Wild West of the Heart
EIGHTY

"A recent video that went trending last night, hitting close to a hundred thousand views on youtube has recently exposed the general hospital with claims of masking a secret ward that detained about a hundred HIV patients—" Mary paused with the remote in her hands. Titi put her phone away, sitting forward to concentrate on the television. She was everyone who had seen the news.

"What?" She turned to Mary who pushed a lump down her throat. "I know those people" She pointed to Silva and Mira on the screens. "From where?"

Fiyin turned to her father on the couch, she hooked her knees beneath her chin as she cut her toenails. His eyes went from the television to his daughter-

"That's my friend's guardian from school" She whispered and he increased the volume. She arched her brows at whatever they were saying. "Which one?" "Both of them" Silva was seated behind the monitor, and Mira just beside.

"Hi, my name is DaSilva Jones, and this is Mira. We're going to tell you a story of how we lost our friend-"

"Since no one wants to"

Ola streamed it live and seeing multiple notifications on his phone of the trending video.

He laid back in his bed, with a smile at the corner of his lips. Only him had at least prior knowledge of this since he was the one that saw Jazzlyn's phone.

"I'll say his name, alongside the many that have been lost to this disease and the wrath that comes with it" But that could mean it was the first time for Obi, hearing this news.

Abdul had tears in his eyes after his mother had gotten off the phone with Principal Collins. He knew before she hung up what it was already about.

And somehow, he had a feeling this was some sort of punishment for only God knew what. She looked at him with the most discerning eyes, shaking her head with utmost disappointment. "I can exp-" "Khadijat" His voice raged the corridors as he looked back from the couch.

"Come see this" He referred to the headlined news the whole Nigeria seemed to be watching. Khadijat turned away, leaving Abdul in front of his half-eaten sandwich. He heard his father's murmurs from the parlor and the voice of the reporter from the television but he chose to ignore it.

"Fuck"

Obi's lace dragged against the tarred roads as he collected the bread he'd bought from a mallam. He pressed it as a way of determining how fresh it was. "Reginald Ojo."

He heard the familiar voice and name coming from the screen above him. He looked up, narrowing his eyes at both Silva and Mira. "What?" He whispered from his lips. The bread slipped out of his palms. "What is this?"

"Jazzlyn Pius." Silva pushed a lump down his throat, staring at the list David had sent him. "Daniella Yvonne. Gina Tope. Harriett. Olabanjo Grace. Micky. Thomas-" "What do you think might be in it?"

The video left people with more questions than answers, but it was the way it was expected to be forcing the necessary conversations, the hardest. It was what Silva and Mira, and now, looking at each other, they had their own. She tore the envelope Reginald had left and emptied it into her palms. Silva leaned forward, looking at the bunch of keys in her hands. "What?" She couldn't hide the disappointment in her eyes. Silva chuckled, holding unto the pillow on his thighs. She dangled it in his face, making a clinky sound. "A key" He smirked. "To what-"

"Since when do you not like mystery?" Silva asked and she rolled her eyes, tossing it to the counter. "Since all of this. I mean Reginald's gone and our faces are on everyone's tv now-" She whispered, looking to the one in front of them. It was muted though, Mira hated the sound of her voice from it but it was just her opinion. Silva on the other hand thought he didn't look his very best.

But that was besides the point. The point was that it was already out there. The truth, the news-it was now left to the public on what they wanted to do with it. Everyone, including the government that had watched it. And seen the articles. "There is a disease killing everyone "

"And then there is someone killing people with the disease" Silva took in deep breath, wiping across his head.

It was then his door immediately barged open and he switched it back to mute, looking to Obi. He had his hands on his hips, tossing the article to the ground.

"How long has this been going on?" He asked, his words struggled through his halting breathes. "What is even this?"

-

"Obi"

He looked to Mide by his side. "I'm still mad at them though. I can't believe you knew about this too" His voice went low as Miss Coker walked round the class to check the assignments. Ola leaned close to him.

"You already had your own shit. It's not as if i knew about the news or anything too. All i did was find a cellphone that turned out to be useful" He said. "And you could have told me" Obi replied, a little bit louder than early on. And Miss Coker turned to them. "Quiet" She cautioned.

"Obi and Olamide. I want you to separate into two rows" She looked from her glasses as they moved his tables away from each other. "Actually ma'am, i need to use the rest-"

"I said two separate rows" She stretched the cane in her hands and he halted in both his steps and his words. He completely moved from his best-friend till she was satisfied. She nodded, chewing the gum with her teeth.

