CAGED ✔

《 Chapter 11 》

Accepting Peter's proposal of friendship was the wisest thing I had ever done in my life. Peter was an angel sent from God to help me as I tread my lonely path.  He was a light that lightened my darkened path. He made me feel so happy. I felt emotions I couldn't comprehend — emotions I never thought someone like me could feel.

It was a foreign feeling; a feeling I had never experienced before. It was very different from the feeling I had for my grandfather, Zainab, and Ma Suzanne.  It was strong and tender at the same time. It heightened  whenever I was with him and it increased even more when he wasn't  with me.  It filled me up whenever he held my hand  or smiled into my face. It was indeed a strange feeling but I didn't want it to stop.

I spent all my break hour speaking with him at the roof top. Actually, he was the one doing the speaking.  He told me about so many things. It was a wonder how a person would have so much memories and experiences when I didn't have one.

He told me about his family; his former school; his neighbourhood; places he had visited, places he had travelled to and many others.  I loved listening to him. Listening to him made me picture myself in those places or events he told me about.

Peter made me smile. He made me laugh — laugh really hard; such laughter  that made one's stomach hurt. The first time I had laughed that way was when he told me about his last experience in his village.

He told me how he and his cousin had gone out to pluck some mangoes. They had a lone mango tree standing in the midst of some weeds. To them, it was owned by no one. Little did they know the tree was owned by the village chief priest.

The priest had threatened to strike them both down and in a bid to escape, Peter and his cousin had jumped down from the tree, grabbed their shirts which were on the ground, and ran. Unfortunately, their clothes were filled with ants and the rest was history.

I had felt my cheeks widening and  my lips stretching. Then I heard the sound. Very strange like a roar rushing out of my throat. The sound felt so strange to me so I stopped laughing immediately and looked at my palm. Peter was watching me with a huge grin on his face. He asked then why I had stopped laughing and  so began to tickle me in the ribs. Of course, I had burst out into laughter. Then Peter said something I would never forget. He said I had a lovely laugh — I still wonder if he really meant it.

I had  never felt any joy in going to school but ever since Peter's arrival into my life, going to school became a pure bliss. I yearned to see Peter every day. Days when he was absent was like hell. I wondered  how I had lived my life without him.

We graduated from talking on the rooftop to talking in open areas such as the school field and the classroom. I made it a priority to watch every of Peter's match and to cheer him up with every strength in me.

He stood up for me at various intervals.  He was the reason my classmates no longer  do their regular countdown every  closing hour. How he did that was still a mystery to me.

It had happened one Tuesday when Amara began her stupid countdown. Peter had shut her up then by telling her that her little game was already boring and she should find something else doing.  People had agreed to the countdown being boring; they no more laugh like before.

Well! Countdown or not, I still run to the gate at the sound of the closing bell. I couldn't stop but Peter  vowed he would make me stop — very impossible. I really didn't know what he meant by that but I was quick to tell him not to do anything funny like he had done in the past. I could still remember what happened the last time he said something like that.

Though, we laughed it out, I did mean it. Grandma had not found anything about me and Peter so I wanted to tread softly.

Our new relationship aggravated more hatred and envy. For instance, Amara hated me more but to be honest, I didn't care. She had always hated me so it was nothing I wasn't used to. I could handle the world's hatred.