Tolu's Dilemma

Tolu’s Dilemma

Tolu’s journey to the psychiatric hospital had begun a long time ago but did not materialise until the bitter end.

Tolulope Haleemah Ajoke was the daughter and only child of the renowned business mogul, Alhaji Sulayman Olawole. He had four wives but none could give him the fruit of the womb despite many visits to the best doctors and hospitals the country has to offer. The diagnosis is always the same; they were all fit as a fiddle and only time is stopping them from getting a child.

One by one, the wives left him but only Kudirat Ashake stood her ground that nothing would move her from the house of the man she had known for twelve years. Hence, Kudi, as she was fondly called by Alhaji Sulayman, the erstwhile last wife became the one and only wife in his home.

One morning, a year after the last of the wives had left; Kudirat woke up beside her husband feeling sick. She was having this headache which refused to subside, she even felt as if she wanted to vomit.

“Alhaji, I am not feeling too well o,” she told her rousing husband.
“Woman, am I a doctor? You better head to the hospital and don’t bug me with your sickness story.”

With that he got out of bed leaving his wife and prepared for his place of work. Kudi got up grudgingly and dragged herself to the bathroom in preparation to visit their family doctor.

“Doctor, I woke up this morning feeling seriously unwell. But surprisingly now, I feel agile,” she told the doctor.

The doctor did the necessary questioning and examination. She knew the result will blow Kudi’s mind out but she said, “I will conduct a test on your urine sample, please come back tomorrow and come with Alhaji.”

With that, Kudi left the hospital wondering what could be wrong with her and as well necessitate the need for her husband to come with her the following day.

The next day, the result was handed to Alhaji Sulayman. He could not make a sense out of it after staring at it for close to ten minutes.

“Doctor, I cant understand what is written here o,” he lamented.

The doctor smiled and said, “Alhaji, the result shows that Alhaja is eight weeks pregnant. So, she needs lots of rest and little stress.”

“Doctor! Pregnant! Rest! No stress abi? All she will get!” said the jubilant father-to-be.

Kudi could not believe her ears.

” At last, Alhamdulillaah!” she shouted.

Seven months later, Tolulope was born.


Tolu grew very fast. She did everything at a fast rate which was why at the age of 15; she was out of secondary school and in one of the country’s private universities, studying Economics.

By twenty, she was through with her compulsory national service and working in one of her father’s companies.

Tolu had been brought up the Islamic way and had adhered to it all her life. Her father had made sure she never dressed too flashily and her mother had made sure too that she attended the Quranic school to familiarise herself with the doctrines of the religion. That was why she even joined the Muslim Students Society that was newly established while she was in school and never joked with the attendance of its programmes.

It was at the one of these programmes she attended while in her third year that she met Kola. Kola was a youth corper serving in the local government area where her school was located and had seen the mosque used by them as a chance to receive frequent lectures for the nurture of his soul.

He had approached Tolu after the programme and introduced himself in full name.
“My name is Yusuf Kolawole Akande. I am a corper around here. I just started attending this programme. Please could you help me with the society’s schedule sister…”
“Meet the P.R. O in the brother’s side and he will give you all you want,” Tolu had said and politely walked out on him.

Kola persisted and after two months of trial, he had hit the jackpot and Tolu had agreed to be his friend. The friendship had migrated into love and the love had blossomed into a romance which promised to become marriage.

Tolu had remained very faithful to him all through her educational career. One year after her service, at the age of twenty one, she had gone abroad to study for her Masters degree and Kola had patiently waited till her return.

Kola had luckily got a job immediately after his service and all had been going well between them. Both parents had known each other and all was set for the marriage between the two.
Tolu had looked towards the wedding ceremony with all gusto. It had been fixed for the third day after her birthday; both of them shared the same month, July. Kola was 15, Tolu was 21.

Kola and Tolu had decided to settle on the mainland for easy access for both of them to their places of work; kola works in Ikeja while Tolu heads her father’s establishment in Surulere.
Days rolled into weeks and months. Tragedy struck three weeks to Kola’s thirtieth birthday. He had been to the mechanic workshop to drop his Honda CRV for repairs.

He was going back to his office aboard a Danfo and had called his sweetheart that he would be coming to her office for both of them to go home together; they had practically been living together.

