The Externals...Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven...Nowhere to be found

In one of the uncompleted rooms in Halima's grandpa's home, we later turned off the radio and started making plans for the singing contest. We had already rehearsing "Little Drummer Boy" by Pentatonix since we planned on singing it for our school carol before it was canceled so we didn't have to argue about the song to pick. Our only regret was that the boys didn't join us. Still, we weren't bothered because that could be easily solved. Master Ken, who led our rehearsal then lived close and we were nice to each other.

For proper identification, we decided to use our school uniform as the outfit for the contest and wear Christmas hats on it. To lessen the cost of the trending items for everyone, Khadijat offered to go get it at the market in bulk, making everyone promise to give her their money by the end of the week. Kaira also tried convincing the girls to buy the same pattern of shoes and bags, to stand out among other girls at the contest ground but we all turned down her suggestion. There were still many other things we needed money to cater for.

Transportation would have been another issue that would have given us heartache if John's Dad wasn't a member of the National Union Of Road Transport Workers. Right in front of us, John called to inform him about our outing and he agreed to help us, especially after hearing our sad and helpless voices. Another client had already booked him to take her and her business associates to a party venue so he had to cancel the plans made with her for our sake. He even had to return the money she gave him.

Even though John's Dad offered to take us to the contest ground for free, we still had to contribute money to fuel for his bus and buy food to energize his body as well. For all we know, a hungry driver is liable to get dizzy, make one wrong move and put everyone's life at risk. It was also a good opportunity to show him how grateful we were for what he did.

After finalizing our discussion, everyone started heading in the direction of their homes. John and I also passed through the same route we took when we were coming. During this period, I didn't hesitate to ask him why he had to drop out of his former school since it was far better than GMC. In response to my question, he told me the reason he had to do and even move to our area was that his Dad lost his job as the assistant managing director of a big Architectural firm because the owner's niece who just graduated from uni needed a job. He tried looking for another job but couldn't find any and had to turn a driver.

I felt bad for reminding John of a painful experience. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I were to be the one in his shoes. From the ends of my teary gland, tears were pushing to come out but I had to control them so Pa. James wouldn't blame himself for it. Seeing my change of countenance already resulted in him giving me a pitiful look when the reverse should have been the case. He was indeed a kind-hearted and caring person. I couldn't wait to see him throwing his uni mortar board in the air happily. I couldn't wait to see him in his well-laundered army uniform, ready and prepared to serve the motherland however it takes. I was so sure he'd do great as a military person.

A loud knock drove me out of my bed the next morning. I had expected it to be from the woman my aunt usually buys pap and moi moi from on days she feels like taking it. The knock could have also been from my uncle or the 'Kokoro' hawker who lives directly in front of our home and sometimes looks up to my aunt for food to feed her family but it wasn't. Bene's very own Sukurat from Grace Model College was the cause of it. Seeing my sleepy face and weak legs was enough to draw out a nice smile from her ugly mouth.

"Oh, senior. I'm so sorry for disturbing you", She said remorsefully, but still had that stupid smile on her face. "I didn't think you'd still be in bed by now"

"It's okay. I was just about to wake up", I yawned uncontrollably."Why are you here?"

"I wrote a poem concerning the topic we'll be talking about", She ransacked her bag for the shit of paper containing the write-up.

"Are you sure you brought it?" I was already getting pissed for having my sleep tampered with for something irrelevant.

"I'm sure I brought it h..", Sukurat heaved a sigh when she finally found it in her pocket and passed it to me." Here it is".

"Ok", I took it from her, with no intention of deriving fun from whatever it is she wrote but I was left stunned by the time I finished reading it.

The poem went like this;

Never Come By Sukurat Alimi

The color of his skin which is as fair as a fairy godmother,

Bring multitudes of blushes to my overwhelmed lips,

The tenderness of his voice in motion,

Makes my heart beat like happy drumsticks.

Watching him wallow in tears feels like the end of the earth to me,

I always want to be there to celebrate even the little wins with him in a grand style,

I feel capable of handling his hearty needs,

I want him to perceive how my atrium leaps for joy whenever his voice draws near,

But the traditions of the land will spit at me if I ever trail that path..

