The Second Path

Chapter 40

Despite it has been two days since the dangerous protest at the market square, people were still talking about it in school. The most tragic thing about it was that Abbas Hassan Ribadu's son died from that gunshot. This has made the Shia Muslims extremely angry. And the judge has still refused to release their imam.

Rumour has it that they might start a riot soon. But nothing has happened so far.

Noon flew by so fast and we were already writing our fourth test for the day, which was History test.

Mr Edward, who was our invigilator for all the tests in class, was walking around the class with his cane so that nobody would cheat. The class was perfectly silent and I knew if this had been Mr Zamani, he would have probably been helping us with expo.

Halfway through the test, I dropped my pen and cracked my knuckles because my hands were paining me from so much writing. I really disliked writing tests for subjects like History, CRK and Literature because you would have to answer most questions in details.

Before I could even get to the second question of the test, Hafsat was already asking for extra sheet. One thing about Hafsat was that no matter how short the test was, she would still ask for extra sheet. I wonder if she was telling stories in her answer sheets.

As I picked up my pen to continue writing, there was noise outside the classroom. I looked out of the class window beside me to see most students leaving their classrooms and walking around the school compound. Right in the middle of test period.

I was not the only one that was confused about the situation as everybody in class stopped writing and stared outside the window, wondering what was going on.

"Nobody should make noise." Mr Edward warned while walking to the door, "Let me find out what is going on."

The class door opened before Mr Edward could get there and our economics teacher, Mrs Markafi, barged into the class.

"Stop writing! School is closed for today!" She announced, "Oya everybody pack your things and go back to your houses now!"

"Hallelujah!" Simon shouted at the back, causing the rest of us to laugh despite we didn't understand what was going on.

"Hurry! Hurry!" She clapped her hands impatiently.

Everybody packed their things and started asking what was wrong. Jesus was surely answering somebody's prayer today.

I glanced at the time to see it was just 12:14 pm. Mr Edward went from table to table to collect our test sheets. Mrs Markafi stood by the door and continued with her announcement.

"Be careful on your way back home! Nobody should walk or use motorcycle! You must enter a bus or car!"

"Why are we closing so early today?" Fatima asked her as we were about to leave the class.

"Two secondary schools got burnt down this morning." She replied, causing the rest of us to be shocked, "This is a sign that there might be a riot today. Our shiite brothers have vexed and we don't know where their next target is. The Kaduna government has requested that all schools in Mansur should be closed down until further notice. Better hurry and leave now!"

"I'm scared oh." Mary Barau said to us while we were stepping out of the class. "How can we just wake up one morning and hear that there's riot in our town? I hope this won't be like what happened in Jos last January."