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It was a sunny afternoon; the heat from the sun was scorching when we closed from school that day. We used to trek for about 30 minutes before we got home. Sometimes, my sister and I would wait for our friends who lived in the same neighborhood so we could go home together. It's usually fun because we always gossip and play on the road while going home every day.
One day, when we closed from school, we waited for others as usual. There were usually six of us going in the same direction, but sometimes we were fewer because some of us were able to get a free lift. However, on this particular day, it was only my friend and me who came to school. Most of our friends didn't come to school.
I wonder if it's because it’s a revision week. My sister was also absent from school that day because she was down with malaria. It was a Friday afternoon. When the closing bell rang, I backed my backpack and joined my friend.
When the school was out of view, she turned left; we were supposed to go straight, climbing a hill that looked like a road before the turning. When I asked her why she turned instead of going forward, she said she had a better and faster route she used to take while coming to school.
I wondered how she came to discover that, but I followed reluctantly. I'm used to the normal way we trek every day, and sometimes we get help along the way from bike men or cars going to my area too.
The road was shorter; I thought there was no hill until we reached a certain point. In fact, the height of the hill was higher than the initial one on the main road.
The road was lonely and scary. It was full of bushes, thorns, and a few unfinished houses. However, after climbing up, to my surprise, we found ourselves on my street. I was happy that at least the stress of trekking a long distance would reduce from that day.
The following week, we all came to school, and we had fun going home together on the new short route. There was a day when we were picking snails, and we didn't remember how stressful the hills were because it felt like a competition to see who could collect the largest number of snails.
However, I later stopped walking that road the day my sister and I had a bad encounter on the way. Our friends went to visit one of our classmates who was ill after school, but we were so tired that we didn't follow them. So, the two of us went home together. When we got to one of the unfinished buildings, we saw some men wearing black clothes and smoking. I thought they were kidnappers because cases like that had happened on the same route we took.
A young girl had been kidnapped and killed. I learned about the story when I told my mum about the new route, but I didn't worry too much because I wasn't the only one walking that way.
So, we walked past them, minding our own business when one of them called us to come. My sister didn't even answer. One of them, sitting by the window, jumped down suddenly and started walking towards us, shouting, "Come here! I say come here!" We had to run for our dear lives. In fact, that day we discovered another route by jumping into the bush and finding our way back to the main road that we were familiar with.
The men pursuing us went back when we made it to the road where people were passing. Students from other schools, market women, teachers, and so forth were passing by around that time too. Since that day, my sister and I never followed that road again. When we told our friends, they were afraid too, so we all went back to our best route, which is free of catastrophe.
Recently, I went to visit a friend who lives in my secondary school area. I took the normal route there by bike, and everywhere had developed so quickly. While coming back, I trekked a bit before getting a bike, then I walked past the spot that was a short route back then. I was speechless.
The road that was once a bush had turned into a beautiful street. No one would have thought that the place was a lonely, quiet road, which has now turned into a neighborhood and even has a name. I couldn't hide my smiles. It had street lights and a smooth, untiled road that linked to other places in town. No way sometimes means there is a way.
Thank you for reading.