They said I should know better, some wanted me to report to the porters but I wasn’t sure how that would get me my money back. I knew it had to be one of them but I wasn’t psychic.
Deola came in the middle of the furor; I hadn’t seen her all weekend.
When she heard what happened, she told me not to worry about it.
She asked me to come with her, I did and when we got to the hostel entrance, she gave me over three thousand naira. They were One Hundred Naira notes…she had a bundle and just grabbed like half of it and handed it over to me.
I was dumbfounded, I almost didn’t want to take it but
she wasn’t going to debate it…she didn’t even ask how much was stolen.
I didn’t
know how to thank her, I almost knelt for her.
She then gave me her phone because I had mentioned that
I wanted to call my mum with part of the money that was stolen. She told me to
bring the phone to her whenever I was done with it
“I don’t know what to say” I said as I fought back my tears
“Don’t worry
about it…I really like you. You are a pretty girl” Deola said as she walked
away
I didn’t quite understand what she meant but that
didn’t even matter at that time.
I quickly dialed my sister’s number and It was so nice
hearing my mum’s voice…I wanted to continue but didn’t want to be greedy so I
had to end the call and return the phone to the owner.
It was as if that incident officially cemented our
friendship…because we became closer from that day. She would ask me to go to
the buttery with her and would pay for my food. She even gave me some clothes
and shoes. I couldn’t say no…they were so nice compared to my own clothes. She
was going to throw them away if I didn’t want them because she needed more room
for her new clothes.
Deola was the first person to ever take me to a salon
to fix my hair and I couldn’t believe my eyes afterwards.
“Na me be this?”
I blurted out…Deola laughed and told me she’s always seen me as a beautiful
girl and all I needed was a little polishing.
At this point, I had told her the story of my family
and how I grew up. She told me she wasn’t from a well to do family either but had
learned to fight poverty with all of her being. I was shocked to hear this
because Deola looked like those people we called “butter”.
The next time sister Grace visited, she was shocked to
see me…she couldn’t hide it. She said I had changed a lot and was looking very
beautiful. She wanted to know what was happening but I quickly allayed her fear
and suspicion. I introduced her to my god-sent friend Deola. My sister thanked
her until it was almost becoming embarrassing.
The gifts kept coming, I was like a new person on
campus, like a complete makeover…boys started to notice me and I had a lot of
them daily pestering me for a relationship. I was still on my war against men
so none of them could "penetrate" my heart.
Because of the sanitary state of the hostel bathrooms,
it wasn’t long before I caught something…it started with an itch and I went to
the health center. It was really bad; I had to take a lot of antibiotics and
was told to get rid of all my panties. Who would buy me new ones? I thought to
myself and because I failed to do what the doctor said, the infection lingered.
Sister Grace had to come over with a new set of panties for me. After I got
better, I hated those bathrooms with a passion and would rather sneak around at
night to relieve myself in the bushes.
About half way into the semester, on a Thursday
evening, I was in the room studying for a test when Deola told me she was
travelling to London for the weekend and would see me on Monday. I was a little
confused because as far as I knew, people that get a chance to travel abroad
should never come back. Why would anyone travel abroad for 3 days? I didn’t
know how much it cost but I knew it had to be expensive.
Deola returned to school on Monday evening and she
brought me a lot of stuff…I was scared to collect them because they were just
too much. She said she discussed me with her uncle that she travelled with and
he had sent the gifts to me.
I might have been unexposed but things were just not adding up…how could an
unemployed undergraduate that already told me she’s not from a rich home have
so much?
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