Shattered Gift

This was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives; it was the day they have all dreamt of in the last five years.

Late November 2012, Jane was

a freshman in the university who was trying to find her way around the gigantic

administrative blocks of the university with a folder having her admission

documents. She looked pacified and nervous; it wasn’t really had to spot such

feeling from a fresh man. They were nicknamed “October

Rush”, due to their hasty nature to meet up with the clearance and join

classes after their admission in October.

Same would be said for Jane,

she joined a queue where she had spent hours waiting to be attended to, only to

realize she had been in another clearing office.

She decided to come out and

catch her breath after she concluded her day had been wasted. First, she didn’t

even know how to trace the actual location for her clearance and secondly, it

was just fifteen minutes away from 4 p.m. which was the official closing time

for public offices. She made her way to an eatery which was not far from the

school senate building.

She placed an order for a

plate of rice and plantain and a bottle of Coca-Cola, after her order was

served, she put her hands inside her handbag, only to find out that her purse

where all the money she came out with in the day wasn’t there anymore.   

At first it felt like a joke

to her; she had to empty the bag only to realize that a part of hear Ankara

made bag had be slit. She could not bear the stress of the day anymore. She

broke into tears while the mid-aged woman who was waiting to be paid for her

service was seriously ranting.

“Why you go come order food

when you know say you no get money? Na which kian rubbish be this now?”

This woman kept muttering

abusive words as she pushed the plate of rice she dished aside.

Jane sat down in total

confusion, she looked at students sitting in their clusters in the chairs set

in the eatery while she saw many joking and raising their voices amidst the

loud sound blaring from the loud speakers kept adjacent to each other in the

four-cornered eatery to make their point or in other to win an argument.

She wondered how they could

be that happy in a demanding environment as she found herself. That day, she

felt like going back home. Within her she concluded there was no way she was

going to survive in that environment. She had over a month to stay in school

before going back for the Christmas break.

Thinking about these hunted

her peace and she felt so weak and depressed not to mention the woman’s abusive

words she heard.

She was lost in her thoughts

that she didn’t notice when someone sat by her side.

“Hello beauty, what’s the

problem? You are looking out of this world.”

Jane seemed to have been

called back from a trance. She raised her head and saw a young man with a

stature she would refer to as ‘broom’ rather than ‘slender’. He was handsome in

his Afro hairstyle and well dressed in a blue T-shirt and black trousers. Jane

noticed all he was putting on within a few seconds glance. All of that didn’t

really matter to her now as she was trying to mourn her predicament.

While the young man persuaded

Jane and seemed like he wasn’t going to leave her to her situation. She quietly

said,

“Please sir, I don’t want to

sound rude. But I am not really in the mood for talks and I need my space to

sort myself out please.”

“Hey! Even at that, it won’t

be bad if I know your name and the department. Just that alone, I would be ok,

pleaassee.”

While Jane tried to open her

mouth to reply, the woman at the eatery left behind the counter where she was

dishing food, walked towards Jane. This time more furious and it seemed like

she was coming for a fight.

“So you no go pay me for the

food abi? And you get mind sit down here? Na today you go see madness.”

While the woman had attracted

so much attention to the table where Jane and the young man were sitting, he

eagerly stood up and interjected, “Madam Calm down now.” 

“No just tell me to calm

down. Which kian thing be this, na she come ask for food. She no know say she

no carry money before she come ask me to put food for am?” the woman replied.

By now, tears had gathered in

Jane’s eyes and her eyes had turned blood red. She could not utter a word as if

she tried to speak she was definitely going to burst in tears.

The young man asked the woman

the cost of what Jane had ordered earlier and paid her off. There was a little

sign of relief in Jane’s countenance. Even though strength had gone from her

but she put a faint smile as she said, “Thank you.”

Her unknown guest requested

that they leave that premise and locate another eatery up school. And while

they were leaving he quickly added, “My name is Raymond but I love to be called

by my pet name Ray, a final year student of the department of Mechanical Engineering.

But you can call me ‘superman’ though, because I saved a soul today.”

Jane who unconsciously

listened to this stubbornly persistent young man had her attention grabbed when

he mentioned “superman” for saving her face from the day’s disgrace. She laughed

out hard and replied, “Hey, don’t be so proud quickly. But, thank you

superman.”

Ray further questioned, “Am I

going to know the name of the person I just rescued now or should I still fight

for it?”

