Impeccable Love (On Hold)

University Frosh

What is Love? It's a question, what is Love?

***

IT WAS raining. Mercy used her hanky to wipe the dewy window of the car for the umpteenth time to get a clear view of the beautiful street of Lagos. It was still quite novel to her despite it wasn't her first time passing this side of the big and busy city. She had gone through this side thrice with her parents- when she wanted to seat for University of Lagos (UNILAG) post utme exam, when she wanted to secure an accommodation and when she wanted to register for the first semester in the university.

Mercy was born and brought up in Lagos, but asides from the schools and churches she attended while growing up, she knew no other place. She was the typical "omo get inside" kind of child. Because she was an only child, her parents were too overprotective of her, which was the major reason she was enrolling in UNILAG, even when she wanted to school away from the state where her parents wouldn't easily frequent her. Even to stay in the school hostel, her parents initially didn't want that but she fought against it.

She wanted freedom.

She wanted to be able to move freely as she liked without having to worry so much about if her parents were close by watching or not.

But well even if I'm not away from Lagos, I'm finally away from home. Mercy thought as she peered outside the window. The rain caused a traffic jam on the road. The last thing she wanted was for it to rain on her first day of leaving home and moving to settle in her hostel in UNILAG. But it didn't bother her much. She had longed for this day so the rain couldn't kill her joy.

Mercy moved away from the window and sat in the middle of the car seat at the back looking at both of her parents. Her dad was silently driving while her mum was on the passenger seat staring outside the window. Her parents were devout Christians. Matter of fact, her father was pastoring a church named Saint Convention and her mum was the head of the evangelist team, so that made Mercy a frequent church attender.

Mercy could be anywhere but church. The orthodox, monotonous and sanctimonious activities and people in the church wasn't just her cup of tea. Females could wear trousers and expose their hair in the secular world but couldn't do that in church. Mercy thought that hypocritical and that was just one of the many unseemly things she didn't understand in the church. But unluckily for her, she always just had to be there every single day her parents were there. The only reason she hadn't died from going to church was because she was in the choir. Mercy loved music and she was a lush singer. Whenever she soloed a song in the choir, the congregation was always moved by her beautiful voice and that gave her some satisfaction. Asides that, church was a sleepy backwater. She doubted if she'd ever attend a church service now that she was going to the university.

She wondered how life in the university was going to be like for her. She had heard stories from her pen friends and some of her secondary school friends that were fortunate to get admitted to the university immediately they were done with secondary school. They had all given similarly different testimonies but it all encapsulated in that school was fun to those that wanted to have fun and serious to those that wanted to be serious. What did I want? She thought to herself. She wanted to have fun in school and at the same time be serious with her academics.

The previous year when she was denied admission to UNILAG because she had flunked the post jamb exam even when she scored two hundred and sixty in the jamb grade, she knew exactly what her parents response to failure was like. Her parents grounded her for six months- no phone, no TV, no going out except church services. Just her and her books. Mercy could have died, but what doesn't kill makes stronger. The punishment made her more studious and prepared for the next jamb and post jamb exam, which she passed with flying colours.