He sat beside a drunken Policeman who had refused to pay the conductor of the vehicle claiming he was a ‘staff’. The argument had become escalated when everybody had said that the Policeman should pay saying that it had been announced that nobody in uniform was a staff.

Kola had laughed all through the action and all of a sudden, the driver had stopped at the next bus stop to support his conductor and collect the fare from the armed policeman. Kola had watched for a while before checking his wristwatch to see that he was late for Tolu’s office and it was nearing time to pray the Asr prayer. He decided to leave the bus and board another one.

He had walked only a few distance when he heard a gunshot behind him. He looked back to see that the Policeman had shot the conductor who was previously holding his trousers. The drunk man didn’t stop at that, he handled the gun menacingly daring anybody to near him to the exasperation of the shocked passengers. Kola felt pained as he saw the conductor in the pool of his own blood with nobody trying to rescue him from the jaws of death. He was pained and went back to the scene and bent to carry the limp body of the shot man. As he dragged the man shouting for help, something snapped in the Policeman and he shot at the conductor again.

Kola did not know what hit him at the back, he just felt something give way in him and he heard everybody shouting. He felt faint and dropped the man he was carrying before hitting the ground himself.

Tolu’s ringing phone brought her out of the small place where she prays. It was Kola’s ringing tone, she smiled as she picked the call but the smile soon disappeared as she heard that her beloved husband-to-be was dead before reaching the hospital. She screamed and went limp. It was her secretary who called her father who rushed her to the hospital. By the time she would wake up after three days in coma, she had lost her senses screaming “Why! Why me!”


Tolu never thought she would be a patient of the National Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. But here she was!
Anytime she passes along the road in either her Toyota Avensis 2009 model, en-route Oyingbo, or in one of the numerous Danfos plying the route, she feels pity for those I the four walls of the hospital and prays that nothing in the world would bring her into that gate facing the popular Yaba  market, except visitation.
Dr. Abdul Hakeem came in for the check up and found her staring into space. She had been like that since yesterday. It’s a good sign and a big improvement from the first day she was brought in three weeks ago when all she could say was “Why me? Why me?”
He had come to develop a kind of bond with her.
“Tolu,” he said, “It is time for the Asr prayer.”
“Thanks Dr. Hakeem, I will join you now,” replied Tolu.
She came out of her reverie and headed out of the room for the toilet where she cleaned up and made her ablution before going back into her room for her prayer.
One hour later, he was back as had become his practice these last two weeks to begin his lecture to her.
“Tolu,” he called.
“What is your muslim name?” He knew it but the doctor in him got the better of him.
She smiled before saying, “Dr. Hakeem, I am Haleemah.” Then she added, “I told you I am perfectly fine now.”
“Then why have you been sitting up, not talking to anybody and always staring into space?”
She sighed and looked around the room that had been her home for three weeks. Her father had made sure she was in the private ward, all alone and far from the maddening general ward.
The room has a lonely bed, a bedside cupboard, which houses her provisions, and a single plastic chair on which Dr. Hakeem was presently sitting.
“Doctor, I am presently in a dilemma,” she said.
“I lost something or say, somebody, which was why I was here. I am now well as you said, can see and know but I am feeling that I am attracted to someone else. Dr. It confuses me!”

Dr Hakeem blinked and swallowed hard. He was afraid, but why, he knows not.
“Haleemah,” he said. “Can I call you that?” he asked.
“Why not? It’s my name.”
“Dr,” she continued, “When I got here, I knew nothing, but when I began to know something, I told Allaah to heal me up and guide my heart. I told him to forgivr the dead and lead us the living. Dr, the truth is that every minute, I become more convinced that my heart is right. Allaah has chosen the one to pacify me. And I am convinced that he is the one. The only cause of confusion is that I don’t know how it will sound if I tell him.”
“OK, Tolu, ask HIM for guidance,” the doctor said, more out of confusion that out of knowledge. His heart was beating wildly. He could feel some cords snapping in him. He doesn’t know where the conversation was leading to. His face became coloured.
“He brought you here for a reason, Tolu. He knows what we know not. Right from our mother’s womb up till our graves, he knows what lies in between the two as our daily lives evolve and we die gradually. So, ask him for guidance and like I always say, you will be discharged soon, most likely tomorrow, so when you get home, seek His face as you have always done and make it all known to Him. I am sure He will direct you.”

