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…