So, I have to sit and wait for the right time to do so,

A time that can either be too late or never come...

"This is amazing!" I said unknowingly.

"Are you sure?" She said shyly."I think the ending is weak and the spit word".

"It's okay, I swear. You did very well", I high-fived her.

Every ounce of anger I had for Sukurat disappeared because of the nice poem she wrote for the trip. Still, I envied her ability to come up with something as nice as that. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with one that was as good as hers so I had to give up and render her all the support she needed to memorize hers perfectly. Apart from the poem, we also came up with other points that are relevant to the topic we planned on speaking on and made Master Yemi evaluate them. While doing this, he removed the unimportant ones since we had a limited amount of time to spend on the mic.

Two days to the day we were going to visit the radio station, I had to go to the market in search of a pink dye with Omma and Khadijat. One thing that refused to go out of my head as I did so was that I once vowed never to use it when a former female senior nicknamed Vickie was introduced to the school. Some of the reasons why I did so was because it made the dirtiness of her uniform's underarms more apparent and most importantly, she was kind of wayward so everything she did was considered wrong. I was forced to dye my school short sleeve shirt because it had faded. The poor shirt needed renovation after more than two years of rain and sunshine. And that was only the beginning!

My too-nice Omma also allowed me to put on her Sunday shoes for the trip because my school shoes had too many patches. As if that wasn't enough, she came to my house early to pack my hair and style it with the two pieces of hair clips I.D just got for her. The guy kept giving me reasons to stop opposing the relationship between them and fall for him if possible! Lol, just kidding. I'd never break the sister's code!

For the first time, Bene got the courage to ask for his mom's permission to go on the trip, so we didn't have to go beg his mom on his behalf that morning. As early as 7 am, he was already waiting for me to come out of my grandma's house, so we could walk to school together to meet the rest. His hair which was always left tangled looked properly combed that day, and the rubber sandals he used to wear were replaced with a pure black shoe, made with leather. In addition, he had the scent of an expensive man's perfume. It was nothing like the cheap ones he was used to. I almost couldn't believe it was him!

"Ehn ehn.Aza, so you can be fine like this and smell nice on top. He be like say God don wire your aza truly oo", I didn't bypass teasing him during our walk to school.

"Are you kidding me?" He pretended to be angry at me.

"You suppose see Jess with this kind look. Na she sef go propose to you", I ignored his reaction and said to make us laugh.

"I've gone to see her this morning", He confessed.

"Hmm..sharp guy", I patted his shoulder.

"I think seeing her will make my day better", He smiled.

"Good", I cleared my throat which must alert him of my intention to change our subject of discussion."So where did you get the money to buy the perfume? Don't tell me you've joined other boys to be doing Yahoo!"

"Of course not, Lily. Why would I do that when I know my mom will murder me once she finds out?"He said innocently.

"Still, you boys of nowadays can't be trusted", I pushed him to say more.

"There's no need to panic, Lil", He looked me straight in the eye. "A relation of mine sent it from London"

"Oh. That's good. I'm so jealous of you right now", I whinnied.

"Don't be. I can't even be the master of my gift. It's in my mom's custody", He complained.

"Oh..pele, dear(sorry, dear)" I consoled and mocked him at the same time. He didn't take any offense because of the atmosphere we both were in. The trip meant a lot to us. It was to prove to our junior ones that we weren't as useless as they thought. It was to live behind a legacy that will never be forgotten. It was still to make our club the center of GMC's attention.

Our bus driver experienced a delay on his way to our school because there was a major road construction going on in the area in which he lived, so we didn't get to take off the time we wanted. Apart from that, Sukurat who used to come to our meetings early didn't make it at the agreed time. Unfortunately, she didn't have a phone so there was no way we could reach her. Through her class attendance book, we were able to get the contact of her guide and tell them our plight. They claimed she left home a couple of hours ago, and was supposed to have reached school.

To make matters worse, they went ahead to threaten to report our school to the local authorities if something bad happens to her. They threatened to tarnish the school's good image and make each of the lives of the students involved in the trip planning, especially me. They mentioned my full name and said lots of nasty words to me. And of course, the only person I could vent my anger was Bene for insisting that she becomes a member of our team.