Tolu smiled. This man just knows what words to speak to cool down her fears. His profession is all in him and he is all in his work. She was more than convinced and she was more convinced that the best time to speak her mind is now.
“Dr Hakeem, He has directed me and has led my heart to its destination. You are right when you said my being here for these while is for a reason. I don’t know how it might sound to you, but I have to tell you that you, Dr Hakeem, is the one I am talking about. You are God’s choice of a husband for me and Kola’s replacement. You are he.“

The words stung his ears. Dr Hakeem couldn’t believe his ears. He wondered if he had heard right.


What should Dr. Hakeem do?

The Scare!

You had been warned several times about its reality. You had been told that it had engulfed millions and it is still ravaging hundreds of territories. Yet you turned a deaf ear to it. Until...

You had grown up a very careful boy and a well-groomed lad. An obedient and trustworthy boy you had been all through your growing years, I mean your primary school. Your secondary school years were not so different. You remained your careful self. The type they called ''mummy's boy''. You were always afraid of anything that goes beyond the playmate level with girls. You were naive when it comes to that sensitive issue of sex. Your mother must not hear of it, you often say to your randy friends.

Then you, the mummy's boy got into the University! You were now the cynosure of all feminine eyes. The ladies tower around you. It is not difficult and it was not surprising to me. You had the looks and the brains needed not the cash! They all buzz around you for different reasons. They were mainly your course mates and a little faculty mates. All with beautiful bodies and great faces that turn many a head. Still you kept your cool. You took them one at a time, helped with their courses and nothing more than that. Various gratifications were offered but you only took the cash ones. The kinds, you left. Tongues wagged about you that you 'can't do' but you paid no attention to them. You were still your mummy's boy!

All along you have been hearing of the scourge called HIV/AIDS. You were well aware of it. You were not ignorant of it, but it did not bother you for a minute. It can't come to you, you had said to me one day. You had always been straight and careful and I never disputed with you. You also added that you were a voluntary blood donor, a fact which was never hidden from me. So you never cared a hoot about it and lived your life the way you had been living it.

Then you graduated! That day you were ecstatic! Later on, you were called up for the National Service. You were now called a Corper! Nobody cared to know your real name. You were posted far away from home, the first time in your life. You began service to your fatherland still holding to your previous mentality about the opposite sex!

Then one day, your C. L. O. (Corpers' Liason Officer) was announcing that there was this corps member who is conducting HIV test for her fellow corpers, one of which you were. He had said that it is good for you all to know your status in order to protect yourselves. There and then brimming with confidence, you raised your hand that you want to be tested. Nobody except you wanted to be tested! You were so confident that the result would be negative!!!

You took the test with the corps member on that cold and rainy day. She took a drop of your blood on this chemical coated cardboard that had been made for the purpose of that testing. Minutes later, she wrote something on a small piece of paper gave it to you and said that it is your result. You looked at it and were shock founded. I saw it on your face that what she wrote was Positive! You asked her why but she said that that was what she could read on the test cardboard and advised that you go to a lab for confirmation or otherwise. You couldn't believe your ears but you thanked her and left the room!

Then you became troubled. You couldn't rush to a lab because you had no money! You had no money because you had not been paid your monthly allowance. You started thinking. Could it be true? Could there be a mistake? There had to be a mistake. But where could you have gotten it, you asked me, as if I know. Then you remembered your little mistake after your final exams before you became a corper. That girl in your area! That girl who was head over heels in love or lust with you! That girl who was desperate to have you! That girl you almost slept with! Almost doesn't kill a bird, so they say. But you didn't sleep with her but you kissed, smooched and romanced her! Could you have bitten her during one of your kisses? You were confused. Your heart beat like a frenzied drum in the hands of a mad drummer!

Then you remembered that you left her when you found your heartthrob. You were old enough to have one, you had said. That other girl forced herself on you, you had also said. Moreover, this is the lady you want to get married to, I could remember you saying again. Your first and last love you had called her, the girl, sorry, the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, I could also remember you had said when you met her. That also was before you became a corper. You had done some things with her too but not ''sleeping with things''. Could it be from her too? You had queried me.

But you had your own clipper and cutting things, you do not share them with anybody, so how on earth could you have gotten it? You wondered mostly aloud when you were alone. People see you as normal but you know that something is burning right under your cloaks! Your B. P. was on the rise. Migraine came in. You contemplated suicide. All because of that result! You couldn't have it, it couldn't be true, you had always thought. You were straight, you haven't slept with a woman in your life, and apart from those mistakes, you had always been careful with ladies and other things, you had said!

Then when you thought of the right way to end it all, it flashed through your mind that you had donated blood to the N.B.T.S while you were at the Orientation Camp. That was three months earlier than now, you said to me. The next date for your donation is this present month. How you wish you had money! You still had not been paid! Why is everything or everyone conniving to punish you? You queried me. The donation centre was not very close to you at all. But you had no option but to wait for money to come in. You said you would ask them about the result of your last donation. This will let you know if it is true or not, you had said. At least you had hope, you thought- A little ray of hope!

Then at last you were paid! You ran to the Centre. There you were told that your last donation had been used and that you were 'CLEAN'! You couldn't believe your ears! There and then your soaring B. P drastically dropped and you laughed. A hearty and throaty laugh. Your first in weeks! They didn't know and didn't understand and you didn't tell them why. You donated again, left and thanked God, your Creator that you were free. You prayed to Him to make remain so. But all the way home, you were happy and glad that it was nothing but a SCARE!!!

Linda's Cross

Linda’s Cross

She looked like a weather beaten she-dragon. She was exhausted; tired was an understatement for what she felt in her body. The night had been very eventful for Linda. She had told her friends that she was not going to the party but after many coercions and sweet mouthing’s, she had followed them to the party on the island.

Linda was a final year student of UNILAG. She had been admitted to study Mass Communication and she had faced it squarely till she got to her third year in school when tragedy struck and her father died. He was not ill for a moment; she had gone home as usual to collect her up-keep allowance which he had refused to send through the normal route – the bank. He had claimed that he was too busy to go to the bank for any transaction. His timber business was taking much of his time. Linda understood and went home to collect the money. Home was not really far – they lived in Ore.

She had returned to school and was relaxing on the fifth day when she saw someone who looked like her father pass by her hostel. She got up to check the person out but could see no one. She resigned to her fate and went back to her business from where she slept off. She was woken in the morning by the loud ringing of her Blackberry Bold 5.  She picked it to hear the sobbing voice of her mother explaining to her that her father had given up the ghost that morning. He had slept normally and woke up normally. He only complained of a headache then slumped on his way to the bathroom. She and the house help rushed him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. She had refused to cry all through the burial but nowadays, she cried when she remembers the role he had played in her life.

After his burial, his family members came and read the will and took what was given to them. But such could not be said of his business partners, those who he had listed as his debtors refused to pay and Linda and her mother were left with just the house, her mother’s supermarket and a monthly stipend of a hundred thousand which the partners pay as his continuous share in the businesses he did. The stipend later ceased to come as they all claimed that the organizations aren’t doing well and they had to fold up.

Linda was soon to discover that her mother strained and struggled to keep her in school. The supermarket was not yielding much profit to cater for her numerous needs apart from her school fees. Unfortunately, she had not paid her third year’s fees when tragedy struck. That was paid soon after the settling of the court cases they had entered into with her father’s partners and she settled back to face her studies.

One rainy afternoon after her lectures, she had called her mother for her monthly allowance and she had been told to wait till the next week for it. She reminded her mother that she still had not given her the ones of the previous month; her mother said she knew but that sales were not that much and she had to settle her creditors. Linda was perplexed. She had nothing to eat and she needed to buy one or two textbooks. Such was the tears in her eyes. She wept and wept till her eyes became sore.

Sandra came in and saw her crying and offered to help since none of Linda’s predicament escaped her. She paid for her textbooks and gave her some cash to keep in her purse after she had bought some foodstuff for her.