“You aren’t going to give up

are you? Anyway my name is Jane.” she replied.

“Which department are you?

Definitely you are an October rush.”

“Mr. Superman I think you

know enough about me today. Am not interrogated, am I? Besides, what do you

mean by October rush?”

Ray replied, “Okay”, pointing

out to the file she was carrying he said, “This file is the passport of every

freshman. Very obvious and this school has so designed it that freshmen are

easily identified with during their clearance days; they are the ones we refer

to as an ‘October Rush’. As for you department, I think I would fight for it

then.”

“O! I see, is that the box we

have been confined to as freshmen. Hmmm… is that why the system wants to

frustrate life out of me. Almost every office I had been to today have me queue

and the least time I spent in all these queues today was fifteen minutes.

Tell me why this school is

way backward? In this twenty first century, one has to move from one location

to another carrying a file to be attended to. I don’t think I can make it here;

I should be applying for another school by next year. Besides, with what had

happened today, it is obvious the school does not love me.”

It was while Jane had

finished her last sentence that she came to realize she had spoken more than

she had anticipated. She battled with herself wondering why she had opened up

about how she truly felt to a stranger she just met. ‘Anyway I needed to ease

off a little’, she thought.

Ray replied her, “You are not

the only one who had felt this way about the school or said what you are just

saying. Some three years ago, I was there and I know exactly how it feels. In

fact, I ran home after my first day in this school as their student and I never

came back until January the next year. But the truth is, it is not easy

anywhere, any place you think is better, if you can research to locate any of

their student, they would also tell you it isn’t easy with them over there. The

true strength of a man or woman is known in his or her time of adversity. If

you are a coward, you chicken out but if you are stout hearted and courageous

enough to face life you fight your challenges squarely.”

When he was done speaking,

Jane gave him a suspicious gaze and didn’t say anything. Ray quickly asked

jovially, “What?!”

And Jane added, “Is there a

department of Motivational studies in this school because I think their student

is here.”

Ray laughed and said, “That’s

what we do here to keep ourselves going. I promise you, you would need a lot of

it before you can survive every bit on the way here.”

They had discussions as Ray

gave her much tips on how she could navigate her way through school and what

she could likely expect. He categorized the departments in the school as

‘Devil’s Quarter’ and ‘Earthly People’. ‘Devil’s quarter’ in his terms where

departments with tough set of lecturers while ‘Earthly people’ are the

departments that were more humane than the Devil’s quarter.

That was when Jane mentioned

her department unconsciously,

“What of Biological Science

department? Which category do they belong?”

That was when Ray quickly

interjected, “So you are a Biological Science student. I told you I was going

to find out, and in less than ten minutes I have my answer without a fight. I

told you.”

Jane smiled and felt caught

off her guards. She wanted to reply with an argument but she rather said, “Ok,

you have won. I bet you have your way around everything. I am a Biological

Science student.”

Ray made a mocking smile and

then replied her question, “Those guys there are confused, just go home and

pray for idea on how to relate with them.”

Jane unconsciously spanked

Ray at his back after he had replied her. 

***

While the pastor pronounced

Ray and Jane as man and wife at the altar, Ray recounted within him how

difficult and patient he had to be to get the woman that was becoming his wife

at this moment to be.

After the first day Ray met

Jane in that awkward circumstance, he walked her home. After then Jane kept

avoiding him, even when he goes to her department to look out for her in the

year one lecture auditorium it was usually not fruitful. He actively looked for

her for three weeks as she did not give him her phone number on their first

meeting even with their so many exchanges of pleasantries.

It was very obvious Jane was

uptight and not so free with people, most especially strangers.

On a fortunate day, he

finished from lectures and saw Jane speaking to someone in the department a few

steps away. Coincidentally, their eyes met and she ran after him, he could not

imagine what he was seeing.

Jane walked up to him and

greeted him. She wanted to apologize but Ray shunned her by saying, “It is

okay.”

Jane was not so conversant

with Mathematics, she had come to seek Ray’s help in the ‘Set’ topic been

taught the. Set was not a new topic in Mathematics, she had met it in secondary

school, but 'MTH 101' seemed different this time she thought.

She didn’t really know who

she could ask to help her out and while she was battling with her thoughts, Ray

came to her mind, but she knows she had not been so nice, yet she decided to

give it a try as Ray was both an Engineering student and an older student as

well.

