The Promise Read online

  Chapter 2

  It had been a whole month since Rachael got to the school of law. Back in her high school days, she was always one of the best in her school, to add more glory to her high school days, she won a writing competition that involved participants from all states of the country. The contest was featured on popular TV stations and she became famous for her achievement. That was the pride and honour that gave her confidence that the law school would not be much different from high school. But she was wrong, her partial laziness affected her. Her parents had never really corrected it and Joseph never knew about her laziness, therefore, he could not correct her. Rachael could not compete favourably well with her counterparts and she realized that she could end up dropping out, she thought of the shame and agony that would come upon her if she dropped out. She became so worried and decided to confide in her new found friend called Deborah to advice her on what to do. Deborah was Rachael’s roommate and they were best friends. Rachael explained her predicament to her friend and Deborah assured her that she had no cause to worry, and told her that there was a way out. Rachael became glad that her problem had a solution but was highly disappointed when Deborah told her that she would have to hook up with a brilliant boy that would teach her what she needed to understand. Rachael was disappointed and promised to think about it. As the sun bid a goodbye and the cocks began to sleep, Rachael’s sleep was nowhere to be found. Her mind was greatly troubled by the advice her friend gave her. She knew it was a way out of her predicament but she also knew that it was possibly a way to total destruction. She thought about her promise to Joseph and how she was determined to always be a good girl. After pondering on the ill-fate that could befall a lazy girl like her, she decided that she would heed to her friend’s advice, but would be careful with any guy she hooks up with. She decided to dine with the devil with a long spoon.

  Within a few weeks, Deborah had helped Rachael to hook up with a young, brilliant guy called Promise. Promise was tall, handsome and light in complexion, he was just 20 years of age. Among his mates, he was envied by all and many girls wanted him. Deborah made Rachael to understand that she was very lucky to have Promise and she should stick to him and do anything he told her to do. Soon, Rachael began to improve in her academics and was happy that a solution had come to her problems. Her mind was at rest and she thought to herself that dating wasn’t about romance only, but also about helping one another. All the while, she and Joseph often called each other and at times discussed online. Distance was never able to separate them and their love only grew with time. However, she did not disclose to Joseph what she was really going through in the law school, as she simply told him that all was good. Joseph knew only about Deborah, the new friend she had.

  As the harmattan winds blew and the trees began to shed their leaves, Rachael’s moral ideas began to fade away with every tick of the clock. She had gone to the law school with very strong moral ideas, but one night turned it all upside down. Promise had been acting as Rachael’s teacher for quite a while, but he wanted much more than that, he had learnt that Rachael was not such an easy girl and despite his brilliance and attractive physical looks, he lacked the courage to ever tell her he wanted anything more than friendship from her. She had agreed to be his girlfriend on the condition that it would never go up to the stage of romance. They grew so tight that they could hardly spend an hour in the day without speaking to each other. They were no longer just colleagues, as everybody regarded them as a couple, as they were both boyfriend and girlfriend. With every passing moment, Promise’s desire to go beyond the limits of friendship grew. He wanted more than just love and attention, and his intention was to have a girl to engage in romance with like his mates did. He told Deborah about it and Deborah promised to help him to achieve his lustful desires. Christmas was around the corner, Rachael was back home amidst the great preparations being made for Christmas by everyone, but one thing was surprising to all that knew her. The young lively girl suddenly turned to someone that stayed all alone, she wasn’t feeling any sense of Christmas, but her parents simply overlooked it. Even online, Joseph began to notice many changes in her attitude. So one day, he decided to, and gave her a call, discussed his observations with her and she simply replied that humans were created to change as they grow. Stunned by the coldness of her reply, Joseph kept other observations to himself and decided to discuss about Christmas with her. He was shocked to hear that she was not interested in celebrating Christmas. Joseph asked her the reasons for her sudden changes, recalling that she had always been so excited about Christmas. He was astonished to realize her sudden change of attitude towards Christmas. Being much experienced about youths, though still a 19 year old teenager, he knew that the changes in her attitude was as a result of some burden she had on her mind, he became so worried about her and was guessing what exactly she was thinking of that was blinding her from every other bliss that surrounded her. He could not really figure out any and was left puzzled. Soon, a new year began and Rachael was back to school, like a bird, she hasted towards the bait, waiting to be trapped. She was so glad to see Promise again, who she had been thinking about every moment throughout the holiday, the main reason why nothing else made sense to her. Promise was all the world was to her, yet, she wanted to keep her promise to Joseph. Meanwhile, unknown to her, Deborah and Promise had planned on how to lure her into romance. They resolved that there was no better day to carry out their wickedness than the day before their mid-term exams. The day arrived. Having perfected their plans, that fateful evening, Deborah was with Rachael reading for the test, surprisingly, Promise appeared. Rachael was having some problems understanding a part of what she was reading, and suddenly, Promise appeared like a ray of hope coming from a blue moon. She could not be happier at the sight of anything else and welcomed him. He had hardly spent a minute, when Rachael presented her problem to him. Promise told her to keep it till night.’ Night!,’ exclaimed Rachael, who could not understand what he meant. Promise replied that he wanted the three of them to have a group read till midnight, Deborah replied that it was a good idea and Rachael agreed with her. So the three of them decided to have a group read together. This could not have been possible if they were living on campus, but they were off-campus students and that allowed such to occur. About 7 pm in the evening, after the three of them had been busy with a lot of reading, Deborah pretended as if she received a call, and after picking and ending her false call, she announced to Promise and Rachael that she would have to leave because of an emergency situation with one of her friends. Promise, pretending, offered to go with her, but Rachael insisted that he stayed, so Deborah left the two of them alone. At about 8 pm, they were both stressed with reading and decided to take a break, Promise brought out a bottle of soft-drink from his bag, in which he had put a sleep inducing drug. Rachael gladly accepted it. After drinking it, she felt so sleepy and slept off on her chair. The wind began all around, and through the night, it all lasted, the birds cried as they witnessed the dishonouring of Rachael in the night. Soon the winds were all over, Rachael woke up about 4:30 am in the morning, everything shocked her to the bone marrows, Promise was sleeping by her on the same bed, her clothes were off and the only thing she had on her was a piece of cloth covering her nakedness. She became mad to realize that she had been raped and woke Promise up with a dirty slap. He simply smiled in return and managed to say “I am sorry.” Astonished, Rachael ran to the end of the room and grabbed a knife. Promise was lucky to get hold of her hands and take the knife from her, he held her hands and knelt down crying before her, managing to utter these words, “Am so sorry my love, I have always wanted you to be my future wife but I didn’t just know how to say it, a devil just took over me and made me do this, take the knife and kill me, I don’t deserve to live any longer.” He handed the knife to her, but her hands were shaking, she was crying so deeply and replied, “I won’t kill you Promise, I loved you too but you do not love me, you should have told me all the while and shouldn’t
have done this to me. Why Promise?” He left the room crying as he walked back to his own rented room located about 30 metres from Rachael’s own. It was devastating, they both cried till the sun arose.