"Now, can i use the restroom?" Ola asked as Obi stole a glance at him, almost chuckling. Everyone turned back at him as Coker just waved her fingers. "Just go-" She pointed towards the door and Mide scrambled through the door as it he was holding poo between his cheeks.

He wasn't.

The moment he walked out of the doors, he straightened his back-narrowing his eyes at Marissa's desk. He heaved in a deep sigh, headed towards her.

This was the phase one of the take down Collins plan, and his time was more than due. Especially after what he did to Abdul, who hadn't even showed up to school that day.

Miss Coker eyed Obi and he immediately zipped his lips. She held the new literature book in her left hand, and a cane in her right. "Today, we will be looking at our last book-As you can see the title, Hundred years a slave." Fiyin locked eyes with Obi who nodded. And then he looked to Abu's empty seat on his side. "We may begin-"

-

"Marissa"

Her eyes darted from the documents in her hands, she let a sigh escape her lips, letting her glasses slip further down the bridge of her nose. "What do you want?" She grudgingly asked Ola who stood akimbo in front of her. "Marissa, i'm not your enemy" He leaned against her desk, looking towards Collins' door. "He is" "Obi told me "

She closed the papers in her hands like a book and she rolled her seat backwards, delving into her table compartment as if looking for something. "Tell you what?" She said, only a fragment of her mind following this convo. "I know Collins. He's a bad person and he hurts people. That's what he does, and Marissa i think it's time we do something about it" She looked to him finally, arching her brows. "And what does that have to do with me?" “Marissa—“ His eyes fell on the scarf around her neck. "If he does as much as touch you, you know you can talk to me. It's the only w-" "Don't you have a class?" She cleared her throat and Ola leaned forward. "It's the only way you can stop him. We can stop him" She stood, rolling her eyes. "Ola or whatever your name is" She said.

"This isn't some movie. Besides he's still your principal. He deserves that much respect" She walked out from her desk, facing the direction of his office. "He's a good man" She pushed a lump down her own throat, as if finding it hard to believe her own words. "And you should get to class before i actually report you to him"

His ears pierced and he stood up straight, letting the echo of her voice follow her into his office. Ola stood in the empty hallways, running his hand through his head. The whole place was quieter, now that Ayo and the whole football team no longer lurked during actual class periods.

So quiet that he could hear his intrusive thoughts just as his eyes fell on the desktop on her table-Marissa. Now, he wasn't looking for anything but he was well aware that you find things when you aren't. He tiptoed behind her desk, bowing his head into the million files scattered on top of it.

On the other hand, Marissa leaned against his door.

She looked to him, her eyes slightly stinging with tears as she watched him circle in his rotating office chair. Collins faced out of windows which was no doubt the best view of this place he could see the parking lot, and the blue canopies across from it, the tall surrounding buildings and the both the lawn tennis and basketball court.

He hummed, stroking his chin as if getting that feeling in his nerves that someone was coming for him, little did he know it were the bunch of teenagers he'd wronged over the past months. Ola's hands brushed through the sides of the paper as he looked for something-something concrete enough if not take Collins down, but to at least convince Marissa to help.

Looking at him, her hands trailed the ends of her lavender scarf and in her head were a million ways she could kill this man-Collins. She hated that she had to lie to Olamide but on the other hand, she didn't have another job or a means of income besides this. Collins made sure she knew that, and that it was a man's world.

And sometimes, speaking your truth can cause alot more damage. It was the sole reason Fiyin never did anything.

"Marissa" His voice filled the room, drifting her from her thoughts. He didn't bother turning around, perhaps just a call to tell her he knew she was there. He knew she thought about stabbing him in his back. The thing about Collins was that he knew he was a bad person-

-and he'd often justify it by the fact that it were the people that changed when in hindsight, he was just a psychopath without a conscience. He didn't feel anything after Fi, or Marissa the countless of times. He didn't feel anything dragging Obi's future through the mud. And he most certainly didn't feel anything talking to Abdul's mum.

"This uhm-" Marissa cleared her throat, walking to his table to drop the file. And that very moment, Ola's eyes went to Marissa's laptop, opened to the search engine. She'd typed something and then forgot it on that page. Or perhaps it was intentional.