Both she and Ray made their

way to his off campus residence and she was not disappointed. Ray always had a

way he built her confidence and made her mind ready to fight back at

challenges. He hosted her so well and they discussed across many things.

That was when she opened up

to him, that after their first meeting, he discovered he was once the Students’

Union public relations officer she didn’t want to get close to him, so that

people would not assume she is following him because of influence and power.

Besides, she could not handle being in the eyes and mouths of many students as

she was already developing something for him.

While they were deep in their

conversation, Ray began drawing closer to her but she didn’t make a move until

Ray gently brought his lips to hers and began kissing her. He took his hands to

her breast and caressed her gently.

All of a sudden it seemed as

if sanity came back to Jane and she pushed him aside, took her book and ran

off.

***

While they were at their

wedding reception venue, Ray discovered that Jane’s eyes kept going to a

particular table where two men and a lady was sitting, she was unease and at

that point she began to lose concentration.

Ray called her out but she

wasn’t replying until he tapped her and she jerked, he asked her, “Are you ok?”

She quickly retorted that she

was fine, aside the fact that her head was aching.

Ray didn’t argue with her,

but he kept observing her body language. She was physically terrified when he

saw these set of persons walk up to them to spray money while they danced.

From their reception venue to

the hotel where they lodged after, Jane was almost trembling though she

pretentiously tried to be in control of herself. But Ray knew there was more to

it.

Ray had asked Jane what the

problem was but she had kept denying until there was a knock on their door. It

was Ray's younger sister, she sounded urgent and hasty, “Bro, mum wants to see

you urgently.”

He looked in and told Jane

that he would soon be back, but before Jane could say something, he was off and

banged the door.

Jane kept hitting the bed,

she couldn’t tell what the urgent summoning was about but something told her

things were not normal. She began to recollect her incident in her first

semester with the group she had seen earlier at her wedding.

And while she was in deep

thought, Ray came in with a brown envelope in his hands, his eyes were red and

the veins in his forehead were visible at this point.

When Jane saw he had an

envelope and his facial expression, her heart sank deep as if she knows already

what was in the envelope.

The rage could be felt in

Ray’s voice when he asked, “Who is Terminator?”

Jane fell back to the bed as

she began to stutter, “I..I..I can explain…”

“You better start explaining

you harlot, you made me believe back in school that you are a virgin. That the

only man who would have it was the one you were going to get married to, you

told me. You made me wait this long only for me to be played?” Ray said.

Tears began to drop from his

eyes while he said so.

“Baby, I am sorry. It is not

what you think. I am….”

“Would you start explaining

to me now or should I quit this marriage? We haven’t gone far, so, there isn’t

much to lose from here.”

Jane began to cry and she

began to recount her ordeal.

“It happened last year. I had

this practical I needed to do off school and I have to pay for it first. Then

you travelled for African leaders’ fellowship in Ethiopia. You know our

communication wasn’t active in your two weeks there. When I reached out to

home, they said I should be patient until the coming week. But I had barely

twenty-four hours before the deadline.

I reached out to my roommate

who suggested I meet Terminator, since he had been stalking me for a while.

Maybe he would help out as a means to impress me.

 Being desperate, I

didn’t give the suggestion a second thought and went ahead with it.

When I called him, he

promised he was going to help me but I should come and take the money from his

apartment.

He came out to cross his

hands over my neck though I pushed him off immediately.

Then he attempted to rape me

before giving the money to me but I pushed him out from me and ran. Baby I am

sorry, that was the only thing that happened between us.

If you can remember that

after you came back, I was avoiding you. I was battling with guilt but I never

mentioned it to you.”

Ray asked, “Did he sleep with

you? And do not try to lie.”

Jane replied, “He attempted

to, but, no, he didn’t.”

“Jane, I don’t know you to be

a cheat or a liar. But you abandoned me because after that day in the room I

made an attempt on you. I had to plead for weeks. You made me feel terrible and

bad those weeks I was apologizing.

And here I am, with someone I

felt I had known so well all these years; but you have beat my imaginations,

you are a chronic liar and cheat.

If what you are claiming now

is true, why haven’t you mentioned it to me all this while?” While Ray said

these words, he was raising his voice.

He threw the envelope he had

at Jane. She opened it and saw two pictures from the envelope, one had her

lying stack naked with Terminator and the other was where Terminator had his

hands on her neck.

Ray opened the door and

bagged it heavily while he left.

Jane tried to explain more,

but by then it was too late.