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!!!