Episode 3
………. I quickly questioned Kate
to find out who the guy was, before he arrived. Kate told me he was one of the
only two teachers they had in the school. She added that the guy was an SHS
graduate who was picked by GES to serve as a “pupil teacher”. I became
happy inwardly for knowing that the guy was a ‘nobody’ when it comes to
professionalism. At least Kate could tell the difference between friend rice
and wasawasa. In this situation, I was the fried rice. I was still with my
rivalry thoughts when the guy arrived. He greeted me with a handshake and with
my palm still interlocked in his, he introduced himself as Ken, but said I
could call him Star boy. I once again said to myself, “this boy must not
take advantage of the K, K in his name and that of Kate to form a ‘Mr and Mrs’
theory”. On the other hand, he said his nick name was starboy, and mine was
galaxy, which meant he was still my subset.
Because so many stars form a
galaxy, I thought. I smiled at him and he innocently smiled back without knowing
what I thought about him. Before I could say a word to introduce myself,
Kate chipped in with her melodious voice and did the introduction. I added
something she left out-my level of professionalism in GES. Kate and Ken took me
into the various classrooms and introduced me to the pupils. In every class
that we entered, the usual “class ten” was said to make the pupils stand up for
greeting. I became an automatic head teacher because Kate was a National
Service Personnel whiles Ken was a ‘pupil teacher’. We went back to our staff
common tree to plan on how to reschedule the classrooms for ourselves. We were
busy with the discussion when a lady with a protruded tommy appeared. She
greeted us and asked Ken to give her some money to prepare their lunch. My little
knowledge about love and its related matters told me the lady was not just a
wife to Ken, but a pregnant wife for that matter. “I have now gotten the
Achilles’ heels of this dude”, I thought. All that while, I failed to
understand that my primary reason for being in the community was to train
pupils and not to build love relationships. While I was thinking of how to
question Ken about the lady, he (Ken) remarked, “My brother, it is not easy to
be a landlord ooo”. I quickly buttressed his statement by saying, “in fact oo”.
I was quite sure Kate would not like to go for somebody’s husband, so I quickly
raised a point to print a picture that he Ken had no reason to go for ladies
again. I was surprised he supported that idea and it gave me a feeling that he
had nothing to do with Kate.
We shared the classrooms among
ourselves. I was made to handle classes 5 and 6. Kate was given classes 3 and 4
whiles Ken took classes 1 and 2. We did nothing serious that day. When it was
time for closing, Abiba came and took my books and we
went home together. I never
even asked to know where Kate was residing. When we reached home, I ate my
lunch and then relaxed on my mattress. A boy came and told me the chief wanted
to see me. I rushed to his quarters and my anticipation of meeting the chief
alone turned out to be a meeting with the chief’s family. I was also shocked to
had seen Abiba in the middle of the horse-shoe sitting arrangement of the
family, with the chief on a stool facing the horse-shoe sitting arrangement.
Guess what, the chief told me with a smile on his face and smiles on the faces
of everybody except me, that he had given Abiba to me as a wife. He added that
a grown man like me needed a wife for survival. I got instant fever on hearing
that. He gave so many reasons why a grown man must have a wife but I heard none
of the reason, because my mind was busy formulating something to reject that
offer. An idea dropped in my mind. “I have a wife already”, I said. The chief
laughed out loudly with his damaged throat that produced a horrible sound, and
told me, “a man with a single wife is just a bachelor. Can’t you see I have
three wives”. At that point I was confused and developed a sudden fever.
“Abiba, my pupil..
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THE VILLAGE TEACHER Episode 5
THE VILLAGE TEACHER Episode 6
