Blakky

When i was in the boarding school, 
i had a friend we all called Blakky 
He was big, very strong but a bit 
slow intellectually 
He was under pressure to pass his 
examinations 
He had repeated SS1 twice by the time 
I was transferred from Loyola College 
to Olivet Baptist High School
We became fast friends 
As a new student in a new school, 
you want to fit in quickly 
Every act of kindness counts 
When i got to the boarding house, 
I was paired with a student who had 
scabies all over his body 
I had never seen or heard of scabies 
before then
The guy with scabies was
covered with calamine lotion and 
looking odd 
The other students in the room kept 
far away from this guy and yet, I was 
assigned to the bunk space right 
under his own 
Some seniors were already laughing 
and jeering 
They knew scabies spread quickly and 
I would most likely get it but they 
didn't say anything to warn me 
I was arranging my provisions in my 
locker when Blakky walked in, we had 
never met before, he walked straight t
o me and said "Hello, new guy, you 
cannot sleep there. 
You will catch "Kuruna" 
I looked at him oddly I had never 
heard of Kuruna before in my life 
He smiled and said "Ko mo bus stop" 
I still didn't get it 
He smiled, shook his head, and 
started packing my things 
He said "If you stay here, you will 
catch craw-craw 
I got that Scabies was common while 
i was in the boarding school, the cure 
was Benzyl Benzoate
He took me to another bunk, the 
seniors who had been making snide 
remarks and laughing before looked 
away 
Blakky was once their classmate, and 
as such, they couldn't treat him like 
they would treat a junior student 
This was how Blakky became my friend 
Blakky was a Lagos boy, born and bred 
on Glover street 
He took me not only as a friend but also 
as a brother 
As I began to attend classes, I noticed 
Blakky didn't like anything academic 
He doesn't even bother to pay attention 
He doesn't like sports too
 He was more interested in going to 
Owode to watch films at Channel 5 
and helping the cooks in the kitchen 
carry heavy stuff 
I was the opposite and it affected our 
friendship 
We were never able to anything together 
We went on a break after the first term
When school resumed for the 
second term 
Blakky came with his mother 
Please note that I was 15 years old 
at this time and Blakky was 17 
Blakky's mother came with a lot of
 goodies for me, she bought me provisions 
that matched everything Blakky had and 
thanked me for being a good friend to 
her son 
Then she went on to tell me how Blakky's 
father had always been mean to him and
 insistent he must complete his secondary 
school before he could be allowed to 
learn a trade 
His mother had a special request for me 
She wanted me to help him complete 
his secondary school education 
I said, he doesn't like to read or attend 
classes 
She said "Help him, let him copy you" 
It was a very weird request but i foolishly 
said okay 
I was in SS 1V 
Blakky was in SS 1T 
We struck a bargain that he would 
be sitting with me in my own class 
All he had to do was attend classes 
and sit next to me 
He will copy my answers whenever 
we were given a test or had to write 
an examination 
On paper, the deal looked good 
But human nature is a very different thing 
I realized i didn't really like being copied 
after the first test we did that way 
Blakky was so dull that if you wrote something, 
realized it it was a mistake and canceled it, 
he would also write the same thing and 
cancel it just the way you did it 
He copied like a robot and of course he 
got me in trouble 
The English teacher called me into the 
staff room and subtly asked me if I was 
being bullied by Blakky in any way 
I said No 
The teacher didn't say anything further 
but i could do the maths 
When i told Blakky, he said i should 
forget about it, the man was just being 
nosey 
Then one afternoon, Blakky came to 
meet me in the hostel with a black bag 
He had stolen a fire extinguisher in 
school and was wondering if i had an 
idea where he could sell it 
I said no 
He threw the fire extinguisher away 
A week later, he came to the hostel 
with a petri-dish and a beaker from 
the Chemistry lab 
Both were unmarked 
He said he learned somebody broke a 
petri-dish and a beaker in the lab and 
he would like me to sell the beaker to 
the person 
He had all the details 
I contacted the girl 
She was a boarding house student too 
She bought the baker for N500 
That was quite a lot of money in 1996 
The bus fare from Oyo to Ibadan 
was N25 
We spent the lavishly, like thieves but 
i wasn't comfortable with Blakky anymore 
I wasn't a saint but his approach to 
things was too simple 
There was no way he wouldn't eventually 
get into a big trouble and I would go 
down with him 
I could perceive this strongly but I 
had taken the provision from his mother 
and he never stopped reminding me of 
that fact 
Plus he could really beat me up 
(I wasn't small in stature but i hated 
violence, so I managed to keep the 
friendship throughout the second term) 
After the term, Blakky's grades improved 
significantly 
After we got our report cards, I told him 
we can no longer be friends 
I had delivered as promised and i was 
not obliged to be his friend anymore 
He didn't say a word 
I went home for the second term break 
On the day we resumed for the third term, 
the first person I saw under the tree with 
the housemaster was Blakky's mother 
She was waiting for me 
I was about to turn 16, 
I was in SS 2 
She said her son ran away from home and 
she heard reports that he was dead 
She said it was my fault 
I didn't have a heart 
I didn't have a conscience 
I was callous and wicked 
She really unleashed a lot of venom on me 
She insisted that she begged me and even 
bribed me to help her son and I callously 
told her son that it was over 
She demanded she wanted to meet my 
parents 
I was practically labeled a murderer 
There was no curse under the heavens 
that this woman didn't pronounce upon 
me in broad daylight
This happened in front of many witnesses
The housemaster eventually calmed 
her down and she left 
Three weeks later, she was back with 
Blakky 
He had returned home in the middle of 
the night somehow 
He tried traveling to Ivory Coast with a 
fuji music band but was turned back at 
one of the borders 
His death was apparently fake news
His mother still acted as if i was guilty 
She wouldn't even say sorry for all the 
curses and the psychological terror 
she unleashed on me 
I was supposed to take it on the chin 
and deal with it 
Her story needed a fall guy and I was it 
I made sure i stayed far away from Blakky 
from that time 
He got some sympathy from other guys 
who made friends with him 
They all became as thick as thieves 
We all passed our examinations and moved 
to SS3 
On the day we were to write our final
Yoruba examination (WAEC)
I got to the examination hall rejoicing 
because it was our final paper 
We were almost through when the Head 
of School for SS3 walked in shouting 
"If you hear your name stand to your 
feet; Beta, Oba, Blakky, Shakatu, Kosofo! 
They all stood up Policemen walked 
into the examination hall and marched 
them straight into a Black Maria 
I had literally turned to jelly 
Those guys were all in my hostel and we 
were all in the same room 
I was expecting my name to be called 
but it wasn't 
We later learned that during the break 
between the first paper and the second 
paper, Blakky and the other guys went 
into the science laboratory and
destroyed everything they could for 
no other reason than being high on 
marijuana 
It was a very sad day 
Our Valedictory Service as a set was 
canceled and the guys spent several 
weeks in police custody 
Blakky's mother came around but was 
too preoccupied to remember me 
When our WAEC result was released 
I saw Blakky again 
We didn't talk much 
He failed the exams but said he needed 
the testimonial for the technical school 
he had opted to join in order to further 
his education. 

PS: Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit 
When he says walk away, pls, walk away!