MARCH 26...

March 26, a good this would be I thought aloud to myself. It had been a long and tiring semester with exams drawing closer with each rise and fall of the sun, classes had officially ended and I finally had some free time on my hands. My plans for my time would not be like my previous plans I told myself, my previous plans as pertaining allocation of time in preparation for exams were always unsuccessful as I always ended up rushing things at the last minute and that was the typical life of an average student.

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I sat quietly at the back of my residence and mused over my decision at the beginning of the year, I had decided to finally turn things over in my life as best as I could and this exam was going to be different from the rest I had written so far. I was lost in thought when all of a sudden I heard a loud rumble, the sound seemed to be coming from somewhere distant but the more I kept listening it seemed to be coming from a source much closer and then like a bang reality dawned on me. Alas! It was my own stomach and I realized that I was really hungry, I had gotten so lost in thought that my favorite pastime which is food had not crossed my mind at all. I needed to eat and fortunately I had time to spare to actually sit down and prepare something proper, noodles and sauce flashed through my head but I quickly pushed the thought away. Proper food I had told myself and proper food I would eat, I made a mental list of all the materials required for my favorite food rice and stew, picked some cash and set off for the local market.

By mid morning I was done with both cooking and eating, I was really filled. I picked up a book to read but before I could go through the beginning pages sleep had fully taken over me. I woke up to the sound of loud banging on my door, my sister was back and she was with her friends. My sister’s friends were really noisy so I decided to pack my books and head off to school. Going to school was really beneficial, things I had really found difficult to understand suddenly became all so easy. I looked up at the sky and night had started to draw nigh, I quickly made for home. The expression on my face gave me up on reaching my house and opening the door, the chaos of the afternoon was nothing compared to what was before me. The whole house had been turned over, a mini party was going on and there on the spot I made up my mind, I would be sleeping over at a friend’s place.

Deborah had been one of the few friends that had withstood the test of time, she was someone I could share my deepest thoughts with, a sister from another mother. On the night of March 26 I set out for Deborah’s house, her house was not that far away from mine just a few minutes walk. The night was still, dark and had this eerie feeling all around. I quickened my pace afraid of even the smallest breaking of a dead twig under my feet, the trees threw shadows that sent shivers down my spine and the intermittent rumbling of the cloud overhead did not help matters at all. The movement was so fast but I had just caught the motion with the corner of my eye, was someone following me or were the figments of my imagination slowly turning into a real life drama. In the dark of the night I made a quick survey of my environment, I could pick out a silhouette following me and approaching at alarming speed considering that I was walking quite fast myself.

The figure finally reached me, I couldn’t make anything out of the face but I could see that it was a guys figure and he had a face cap on. His breath was something else, it reeked of heavy alcohol and it was not the good kind rather it was the locally brewed cheap shots they sold at the local market I had been to earlier in the day. He held my hand and my heart stopped for a brief second, my pulse had quickened and my heart was racing. I had never been robbed before in my entire life, all I knew about robbery incidents were from tales I had been told and those I had seen on screen, despite this I just knew deep down that the common thing to all the victims was the fact that they all began screaming thief! Thief! So I did as I had seen though with faint hope of someone coming along as the road was not a major one with very little foot traffic and at that time of the night people liked minding their business considering that it was a school area, minding your business in school areas ensured you lived longer than those who didn’t.
The robber heard my screams and his grip on my hand tightened whilst at the same time dragging me into the bush, he threw me to the ground as my struggle intensified. I always about 5ft9 and a rough guess would put my weight at close to 65-70kg, this meant I would not be an easy target and that was the only thing that kept me going at that particular moment. It was just like a wrestling match with the robber trying to pin me to the ground, at some point it hit me that this robber had other intentions other than to make away with my possession because there was no reason for him not taking what he wanted and going.

Suddenly it seemed like new energy had been pumped into me I started kicking my legs frantically, I hit his midriff and my legs knocked something cold out of where it had been tucked in his trouser. A gun was now in play, I had never been this close to a gun in my whole life before but I knew what might be a possible outcome if the robber laid his hands on the gun. Luckily for me I had kicked the gun a good distance away, that meant I had to summon all the remaining energy I had and try and run. I increased the intensity of my kicks in order to distract him from the fact that I was slowly moving my whole weight to my right hand. With lightening speed before he could know what was up I had landed a solid punch on his face, for a brief second I totally forgot the situation I was in and started feeling like Ali. The punch had disorientated him and that gave me a window of opportunity to make my move, I heaved him off my body and ran. My bag containing my phone, laptop, books and identification card was still at the scene of the event but I just had to get out of there.

I summoned my inner Usain bolt and ran like I had never run before. So many thoughts kept going through my head, my bag for starters. I would miss my phone, I would miss steemit for some time, I would miss so much because my phone was more like a flash drive where I save almost everything I get, but I knew I wanted to be alive more than I wanted that phone at that moment. I just kept running with the hopes that he wouldn’t follow me, I was already so weak and badly bruised which meant that I could not survive another round of struggling. The shadows and noises which had frightened me earlier that night was now a thing of the past as I made my way home.

I looked up and finally I could make out the picture of my house, renewed strength flooded through my body. I banged furiously on the gate only for the gate to swing open as it had not been locked yet. I knocked on my door but there was no response, I searched through my jean trouser with faith that my key had not been lost in the melee. It was still there, I pulled it out and opened the door bolting it as fast as I could. The room was so dark, normally I am really afraid of the dark but at that moment fear was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to make sure that everywhere was securely locked. I felt around the dark room till I saw a flash light with which I made my way to the bathroom to clean myself up. After cleaning up I knelt down and said a silent prayer, I had come out alive and it was something I was really thankful for. I complimented myself even though I knew it was silly to even think of complimenting yourself after a serious incident like that but I still did and said to myself “Endee, wow! You are strong, bravo”.

I got up and pointed the flash light at the old clock my mother had given me 4 years back when I had just gained admission into the university, it was 11:57. I just stood and waited, 3 minutes later it was official. March 26 had come and gone a day forever etched in my memory.

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