SANTA MARIA HIGH (COMPLETED)

Part two: 4

Mrs Rosalind paced the floor of her living room that night, she was lost in thought. When she finally had to courage to lie down, she left the light on. The names the girl had called reeled again and again in her head.

She could hear Hope Mark's hoarse voice. When She closed her eyes, she could see Hope's sad face turn towards Anthony, pleading. The woman turned, she was facing the window, through a silt where curtains part, she could see stars twinkling soundlessly in the dark unconcerned sky.

"Badmus Kenny, Andy John, Tobi mascot... and John Dike..." she could hear Hope's voice again. "you are next, they want to take you, don't let them... Louise Junior, the shadows..." those were the exact words she told the boy.

Anthony Laurence had looked dumbfounded, Madam Rosalind wasn't happy, but she knew better. Her rage wasn't justified, but anyone who knew what she knew would be somewhere in the zone she was. The girl was listing all the students of Santa Mariah High that had died since 1997. Madam Rosalind remembered those names, their young faces too. Each had been good students; each had been in her music class.

Then there was the mention of Louise Junior... and shadows. Rotten cheery atop the unsavory cake.

She had known Hope to be a good girl-students rarely impress her, but she had-and Madam Rosalind had liked her.

Somethings felt unexplained, Spooky even.

For a girl who spent the night in a school hall, it wasn't hard explaining that she wasn't at the peak of Mount health. She was traumatized. She had sleep walked. She had Malaria, everyone knew cerebral malaria induces hallucinations. Still, there was something unnervingly eerie about it all. All Madam Rosalind needed to see was her lying there scared, surrounded by students who should have known better, then the thoughts came reeling in torrents.

Madam Rosalind had thought of Louise Jr then, when she saw the girl staring into space, no, the thought was actually about how she felt then, that dark day he hung himself, how she was there staring dumbfounded. As if on cue, Hope mentioned Louise Jr and made mention of all those names. 'Spooky' comes close enough.

That was the longest night Madam Rosalind knew ever since the year began. She went back down the living room, got herself a cup of water to drink, few hours later she had to use the bathroom, then back on the bed staring at the ceiling... and the fan rolling...

There, she asked herself the million-dollar question the principal had asked Mama Nosa, and the guards at the gate. A question that Malaria doesn't come close to answering, a question she paraphrased in her own way, "how did she leave the hostel that night and no one noticed?" Mama Nosa and the security guard couldn't give the answer. The security guard was sure that when he checked that morning the gate was still locked from the inside. And Mama Nosa confirmed that she was the one to open the door to her wing that morning. She had the keys with her through the night.

"so you mean she walked through closed doors?" the principal had angrily asked. "is that what I am supposed to believe?" even with all the rage and threats, no one had come up with a working theory yet.

When she got tired of tossing around on her bed, she stood up mustering courage and walked down to the living room. She listened to enya's latest album, while she simply hummed and walked around pondering on the Santiago family history.

The first Santiago to set foot in Nigeria-long before the Marques de Pombal abolished slavery in Portugal, or the American 13th ammendment-was a slave trader. Then came his children after him, one of which bought this land from the local chief who willingly parted with it for a fair price. This land had belonged to the Santiagos long before the royal court of Portugal was moved to brazil in 1807.