4 COMMON ENTRANCE EXAMINATION
Divine was now in his final class, rounding up his primary schooling at 11 years, was now due for common entrance into secondary school. The headteacher of his school announced the date and time of the common entrance examination during the morning assembly meeting on Monday in the course of addressing the entire students. 10:00 am is the fixed time for the common entrance examinations, scheduled for Saturday. Nevertheless, on hearing this, Divine was so excited with the feelings of graduating from primary school and now qualified to write the examinations that will promote him into secondary school.
At 7:00 am, Divine was dressed up in his well-ironed uniform, white sucks, pullover and beautiful leather sandal, prepared to go for his common entrance examinations. His mother looked at him and commended his appearance, “Divine, you are looking smart and cute, hope you will do me proud”, said Divine’s mother. “Yes mum, I will surely do you proud”, responded Divine. All the students from Divine’s school were to congregate at his school compound, which is the take-off point. It was now 7:20 am, all of a sudden, Divine started feeling feverish with his stomach rumbling, but did not tell his mother, because he did not want to miss the common entrance examinations that he has been preparing for. Therefore, his mother called on him, “D, have you finished your food?”, “Almost...!” responded Divine, while still munching his bread garnished with a fried egg. “You are getting late, hurry up!” said Divine’s mum. Divine was now rushing his tea and suddenly starts choking and coughing because it seems as if the tea entered and were lodged in his airway.
“What is it?” Divine’s mother asks to find out what is happening, but Divine was just coughing and could not respond because of the clogging in his trachea, so his mum, walked toward him, and starts tapping his back…
Sorry…sorry! My son, can you relax a little? I am sorry, I urged you to hurry up when you still have enough time. I just realized the time is just 7:45 am, so calm down.
Divine was now calm and stable, while his mum enquired to know if he has taken your pen, mathematical set and all that he needs to take for your examinations.
“Yes mummy, I have everything in my backpack, I also took an extra pen in case…”
All right! “So we can now leave now…?”
Yes, mummy, we can…
While Divine’s mum, held his hand, she noticed that his temperature was somewhat higher than the normal range as she had always observed, and ask, “Are you alright?”
“Mummy, I think I am, but feeling a little bit feverish”, responded Divine.
Your temperature is not at its normal range, just make sure you communicate to your teacher when you feel sick, I want to believe you will be fine, said Divine’s mother, “So, let’s go, it is 8:00 am now”.
When Divine and his mother got down to the school, they were few students already waiting; he went straight to his close friend, Francis, and exchange handshake and pleasantries. Five minutes, after, Mr Amin their class teacher who was to lead them to the venue of the common entrance examinations walked in and ask the students, to match on a single queue into the school bus and they all did as he has instructed. Francis and Divine went and sat on the back seat, while other students took their positions as they sat and they left for St. Francis College. It was indeed a fun moment for Divine and Francis. They arrived at St. Francis College and all matched out of the school bus, straight to the examination hall, led by Mr Amin, who was an ex-student of St. Francis College. Divine quickly ran, secured a seat for himself and Francis, so they were sitting next to each other. They were students from other schools who also came in to write the common entrance examinations, with the hall tightly filled, such that the overflow of students was instructed to move to the extra classes some distance away from the main examination hall.
The invigilator walked into the hall gorgeously and summoned all the students from the different school to sit down on their locker, while he addresses them.
He started by saying, “I welcome all of you to St. Francis College and we are most delighted to have all of you decide to come to sit for this entrance examination and I wish you well and pray that you all pass the entrance examinations. However, here are few things I need you all to know and for this reason, I need you to listen attentively to me. This examination is a General paper, your score in all of the subjects will determine if you will be qualified for the interview that will guarantee your admission. I, therefore, urge you to be prudent in answering the questions. Write your name and the name of your school; also, make sure you read all of the instructions before answering any questions. Finally, I wish you success in your exams.”
After the invigilator had address all the students, he walked out of the hall and the supervisors started walking in with the examinations question papers wrapped in sealed brown envelopes, while Francis and Divine smiled at each other. One of the supervisors started sharing the question papers from the right end row, the other concentrated on the middle row, while the third supervisor was on the left row. However, before they finished sharing the question papers, the one on the middle row, walked straight to the seat of Divine and Francis and ask them, why were you asking talking to each other? If you are caught cheating, you will be disqualified, and for your information, no stretching your neck to peep into your fellow students work, this is tantamount to cheating. Divine got his question paper and was wondering what kind of questions he will be expecting, but he was confident that he would pass the exams.
All right, listen, the lead supervisor announced, “This exam will last for one hour, you can now start”. Divine, opened the question paper and discover it was an objective question, with some of the questions, which involves filling the blank space. He took his time and read all of the instructions, reading the questions for over five minutes, while others were already answering their questions. After Divine was satisfied reading the questions before he started answering them and it took him just 30 minutes to finish.
Hello sir, “I want to submit… I am done,” said Divine to the lead supervisor. The supervisor walked up to Divine, and ask, “Are you sure you are done? It is barely 30 minutes since you people started”.
“Yes sir, I am done”, Divine answered to the supervisor with boldness and unusual confidence. The supervisor, took his answer booklet, opened and flip through and through, and nodded his head and said to him, “You can go! Make sure you check back in a week time from now because the result list must have been out. If you pass, you will come for an interview, which will be the final stage of the examination that will guarantee your admission.”
