The last day of Upper 6(the final year of high school), the day we had been all looking forward to since form 1 was approaching us in just 24 hours. The day we sat for our very last exam then we part ways with our thick annoying text books, our wooden desks covered with markings and ink graffiti, inspired and designed during those boring ass lessons we had to go endure to write our finals.
My friends and I had planned an excursion thoroughly throughout the course of this final exam session which, to be honest went by fast because of the list of things to do on our final day occupying our minds. Being boys that spent their entire six years away in the boys-only-institution which by the way was located amidst a bush with no indication of town in the proximity. To our parents the location screamed, ‘Perfect environment for learning’, but to us it was rather, ‘welcome to anti-female society, enjoy the worst of it’. That explains how we ended up there in the first place. This mission was enough to compensate the 6 years of lost action we suffered.
The day was upon us and the final Geography paper had to be written but that was the last thing on our minds when we woke up that morning, the thirst in our minds defeated everything else and we had to quench it well that afternoon. Just as the invigilator instructed us to stop writing and drop our pens which we did efficiently we were zoned into our last day’s activity. As soon as we got out of that examination hall we drew each other, the six of us into a corner far from the others to discuss plans before hand. We had received some helpful information about a beautiful lady who lived not far away from where we were. This lady, let’s call her Ellen De Generous! She was rumoured to be so generous and knew her business especially with “clients” like us.
This was our gateway into getting out of High School with a bang and decisions had to be made to make this an orderly fashioned trip and lucky for us we had ‘Khule’! We named him that simply because he was the oldest of us all and wise, not the book kind but the streetwise kind and he was automatically our mouth piece. Everyone had their place in our group, I was the youngest but most daring, ’Kudzi’ was the entertainer, ’Josh’ was the one you go to when you need background info anyone(even our headmaster), ‘Bony’ the math genius, ‘Rez’ short for resident because he was always chilled, you’d swear he had no adrenaline in his system and finally ‘Mulla’ our finance guy because he always had money(unfortunately except for this day). We all managed to put together a measly 15 dollars to fund our mission.
Without wasting time we hit the dusty bush terrain while the other students were packing their belongings to go home to their parents’ we were headed to Ellen with the 15 US dollars lying safely in Khule’s pocket. The journey was long simply because instead of going straight to her house we had to make a couple of detours along the way. Just to make it more memorable we took pictures of whatever we came across if not everything we came across but as we got closer we braced ourselves for what was waiting for us. When we go there approached an old and washed-out door, one that had suffered many knocks from the widest range of visitors and as we waited anxiously trying to decide who among us was going to knock, it opened and a very beautiful lady appeared. We all knew it was her, ‘Our mission’, as she looked at us calmly with a receptionist’s and asked, “Vakomana ndokubatsirai nei ?”
Apart from the fact that I was in awe from being hit across the face by the wave of reality, we all didn’t answer as we knew that Khule had that responsibility. After he had explained the purpose of our visit she got back into her room then came back out moments later amidst our quarrels about who was to go in first. Not wanting to waste any time Ellen then asked us to send in the first ‘victim’ but we all wanted to go first, somehow the oldest managed to convince our young minds to get into oldest-to-youngest in that order and avoid any disorder.
Khule went in and the door shut silently and slowly behind him leaving us outside anticipating our turns as we waited by the door in a straight line like an organised bank queue. Minutes passed by (felt like hours) and then he finally emerged with his popular smile, it was our moment. As Rez was preparing himself to meet his own joy it was that moment when Khule revealed to us that Ellen had demanded 15 dollars from him meaning that there was nothing left for us. The moment was abruptly dissolved and we had no choice but to leave the scene settling for Khule’s narration. Somehow I didn’t feel as disappointed as the other guys but I took it as another interesting life story to tell. I went home the following morning with nothing much on my conscience but an almost short time experience.
By Togarepi
