Sister Deborah

EPISODE 5: BABY STEPS.

#SISTER_DEBORAH

Author: Samuel Frederick

EPISODE 5: BABY STEPS.

__________

I returned home that night with a troubled, weary mind. I wasn’t able to sleep despite how hard I tried.

Images of the incident between Deborah and Annabel kept flashing into my head persistently. I was downhearted and utterly disappointed with the turn out of events. At first, I didn’t know whether to blame Deborah, myself or Annabel, but now, I took a sizable portion of the blame upon myself. I realized now that I was at fault—but not entirely—because I should’ve heeded Timi’s warning in the first place.

However, on a very regular day, I would’ve obviously pleaded with Timi to accompany me to Deborah’s hostel so as to sort things out with her, but unfortunately for me, it was already quite far too late now. It was part of our rules and ethics in the campus that after a certain time in the evening, no visits between the male section and the female section of the hostels were welcomed. So, I didn’t see that idea working out for me.

Eventually, I made up my mind not to tamper with the Infinix Hotnote smartphone that Deborah had given me until I see her the next day and reconcile with her, amicably.

Slowly, fatigue took over my weary eyes and I soon fell asleep, hoping for a better tomorrow.

__________

First thing the following day, my troubling thoughts woke me up. Being a Friday morning, unlike other usual stressful days, we had limited lectures in our departments and I was delighted. Timi and Fatai were still sleeping while Hakeem was awake, standing next to my wardrobe. He was oblivious of my gaze on him. Slowly and gently, he opened my wardrobe and took out the polythene nylon which contained Deborah’s phone.

“Well done!” I said loudly. Loud enough to make him shiver with fright.

“Chineche good mo-morn-ing!” Hakeem stuttered as he turned around to face me, a startled look on his face.

“What are you doing there?” I stood up from the bed and walked to him.

“I was looking for…comb…my comb!”

“And since when did your comb start lodging in my wardrobe? Hakeem, better respect yourself o. Don’t let us start again this early morning.” I hissed and collected the nylon from him, then I placed it back in the wardrobe, took out some clothes and shut the wardrobe with a padlock.

“Who even dash you phone sef? For your mind now you don hammer o. Werey.” Hakeem babbled, but I ignored him and took my bucket and towel and went outside.

One minute I was in the bathroom freshening up, and the next I was back in the room fully dressed. I clutched my bag across my shoulder and checked the time, which was now 6:32. I still had time, so I sprinted out of the room and walked as fast as I could to make it early to my faculty.

Along the way, I caught sight of a familiar handbag and a butterfly-designed dress worn by a lady from afar. I squinted my eyes to have a better view of her distant figure, and true to my expectation, she was indeed the actual person whom I had in mind.

I increased my pace at first, until I started jogging, which then resulted in another sprint. In no time I covered the gap between the lady and I, then I shouted:

“Deborah!”

I was right behind her, contemplating on tapping her shoulder or not as she catwalked fast. I realized she had earphones in her ears, hence her inability to hear me. Divine on the other hand, who was also walking beside Deborah, had heard my call clearly.