Every Friday at noon…..

 

Standing under the mango tree again today, it’s just like de ja vu but I know it’s only because I’ve been here before. Right here, in this spot, doing exactly the same thing……… nothing. It’s just like every Friday at noon, i pack up my books and stand under the mango tree and do nothing but count the seconds and minutes until the final bell goes and I’m free of this school for the weekend. Emeka is always running away from a teacher and Bertha always spends the last 10 minutes of school in the girls bathroom freshening up to walk home with Ejike, her high school sweetheart. Bertha walks around with her posey of girls flocking around her like lost sheep. And me? I just stand under the mango tree ticking off the seconds. I guess it seems strange that I don’t want to hang around with people my age and do the things that they do but I just got a novel I’ve been wanting for the longest time and I’d rather crouch down behind the sofa and get lost in the pages. I’m already running a synopsis of the novel in my head, I read a prequel so it was easy to imagine what would happen, I already had several theories and plots but I’m drawn from dreamland by the sound of the bell, the one I’ve been waiting for. All of a sudden, there’s a chaos of goodbyes everywhere. I simply step out from the shade of the mango tree not minding the blaring sunlight and soon I’m on my way to freedom…….