Broken Glass Episode 1

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  Story by Belinda Ahiakpor.
     We met in primary school.He had been moved from one school to the other.Barely had I joined Diane’s Montessori than I met him.I could recall that day very well.I guessed the lady he came with was his mum.I couldn’t talk to him but I wanted to be his friend.I mustard some courage when we got to primary three. Where madam Flora asked I sat by him.I was more than happy,I remember smiling and jumping with joy.
     Friendship isn’t always fun in the beginning without the usual drama unfolding.He never begun a conversation. It was always me.I became fed up and decided to go mute.I am Tracy Gordon, the talker in class and all of a sudden,I go dumb. Emmanuella, the prefect wondered what had changed me so much.I begun concentrating in class,didn’t want to disappoint myself, no!,I didn’t.He was extremely brilliant,maybe that’s an understatement. And what killed me was his smile.
 
   Madam Flora begun calling me in class to answer questions.Very unusual.Even if I knew the answer,I’d never mention it.Times have change.And now I wanted a friend and I needed to do this. Waking up late to study at dawn wasn’t my thing but now before my mum called me from bed, i had already studied and was ready for school.
   So it was early, one fine Tuesday morning.I knew he wouldn’t even greet.He had an ego as big as that,I always thought.Class had almost commenced before he arrived.As I said early on, he wouldn’t greet and of course he didn’t.
This continued till we got to primary six.We spoke rarely.He was Brian Hudson. I felt he was all knowing. I didn’t really know why,but there was just something different about him.
   
      There they stood at the school’s hallway,the lady was arguing about something with Brian. I know its bad but I eaves dropped on them. His mum has been taking care of his fees.She lived in the country side.She worked hard.And she was a widow who used to be very rich when her husband was alive.So the lady who brought him to school the first day I saw him was his Aunt.And he called her Betty;if my ears heard right.He had to work harder at his books to get the school’s scholarship, else he be moved to another school.So Brian Hudson was always like this because he wasn’t from a rich home like the rest of us .Hence his fear of associating himself with us,I mean me;Tracy.I felt sad.Then he turned and saw me,he knew i had heard everything.I run past them to class with tears in my eyes…
    From the look in his eyes,he badly wanted to cry too.As he sat beside me,my head was just on the desk.He tapped me on the shoulder. Then he said,
 “Hey,I know you know,but that won’t change me.I know what luxury is but now I  know how having nothing feels like too.I want to be your friend Miss Gordon,would you like to be my friend too?”I couldn’t have been more happy.
The tears in my eyes and on my face dried up instantly.
     We became very good friends .Like best of friends.He knew my family and I got to know his too. From my dad,mum big brother Derrick to my little sister,Theresa.We were three and I was the second child.
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I visited his house on several occasions but often met his cousin Dorothy.Mrs Betty was Brian’s dad’s sister;his aunt. She was very nice anytime we met at school.And she knew very well the friendship that existed between Brian and I. 
   Brian told me all about himself and his family .His dad died when he was six.Life was good then.He tried recalling some good moments they had as a family then.The only child.His dad’s family drove his mum out of their house leaving her with nothing.They said she wasn’t a literate but she payed his fees till then.His dad’s family with all the riches they acquired couldn’t even take care of him.Mum left him in the care of Aunt Betty,the only one she trusted in her husband’s family.
   
  And in the country side,she always worked hard to send everything down. From clothes to foodstuffs.They payed her visits anytime Brian was on vacation.And he said, “mum was always smiling because her boy was growing”.I just wanted to hear more because I knew our friendship would go a very long way…
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 I became addicted to studying.But I wasn’t always the best.And I couldn’t get to be on the Diane Fille ‘s scholars scheme.Brian was ,he was one of the best student’s in the school.He was happy that day.He asked I come visit him at home. I asked my mum.We had a little chit chat whiles in the kitchen.              
I told mum what had been happening at school and asked if i could go celebrate with Brian at his house since he asked me to come. Mum was happy too.She was a bit sad that i couldn’t do so well.But frankly,she was happy.
Mum told me she smelt something fishy.At first I thought slay, our cat had caught another fish and brought it to the house.So many thoughts run through my head.Something fishy mum,I asked,I didn’t really understand.
      
     That got me laughing,as if I understood exactly what she meant.I didn’t.I kept shaking my head as I walked out of the kitchen preparing to go to Brian’s place which was just across the streets. For crying out loud, I was in my first year in junior high.Mum should stop speaking these big English words until I was in the university or something.I promised to tell her when I got back from Brian’s. “I smell something fishy”what an English…
     
  At Brian’s, Mrs Betty prepared his favourite;Jollof rice and some beef.I was very hungry.And it was  surprising that I had left my own kitchen without eating and arriving elsewhere feeling so hungry.Dorothy was glad to see me. And it was the first time I had met Mrs Betty at home.She looked so happy.This was exactly what she had been praying for. Brian was on a scholarship .And he could study to any level of his choice. His mum was going to worry less now. She had struggled so much.
     After we had lunch ,still clearing the table, Brian officially introduced me to Aunty Betty,a very nice person.She told me she loved my dimples.And that made me smile even more.Brian gave me a stare making me stare back.
  Then Mrs Betty laughed so hard.There and then she also said my mum’s words.
“Oh dear,I smell something fishy, hahaha.” She kept laughing as she held the plates in her hands walking to the kitchen .I followed her confused ,more than I was before and determined to go ask mum the meaning as soon as I got home…
To be continued.