mango tree near the man's house and having warned them without success, decided to report to the officers who we suspected were so happy to find an excuse to come to the school and see things for themselves. Some were wondering how the plucking of mangoes would bring the police chief to the school and not send his boys. Another confusion that was gathered from the chief security guy after the officers left was what would happen inside town concerned security guys in the school?- where is the connection? That's probably why the chief security guy was fuming when being summoned by the police chief he suspected his visit had nothing to do with the Plucking of a villager mango. 

    He had watched the man approach and noticed how he was eyeing the female students and how thick his hi! hi! was to them, and "How are you today" to them was rinsed in shameless smiles must have found mango inquires insulting and decided to pass his disgust across to the man without opening his mouth. 

According to the story, Students living in the lodge not far from the man, Mr. Obi's house find mango trees about seven of them that lined up the farms beside the guy farm irresistible. The mangoes of many variations seem to be in full-blown the year many school students were admitted to that campus in highest numbers number since establishment and the retired man is not used to people tampering with his property let alone not respecting him when he warns them. 

     "Are you people crazy? Don't you know this is an economic tree?"

I am not sure the student has an economic or even hunger-quenching interest in that mango outside aesthetic temptation reasons. Too beautiful, too many, and too close to the ground that standing on the tip of your foot would net you as many as you want. Many families have every type of economic tree in that interior village like Mr. Obi and those trees are not fetching enough money in that village due to almost everyone having one and the poverty of the people. When his warnings are not producing any meaningful results, he conjures up what looks like juju and hang them on each tree after intentionally ranting and bringing the attention of the students to his actions. That was when the students out of fear halted nearing the tree but the village local guys interested in the girl students took the plucking job knowing fully well that the man was only scaring the students away.

One Chris his parents sent to the village from Cameroon to stay with his grandmother who finished his secondary education and was planning on rejoining his parents in Cameroon in a few months was the one who found the mangoes a cheap way of getting to the girls. He sneaked in from the neighboring village to pluck the man's mangoes quietly and off he went with them to the girl's dormitory. He had noticed that the girls preferred their fellow students to the village guys just for status's sake. He had decided that to challenge that notion, you need to dress like them, speak like them, and virtually walk in their steps. Cleanliness and a little English will up your taste among the ladies. Add a little fruit on season to the whole thing and you are almost at par with the student male guys. 

One village woman was on her farm one day doing her work when she spied Chris at work on those mangoes after observing him and seeing his dress and face concluded he was a student and could recognize him any time. That had been how Mr. Obi got officers involved in the Mango economic angle and how it constituted stealing.

After that chief of the police visit that drew a little bad blood with school security guys, the woman had been trying to prove to both Mr. Obi and the officers he had not fed them the wrong information.

One cool Thursday evening, I was strolling with my guys as usual when my route was blocked by a middle-aged woman who was shouting Thomas, Thomas, how are you today with a smile that confused not only me but the other three guys. I don't know you are now in this school. When did you get admission here?" she was rattling on and on without giving me space to tell her I wasn't her Thomas and I don't know any Thomas or her.

When I finally got my break and explained that I am James, not Thomas, you need to see her reactions. It was too genuine and I bought that act as original. We smiled after she said "This world is too deep. I can't believe people can look alike to the last dot. I will swear that you are Thomas" She flashed her apology smile again and we parted. 

Ten steps away from her, I was descended upon by about eight guys who kicked and head-butted, it was when I heard a clicking of metal on my wrist that I realized who my assailants were. A bus materialized from nowhere and I was pushed into it and off it zoomed. 

At the station, in line with unwritten law, I was shifted into a cell there. It was around noon the following day that my three friends entered with Mr.Obi, one village high chief, and two lecturers. I was still limping and after another round of threats, I was released into their care. The officers had asked the lecturers to keep eyes on me and warn the other students. The high chief was asked to keep look out for the guy people were describing as culprit. 

     Whatever they said about my innocence, I can see they did not fully believe. I can see they felt good for making an example of me to the other students and Mr. Obi and the lectures, I suspected they believed I was their man. But the youths of the village knew better than every other person. 

Two weeks after that, one village guy based in the city returned with his brand-new SUV and staged a party in the village hall there. Students were invited en-mass and village vigilantes were hired to foresee the security aspect of the party. I went with others and halfway into the show, there was a commotion at the back of the hall that halted proceedings for ten minutes or more. I was downing my drink with my guys, I never suspected that my clone was in the same hall not ten feet from me and I believed he never knew I was in there too.

   Am sure he never knew that viglante guys were after him or maybe that he is still being pursued. It was when they pinned him to the ground and people circled that I came in contact with the guy for the first time.

I confessed to myself that truly, people can look alike. I saw myself standing there staring into my own face standing in front of me who seemed to be surprised too eyeing me from toe to head over and over. Tall, lanky, hairs receding in front, dark eyes, broad nose that makes the face look a kind of sad even when happy. Everything from weight to height to everything except how we talk and walk. It was when I heard a voice beside me asking:

       "Are there twins?" 

That i returned to the present and the guy seemed to have returned too. Had those with him don't know him, had the student girlfriend don't know him, had his former classmates don't know who is who, maybe, to avoid confusion, I would have asked to return to the station with them for clarification.