Untold Stories

Untold Stories

        What I had been longing for was finally here. I was to work with Jason on my class project. It meant I was going to be spending a lot of time with him. I couldn’t contain my excitement. Jason was my crush, and try hard as I might, I was never able to bring myself to have a casual conversation with him. I always hid anytime I saw him coming at a distance. But today, Providence had brought us together. I sat waiting for him in the empty classroom where we had agreed to meet up and discuss the project. Immediately I saw him coming, I wanted to run, but something seemed to hold me back. He came and took a seat right next to me. That was the first time I had been that close to him. He flashed me a cute smile and apologized for his lateness. I couldn’t believe my luck.

“This must be a dream,” I whispered to myself. Hardly had the words left my mouth when I was startled back to reality by the shouts I heard.

“Thief, thief…somebody, help us”. “Awi oo,” I heard shouts of thief again, but this time in my native language. I was annoyed, scared, and excited at the same time. I was excited because my dream had been pleasant and annoyed since it had ended when things were getting interesting. I was also scared because I didn’t know whether the burglar in our house was armed or not. I rushed to my window and opened the windows slightly just in time to see the thief running for his life with a bag in his hand. I tried to see if I would recognize and make some mental notes about him for police investigation. He was tall, well-built, and was wearing a ski mask. He also had the usual all-black outfit that made it difficult for me to put a face to his body. Mob justice was a crime but stealing from others in the middle of the night was a greater evil in my community. We all knew that the residents wouldn’t hesitate to lynch a thief if they caught him.

               I observed in silence as the burglar struggled to jump the wall. I could feel that he hadn’t anticipated that anyone would wake up whiles he made way with what he had stolen. He threw his bounty on the street and finally jumped over the wall. I heard him yelp as he landed on the grass. He got back onto his feet and sprinted into the bushes. I noticed that he started to limp a bit as he got closer to his escape route. That seemed to satisfy me a bit. I looked on with the hope that one of the security men in the community would catch him and retrieve what he had stolen but today seemed to be his lucky day. When he was no longer in sight, I sat down quietly on my bed and tried to recover from the shock of what had just happened.

               The last time we had heard screams like this in the middle of the night was about five years ago. I recalled how we woke up to the shouts of young men who had caught one of the thieves. His accomplice had been very lucky and escaped the wrath of the sleepy-eyed young men wielding sticks. I looked on with horror and compassion from my window as they beat the life out of the young man. I knew him personally, and I couldn’t believe that he was capable of being involved in a crime like this. Eventually, the police got there in time and rescued him from the mob who were about to set him on fire. The event made the headlines for two days leaving many people debating for and against mob injustice. Fortunately for us, the incident had done us a lot of good because no thief ever ventured to steal from our community again. At least till today.  

As I sat on my bed, I realized I didn’t know what he had stolen from us. I walked out towards my parents’ room to find out what he had taken. I stood in front of the opened door and looked on in silence. My mother looked distraught, and my dad was sitting calmly in the corner of the room. They sat still for two minutes before my mum finally broke the silence.

“I don’t know what I’m going to tell my boss tomorrow. Why us? I just got this new job, and the first thing I do is complain about a stolen laptop. She went on and on, but I left back to my room and sat down on my bed.

“Why us?” I asked myself. Maybe we had been complacent, I thought. I remembered the numerous occasions where my parents had discussed safety measures against armed robbery. They had spoken about the barb wire fence, Cctv camera, security dogs, and the list goes on and on. They never agreed on one. My dad thought the barb wire fence was dangerous. My mum felt the Cctv cameras were uncomfortable and, my little sister was allergic to dogs. Eventually, they decided that they would count on the expertise of the security personnel in the community and the once in a blue moon patrol of the community police.

        I looked at my wall clock, and it read 3:43 am. I realized I had to go to bed to catch up on my lost sleep. Even if half of our house got burnt in the middle of the night, I knew my parents would still wake us up at 5:30 to go to school. I lay down quietly on my bed and tried to sleep. I wondered how my little sister had been sleeping as peacefully as a log all along. I was comforted by the fact that no one was hurt, especially her.

        Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for school. I walked to school in silence. When I got to school, I saw him. The only difference was that he wasn’t in a ski mask and a black outfit. Maybe I was just being paranoid. He couldn’t possibly be the one. He was Jason, tall and well-built, with a slight limp he probably got while playing basketball after school. And even though I had denied it several times, he was still my crush.