Dilemma episode 5 – finale

Dilemma
Episode 5
Finale
“What? What’s the reason for that? Why will the police want to search my room?” i asked desperately.
“They just want to search all the rooms in the lodge. According to them it’s the procedure. You are not the only person, so you have to come as fast as you can or else they might break into your room when it gets to your turn” he explained patiently “fine I’ll be there” i murmured half-heartedly, breathing deeply.
 
It really took me about two hours to make up my mind on returning to the lodge, because i was so scared that the police might find something in my room. A l¡pstick, lock of hair anything incriminating. I feared.
Though I was so sure that i wiped my room clean before travelling, but they were experts and i was scared something could be found somehow.
 
However I finally returned to my lodge very late in the afternoon with the hope that my room has been broken into. But on the contrary it was as i left it {still locked}.
 
I quickly met the hostel president with questions in my heart and immediately he saw me he smiled, offering his hand for a handshake.
“It’s very fine you showed up today. All the rooms that are yet to be searched will be searched tomorrow. Some students travelled like you did which is very bad and as a result the cops decided to search the rooms of available students today while the locked ones will be searched tomorrow whether the owners return or not” he explained, settling my curiosity.
 
I returned to my room a bit relieved and satisfied, quickly cleaned up everything in it one more time, washing the bed sheet Nneka laid on over and over. In fact i made sure my room was very much in order before resting that day.
My room was so clean that the three policemen who searched it early the next day commented on it.
 
“Seems like you are the cleanest student in this lodge. Your room is so clean” one of them said to me as he tossed around my properties, without suspecting a thing. I smiled nervously.
 
Unknown to them the room they were searching was the main crime scene and they left without finding anything, leaving me a bit relaxed.
 
“What next?” i asked myself as i watched them leave.
 
We took a bus down to Nneka’s village. When we got to her compound, I saw a woman, surrounded by other women, they were consoling her “it’s alright. Don’t worry. She would be found….’ I needed no soothsayer to tell me that the poor woman was Nneka’s mother. I felt sorry for her plight. I was filled with
guilt. “But I didn’t kill her, I am innocent. I wished her daughter could just come back to life and say to her; mama it’s alright. I’m here”. When she caught sight of us, she ran towards us and held the poor girl with me.
 
Nneka’s roommate “where is my daughter! “She yelled. It took people’s effort to let her go off the helpless girl. I should be held, not her. I heard a voice calling me. I turned and it was Nneka. I shifted backwards in fear. I was about to run, but where to? “Tell my parents what happened” she said thrice, with a voice
re-echoing in my head over and over again. She disappeared. I knew other people didn’t see her. I had to act fast before I die of fear before my time I called her parent aside with great courage. I told them that their daughter is dead and has been appearing to me. Immediately I said that, she appeared to me and said with a thunderous voice, “Tell them what actually happened before I kill you here” I confessed for the very first time.
 
Her mother was like strangling me to death. I sustained bruises from her rage. It was the man who even saved me. He demanded to see my parents. My heart skipped a bit. He was really angry and sorrowful. I could see it written over his face. We arrived at my parent’s compound. Nneka’s parents, myself, the and Nneka’s uncle) It was a thing of shame for him as I was forced to re-confess. My parents were disappointed in me. My father ceased my phone. I couldn’t raise my face up as I faced the ground. Soon people gathered. I felt like I should just die and leave everything. After sometime, Nneka appeared for everybody to see. It was a serious scene. Some people ran and stopped at some point to observe while some stayed out. Even her mother was terrified. Nneka told everybody that I didn’t kill her. She said her asthma disease did. I was a bit relieved but I was not really myself at that point. I was surprised when she pleaded with her parents to let me go.
 
She finally told her parents to go to the police and tell them they are her parents so that they would be given her corpse at the mortuary, as ordered by the school. Before she disappeared, she looked at me, smiled and said” I have forgiven you, Jude” Hours passed into days. Days into weeks and weeks into months. I had learnt my lesson. Social network nearly killed me. I lost my parents trusts, concentration with studies and my good name. But above all, I prayed to God to forgive me.
 
***The end ***
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WRITTEN BY Fatuase Oluwafemi B