There’s a student I haven’t been seeing for sometime, though she’s not in my class. I asked another student who’s her friend about her and she said she too hadn’t seen her. She didn’t know if the girl had traveled or if she was feeling ill and she hadn’t visited her in weeks.
I asked her if she knew the girl’s house, she said yes. It was close to my house.
I said after school, we’ll go check on her. She said she was going to market after school and that she would come to my house after she was done and we would go together.
I have her mother’s number so I called her mother to ask for permission and she said no problem.
When the girl knocked on my door, I came out and we immediately headed to the other girl’s house. The weather was changing and I didn’t want to get caught in the rain.
We got to the girl’s compound and the first thing I saw was a small poster on the gate… “Beware of Dog”.
I paused.
“They have a dog?” I asked the girl.
“No Ma. They used to, but it d ì è d… since. And it was even a small dog. That one dey use to call 𝑨𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒐” She replied.
“Are you sure?” I asked her.
“Yes, Ma.” I come here all the time. There’s no dog,” she assured me.
“When was the last time you came here?” I asked her. I wanted to be doubly sure.
“Last two weeks, Ma.”
It was recent. Good.
We pushed the gate open and walked in. She pointed to one of the apartments in the compound.
“That’s her house, Ma.”
But we never got to the apartment…
Because out of nowhere, a dog (ekuke breed) came running towards us.
The girl who was in front of me vanished. As I turned to run towards the gate, I could see her flying out of the gate. It was like magic.
Only God knows where I got the strength from to run out of the gate and the wisdom to jam it shut behind me.
I hadn’t even finished catching my breath when the girl reappeared from nowhere.
“Ma? I hope you are okay?”
I didn’t reply.
“I think one of their neighbours bought a new dog.”
I didn’t reply.
“Maybe we can come back later in the evening?”
Me:
