THE FACE

THE FACE
 
The Medical student toppled into love as soon as he set his eyes on Sheila, the beautiful new student. She had masses of long black hair and eyelashes so long with a lovely set of deep blue eyes. The medical student had a withdrawn nature, though not by inclination. He’d learned the hærd way that people avoided him when they heard about his insane father; locked away in an asylum. But he had to over come his taciturn nature or lose risking Sheila to one of the fellows that p-nted after her. So the medical student volunteered to tutor Sheila in one of her classes. After that, it was easy. Sheila toppled into love with the medical student as madly as he was in love with her. They went everywhere together, hærdly bearing to part for classes.
 
The medical student lived in a bubble of joy until the day he saw Sheila speaking to a good-looking fellow who lived in the same dorm. They were laughing together over something one of their professors had said in history class and a s—t of sheer jealousy pierced the medical students gut.
 
How dare she laugh with another man?
 
He confronted his Sheila with her percerved trespass, and she stared at him incredulously. “You’re crazy!” she said. He winced, reminded of his father and shouted insults at Sheila until she stalked off in a rage. They made up over dinner and things were fine for a while, until the medical student saw Sheila borrow a pen from a handsome fellow at the library. That set him off. They hissed angry words at each other until the librarian kicked them out. The medical student huddled on the narrow bed in his dorm until black anger gave way to common sense. He called Sheila and apologized. She accepted his apology, and they were back together.
 
The medical student was scheduled to take Sheila to a local dance on friday night, so he rushed back to his dorm to dress in his best. As he turned to leave, the medical student noticed that a scarpel had fallen out of his medical bag and lay haphazardly on his desk. He t—-t it carelessly in,side the bag and went to pack up his girlfriend and esc-rt her to the dance. The couple had a fabulous evening; dancing and drinking and eating. They left the party around midnight and walked hand-in-hand back to his dorm room for a night cap. When they reached the entry way Sheila veered off for a moment to ask a follow from one of her art classes about an assignment that was due the next day. The medical student was instantly filled with gut-gnawing jealously. When Sheila rejoined him, he hustled her upstairs to his room and shouted.
 
“you flirt with every man you meet, you tramp!”
 
“You are crazy!” Sheila shouted back “Strak raving mad!”
 
The boyfriend saw red “Don’t call me mad”, he said, his hand groping for the loose scarpel in his medical bag on the desk.
 
When the mists cleared from his eyes, Sheila lay dead at his feet, he throat cut from ear to ear. The wh0le room was covered with red gore and her masses of black hair lay in a pool of steaming blood. The medical student brain went over drive.
 
Hide the body.
 
Clean up the body
 
Invent an alibi.
 
But first…..
 
He stared at the dead girl he had loved so much, then he knelt beside the body and slowly cut off her face. He wrapped the face carefully in plastic before putting it in his drawer. Then he cleaned up the blood and hid the body in a tunnel near the laundry room.
 
The next morning the medical student told his roommate Sheila had broken up with him and gone home in a snit without finishing her classes. The roommate accepted the story without questions, and didn’t appear to notice the way the medical student peered obsessively in,side his desk drawer. The medical student finally tore himself away Sheila’s face to attend his 11 O’clock class.
 
When he returned at lunch time, he found his roommate leaning out of the open window, looking ill “I think I have a flu. I’d best run to the pharmacy and pick up something for it”. The roommate said, pratically running from the room.
 
Downstairs, his roommate was on the phone with the police.
 
The medical student went ballistic when the police came with a warrant to arrest him. They manhandled him out of his chair while a grim-faced officer took a look in the desk drawer. When he saw the dead girl’s face, the officer swore violently and vomited on the floor.
 
The medical student was placed in an asylum with his father, who was locked away in a padded room next door. Everyday the bereft boyfriend wept and stared out the window; seeing Sheila’s lovely face on the branches of a nearby tree, while his enraged father tried to kill his attendants, The face seemed to sway to the rhythm of his father’s fists as his insane parent pounded and pounded the walls.
 
Back in the dorm, the ghost of a young girl in a blood- stained dress still floats along the hallways searching for her face.
 
(c) Ifeoma Isabella Okeke