Behind the Mask: episode 4

BEHIND THE MASK
EPISODE 4
© Jones K. Tagbor
*John and his friends faces hard labour.
Everybody who heard this news got surprised because they didn’t
know about that behaviour of me. My father said he had nothing
to say so he gave the school the go ahead to apply their
disciplinary actions for me to learn from my behaviour. My
mother could not withheld her tears for once. Eric’s parents also
heard the news and came to the school. I regretted ever being on
earth that day. I wished I rather died for Eric to live.
We were summoned at the staff common room with my parents
by the headmaster. The headmaster looked into my face and said,
“you have destroyed the reputation of this school and I won’t let
you go scot-free. I knew you to be one of the disciplined students
little did I know that you are even the worst behaved student. I
will personally write your testimonial. How many of you went to
the club?”. With my bowed head and an innocent voice, I replied,
“we were five sir.” “Just look at that. As the senior prefect, you
should be preventing your colleagues from going to such places,
you were rather encouraging them. The parents of the senior
girl’s prefect reported the case to the police and according to the
girl, you asked her to follow you to the place. You have also made
us lose one student and his parents are blaming us for death of
their son. I hope you now appreciate the mess you’ve caused the
school. You will soon meet the disciplinary committee. Go and
your parents for me “, said the Headmaster. Tears started rolling
from my eyes. “God, why should you allow this to happen to
me?” I asked myself in tears. To varnish was the best option to
console myself, but it was impossible.
I went out to call my parents into the headmaster’s office.
My Dad: Good morning, sir.
Headmaster: Good morning but I remember we greeted each
other before I came into my office. Well, I’m not to tell you what
has happened since you know it yourself. The issue is now
handled by police. I was called when I was home to come to the
hospital where the girl who your son took with him to the club is
admitted. Her parents handed me over to the police and I needed
to sign a police report on behalf of the school. The boy who died
is also another issue this school is taking responsibility of. In this
case, since it is your son who initiated all this, we are also
involving you in the case and you will equally pay for the
damages caused. For your son, the disciplinary committee will
invite him and we will talk about that.”
My mother, as calm as ever before, said, “sir please…hmmmm. I
don’t even know what to say. My son is not like that. I can’t
believe so easily it was my son involved in this. I’m not sure he is
the one who initiated this. Please my son is innocent about this.
Oh God, the devil has finally gotten me. hmm God I still believe in
you.
Headmaster (in a relatively harsh tone): Woman, Please this is not
where you should be covering for your son. Besides, my office is
not a prayer camp. Your son might not be the person he is to you
at home when he comes to school. Am sorry we need to use the
laws at this point. Please wait for me outside.
My dad just asked the headmaster to apply all disciplinary rules
against me. Even the Bible says train the child the way he should
go so that when he grows, he will not depart from it. None of my
children ever behaved like this. First lady are you sure this boy is
my son?
Mum: Don’t let my God get provoked at you this morning. What
question is that?
Headmaster: Please wait for me at the staff common room. I will
join you soon.
We went back to the staff common room. In fact the whole school
was very quiet and mourning Eric. In no time, Eric’s parents
arrived at the campus with the police to arrest me. But the
headmaster got in their way and told them that they had to deal
with the school and not directly me. He made them aware that I
was not the only one involved in the case. The very unfortunate
side of it Is that Eric’s body could not be identified due to the
level of fire burns so he was added to the mass and buried
together.
The case now involved the Ghana Education Service, the club
authorities, the police and the parents of the students involved.
After one week of admission, Enyonam was discharged from the
hospital. To be honest, she lost her beauty due to the fire burns.
Now we were to face the disciplinary committee which myself
and Enyonam were members before our handing over. The
headmaster was present, the school counsellor, our parents and
other staffs.
They first started by asking me to brief the house how we got
there and what actually happened.
Me: I want to first say I’m sorry for all what went on. It was all
the work of the devil.
Assistant Housemaster: My friend, go straight to the reason and
tell us why you were given the opportunity to talk.
School counsellor: Mr. Asante, I think we should allow him the
opportunity to say whatever he has to say. He is traumatized
because seeing people burning in flames and seeing their
colleague die from that incident is not easy to go through and talk
about. They actually needed time to relax and even if possible, go
through counseling.
Headmaster: John go ahead we are listening to you.