  THE WIND

  To the east we moved,

  Our hands so tightly held,

  And we swung arms on the fly,

  Like a little wind,

  It began to blow,

  And our feat paused a while,

  A thought we gave to our action,

  Soon we took a leave.

  Fast and faster we ran,

  Hastily we moved,

  Fiercer the winds became,

  And we loved it till the end.

  Our minds heavy with thoughts,

  Life turned so sweet,

  Soon we got to the room,

  The wind became an honey,

  We tasted and drank to satisfaction,

  To our pleasure we spent the night,

  Our soul then hunted,

  Now swum we in the winds,

  Love became lust,

  The world upside down turned,

  Until our souls clave to hell.

  Soon the winds were over,

  Our consciousness we regained,

  The lust of the past night,

  In shame beheld one another,

  So bad we felt our lust,

  Our past hunt we hated,

  And in cry we bowed our heads,

  The agony of lust,

  The death of hell.

  Culled From “Voice of The Knight” by John Ishola Olafenwa

  Both Rachael and Promise could hardly answer a single question in the test. The best they could return back to the examiner was an answer sheet stained with tears. They both could not behold each other’s eyes as they left the examination hall. Everyone noticed that something was wrong with the duo that had been known as a couple. Rachael cried till evening. Deborah, who pretended not to know about the planning of the act was busy trying to console Rachael. Finally, Deborah told her that she had an idea and Rachael was always pleased to listen to Deborah’s ideas because she thought they were good counsels. Deborah, with her tricks, began preaching a new gospel to Rachael which she knew would surely be good enough to finally lead her into a perfect state of oblivion about her impending peril. Deborah began her sermon,” Rachael, you know I can never deceive you, when you were having problems with your academics, I tried to help you out but this fool of a Promise has destroyed the whole thing. Now what has happened as happened, you cannot kill yourself because of that, it is not the end of life and if you continue crying, you will hurt yourself. I remember, you once told me that you had promised your best friend, Joseph that you would have sex only with the man you marry, therefore, why not decide to marry Promise, by that you would keep your promise to Joseph and you would continue to enjoy the help that Promise renders to you in your academics.” ”Wow! Bright Idea,” exclaimed Rachael, who was happy that she might not yet have broken her promise and there was a way out of her shame. Deborah warned her not to jump at anything but spend some time to think about it. Rachael was full of thanks as Deborah left her. Throughout the night, Rachael kept pondering on what Deborah told her. If she didn’t take to the advice, that means she had broken her promise to Joseph and she might also lose all the benefits of being with Promise. She thought of the benefits of sticking to the advice. She told thought about the elegance, intelligence, brilliance and wealth of this young Promise. Without doubts, she concluded that she had found the man she would marry. By that her happiness and promise would be kept. Already, she was trapped in a state of oblivion, living in the world of illusion. Within a week, with the help of Deborah, Rachael and Promise had been betrothed to each other, hoping to someday become married couples. Deborah and Joseph had also become close friends through Rachael, as the relationship between Rachael and Promise grew, so did the love between Rachael and Joseph grew stronger. Two months had passed since Rachael and Promise had decided to marry one another, but Promise who was well aware of the love between Rachael and Joseph became uncomfortable, he never understood what true love meant and thought that Joseph was a boy like him who was aiming to date Rachael. Therefore, he decided to confide in Deborah on what to do about Joseph. Deborah assured him that there was no problem and she would separate both Rachael and Joseph within two weeks. In accordance with her plan, she told Joseph that Deborah already had a boyfriend. Joseph did not believe her and he asked for a proof, therefore, Deborah secretly pictured Rachael and Promise kissing each other and sent the picture to Joseph. Joseph was shocked (to the bone marrows), as he had always believed that intimate relationship was the sole cause of heartbreak. He was heartbroken and realized that trust was the major cause of heart breaks. He was highly disappointed, and defriended Rachael on facebook. Rachael who was ignorant of what was actually occurring was perplexed. She told Deborah but Deborah simply told her that Joseph simply had some problems with his phone and his facebook account. She believed her. She tried calling Joseph