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BIGGIE121:
Channel o .....:Lmao ...kayo08 where have been!!!!

I've been around the world.

Chapter 10: Channel O

Second semester kicked into full gear about two months after resumption and everything started moving pretty fast; Back to back lectures, evening lectures, standing for hours when lecture halls were filled to capacity. The euphoria of being a Jambite of the university of Lagos had now been replaced with a constant feeling of stress.

Some days, I would be so tired after classes I would just lay in bed listening to Brilla FM till I dozed off. The sports radio station had just begun broadcasting that year, and used to play a lot of music to attract a wider audience. Being a music lover, I would say they always played the latest songs first at the time; add this to the fact that most of my roommates were football lovers. We kept the dial on Brilla all day.

One day, I had fallen asleep tired, and woken up real early the next day around 6 am to see Joshua, one of my roommates leaving the room. Just as he was about to exit the room, another of my roommates asked if he was going to watch Channel O again, and he said yes, with a smile. And then they both bust out laughing. As I thought of what was funny about watching Channel O, I slipped back into sleep.

During lectures the next day, I kept thinking of what was had made my roommates laugh and couldn’t wait till I got back to the hostel so I could ask Joshua what Channel O was all about. I was sure it definitely wasn’t the same music channel on DSTV we all knew, because no one would wake up that early just to watch music videos.

Towards the end of lectures, I started feeling really weak, and by the time I was in the cab taking me back to the hostel, my temperature was through the roof; I was boiling hot. Sope noticed something was wrong when we were walking back from the park to the hostel as extremely quiet. After telling him how I was feeling, he suggested I take Alabukun. I had heard about the fast relief from fever and headaches the drug gave, and it always scared me, so I turned down the offer.

After dozing off at 8 pm that night, I woke up in cold sweats at midnight, shivering. I had the top bunk, and as I came down from it, I almost tripped and fell. I regained my balance, and rubbed my right kneecap for a few seconds before using my right foot to locate my leather slippers underneath the bunk; I needed some air. We had three double bunks in the large room, one directly opposite the entrance, and one on each side of the room. Sope and I shared the bunk on the right side of the room.

Everyone was fast asleep, some snoring, but as I turned around at the door, I saw Sope awake- his eyes wide open like he had not even been sleeping at all. He asked how I was, and I lied I was feeling much better but needed some fresh air. He nodded and went back to sleep.

I stood at the balcony and looked down from the two-storey building, marvelling at how quiet the whole place was compared to how noisy it normally is during the day. The hostel had four corners, like a rectangle. The two long sides were filled with rooms, and the short side to the right was were the staircase, entrance and porters lodge was while the bathroom and toilet were on the other end. I went back inside after a while, really feeling better, and fell asleep immediately I got in bed.

I woke up just in time to catch Joshua heading out in shorts and t-shirt- I guessed he was going to watch Channel O. I wanted to ask him what exactly he always went out to do in the mornings, but my mouth felt so dry and I just let him be.

……….

After classes the next day, I decided to go to the hospital. I was feeling a lot better, but I had the feeling I would get a fever again at night, and thought it was best to get to the root of the problem. My mom’s workplace clinic was in the same Yaba suburb as Unilag, and I still remembered my card number. I got to the place at 5:30pm, an hour before they closed. After seeing the doctor, and being given drugs, I went off to sit in the corridor of a section of the clinic.

It was an old section of the clinic, and was linked to the new place by a small pedestrian bridge. The ward had about 5 rooms for patients, and 2 rooms for nurses; all rooms in one straight line. There was a toilet at the right end of the corridor that gave the ward its ‘L’ shape. I was seated in the middle of the quiet corridor, dressed casually in jeans, and t-shirt, trying to get my mind off the fact that I was going to get a needle stuck in my butt any minute. I was lost in thought when I heard the toilet door open. I almost jumped off my seat when I saw the girl. She was about my age, dressed in aquamarine blue t-shirt and white shorts; lanky with braids. She was walking towards me slowly, holding a drip stand, with the pipe from the drip fixed to her hand. It was just a creepy sight to see her walking slowly, holding the drip stand in one hand, and her second hand in a position like a waiter holding up a tray. I guessed it was to enhance the flow of the liquid from the drip into her body, but it freaked me out.