Divine left the examination hall very press, almost messing himself up and was now running and looking for where to ease himself, as the poo was almost coming out. He asked one of the staff he met while looking for where to ease himself if he can find a new by the toilet to use and he got direction to a pit toilet. When he arrived at the pit toilet, what he saw, he could not imagine, because the toilet in a total mess, as he could not even find a single space to put his leg and squat to poo, because everywhere was covered in poos with maggot at every point, even climbing the walls and creeping out of the pit. The disgusting and awful odour from the toilet was something no one could endure for a second, not even imagining squatting right in that atmosphere for two to three minutes. He could not imagine how those terrifying maggots will start climbing his legs and creeping into his anus talk more of the outcome and less of the feelings, having been someone who is Helminthophobia in nature right from the cradle. Nevertheless, the Divine is the type that easily gets irritated and has a very high sense of smell. He ran out of the toilet, while he was already beginning to release the poo on his pant since he can no longer control it. He started running straight toward a very thick forest, adjacent to the pit toilet, but before he could even reach the bush that will hide him away from passersby, he had already messed up himself. He stood there lost in thought, not knowing exactly what to do, or who to call since he has no means of communication to ask for help. The situation was embarrassing, but in his mind, he told himself, there must be a way out.
The examinations were over, all the students were out of the hall and the classes, discussing how difficult the exams was, while Divine was trapped in the forest, with his pant messed up with poos, having flies cheering him up like a celebrity. Students from Divine’s school had already entered the school bus, while Divine was nowhere to be found.
Mr Amin inspected the students in the boys and discover Divine was not present on the bus while the bus was about to move. He asked, “Where is Divine?” and Francis replied to him, “He finished his exams very early in less than 30 minutes and left the hall, but I suspect he was heading toward the toilet because he told me before he left that he was the very press. It may be that he went to ease himself.”
Mr Amin, summoned the bus driver to turn off the ignition, as he stepped out of the bus, straight to the direction of the toilet, since he is already used to that environment, having to be an ex-student. When he got down, he was calling, Divine! Where are you? Somehow, he heard Divine’s voice, not from the toilet, but the bush. What are you doing there in the bush?
“Sir, I was very press, so, I rushed down to ease myself, but there is a problem sir”, said Divine.
“What is the problem?” Mr Amin asked,
“I mess up myself and my pant is completely soiled with poo.”
On hearing this Mr Amin ask him, “How did it happen?”
“After I had finished my exams, I was very pressed and enquired from one of the staff, where I could ease myself. He directed me to the pit toilet, but unfortunately, when I got there, the toilet was completely a mess. So I ran out and headed toward this bush to do it here, but before I could get down, I mess up myself.” Said Divine.
Divine was standing helpless, with flies all over his paint, in a state of uncertainty, he said, “Sir, I feel ashamed of myself, how do I face my mate?”
“It is ok, just relax, let me see what I can do”, said Mr Amin, as he rushed toward the pond, fetched some water into a bucket and came back to Divine who was now crying.
Now, wash up first and rinse your paint, Mr Amin, instructed Divine, who did exactly what has instructed him.
“I will go get you ore water for you, just stay here”, Mr Amin, said to Divine and went back to get more water, which he gave to Divine, who now rinse his paint and twist it to drain out the water. You have to wear your paint like this, even as it is wet since the bus has been waiting, said Mr Amin to Divine. Therefore, Divine wore his pant and left with Mr Amin immediately, feeling very uncomfortable with himself. When they got down to the bus, as Divine entered, all the students, started murmuring, umm, umm, poo smells here. Divine’s was ashamed of himself; he could not say a word, burying his head into his arms and was now crying. Francis noticed that Divine’s paint was wet, and asked him, “Where have you been? I was looking for you everywhere after the exams, and why is your pant wet?”
“I went to ease myself”, as Divine said this to Francis, all eyes were now on him, are you the one that pooed? Ebuka asked him and said, “Because poo smells here”. Divine did not reply to him, and everyone in the care burst into laugh except Francis who now understood what has happened to Divine.
Mr Amin, warned everyone to keep quiet, while they were whispering and making jest of Divine, shit, shit for the body, shame!
This day was not at all a good day for Divine.
The bus arrived at the takeoff point where they all converge and all the students in the school came down. One after the other, they departed to their various home, while Divine stayed back crying, feeling embarrassed for pooing in his pant. Francis did not leave Divine behind, he was there with him, consoling him. With his pant dried, he now decided to leave for home, while Francis also went home since his house was just behind the school.
A week after, the common entrance examination list was out and was announced by the head teaching in the course of the morning assembly meeting. Francis had already gone to check the list and brought the news to Divine. “Guess what?” Francis called the attention of Divine, as Divine replied him, “Please, just tell me, I am not good at guessing.”
“The common entrance list is out and we both made it,” said Francis and it would interest you to know that you are number one on the list, while I am number seven. On hearing this, Divine was very impressed as they gave themselves thumps up in excitement. However, amid the excitement, Divine remembered what happened to him after the common entrance examination, how he was embarrassed, and just went cold.
“The interview is on Saturday, can we can go together? Francis asked and Divine responded, “That will be good, however, I have not gotten over what happened to me, I hate being mocked.” Well, whatever, what has happened has happened; I cannot keep bothering myself about something that happened in the past. I will raise my head high above this shame, anyone who wants to mock me, can go ahead and mock me; I do not give a damn anymore.
