PART 2

AMARACHI THE BEAUTIFUL POOR CHILD
(Written by Okafor Erasmus Ugochukwu)


Osisioma, though very beautiful and well-to-do, had issues with intelligence. She always depended on Amara for her successes in school. Being that Amarachi was no more in school to help and guide her academically, life became hell for Osisioma. To add to her mental stress, it was already an exam period and she wasn’t even ready yet. Even though she’d made efforts to read without Amarachi’s help, it hardly made sense to her. The only voice that makes her understand what’s being taught in class was that of Amarachi whenever she teaches her with her lecturing prowess.
It wasn’t easy for Osisioma to drive down to Onitsha for a preparatory lesson from Amara for her exams, especially the fact that the new lessons and topics taught in the class at Amarachi’s absence would be alien to the poor girl fighting to keep the body and soul together at Onitsha.
On that clement morning when Amarachi was at the park as her friends were loading her truck, a call came across. It was one of Osisioma’s numerous calls that she ignores as usual since she wanted to have nothing to do with school’s disturbance until she’s ready to go back to school.
Notwithstanding that pigheadedness, thinking of how fairly good her life had been around Osisioma whose benevolence kept her alive until she left the university, nostalgia overtook her. People at the motor park were surprised that Amarachi remained glued to the seat of her truck and didn’t even heed to the voice of some jokes coming from Oji Isi aho mgbo and Obinna, his counterpart. Amara kept looking absently as her eyes became vague with sorrowful tears. The phone kept beeping and the vibration kept prodding the disturbed girl to consciousness but the poor girl’s attention was cocooned in mixed feelings of nostalgia and willingness to let go of the past.
“Aunty Amara, what’s happening, please?” Obinna queried and arched, resting his weight on the truck to check who was calling her on the phone and the reason she was agitated and didn’t want to take the call. “Is that Okoro again?” he asked concernedly.
Amarachi was jittery by that interruption to her thoughtful state, so she took a deep sigh and said, amid the towering noise in the market, “Do you know the saddest moment someone has in life?” Her eyes abstractedly fixed at two men fighting in a distance but not concentrating on them.
Obinna saw how reflective she was and became more disturbed and sober. “I don’t know the answer, aunty Amara,” he said admittedly, feeling disquieted.
“The saddest moment in life is when you remember when you were once happy,” Amarachi maundered and hunched over the steering wheel meditatively while the buzz from Osisioma’s call lingered.
“Aunty,” Oji isi called from the passenger’s side of the door as he tried to force the bad door to open, “can I come in?” he asked looking worked up, “your door wouldn’t open. You know it is oka mma na aka onye nwe ya (best handled by the owner) because of the nature of the door,”
Amarachi felt the comic nature of his poor friend amidst her troubled mind. Letting out that faint and stressful smile, she opened the door for Oji isi to enter.
The owner of the load, Mr. Okeoma who happens to be an impatient type angrily came to Amarachi and hollered: “Am I here to wait and watch or to see my loads being loaded in the truck?”
“Oga, don’t be harsh on her nah,” Obinna interjected and went to the trunk and started offloading what had been loaded already, “Oji isi, I need help here,” he blurted angrily in a bid to transfer the aggression to Mr. Okeoma.
Oji isi looked at Amarachi; seeking her approval to offload the goods as Obinna was already doing. Amarachi wearily looked at him and nodded affirmatively in approval. “Offload, please,” she managed to whisper in a husky tone.
Oji isi got down at once from his sitting position beside Amarachi and helped Obinna to offload the entire goods. “Oga isi awo (oga with grey hair), if you try raising a voice next time on aunty Utu ocha to make her change her mind on the daily akara we always hope for, then series of fights would never stop knocking at your door daily,” Oji Isi blustered and nodded in the air as a threat to Mr. Okeoma to show the pugnacity of his nature.
Amara couldn’t even utter a word of apologies to Mr. Okeoma for failing to fulfil her promise to him because trying to be vocal would mean she was ready to let the tears she’d been stifling within her to be made evident in the public. She simply waited until the entire loads were transferred to the man meant to be the next to load after her.

“Are you sure of this decision?” Mr. Okeoma finally asked meekly and came to Amarachi's position, “sorry, I shouted at you earlier. You’ve never failed in your timely delivery; therefore, I will still pay you part of the money for your time,” He brought out five hundred Naira and handed over to her.
“Manage this, please,”

Amarachi was bewildered by such gesture of magnanimity, making her daunted and disturbed. She refused taking the money she believed she never worked for.
“No sir, you can’t...”

“I insist,” Mr. Okeoma maintained and forced the money into her palm, “whatever the issue is, God is in heaven and watches over us all and he knows about you too,”

Amarachi still couldn’t talk in appreciation but remained speechless and benumbed as she looked up the sky, thinking if God was aware of what she was passing through in life.

She ignited the engine after many efforts to get the old-fashioned truck’s engine to start; this had become a usual exercise for her. When the old engine finally responded, she drove away without talking to anyone.

Getting home, Amarachi simply dressed up in a fine long figure-hugging gown, picked a few things, and then dropped a note for her mom and left to the Peace Park at upper Iweka. The money that Mr. Okeoma gave her, in addition to what she realised from the akara sale of the very day helped her take transportation to Unizik. She knew she was seriously needed for the forthcoming examination; therefore, couldn’t live with her conscience if she finally didn’t help Osisioma and other departmental friends to make a good grade for the semester.

The challenge remained that Amarachi had been left behind and needed to spend some time to study; in a bid to catch up, and then teach others as usual.

