GRACE KLUBI

DIARY OF A COLLEGE GIRL:

WHEN EVIL LURKS

EPISODE 2

Losing a parent had a way of making me more mature.

Suddenly, I wasn’t the pampered girl, or as we akans would say “ne tiri mu y3 ne d3”. I was more solemn and quiet, very slow to speak and quick to listen, as the good book said.

I arrived in school on the day when school reopened. I was the only one in the room as all of my roommates hadn’t reported yet. I had had to take a flight to school because my mum had a meeting on the day of reopening and I didn’t want to spend five hours alone on a road trip with the driver.

I got to campus around eleven o’clock in the morning which was pretty early because most students hadn’t arrived yet. As usual, I set up my bed in everything pink and lay down to take a nap.

The time was four o’clock in the evening. I woke up to loud knocking on my door. Initially, I was quite offended because the person had woken me up from a very deep nap. As the knock came through again, I got up angrily and opened the door, ready to yell at whoever had decided to break my door for reasons unknown.

I pulled the door open and before me stood a young girl.

She was huge. I prided myself in being bigger than an average girl standing tall at a height of 5 feet 7 inches but this girl was about 6 feet if not more. My anger diffused with shock and admiration at her physique.

I asked her what the matter was. She introduced herself as Hope, the sports president of the hall, and wanted to find out if anyone in our room was interested in doing sports.

Being one of the star basketball players in secondary school, sports wasn’t new to me. However, I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue, especially in the university. I looked at her, smiled.

“No, please,” I said. “I’m the only one here and I’m not really a sports person”.

She looked down at me with a quizzical look on her face.

“Don’t you want to try?” she queried. “Having an extracurricular activity will be an added plus to your CV oo.”

“Alright.” I replied. “Let me give it a go and see how it pans out.”

I put down my name and she promised to call me for their next training session.

I went back to lie down but was unable to sleep.

About two hours later, I felt hungry and decided to get something to eat. Since my daddy passed, I wasn’t eating properly. I could barely finish a plate of rice or a ball of banku.

The one thing I was eating were the granola bars so I had come with ten packets to school. However, that evening I suddenly craved noodles. I was happy at the idea of a craving. It meant my appetite had returned, so I immediately pulled on a T-shirt and some knee length shorts, held my braids in a ponytail and put my feet into my pair of African print-covered Birkenstock slippers.

I looked at myself in the mirror behind the door and had this feeling that I looked very basic and unattractive.

“This is probably the only time I’ve looked this unattractive since I came to the university.” I thought to myself.

I giggled at the thought of how much my appearance constantly mattered to me last semester. How times had changed!

I turned off the lights in the room and stepped out. As usual, to welcome the students back to school, there was very loud music being played in the hall. I walked over to the Queens hall food market and stood in line to buy my indomie.

Finally, it was my turn and soon I was holding a pack of noodles stir-fried with shrimps, beef, sardines, tuna flakes, eggs and sausages. I had decided to give myself a treat since it had been awhile since I actually craved for any form of food.

I bought a can of non-alcoholic malt to wash it all down and skipped happily to my room, salivating at the thought of good food.

On arrival at my doorstep, I noticed that the lights were on. I shrugged and assumed I had left the lights on. I opened the door and found my roommate Mari lying on the laps of a lady who I assumed was her friend.

If I didn’t know how much Mari liked boys, I would have called them lesbians. It was a very compromising position. The lady introduced herself to me as Anne. I introduced myself too and immediately went to sit on my bed and started eating.

On perceiving the aroma of the food, like a housefly, the lady came to sit next to me and asked if she could join my meal because she was starving. Well, who am I to say no?

I told her to pick up a fork and join me. We ate together to the last strand of noodles. As we ate, I noticed that whenever she was chewing, she seemed to be muttering inaudible words. I just assumed it was a figment of my imagination.

After we had eaten, she asked to take her leave.

Mari went to see her off and I decided to go have my bath. Around ten o’clock in the night Mari still wasn’t back. I noticed that she had left her key, which meant I had to wait up for her, but my eyes were very heavy. I decided to doze off with the hope that when she knocked, I would hear.

I was lost!

I was running from something chasing me and I had ended up lost in a forest. I tried to call my mother but I realized that there was no reception in the forest. My attacker was getting closer so I continued running till I got to the edge of a cliff. I knelt down and began begging my attacker to have mercy as I heard it come closer.

It leapt at me and I screamed shrilly!

I woke up covered in sweat. I was shaking badly and it took a while to calm down. I quickly pulled my Bible from under the pillow and clutched it to my chest as I began reciting Psalm 23.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. God is with me” I said repeatedly.

I finally calmed down and checked my time. It was three o’clock, dawn hour! I was quite surprised and worried that Mari hadn’t returned.

I called my mum and told her about the dream. She prayed with me and told me not to worry. After the reassurance from my mum and pillar, I felt calm and soon drifted off to sleep till the morning.

My Name is Grace Klubi

An old student of Achimota School (Akora), currently studying Computer Science at Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science and Technology (KNUST).

I love to write and sing as hobbies. I enjoy writing, and I have a vivid imagination of what life could be like if it were perfect.