‘Didn’t you hear the knock? He said calmly but firmly.
‘The knock…what knock? I stammered, much to his delight.
‘When you hear a knock on your door, what do you do? He asked, using his hands for emphasis.
‘You, you…err…you respond Snr. I managed to say, my hands at my back.
‘So, why didn’t you respond? I couldn’t say a word; there was nothing to say. He dragged me inside the room and asked me to kneel on the floor. There were two of them in the room; the other was lying on one of the beds.
Kawawa turned to him just when we got in and began:
‘Pozoo, see this boy…someone knocks on his door and he hasn’t the audacity to even respond!
‘Oh, but you paa’ Pozoo said, looking straight into my eyes, ‘Why, you no respond? He added.
At this stage, intimidation was getting the better part of me so I just knelt there, unable to find my voice. Pozoo sat up on the bed and began shaking his head. Then he got down and I quickly recognized that he had a limp in his left leg. As he headed out of the room, he kept muttering to himself:
‘there’s no mercy for the cripple, no mercy for the cripple’.
After Pozoo’s exit, I was left alone with Kawawa. He sat behind a desk and buried his head in a textbook. In the distance I could hear music coming from a small transistor radio that was hanging from the fluorescent tube above his head. They had managed to illegally connect the radio to the wiring on the roof and tried as much I could, I could not figure out how they did it. The tune on the radio was, Telefon Nkomo, a popular high-life tune in those days. He occasionally nodded to the song in momentary forgetfulness and then quickly went back to reading his book the moment he remembered he was supposed to be learning. I knelt there and tried as much as possible not to catch his eye; in my struggle to avoid his eyes, i thought of Snr. Abele and his re-assuring words. I could still hear him say: 'nothing will happen to you...' how right I was not to have believed him.
After a while, I wanted to ask Kawawa if I could take my leave. I declined upon second thoughts. Soon, he decided it was time to take his nap. He ordered me to get under one of the beds while he got on to another and slept. Everything became quiet afterwards. As I lay under that bed, the stench from the smelly sheets that covered the bed filled the air around me. Dust and cobwebs covered my whole body and I silently prayed for the ordeal to end. It didn’t; it got worse. Soon, I felt what seemed like multiple hands pulling at me from every side. Some were pulling my legs, my hands, hair and so on. I felt I was being torn apart; I began to scream. Then I went out of breath and began to wheeze; it was getting increasingly difficult for me to hang on to life it seemed, I was being whizzed out of my reality into another. Then suddenly, I woke up! I had been dreaming.
Then i felt someone pulling me from under the bed with both hands; I felt like resisting but before I knew it, I was out of there. Drowsily, I struggled to get up. Kawawa was standing over me;
‘my friend, do you think this is your bedroom? He shouted.
I sat up rubbing my eyes and looking around me. It didn’t take time for me to come to terms with where I was. Quickly, he pointed to a bucket of water right by him and ordered me to carry and follow him. As I struggled to get up, I heard him at the door:
“You dey come or not?
I didn’t respond. He walked back to where I was, dipped his sponge into the bucket of water I was carrying and smacked my face with it! That really woke me up and instinctively; I spat out drops of water that had entered into my mouth. I didn’t know the direction to which I spat because my eyes were closed when I did but it appeared I had spat right into Kawawa’s face! In his anger, he kicked me at the side of my body containing my ribs, and I dropped the bucket of water. Loudly, it met the floor face down and splashed water everywhere. I held my side and sank to the floor with a scream. He didn’t stop; he got closer and began kicking me. He was angry and I had just begun warming up my anger. I resolved there and then to stand up to him if he struck again. But Kawawa was not ready to let me be so he struck again. By now, Pozoo, together with some other seniors had entered the room. They just stood there and looked on. One of them tried to stop him but he wouldn’t budge. Then at last, something made him stop.
I don’t know how or when it happened but suddenly, i found myself up on my feet and with my left hand, I hit Kawawa very hard on the chin! He stumbled backwards, almost falling. Then, he began to charge straight at me! I didn’t want to fight him; I knew the school rules did not permit that. I was a junior; I would create enmity between my seniors and me if I fought him but he had bitten more than he could chew. Everyone feared him and it was obvious that he had taken that for granted. I did fear him but not anymore. I was angry and my anger was driving me to do the unthinkable.
As he inched closer, I could see venom in his eyes; the veins on his neck had become so visible they looked like a master craftsman had carved them. He held my neck with both hands and began to dig his nails into my flesh. I screamed in anger and kicked him in the stomach. He let go off me and sank to the floor. Then they came flooding into the room - the Sixth Formers on the floor came rushing into Kawawa’s room. They came with belts, canes and other like weapons, ready to crush Kawawa’s attacker. They forced me to the ground and began to test the strength of their weapons all over my body…
