Tag: Fiction
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The Outcast ( Page 7 )
A few weeks after my election as class prefect, we had exams. End of term examination. All desks were spaced out. No copying. And we were to take our bags outside the class. Our teacher invigilated. Before every paper, he would write the subject and the duration of the paper on the board. In the…
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The Outcast ( Page 6)
The noisemakers in the class wanted someone lenient, forgiving and easy to persuade as the leader of the class. Their long awaited opportunity finally came one morning during ‘silence hour’, when the headmistress burst into our class. The class was alive with mischief, chaos and noise. Surely we were going to be punished. Severely. Make…
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The Outcast ( Page 5)
Tuesday morning. Time for school. After staying at home for some days, my fees were finally paid. My siblings were lucky, theirs had been paid before those who owed fees were dismissed from school. Now, a certain picture was taking shape in my mind. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it…
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The Outcast ( Page 4 )
Our hair was a little over two months, and even lice that had lived in the bushy hair for so long were growing weary of getting lost every now and then in the thickening thicket they once called home. We went to knock on the door of our parents’ room. Without answering, they knew it…
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Enigma
Her attitude towards me and the gift she gave me. An enigma. I was leaving the country. A rather embarrassing exit. Things hadn’t work out like I hoped. But life goes on. As I stood at the bus station, about leaving in a few minutes, I hugged her, said a few final words and got…
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The Outcast ( Page 3)
I was finally home. Without changing my uniform, I went straight to the TV. Thankfully, my parents were out. Serving myself a steamy plate of jollof rice and a glass of chilled Zonkom, a local drink mother had made the previous day, I sat down to enjoy my meal and the nollywood thriller on Metro…
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The Outcast ( Page 2 )
Teaching usually started after 8am, right after morning assembly. And the hours before classes started, they were called “silence hour”. During this period, pupils who were present at school were numbered. The teachers on duty for the week would then storm classroom after classroom in the course of the day, fishing out late comers and…
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A moving song
My next-door neighbor. She was humming. A moving song. Never heard her sing. I lay on my bed listening, wondering what trouble kept her awake this late night, singing to herself. Suddenly, something drummed against my roof. Rain! Without warning? I rushed out to take clothes off the line and in the process, bumped into…
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One starless night
Dark melodies, playing over and over all night from a nearby cottage. Anna sat in their little farmhouse, attention fixed on Grandpa recounting dreadful tales best left untold, and hoping that evil spirits will catch a whiff of the incense mother was burning and be warded off. “For years she had no news of her…
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Fertile connections ?
To passers-by, this was luggage. To Awal, it was his destiny wrapped in a box, carried on his shoulder. What he once called homeland is now a stretch of empty hopes he’s given up chasing. Initially, when the idea of abandoning his shop first occured to him, he thought it was his impatience speaking to…