“Hi.” She said and as she walked past me. I replied her with “Hey” without looking too long at her. I quickly looked away when she turned around before walking into the nurse’s office. Seconds later, the nurse, a rotund lady in her early 50s called me in. She was having a conversation with the strange girl as she stuck the needle in a small bottle and sucked out the liquid by pulling the plunger back. From the way they related, I guess they were mother and daughter. “Please pull down your jeans.” The nurse said and I hesitated for a while, embarrassed that the nurse’s daughter was just across the room from us, and was going to see my butt. The nurse didn’t seem to care to ask the girl to go out, and girl had an expressionless look from where she sat. It was clear she had seen people getting injections so many times it was nothing special to her anymore. I guessed that was why she was comfortable walking around carrying her drip stand earlier.

I reluctantly unbuckled my jeans, pulled it down a bit with my boxer shorts, revealing an ample portion of my right butt cheek as I turned to face the window. The nurse stuck the needle in my butt and as she slowly pumped the liquid into me, the daughter said, “How come you didn’t flinch?” She was talking to me, but I didn’t have an answer so I just said nothing. “You didn’t feel pain?”

“Ijeoma, Leave him alone.” The nurse said as she pulled the needle out of my butt and threw the syringe in the bin beside her. I rubbed my butt a few times, pulled up my jeans and buckled it. I had a smile on my face as I turned around to face the girl. She had a strange look on her face for a while, as if still wondering why I handled the situation so calmly, and then she smiled back at me. “Go home and rest. You will start feeling sleepy soon,” The nurse said to me as I headed out the door.

“Okay ma.” I said, and as I was about to step out, I turned around and said bye to Ijeoma. She had a beautiful smile on her face when she said bye to me.

……….

I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my hostel room, and woke up at about 6am the next day. It must have been Joshua leaving the room that woke me, because when I looked at his bunk bed, I didn’t see him on it. I was really curious to know what Channel O was all about, so I got out of bed immediately, and was lucky to see him just going down the stairs as I walked out of the room.

He headed to the back of the hostel when he got downstairs and walked towards the wall. I saw a few other guys by the wall and wondered what was going on. I was just recovering from Malaria and my brain was still a bit fuzzy. When I was a few feet from Joshua, I noticed something that made me stop approaching, turn around and walk back into the hostel. There were round holes in the walls and guys peeped at naked girls bathing outside the female hostel that shared a wall with ours. Channel O turned out to be a real life channel o.

carloz685:
How do you do it... what's your drive... Every piece you write is overwhelming... I just have one request teach me how you do it... The only thing I wrote correctly was my philosophies of life that I gathered... From past experience, books I read and lectures from people...

Thanks for the compliment.

Honestly, what I can say is that I got better over time. I have been writing since 2007...and I would say my stories got good/presentable around 2016-2017. Practice makes perfect.

What drives me? Well, I'm a very quiet /reserved person in real life, and I just do a lot of watching... Watching people, watching movies, and creating mini stories in my head of how things could turn out if the people I watch (in real life and on screen) do things a little different. And then I get motivated to write/create that alternate world. I watch lots and lots of movies... Different genres. It drives me.

I would just say I have passion for life generally. Art imitates life.

becca2017:
Same to u ooooh... thanks for d awesome and beautiful story.. btw hope Val isnt boring sha??

Thanks.

No... Val isn't boring.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

carloz685:
I need to tell you that it's hard to pick one chapter... So anyone that has more suspense would do... Love the update... Wishing it would come daily...���

Okay. Thanks.

I will try and update daily. Or at least 5 times a week.

Electricboy:
chapter 1 got me glued to this....I think you should drop updates more often...and you should try to monetise this so as to encourage yourself to write more...

Okay. Thanks.

Hey guys, can you tell me your favorite chapters do far. I want to put one chapter of the story as an excerpt on my facebook and just want to know the most catchy chapter.

Thanks in advance.

Chapter 9: The Red Sand Incidence

Second semester started off slow. Some days, we would have just one lecturer come in, and the rest of the day would be spent talking to friends. A few people had gotten phones over the short holiday, but at least ninety percent of us were still phoneless. Not like now when you could play candy crush on your phone, chat on whatsapp, or read stories on Nairaland; back then, you were forced to actually interact with people around you.

