AREA '61 (4)

Episode 4

"She was the strangest girl. She got fooled once by me but didn't mind trusting me again. I'm sure we've never met before but she shook my hand as if we've always known each other. She also smiled a lot. Her smile is like a child's; it sends ripples to one's face and makes one's lips twitch to a smile too. She was too good to be true, or too good to be in the den."

Nonye rubbed her nose bridge and chided herself for thinking of Cathy. True it had been the oddest experience for Nonye - making a new friend - but she had bigger things to think about. She was nursing an idea on how to execute her mission. She had already set a deadline for herself for the Area '61 article. She couldn't lose focus now.

Nonye texted another message to herself, "The other day, while I was touring a penguin round the den and keeping the legends alive, I came across a student in white and ash. She wasn't a Pharmacist though; she was complaining to her friend of the monstrosity of buying pol science textbooks. Then it hit me. The answer to unraveling the mystery had been in my wardrobe all the time. So I'm launching a new operation. I call it, Pharmacist for a day."

"I hope this goes well," Nonye whimpered as she remembered the grizzly professor. She dusted the tip of her ashy suit trousers and pulled the lapels of her white chiffon shirt. Then she looked at Chisom and asked, "How do I look?"

"Like a pharmacist," Chisom said slowly.

"That's why you're my favourite roommate," Nonye declared. Chisom purred while Tammy gave a nonchalant grunt. Melanie kept smiling and pressing her phone.

"Here I go again," said Nonye as she strapped on her handbag and touched her hair.

"I hope you get caught," Chisom said as she left the room.

Nonye ignored her and closed the door. She would reply Chisom after her mission.

"My God, help me," Nonye muttered as she stepped foot into the dreaded building. She swore she could feel the grasp of unseen forces, but she could just have been imagining it. She walked down the hallway and took the stairs, looking like a student who knew where she was going.

It was a beautiful faculty alright. There were classrooms with students chatting inside each one. The thing about Pharmacy's curriculum, they were way behind the rest of the school. So while other faculties were at the height of their lectures, they were just resuming.

"ISPOR... I wonder what that means. International Secret Priory of, Rion," Nonye said ignoring the full meaning written just below the abbreviation. "They're taking their cult down to the communities. Interesting. The mosquito nets must be sealed with ritual sacrifices. That way, no one will know what they're really up to."

Nonye stroke her chin like a sleuth on the tail of a crime. She was hot on the chase. She just needed more clues. She walked past the rows of classes and arrived at some doors leading to the offices of lecturers. Coincidentally, the first door she passed gave her a glimpse of the grizzly professor. She gasped and reversed her steps. After realizing herself, she pushed her nose in the air, brushed back her hair and catwalked past the door. At the other side, she stifled a giggle and catwalked past the door again. She did it a third time and flipped her head insolently as she made brief eye contact with the professor. Then she ran into a crowd of students.

Her cheeks wobbled with suppressed laughter. She held her smiling mouth and tried to squeeze through the crowd of students. She stumbled against a tall young man and accidentally lurched into the face of a lady.

"Sorry," Nonye apologized still smiling.

"What is your problem? Clumsy fool," the lady hissed and Nonye's smile folded. She stared at the lady in her immaculate white silk shirt and printed ash skirt with a beautiful embroidery at the fringes. Then she returned her gaze to the lady's face. She was beautiful, a rich type of beautiful. Her skin was every girl's envy, her lips were too rosy for a Nigerian's and her countenance was still gorgeous with a frown. As if tired of waiting for another apology, she brushed Nonye aside rudely and the crowd parted for her to pass.

Nonye ignored the sea of eyes that smiled at the short drama and instinctively followed the lady. She kept a safe distance between them; she was already a clumsy fool, crazy stalker would be too much.

The beautiful lady made a lot of stops. She hugged and shook hands with so many students in white and ash. It made Nonye wonder how big a class was. How could she know so many people? Well, it wasn't so hard with that perfect face and enviable physique.

The lady led Nonye out of Pharmacy Building, across the street and into Bello Hall. Nonye almost quit following but something about the lady enticed her instincts. Her stalking ended when the lady opened a door and disappeared from the hallway. Nonye approached the door cautiously. There was an inscription on the doorpost, room 240, and a writing on a tag. Nonye read it and wanted to laugh and vomit at the same time.

"House of kindness?" she scoffed and felt a wicked urge to kick the door. She resisted, and walked down the hallway, flashing her torchlight at the various tags on the doors. It was new to her; other hostels didn't have this. The snippets of scriptures on each tag were enough to fool anyone, but not Nonye. For all she knew, the room numbers were codes, and the scriptures were a convenient cover. Besides, if the house of kindness was the rude lady's hideout, imagine who the occupants of house of angels were.

"Now I feel stuck," Nonye whispered in a tired voice. She sat down on the iron bench outside Bello, the same spot she had sat when she began this wild goose chase. A consciousness of vanity enveloped her. Maybe she was just wasting her time. She went over her findings so far and couldn't believe them herself. They seemed like something everyone would laugh at and no one would take seriously. She thought of her legacy mission and gave a frustrated groan. It was harder than it sounded. She should just give up, act like a regular student, go to classes, write exams and wait for the day she'd leave the school with no exciting experience, no connections and definitely no legacy.

"I hate her!"

Or not, Nonye thought when she saw the owner of the venomous outburst. She answered a fake call while she watched and listened to the rude lady from earlier and two of her friends. The two friends flanked her and shared amused smiles as the lady fumed.

"Calm down, Matty. She's not worth your fury and you know it," the first girl said.

"Betty's right. Aiden is head over heels in love with you! Phoebe is just a distraction. A good-looking distraction," the second girl contributed. Nonye looked away as they passed her front in their slow pace.

"That's why I can't stand her. Fake people just can't stick to their level. I wish she'd just die in a hotel room or something!" Matty seethed and her friends laughed girlishly.

"Well!" Nonye gasped under her breath and scanned the ash skirts of the three ladies as they went out of hearing. "House of kindness indeed."

This was a reason Nonye avoided company. People could be devils. Forget the kind smiles and beautiful personalities. Everyone had a fault, a dark side yet to see the light. Most times, the dark sides were open to plain sight.

Nonye sighed sadly and went back to her hostel. She still admitted there was another reason she started her Area '61 mission. She was alone. Probably if she had friends she could gossip to or classmates she could hug and shake hands with after school, she wouldn't be so... Different. If only she knew how to accept people, faults and all. Then people like Matty wouldn't seem so bad.

All that emotion and pathetic thinking vanished when Nonye sat up on her bed in the evening and saw the news headline on UNNTV. She read in a choked voice, "UNN student found dead in Padelia hotel?"

To be continued.

Coincidence or an incident? This is getting dark. What do you think of Matty? Is she really a villain? Also, can you relate to Nonye's opinion on friendship?

Comments, please.