Linda had never liked Sandra, though they were hostel mates. Sandra was a lady whose life style was too flashy. She had a different tale for everybody who asks her how she lived her life and got the cash she throws around. She was the daughter of a senator, she also was the business man’s daughter, she had said too that her parents lived in the states and even said that she had a boyfriend who lives in Aso Rock as an aide to the president. Such was Sandra’s status in school that Linda doesn’t like associating with her. But here she was collecting things from her and even going out with her on shopping sprees.

By the end of her year three, Linda and Sandra had become friends and they went to parties together. Her education had taken the second seat and began to suffer. She only read to pass exams and hardly troubled her mother for money again. She was always on top of the situation and sees her mother’s help as secondary. Linda changed from the easy going girl to the go-go happening babe.

But one day, she was invited to a party on the island and Sandra and her other friends had told her days before that the party was going to be hot. She had prepared and had assured them of her attendance but that morning she just had a feeling which she could not explain. She decided that the party was a no go.

Night came and the others came for her but were disappointed to find her not ready. The y began the pleading, pressurising, and what not till she dressed up and followed them to the party on the island.

They got there around 10:00p.m. All was bubbling and life was at its highest level. The DJ was dishing out the latest hits from his twin speakers that were arranged at either end of the hall. The hall itself was in a hotel which was not too popular in the state. As they entered, Linda looked around for any tell tale sign of trouble but could find none. She had been told it was the birthday party of one of the school’s big boys.

By 2:00 am, the party was in full gear. Dancing, eating, smoking, smooching, and all others were in full swing. People never cared that they were being watched nor seen. They all rocked themselves to the fullest. Linda was not feeling too merry; she just sat where she was observing events. She watched as Sandra and the others moved from men to men getting touched and what not. Nobody noticed her in the corner where she sat and she was grateful for that.

Trouble broke out at 3:00 am when the celebrant was shot squared in the chest. He was the points man of one of the notorious cult groups on campus and had been on the other group’s wanted list.

His group went berserk and in less than two minutes, gunshot sounds filled the hall and people began falling like a pack of cards. The members of the two groups began ‘falling’ one another. The shooting became indiscriminate and guests took some bullets in their shiny and sweaty bodies.

Alcohol cleared from Sandra’s tipsy eyes. She began searching for Linda who didn’t wait for any of her friends. The heels she wore had been discarded in the race she ran out of the venue. Her tight skirt got shredded as she tried climbing the fence of the venue since the gates had been locked and no one knew where the keys were. Moreover, the security men there had become so stoned that they fell into a sleep of death.

Sandra jumped the fence and got her skin torn in the process. She saw Linda running like one who was possessed by the spirit of Usain Bolt. As she tried calling out to her to wait for her, a stray bullet hit her on the forehead and down she went.

Linda heard her friend’s voice calling her to wait for her, she slowed down and turned back to encourage her to run. She heard her complaining about her torn skin as she run then she saw her hit by something on the forehead and she saw her as she went down. Linda stood momentarily dazed and as she saw more and more people run out of the venue in search of escape and as she saw some of them step on her friend, she took to her heels and ran and ran.

She eventually got a car to take her to Yaba after she had been turned down by many others she had flagged down. She trekked the remaining distance between Yaba and her school. She flung herself on her bed and went into a fitful sleep immediately she entered her hostel.

She woke up at 8:48 am to the true reality of the previous night and she burst into fresh tears…

The Rape

The room was cosy. It was very warm. The day had been very moderate with the rain cooling us up after a hell of sunshine.

I was rolling lazily around on my bed. I had no roommate, thanks to my mum who had insisted that I lived alone. She had spared no effort in making comfortable in school. I begged her to let me live in the school hostel but she vehemently refused and got me the one-room apartment, which had a toilet and bath en suite, I lived in throughout my stay in school.

I am a fourth year student and I have just been raped by a girl. How? You sure asked. Come along and see.

I was not the only child but I was the only male child she had ever had. She had three females who all died in their second year. Then she had my elder sister and she stayed. Then she tried again. Alas! Another girl! Then I came.

She told me that they were both jubilant when I was born; she and my father. My two elder siblings loved and showered me with all care and affection but mum made sure I was not spoilt.

So I was cared for but not spoilt. This I think was responsible for my lack of time for the female folk. Anything beyond a normal handshake and the reciprocative reply, I am out of it. I had more male friends than females but I had more female enemies and admirers than males. I never knew till it happened.