I was quite a reserved individual, but I turned to an extrovert whenever I met someone that shared the same taste in music as me. It was 2002, the height of the Nas and Jay Z beef. Most days, it would be Dare and I, arguing with Jay Z fans on why Nas was a better rapper. We would argue till we got all sweaty. Girls no longer existed to me; I just listened to Nas’s Stillmatic album all day on my Discman, and looked for someone new I could turn to Nas fan like me.

After classes, Sope, Dare, Babatope and I would go to over to fair Kunle’s room in Sodeinde Hall as it was the closest to class, and we would listen to Nas’s One Mic on repeat, getting hyped at the part in the second verse were he raps, ‘There’s nothing in our way; they bust, we bust, they rush, we rush.” Or we would listen to Nas’s Smokin song, reciting the part of the song where he says, “Do it like this niggas, right hand in the air. Ball it to a fist and put it over your heart. Now let’s say it all together, let the ceremony start. I shall- stay real stay true stay holding figures. Never put a bitch over my niggas. I shall never, cooperate with the law. Never snake me, I always hold you down in war.”

Saying those words out now, sounds more like a cult initiation, but truth be told asides Sope, we were all mommy’s boys at the time. That part of the song just gave us a sense of brotherhood, and it lasted all through our years in Unilag. Really, at the time, I just wanted a strong distraction from girls, and the whole Hip Hop disciple thing was working like magic for me. My confidence level also went up because, one, I never had to worry about girls again, and two, people respected my deep knowledge of Hip Hop music. I was making new friends daily.

Georgie was one of my new friends; a rap music enthusiast like me and yet the smartest kid in class. He drove a white Benz 200, and he stayed in the same Sodeinde Hall with fair Kunle. I was now on campus, in a hall called Newest Hall, and Georgie would come over to see Sope and I at night some times. One evening, he came over to play a new Hip Hop tape he had just gotten. It was a rapper named Canibus, and the guy was rapping two verses at the same time. It was nothing like what I had ever heard. It was me, Sope, Georgie and two of his friends in the Benz listening to the song, and passing around a pack of Don Simon Vino Tinto red wine.

One of Georgie’s friends suggested we go to Red Sand, and after a few minutes of deliberations amongst ourselves, a unanimous decision was reached. Georgie fired up the engine of his classic Benz, and we headed out to red sand. Where was red sand? It was an abandoned football field on campus where boys go to smoke weed. The clay soil present in the place gave it the name red sand. Although I wasn’t a smoker, I was not a mood killer either. So, I just held on to the pack of Don Simon in my hand, knowing that was what I would be nursing while everyone was passing the weed around.

The place was close to Georgie’s hall, and after dropping everyone off, he drove to his hall, parked the Benz, and came back on foot to join us.

I enjoyed the beautiful twilight view in front of me- watching the sun go down from where I sat by goal post, sipping my drink and talking Hip Hop with my friends. The field was very large, and it had swamp bushes to the right, with the school’s sports center walls behind us.

After a while, I started feeling uncomfortable, because I felt like we were like sitting ducks. If the school security came around, there would be very little hiding spots. My paranoia was getting the best of me, and I started looking around for an escape route. Just then, I spotted the security van, driving through the road along the open field. Guys quickly threw away the weed and stayed still. It was dark now, and we were hoping they wouldn’t notice us. They were almost out of sight, when the van suddenly stopped, and started reversing.

By the time they were driving into the field, everyone had scatted. My heart was beating so fast and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We couldn’t run into swamps, and we couldn’t run onto the road either, as they would spot us easily. Someone suggested we scale the fence into the Sports Centre. That wall must have been like ten feet high, but the adrenaline in our system had us jumping over it like it was nothing.

We were very lucky as there was a show going on in the Sports Centre, so we blended with the crowd. Even if the security were to jump over in pursuit, they would never identify us.

As I pushed through the crowd, heart still beating, I saw Tony Tetuila on stage with two hype men, performing his hit song, ‘You Don Hit My Car.’ It made me wonder; what would have been our fate if Georgie hadn’t decided to park the Benz in his hall.

Chapter 8: And then it Happened

The examination period went by pretty fast, and we were given just two weeks vacation before the start of second semester. A few people didn’t leave school as they considered the holiday too short; Sope was one of those people. He was a very independent person, and felt there was no use going home. I went home for a few days, and returned back to my guardian’s house a full week before school was to resume. At the time, my accommodation processing had pulled through, and I was working on getting a nice bunk and corner before the other students arrived.

