The day finally faded into the night as the dark sky gradually took over the once bright and sunny day. We were happy because it was a Saturday night, the night to merry, eat something different from the usual palm oil rice and beans, have access to soda and meats, play some dirty and not-so-dirty games, dance away from our shoes till our limbs are almost numb, watch couples rock the dance floor and maybe get to see the beginning of a new couple. The last 5 hours on Saturdays used to be the most interesting night of all the nights I spent in boarding school.
So, the day began with the DJ announcing the start of the bubbly 5 hours of the day. ‘hello, 1, 2’. We knew right away that the fun was about to begin. In no time, girls trooped out to form a circle in their tight-fitted wears revealing so many beauties outside the usual grass-green coloured hostel wears. The boys with their mouth wide open looked to see who would catch their eyes the most to dance with while the ones with girlfriends subtly settled with their partners. The white bulbs were off, and the blue lights took over, but at some point, the lights were completely off… it was time.
DJ, stop the music!!! It was the voice of our housemaster. He repeatedly screamed before Olusola, our first-class DJ heard him and turned off the music and once again, the white bulbs were back to life.
I got here a few minutes ago, and someone poured Mucuna skin on my body, the housemaster said as he removed his big T-shirt from his body. Already, he was beginning to lose it as he stretched his not-so-long arms to itch his back, neck, legs, and head, and some of the students were trying to help him out.
Nothing will happen here tonight if whoever did this to me doesn’t show himself. Who did this? Who? What did I ever do to you? He roared. All these while, he was almost dancing. But with the help of some good students, he was rushed to the kitchen where the relief was to be administered.
Mucuna mucuna (pictured above) is the devil bean that will make people think whoever gets in contact with it is mad or crazy because the person’s body will not stop itching until a relief is rubbed on the body of the victim. What’s the relief? Palm oil.
The kitchen was just across the road, beside the girls’ hostel, so all of us ‘momentarily’ abandoned the dance floor and headed to the kitchen to help our housemaster.
Our housemistress who was inside came out to check the cause of the pandemonium and briefly heard the story of what happened. When the master was calm, she made the heartbreaking announcement, ‘all girls should stay back’. Apparently, there was no more social night for us. And, what’s a social night without girls?
You girls think I’m dumb? You think I don’t know what you did to me and my son? Hm? Who masterminded that? Who suggested it? She screamed.
Rewind…
About a week ago in the girl’s hostel, there were whispers. Loud enough for the people that were a part of the planning team, and very low for too-young-and-naive-to-understand girls like me.
The plan was to get revenge on our housemistress who would use us like slaves and wouldn’t stop using curse words at us at any slight provocation. So, the big seniors wanted to deal with her. So, they quietly planned.
They harvested devil bean in an abundant quantity, kept it and waited for the time when she would order them to fetch water for her and her only son. When they got the opportunity, they mixed the skin of the devil bean with all the buckets of water they delivered.
Innocently, she bathed her son with the water, and bathed with it also.
Back to the present day…
The clouds started gathering at this point, but we knew it wasn’t the clouds of rain, rather it was FIRE.
Despite the accumulating anger of the housemistress, none of the girls was ready to talk until our karma took over. In fact, he came with drums filled with FUEL literally.
The housemaster was back to normal, and he had left the girls’ hostel with the boys, but Femi who was our Karma crossed the quiet road back to the spot where the girls knelt for hours and said, ‘ma, I have something to say’. Right then and there, the seniors knew that Femi was their real enemy.
You can talk. I’m listening to you, the housemistress responded.
Apparently, Femi was the one who helped the seniors harvest the devil bean. He narrated how Kemi, Stella and some other 6 seniors asked him for help to deal with the mistress, how long it took them to harvest the bean, up till the day they mixed it with her water.
Ahhhhhhh. Feeeemi! We wanted to tell him to shut up! How could he snitch on people like that? He was supposed to be the man and keep quiet, yet because he was scared that the girls could mention his name, he revealed everything.
After he was done, the housemistress thanked him for his great service and his honesty and asked him to leave. She also asked all of us to go inside because it was already too late for a social night and the weather had changed from an exciting one to a sad and gloomy one.
We awaited our punishment, but it never came until the next Monday when other teachers were around. They invited all the seniors that were mentioned by Femi, but not without inviting FEMI first. Actually, his own karma waited for him in the empty classroom where all the teachers waited with thick canes to punish the offenders and match it with some memorable punishments.
Femi thought he was free because he let out our secrets by quickly removing himself from the plans, but guess who got the most severe punishment? FEMI.
His karma was Mr Niyi, a teacher that never liked him because he thought he was a notorious guy. In fact, he added fuel to the already-severe punishment he had gotten so that he would get more. *Laughs hysterically. *
The second image is mine.