What made me brilliant, I never knew. Upbringing? Nurture? School? It still escapes me. I just grew up to know that I never came second in the terminal examinations. I represented my schools at the local and international competitions and won many personal and collective laurels for both myself and school. I had many friends and admirers. Still, mum made sure it never got into my head.

Then I got admission into one of the country’s private varsities and thus started my woes.

I got admission into the university at the age of sixteen, when most of my mates were still battling with their school certificate examinations. I was admitted into the school, which boasted of up to date facilities, to study Petroleum Engineering for five years. I loved challenges and took up this squarely hoping to continue my wonderful trailblazing form.

What announced me in the school till now is still a wonder that escapes my imagination. I began my educational career as low as possible making just two friends, Kunle, a second year engineering student living in my hall and Tola, a course mate.

All was going smoothly for me till the first semester of my sophomore year.  I never answered questions in class and I don’t stay more than five minutes after my lectures for the day had ended. I was a ‘triangular-life styled’ student. I leave home to class, class to the library, and library back to my home in town. Once in a while I go to church. My prayers are said in my room. 

First I noticed the girls in our class trying to get close one after the other and innocently, I allowed them. They all had one intention as they said; to study with me and increase their G.P. I had no problem with that because Tola even was benefitting from my large store of knowledge as he called it and had told me more than once that I was his saving grace in our first year second semester exams.

I became a teacher to different sort of girls and it never affected me an inch. My room became a sort of Mecca to all girls in my class and our level for tutorials in our departmental and general courses. Nothing do I need from them and nothing do I collect from them. I was more than comfortable.

Gradually, they began sleeping over in my room, especially when we have pressing assignments and exams to write. I had no ulterior motive towards any one of them. It was purely educational and platonic. Anywhere I moved to on our small campus, someone must know me and call my name. I was very popular and this did not go down well with me. Yet, there was little I could do about it.

Then a new girl joined us at the beginning of our third year, her name was Sandra. Sandra was a tall, lithe, and beautiful. She had the right things in the right places and got even my almost celibate self out of my self-imposed exile. I could even had tried to say something in the line of asking out but she was older than I was and not really my kind of girl.

Sandra was a social rat who hardly had time for studies. She was known by all within the first three months of her arrival in school hence, I kept my distance from her because I am a recluse when it comes to being social.

Then Sandra came to me one quiet afternoon in my room. I was napping when I heard a knock. I was shocked because I had told everybody that I would not be entertaining any guest for the day. I opened the door and saw her standing there smiling like one who had won a jackpot. I could have stood there for eternity if not for her voice that I heard.

“Won’t you allow me in?” she asked.

I shifted and she came in confidently and nodding her head as she assessed my room. Then she said,

“You are surprised at how I knew your place. I know whatever I want to know and I get whatever I want to get. You are comfortable for a brilliant boy yet you live like a pauper. You must be from a rich home. Come and sit down now.”

Her voice jolted me from the spot to which I was riveted and I moved slowly to my bed where I sat absentmindedly not shifting my gaze from the enigma in front of me.

“What is it I can do for you Sandra? And why come uninvited to people’s homes?” I said finally after I had found my voice.

She scoffed and said,

“I am sorry for not telling you before barging in unto you, but that is what is called a surprise. Then, to my reason for coming. I want you to help with my courses; I need someone to explain things to me and you fit perfectly into the picture. That’s why I came. Can we start immediately?”

I was not surprised at the request, I knew all along and that day we ended up covering five courses together and by the evening of the day, she left for her house which I knew not till date. I actually made it a point of duty not to visit any lady in her house for the fear of the unknown.

Sandra became a friend and she was the only lady who would pop into my room unannounced since she knew that I hardly travel home. We chatted, discussed things in general and she told me about all her secrets. Things that were unknown to anybody.

Then on the last day of the semester, Sandra dropped the bombshell.

“I have noticed that you have no girlfriend in this school. You also hardly make calls to any girl except your mum and elder sisters. Why?”

“My bag and books are my girlfriends and I don’t need to call them since they are always with me. I am still too young for such; I need to face my books for now. And moreover I have not seen any girl that I like on campus.”