but he didn’t pick her call, which she also attributed to the problems she was made to believe he had with his phone. After a few weeks, Promise casted his eyes on another girl and he told Rachael that he was sorry, she wasn’t the right fellow for him. Rachael was dumb founded, she felt like a whore. Once upon a time, she was a well disciplined girl, but her laziness led her into dating and dating had brought her shame and dishonour. Deborah was nowhere to be found on that day. She had parked out of Rachael’s room. It then dawned on Rachael that Deborah had rented another room without telling her, she didn’t even know her new place. She realized that all along, Deborah and Promise had been fooling her. Life turned upside down for her and she felt like committing suicide. She regretted ever engaging in dating and cried like a new born baby. The fate that befall those who choose the path of bondage soon fell on her. Soon, her phone rang, her dad was calling her. As she picked the call, the next thing she had from her dad was, “Who is Promise?” It was all like a dream to her, she dropped the phone and began to cry, wondering how her parents had got to know anything about Promise. She prayed everything was just a dream and soon she would wake up, but she knew she was wide awake, the phone was ringing again but she refused to take any look at it. Crying bitterly, she cursed the day she broke her first promise to Joseph, her promise to never engage in dating. That led to her breaking the second promise, the most sacred of all. Joseph, willing to help Rachael to be out of sin had written a letter to her parents, he told them who he was to her and what Rachael had become in school. As a proof, he attached the picture of Promise and Rachael to the letter. Barrister James and his wife, Mrs Foluke were stunned to see the picture. They sent for Joseph and asked him more questions, he told them all he knew and they thanked him so much, they promised to do their best to save their child, they also tasked him to not give up on their daughter but try his own best to help her. Rachael could not sleep during the night, she was totally devastated. The second day, early in the morning, she had a knock on her door. As she opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of her parents. She prayed something could make her disappear from their presence but no phantom could help her in her current state. Surprisingly, her parents greeted her with smiles, she felt relieved and knelt down to greet them, her eyes were still heavy with tears and they could not but pity her. Her parents told her to stop crying and they promised her that she would not receive any punishment if she could tell them the whole truth. She said all that happened from the very beginning to the end and as she spoke, her cheeks were greeted with tears. Her parents felt guilty that they had always overlooked her laziness and that eventually led to her current predicament. Without hesitation, they took her along and went to the nearest police station, from there, they and two policemen headed straight to Promise’s house. He was shocked and attempted to flee, but the policemen shot him in the leg. He was taken to the police station and then to the hospital. The school authority was informed about what had occurred and they decided that Rachael
should stay at home for two weeks with her parents to allow her get back to herself. Rather than punish her, the school administrators felt pity for her.

  After she had spent one week at home, subjected to so much admonition and advice, her parents realized that punishments was not the solution. They realised it happened because of their failure to teach her what they ought to. On a Saturday, her parents told Joseph to come over to their house to speak to Rachael. They left home early for work, leaving Rachael and her two younger brothers at home. At about 10am, Rachael had a knock on the door. As she opened, she could not believe who she saw. All the while, her parents had refused to tell her how they got to know about what she went through at school. Joseph smiled and greeted Rachael. Rachael told him that she would be in trouble if her parents ever see any boy in their house, but before Joseph could reply, her two younger brothers, Peter and John ran to the door to welcome Joseph. Joseph embraced them and Rachael wondered, as if she was dreaming. She was confused but she allowed him in. She couldn’t speak a word and Joseph could see confusion in her eyes. Joseph explained to her how everything went and how her parents came to know about it. Rachael felt sorry and apologised for betraying his trust. Joseph forgave her and spent a long time telling her the truth and how she needed to live the right life, assured her that he was still her brother and she remained his sister.