Me: After our handing over, we decided to go and have fun
outside the school that night. We chose no where than that club. I
invited Enyonam to go with us. When We got there, I told them
we should return to the school but Eric didn’t agree with me. My
other friends too didn’t agree so I didn’t hesitate to follow them
inside. My mother called me, around midnight on phone so I left
the premises to receive the call. In the process, the next thing I
heard was, people shouting for help. I ran there only see the place
on fire. Amos and Joshua were able to escape but according to a
nurse working with the ambulance, Eric gave up the ghost trying
to save Enyonam. He managed to bring Enyonam to a safer place
but he couldn’t help himself.
My mother stood up and left the room because she couldn’t stand
listening to what I was saying. Her reason was that, had it not
been for the fact that God revealed what was happening to Her,
probably I would have been dead. Her tears could even boil a
tuber of yam in an aluminium sauce.
Headmaster: (Looking into the faces of my colleagues in crime)
Do you people believe what he just reported?
They were all silent.
Headmaster: (With a deep angry voice ) Am I talking to humans
or ghosts? Mr Suley Please I have some canes in the corner of my
office, go and bring me one.
Mr Suley, our Chemistry teacher, who Eric accused of having
something to do with Enyonam, left the staff common room to get
the Cane.
Enyonam was already in tears. Mr Suley went and returned with
the biggest cane he could find to the room.
Headmaster: Are you going to answer my question?
In chorus, they all agreed to my report.
Headmaster: Alright. This has never happened in this school
before and I won’t allow you to bring the name of this school
down. Mr Suley, give their gang leader ten (10) lashes, six(6) to
Amos and Joshua and give five(5) to Enyonam.
In my mind, after the canes, everything would come to an end so
I decided to gather courage to receive my portion.
Mr Suley came to me first. Actually every student do fear him
because no one can withstand even one lash of his canes. I was
on my kneels.
Mr Suley: You’ve been dodging my class for some time now. I
thought it was due to your position as SP not knowing, you were
grooming yourself to become stubborn. Make sure you don’t
move or shout because if you do, I will start all over again.
Headmaster: Wait. Call for an assembly of all the students and
cane them before the whole school to serve as deterrent to the
other students.
Mr Suley went to call for an assembly and we were moved to the
assembly grounds like stubborn slaves. He explained to the
school what we did and later called me to come forward. He
repeated his instructions. After the first two, I swelled myself
because the cane went very deep into me. If you ever watched
the passion of Christ movie before, you would understand me
better. After receiving five of it, I felt a cut at my back but I
managed to receive all of the ten. Most of the students cried
seeing how I was suffering.
Joshua and Amos also received their share. When it got to
Enyonam, the whole school became very noisy. You could see
students using sign language to each other. The secret was that,
Enyonam was indeed the girlfriend of Mr Suley. You could clearly
see it when he was doing the caning. He was just doing
something to represent something. Well, it is said that all animals
are equal, but some are more equal than the others. He was even
taking the pleasure in holding the lady’s boobs.
After the canes, the headmaster stepped forward and said; “this is
to serve as a deterrent to the whole school. Any border that
leaves this campus without permission and caught will receive
severe ones than this.
Now these are your punishments. The cane was just by the way”.
My heart jump like a cat over a wall following that
pronouncement.
Amos, you are not going step a foot into any class during learning
hours. Everyday, I want to see you on the school park weeding
the whole field. No one will help you. You will do this for the
next one week and you must finish after a week. When you
finish, you will suspended for the next one year. Meaning you are
repeating one class.
Joshua, you will carry the pantry balls with food from the kitchen
to the dinning hall and back to the kitchen after dining for the
next two weeks. You are also to work on the school farm. Weed
the three hectare maize farm. After that you will be suspended
for one year.
Enyonam, you survived the fire and not well. You will be
responsible for washing all pantry balls after dining for the next
two weeks. You will also sweep your dormitory for the same
number of weeks. After which you will go home and come to
school next year and repeat your class.
John, for your punishment and as the SP for the school, you know
we are building a new library. You are going to the stone grove
and break stones which will be used for the building. You are to
crack half a tipper. After which you are going to be suspended for
the next one year and repeat your class.
Parents, these are the punishments your children are to face.
Now, you are all going to pay Ghc5,000.00 each as parents for the
damages caused.
