Whatever It Takes

Episode 2

I woke up very early the next day, took out the potty, emptied it and left it in the bathroom to dry.

I then took the broom and swept the surrounding. After I was done I picked all the dirty dishes and
washed them.

I had something planned for the day and I didn’t want anything or anyone to come in my way or give anyone the benefit of chiding me later.

Around 9 ante meridiem I stood by the footpath waiting for Sally Nyirongo a girl I had met a few
weeks ago. We had literally clicked in an instant. She had such a bubbly but blunt personality.

When I met her she was kicking stones on her way home. She was quite plump and short but we
were the same age. She was my friend, my very first friend. Thirty minutes later and sally was no where to be seen. I turned around and almost started walking back home when a voice called me and there she was. Food in hand as usual. The girl ate like a hippo back then no wonder she was chubby. She was eating boiled sweet potatoes and she didn’t even bother to give me. I thought that was mean but almost like she read my thoughts she told me that if I wasn’t going to ask her for a piece she wasn’t going to give me.

” If you want something you ask for it ..not just waiting for me to give you. How do I know if you
won’t waste my precious food?” She said bluntly I swallowed hard before I asked her. I hated begging even though that was our means of survival.

” Why can’t we be like any normal family?” I often wondered

The only good thing was she was generous, you just had to sU-Ck up and ask and she will give you
a bigger piece than expected. She opened her backpack and took out her lunch box . She picked
a generous piece and gave it to me.

” Ani nomba totela! ( Here you are now say thank you)” she said as she offered it to me
” Natotela sana ( thank you so much)” I said genuinely. I hadn’t eaten anything home. In fact
breakfast was something we rarely had and if we did then it was usually a very thin porridge with salt which didn’t carry much weight. If we were lucky we would have some epsi ( a soya flour, salt and sugar mixture for making porridge that was given out in clinics) and that was the only porridge I used to enjoy.

” Tiye twendeshe naucelwa tamuli na banobe abaleya Ku sukulu munshila ( let’s hurry up you are late.

There aren’t any pupils in sight)” I advised
” Nangu fye ine necilisukulu nshachitemwa ( who cares I don’t even like school) ”

I couldn’t believe her so I glared at her hoping to find that she was only joking but there was no
emotion. She seriously hated school and confessed that she only looked forward to going to school the days when I escorted her.

Luckily the bell just rang as soon as we reached the school premises. I quickly shoved her in and
went behind her class to eavesdrop. That’s how I was learning. I had learnt to write my name just by laying low behind her class room and I was beginning to like it.. if only my parents could agree to bring me to school. But No, there was no need for that according to them. They were just waiting for me to come of age to marry me off.

Any way the teacher started teaching mathematics and I was following really well. Peeping through whenever I could to see what was written on the board and then squatting to write it down
on the ground.

I didn’t realise that I had answered one of the teacher’s questions loudly till I heard her ask for
who answered the question that I knew I was busted. I tried to sneak away quietly but she had
sent some big boys to find the intruder.
I was captured before I even took off on my heels and I was immediately dragged to the head
teacher’s office.

I closed my eyes and mumbled a little prayer. The last thing I wanted was to be shamed in front of
the whole school…….