On one of those boring days during the break, I came on campus to secure a neat bunk for my room, and stopped by at the room Sope was squatting at so we could go together. We were going to be staying together anyway, so it made sense for us to go there together.
After getting the bunk, and completing my accommodation processing at the porters lodge of the hall, we left for Moremi Hall. Sope said he wanted to see his friend, Sade, who shared the same room with Debby. It was in the cab, on our way there that he told me he had run into Debby a couple of times since the break, and that she hadn’t gone home too. Debby lived in Oyo state, so I understood why she chose to stay behind too.

Knowing that I was going to see Debby again gave me butterflies in my tummy. I was suddenly happy.

The whole hall was scanty when we walked in; I could hear echoes in some of the rooms as we climbed up the stairs. We caught Sade walking out of the door when we got to their room. Her face brightened up when she saw Sope, and he tickled her when they hugged, making her laugh even more. She was a pretty reserved, brown skinned, petite beauty, always in jeans and long sleeve shirts. She smiled to greet me as the three of us stood by the room entrance and talked for a while, before she ran off, saying we could wait for her, since Debby was inside; the sound of that name made my heart skip a beat.

I took a deep breath as we walked in. The room was one of the large ones in the hall. It had four demarcated corners, cut off with metal bunk beds. Sade and Debby had the far right corner, with the window view. The corner had enough space in the middle, Debby’s double bunk to the left, and Sade’s single bunk on the right by the wall. And their wardrobes were backing the entrance, opposite the window view.

Debby had already heard us talking, so she walked up to meet us half way with a cheerful look. She had the same white boob tube on from the last time, but she wore an unbuttoned black short sleeve shirt on it this time. The brown Capri pants she had on showed off her fresh caramel complexioned legs.

I sat on the end of the bottom bunk close to the window, while Sope and Debby sat opposite me. Debby sat facing me directly with her legs folded on the bed. Sope was by the tip of the bed beside her. Unlike him, Sope didn’t say much, he just let us talk. I was in rare form that day and kept a healthy conversation going with Debby. I was feeling great until I noticed Sope’s hands creeping up Debby’s chest like a smooth criminal. Without overreacting, or breaking eye contact with me, she slowly brushed off his hand. I kept on talking and pretended not to notice Sope making repeated attempts to handle her breasts. At a point she stopped shoving his hand away, and he had a field day.

The strangest thing ever was happening right before my very eyes, Sope kept gently caressing her boobs, while we went on talking. I got up abruptly and said we had to leave. There was disappointment in her eyes as she asked me why we had to leave so soon. I looked at her a bit longer than normal, wondering what was on her mind. Did she really want me to stay? Or was she enjoying what Sope was doing to her so much that she didn’t want it to stop? I didn’t know the answer to that question. Or more like, I didn’t want to accept the reality at hand. I was in a confused state.

As Sope and I walked out of the hall, we joked about what he had been doing to her like typical teenage boys that we were. But deep down inside, I was hurting badly. I felt like a piece of shit. I couldn’t blame Sope for what he did because that was his nature. And he also believed I had gotten over Debby and was now dating Bisi Sanmi.

Sope dropped at his hall and I continued the ride to the school gate. After going through the events of the day in my head, and recalling all the bad experiences I had had with females in the last couple of weeks, I concluded that it was best to totally pull back from the dating scene. I just wasn’t built for this, I thought to myself.

My mind went back to a field trip to Epe we had embarked on during the orientation weeks, and I remembered an incidence where I had to lap one of my course mates to and fro the trip. She was the only person without a seat, and had jokingly asked if she could sit on my lap, and I said yes. Even though she was one of the prettiest girls on that bus ride, I didn’t even feel uncomfortable or try to start a conversation with her. I could remember Debby turning around from two rows in front and winking at me like I was the man.

As I thought of that day and how in control I was, I tried to remember what exactly I was focused on at the time. I remembered I was discussing rap music with my friend Dare and some of my other course mates. Right there and then, I made up my mind to shift my recreational focus from girls to hip hop music.

Hey guys... Sorry for the break in transmission. I got real busy with something. I will continue the story this weekend.

ewawumi:
Huh? So, we share the same middle name?

I guess so.

Orjiugo8803:
Its a really cool story. Well articulated. I particularly love the name sniper- as a liquid for killing and the sniper as a man that kills others with a gun. Kudos to you.

Thanks. I love your comment. It is cool to know you noticed the double entendre.