Getting to Unizik Junction, Amarachi stood by a corner as she remained uneasy and conscious of who sees her after being away from school for a while.

She didn't just want to attract people's attention, both with her personality and beauty. She called Osisioma’s number. It was as if Osisioma was already flexing her thumb on the keyboard of her phone; this made her take the call at the first buzz.

“Hello, hello... Amy nwa,” she snarled with a quivering tone and exhilaration, “please, why have you been tormenting me like this, bae?”

“Come and pick me,” she said with a concealed smile, “I’m at Unizik junction. You can do better than just asking so many questions,”

Osisioma was so surprised that Amarachi was at Unizik junction already even without telling her that she was coming. She was very happy to oblige her. She quickly zoomed off with a loud screech from her house at Udoka housing estate to where Amarachi was waiting impatiently.

Getting to Amarachi’s position, Osisioma didn’t mind how she looked; putting on just pyjamas. She rushed to her and gave her a warm hug, getting her circled in her arms and couldn’t let the intelligent poor girl go.

Amarachi was very happy to see Osisioma after a while. With a friendly smile, she slowly forced herself to be freed from Osisioma’s grip. “Oma, Can I have the lesson notes and textbooks that I came for? I already know why you’d been calling,”

“Hey, my baby boo,” Osisioma yelled and dragged her into the car, “but seriously, you’re looking good, even though it seems like you never stopped crying,” she added and drove off, “your eyes look pale and stressed,” she said as she drove back to her abode, “but seriously and being candid, my numerous calls to you weren’t just for the tutorials but to know how you’d been all these while. I have missed you so much and God knows I have,”

Amarachi remained broody as the short drive back to Osisioma’s house lasted, but never replied to Osisioma numerous talks. She simply kept thinking of how her mom would take the effects from the contents of the note she dropped on the table to let her know she’d left to the same school she dropped out from. The thoughts were both funny and incredible as she recounted everything in her mind’s eye.

Getting to the house, Amarachi was surprised to see that two of her friends from the Economics department were already waiting with their lesson notes and writing materials ready for her teaching.

“Welcome, guru,” Adanna, the talkative said and pulled Amarachi into a hug, almost pulling her down from the car, “sorry, I couldn’t help but express how I feel,”

“But that shouldn’t be the reason for you to tear her fine dress just for a hug,” Chibunna, the most intelligent boy in the class said smilingly, “we’ve greatly missed such a fantastic brain amongst us, making me realise I still have a long way to go,”

“Tah,” Osisioma retorted with a great smile as she dangled her car keys on her finger, “If blocked heads like us complain, Chibunna would do too,”

“I wonder oo,” Adanna supported and handed over her lesson notes to Amarachi, “Oya, start reading immediately and keep digesting,” she added but Osisioma collected the notes from Amarachi and handed back to the owner.
“Can you give her a break?” Osisioma intervened and dragged Amarachi into her room, “please, can we now have some lunch,” she added and started bringing out all sorts of foods as if she knew that she was coming.

Osisioma, though she came from a rich home, she had that culinary art that made her exceptionally good with dishes. She never depended on maidservants for her meals.

“Just like always,” Amarachi said, finally breaking her long silence, “I have missed your food for real,”

“Of course, I know you did,” Adanna concurred, “me too, I did,”

“You did what!?” Osisioma barked as she rolled her sexy eyes, “you have no share here oo. It’s for Amy all the way,”

“Hand over the notes to me,” Amarachi said and reached out for the lesson notes and textbooks, “I may need two days to read the entire books to cover what you guys did for the semester,”

Chibunna knew that the semester work was voluminous and it’d be an uphill task for Amarachi to read all and understand in just two days. With his hands akimbo, “he took a deep breath, and then whispered into Amarachi’s ear: “Are you sure of this promise?”

Being that such caution came from another guru of the department, Amarachi’s heart pulsated with questions and a bit fright, but she just had to trust her instincts and remain undaunted. “I will try my best,” she reaffirmed and grimaced.
**
After spending two days reading through the entire eight courses, Amarachi was ready to teach.

No other person apart from Osisioma, Chibunna and Adanna knew about the lectures fixed in preparation for the exams. It was meant to be a surprise to other students; even though rumours of Amarachi’s presence in the school had filtered into many ears but they hadn’t the opportunity to see her because she wasn’t disposed for it.

On the day that Amarachi appeared in the class for the tutorial session, it was like a grand festival as the students celebrated her presence in style. Amarachi was just blushing and happy at the same time for reconnecting with her mates after some months of being out of school. The school life she’d left behind suddenly located her again, giving her mixed feelings of joy and sadness.

It took Amarachi just two days to teach the entire eight courses before thinking of leaving the school back to Onitsha to continue her akara and the truck businesses.
When it was time for Amarachi to go, she went to the park and boarded a bus, having satisfied her conscience for helping her friends out. It was a surprise that the entire students raised a cash of a hundred thousand naira for her. Osisioma personally gave her fifty thousand naira, making it a total of a hundred and fifty thousand naira.

As Amara waited for other passengers to get the bus filled, she was surprised to see some group of girls; all dressed in white. They stormed the park and dispersed the people with arms. This put the business of the day to a halt.

Amarachi was dragged out of the bus, and her entire money taking away from her.

Uremma, the daughter of Ozo Odenjinji, a well-known politician in Nigeria suddenly appeared with some policemen and arrested Amarachi and took her into the police van, even when she wasn’t allowed to talk or defend herself. The entire girls all disappeared on sighting the policemen. Amarachi was just rattled and didn’t even know what was going on. The best luxury she had at that particular time was calmness until she understands what was going on before she could speak.

To be continued....