Either way, he found his fingers navigating the cursor till he got to the very top-

Collins McPhersons Campbell Case.

A breath escaped his lips as he backed away from the monitor. "Jackpot" He softly exclaimed with a sly smirk.

"This is from the meeting you had with the board yesterday regarding the Damilola family. A bunch of paperwork have been sent b-" Collins finally turned to face her and she pushed a lump down her dry throat for the second time. "Do you ever shut up?" He reached for his mug of steaming coffee she'd brought to him a while earlier. "But" She quivered. "You requested for these"

"Don't you ever feel your life is more than this? More than me and you trying to kiss my ass" He chuckled, resting back in his seat. "I...i don't understand" Marissa replied.

"You know what i think, i think you like it" He smirked. "I think the reason you don't want to leave is because deep down, you want me. You want this because you know damn well no one on the outside would dare take two conscious looks at you. Not in your glasses, or your skinny skirts and your shirts. No one is pathetic enough to—"

Marissa let the tears slip down her right eye, turning her back on him. "Yeah you cry. You go ahead and cry, but i bet you it's the most you can do. In your whole life" He let that last part sink into her soul like teeth into skin.

And Marissa felt a chill shoot up her spine as her hands opened the doors. Collins found his hurtful words amusing, letting out a musty old laugh as he faced the windows again as if he deserved anything that was as calm and serene. The moment she walked out from the door, her eyes immediately matched his-Olamide, from behind her desk. She paced towards him and he stepped out of it.

"I'm sorry i just wanted t-" She halted in front of him, so close that he could see the tears in her eyes. "What?"

"You want to take down Collins? Count me in" She replied and Olamide scoffed slightly from his lips. "Well, i'm going to need to know what that is" He pointed to the desktop on her table and they locked eyes- "Campbells?"

-

"A hundred years a slave tells the story of Seun, a seventeen year old yoruba boy like some of you" Coker looked to the class, urging their eyes to lock into hers as she summarized the book in her hands. "He narrates the morning a ship pulled up on the shores of his village in Benin, capturing him alongside half a thousand more "

Obi's fingers trailed the edges of the book as his eyes narrowed on her lips-he'd never honestly been this intrigued by a story, not even by Amebo, or the other book by Onyemaobi. He'd been fascinated for the longest time about the topic of slavery, though he seldomly read.

It was not until this moment that he was sucked in, alongside his empathy for the tragic story of Seun Alabi.

"From the coast, they were offloaded unto a tiny ship called El Último Barco and they spent weeks making their way to the United States. One might think their struggles may come to an end once they step foot on American soil, it was what he thought. But instead, he had to settle in a place where no one spoke his language, where he was whipped at any inconvenience and-" Coker pushed a lump her throat. "Why didn't he leave? Run away?" Obi suddenly asked and the rest of class turned to him.

Coker scoffed.

"Obi, you can't leave. None of them, you know i admire a book like this" She held the bane. "In fact i think it's quite essential and maybe why the board chose it for your exams because it tells the hard truth. To remind us that things weren't always as easy as this. Things weren't always like this" She climbed down her desk, just before the sound of the bell rang in the hallways. "And i advise you read it"

She said as students grabbed their bags. "Not just for your finals that are coming up in a few weeks but for yourself. It's a really good book" Deb walked by her as Coker's eyes settled on Obi who was the one that didn't stand up. "Yeah sure" Fi replied ironically, knowing she would never use her leisure to read a book. And why she finally caught up with Deb and the whole class had flushed out, Miss Coker pretended to not give the boy in front of her that much attention-but the silence became deafening.

"You know you're not supposed to be in here for break right?" She said. Obi looked to her from the book. "Yeah, except the school hates me. Literally everyone" He scoffed, not exactly bothered by it. "I saw the posters" Coker added. And he rolled his eyes. "Just don't. It's in the past. Besides i really want to finish this book today, something about it is just captivating" "Captivating?" She echoed, falling in her sear and their back and forth replies echoed through the room. "Yes, captivating. I honestly have no idea how things like this work and it's shame i had to wait until my finals-"

Miss Coker laughed as if Obi wasn't her least favorite student up until today. He stood, moving closer to her and settling on a seat just beside. "I want to know everything" He looked to her. "Good thing i have-" She looked to her wristwatch. "We have forty minutes to do that" They chuckled, bringing the book between them.

To be continued...