Enyonams parents argued that the school is also to pay the
hospital bill of their ward because they couldn’t protect Her. They
said they won’t allow their daughter to face her punishment at
the date she was to start but after she has fully recovered.
They sorted everything out among themselves and it was settled.
Enyonams parents decided to take her away to the house for
further care. Enyonam came to meet me outside while my father
was blasting me very well for what I’ve caused and the disgrace I
brought them. I left my parents and came to her.
Me: Enyonam, I’m sorry for everything. Please find a place in
heart and forgive me.
Enyonam: Don’t worry I will be fine. We will meet again.
She left me, joined her parents and they left.
My mother consoled me after Enyonam left. She said “my son,
first thank God he saved you. You now know the consequences of
bad company and bad behaviour. What I want to tell you is that,
we have not left you, we will continue to pray for you. Don’t
dwell too much of the problem or challenge on you, but be
focused on how to finish or solve it. We will pay the money but
you also need to be a good boy. We will leave now.” She said
looking very sad. I also joined her in tears. My father asked,
“what are you crying for? Make sure you finish the punishment.
We will continue when you come home. If it were not your
mother I would have forsaken you. Woman get into the car and
let’s go.” They also left without giving me any money.
The following day, we started with our respective works. Some
friends of mine sneak at midnight and come to help us. Within a
week, I was almost done with the half tipper. One of the security
men went to report to the headmaster that, our friends were
helping us at night. Actually the security nearly lost his job due to
our case so he was very mean to us and was waiting for an
opportunity to get us into his trap. The headmaster woke up one
night and saw two other guys helping me. He recognized them
and asked the security to arrest them. They were also punished.
They added some more work to mine but gradually, I finished
with it. Amos and Joshua also finished theirs and we packed our
bags and trunks and off we left.
At home, people were mocking at my mother that she claimed
she was a disciplinarian but couldn’t nurture Her son well. Due
to anger, she even replied some people and it became another
problem for her. She was gradually getting weaker in prayers
because day in and day out, she was embarrassed about this same
issue.
I realized my mistakes and vowed not to go into such events
again. I took church more serious and reading my bible became
my hobby.
Soon our days were due to return to school. We went back when
the new academic year started. Enyonam didn’t come back again
because her parents took her to a different school. Amos and
Joshua came. We managed to complete with our juniors but
unfortunately, our results were not very good. My parents wanted
me to go to medical school but my results couldn’t help so I had
no choice to than to go back to school. This time around, I
changed my program and studied Business. My parents didn’t
want me to mingle with the boys in my area again so he sent me
to a school in the Volta region, Keta Business School. KETABUSCO.
I completed the full three years but my resorts were still not the
best.
The reason for my poor performance was because, I do see a
playback of the incident at the club and it was interfering with
my studies. Sometimes I do feel like Eric was around and talking
to me. Sometimes, I do hear his voice accusing me for his death. I
reported it to my parents and they took me to the hospital. They
said I was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I was put
on medication and the situation subsided a bit. I was sent to Ho
Polytechnic where I read Accounting eventually.
After school, I was posted to do my national service at Ghana
Ports and Harbour Authority, Tema. I was at the accounting
department. All there while, I forgot about Enyonam. One Sunday,
I decided to visit a church in my area at Tema community 4.
During worship, there was this lady who came to lead the
worship session. To be honest, the whole atmosphere got filled
with the holy spirit. The face of the lady looked very familiar. I
was just on the second row so I saw her very well. After the
worship, my eyes never stopped looking where she was seated.
Occasionally, our eyes do crash in space. After the closing prayer,
the conductor said we should shake hands with each other and
also hug if the need be. All my target was to get to this lady. I
couldn’t notice it even when other people were asking for a
handshake from me. I was already jealous when I saw a guy
hugging her. She was very jovial and outspoken just like the
Enyonam I knew. I managed to go closer to her and waved at her.
She also waved and smiled back. I made a sign indicating I want
to see her. She came and stood in front of me.
Me: Sister I was really touched with your worship today. In fact
you carry a great anointing.
She smiled and thanked me.
Me: I’m John what about you?
Lady: I’m Enyonam
Me: Enyonam? the Enyonam that I know or which of the
Enyonams?
Enyonam: Haha but how do I know your Enyonam?
Everything that goes around, comes around. Was that Enyonam
the GP or a different Enyonam?
TBC