“So that means you are yet to be with any girl since you were born.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“What if I tell you that I would like to be your girlfriend and would like to have you even if it is just for a week?”

“Thank God you haven’t said it. You just think of it. My answer would be no anytime you want to say it. You are not my kind of girl and you are even older than I am, so, let’s face it, you aren’t good for me,” I had said innocently and bluntly.

She took it calmly without making a fuss of it. Then we went on the holidays.

At the start of the new school year, I began avoiding Sandra. I slept less in my room and stayed more with Kunle and Tola. All meetings between us was limited to the class, library and once in a while the front of my room.

Our third year went fast and uneventfully and I was once again grateful to gallivant around the homes of my mum and married siblings.

Year four began and Sandra began to try again to get too close but I kept to my old schedules. Then one day…

Rumours were rife that there was a ladies cult in our school but nobody paid any attention to it because we had thought that since we had no male cult group how would the females form such a society.

It was one of the days that I had to sleep in my room. I had old Sandra in the afternoon that I wanted to travel and I would come back the next day and she had wished me a safe journey.

I had just finished my assignments and reading when I heard a tap on my door. I was afraid because of all my neighbours, only Kunle was aware that I was around and I had told him I would not like to be disturbed. I opened the door to see Kunle sweating profusely. I wanted to ask him what was wrong because he had an air conditioner in his room and there had been power for three days, when I was shoved into the room with him by four masked figures holding different kinds of deadly weapons. Two were holding locally made pistols and a butcher’s knife each while the other two were holding chain saws and a belt with nails or rather pins on them.

These figures pushed us in and onto my bed then bolted the door. They then began laughing hysterically as they saw us sweating like sallaah rams under the air conditioner. Then one of them spoke,

“Why are you two sweating? Now you will be saying you are men. Sit up!” We scrambled to our feet and sat again with the speed of lightning.

They were females but what came out of my mouth was;

“Please sir, what do you want? I have money at home and I have new textbooks you can sell. Please sir, spare us. Spare our lives. We would do whatever you want.”

If I had known I wouldn’t have said that. But who wouldn’t say such, I never knew what I was saying.

One of the girls laughed;

“So even after hearing our voice, you are still using sir for us. Maybe we need to let you see us. Lest I forget, you said you will do anything we want.”

“Yes sir! Yes sir!!” chorused Kunle and I.

Then they removed their masked and when I saw their faces I must have passed out. It was Sandra and three other girls in our class.

After they must have revived me, Sandra said,

“Is this your mum’s place you said you were going? Since I told you of my affection for you, you have been avoiding me. Am I not beautiful enough? Or are you impotent? Whichever one, I intend to find out tonight with these sisters of mine. Remember I told you that whatever I want, I always get it. I want you and I am getting you this morning.”

It was like a dream to me. I didn’t believe my ears. The other girls nodded their heads in agreement and before I could protest they asked me to lie on my bed.

Expertly, they undressed me after sending Kunle out of the room. When I had become as naked as I was born, another girl whose name I know not said,

“You have been running away from it. You have been keeping it for a long time, it’s going to feed today. Maybe you think it’s a joke. These guns are loaded and are not for fun, any funny move, you might end up telling your tale in the grave.”

Evidently, there was little I could do. As they tried to tie my hands and I struggled but Sandra slapped my face with the flat side of the knife and opened my window and the mosquito nettings a bit and shot the loaded gun which sent shivers down my spine.

I was tied hands and feet and laid on the bed like a sacrificial lamb. The four of the laughed sarcastically as they looked at me naked and pleading with tears in my eyes. They had become stoned with drugs. The female cult really existed in our school.

One by one they undressed and played with one another before mounting me the object of their play. Sandra started and did not leave until she was tired. The others took turns till I passed out again. They woke me again and continued till I passed out again…

By the time I woke up, my mouth was gagged and my wrists and ankles ached from the tying. I looked around, they were gone. They left no sign. Kunle came and took me to the clinic where I was treated but I couldn’t say what happened.

I cant go to school since that day and it’s close to two weeks now. The girls came after that and dared me to tell the Police which I was too ashamed to do. I know I have to go back to class and pray none of such happens again.

And now as I roll around on my bed, the event of that night keep running around my head…