CHAPTER 4

She could not sleep so her mind went back to her childhood and all she had been through before she met Harrison.

Susan was born into a family that wasn't well off financially. She was the firstborn of the two girls and a boy in the family. their parents struggled to provide for their daily needs since they weren't employed hence they relied on daily hustling. The situation was so bad that the father would buy a trouser which he would cut at knee length for a short then the remaining material would be used to make clothes for the kids. A time came when the kids were old enough to be enrolled in school and the parents opted for the closest public primary school since they couldn't afford a private school for the children. They went to the open-air market on a market day and sought the cheapest materials that matched the school uniform to make for the kids. They managed to register the two girls and were left with the boy since he was the youngest and could wait for another year before going to school which would give them more time to look for funds. It was a happy moment for Susan and her sister's charity to join school but the happiness didn't last long before other kids started making them uncomfortable in school. they would laugh at them and go around telling other kids how poor their family was. Other kids started isolating themselves from them because of what they heard concerning their background and this resulted in them losing the few friends they had made during their short stay in the school, who also started bullying them on the grounds of poverty. Towards the end of the first term in school, they realized that they had no friends and that left them with just themselves taking care of each other. Their parents would always remind them to love each other, study well and avoid trouble which they followed since from a young age they understood that their background was not well off. They took it upon themselves to always go to school on time and get back on time to help their parents with other chores at home while other kids stayed back to play and got home late. Their first year in school was a success though with much struggle and financial strains they were able to come to the end of it which was also something the parents were happy for. The year ended with the holiday and now the parents had to pull more resources since their son would also be joining school when it opens again. Susan and Charity made it their duty to take care of the home when their parents were out hustling for them for the whole holiday. The kids Played among themselves since other kids in the neighborhood didn't want to be associated with them. A time came for schools to open and Susan and Charity had to resume school while their brother Kelvin needed to be enrolled, the parents were very happy to see all their children in school but their happiness and peace of mind were short-lived with their son's school enrollment.

The waters were calm during the first days in school since he was familiarizing himself with the environment and seeking to understand the other pupils. He took notice of those who were nice and those who bullied his sisters. He was the youngest but could not take lightly any provocation or abuse, he kept them all at heart and on his mind. After two weeks he started beating other kids who used to laugh at him and his sisters because of poverty causing chaos and disturbances in the school. This resulted in their parent's frequent visits to the school since the teachers summoned them now and then. They had not enough time to hustle and cater to their needs which resulted in the kids being sent home now and then for money. Kelvin was a good and bright child but then he would not sit still and be bullied because of his background which he did not choose to be born into in the first place. It happened one day on their way from school Kelvin fought with another kid and ended up badly injuring the kid. Their schoolmates called for help and the boy was rushed to the hospital, during the follow-up case, Kelvin's parents were asked to pay for the hospital bills which they honestly could not afford and that was the end of school for Kelvin. He refused to go back to school since all he causes is trouble and he had no way to control his emotions again he thought he had become a burden to his parents and no one would convince him otherwise. He decided to help their parents in whatever way was possible to generate resources. That left only Susan and Charity to continue with their studies though they felt really bad for their brother to drop out of school at such a young age. They promised to help him in the future if success comes to them. They continued with their studies till the end of their primary level education where they sat for the national examination and went back home to wait for their results which would grant them entry to secondary school. They all expected awesome results since they were well-prepared after studying for a long time. The one-month wait seemed to have been lengthened due to the long wait and the fact that all the candidates waited nervously did not help a bit. On the day when results came out Susan and Charity held their breaths waiting to see what awaited them as well as the determinant of their future. The results came but then it doesn't always happen according to our wishes. Susan had attained very pleasing results and was among the top students in the region while Charity did not do very well but then all results are acceptable since nothing can be done to change them. Susan was the best student in the neighborhood as well as the whole school. Her results were highly celebrated and she became an exemplary figure in the eyes of many.

After the exam results came out, Susan earned herself big respect from the villagers both young and old. Some of the parents and children who used to mock her back then because of her background walked with their heads down due to shame, of course not the arrogant ones who placed no importance on education. Some parents started requesting her to give extra lessons to their kids for pay since they wanted to make use of her knowledge. She accepted and began teaching the village kids as a community tutor, their parents would contribute a certain amount of money which they gave her at the end of the week. All was going well with Susan and she started saving the money to further her education since she had come to love teaching, she wanted to join a teacher's training college when she saved enough. She enjoyed the teaching job and she was always eagerly waiting for the lesson hours since it had become her favorite moment. Apart from being a village tutor, Susan had grown to be a very fine and beautiful young woman who was admired by many young men in the community who went to seek her attention now and then but then she gave them no attention she was very engrossed in her love for teaching that she took no notice of how these guys were dying to have her. on the other hand she was the envy of most of the girls her age in the neighborhood since she was the prettiest among them all which was the reason why the men around them gave them no face, they just could not take a second glance at the other girls with the picture of Susan in their minds, thus many girls her age hated her. Susan had no interest in those other things and would not have time to think about boys which was a happy thing for her parents since they were sure that she would not be distracted from achieving her goals. They always gave her bits of advice on ways of living positively with other people and she took everything seriously. After some time when her savings were enough to get her to a higher institution, Susan went ahead and registered for a teaching course which she took wholeheartedly. Life here was different since there were no parents to monitor you and again no one knew about the other's background information. This provided a very good learning environment for her which she gave in all her attention with the hopes of making the best out of the rare opportunity she had. Though the learning environment was very conducive and friendly with not many disturbances, the situation was no different from the village when it came to the men who admired her beauty and on top of it, her intelligence. She had gotten used to all their advances and taken note of all their ways and thus she would tell their intentions even before they voiced them out, but then to her, she still had no interest in any of them.

With the way things were progressing in school, Susan earned herself a new bunch of enemies who thought she was after their boyfriends, little did they know the boyfriends could not sit still with such beauty around them. Susan was called all sorts of names by other girls in school even her seniors started feeling threatened by her presence but then, she was least disturbed by their utterances because she understood what was going on and she had no control of the happenings. Another reason why she was never bothered is that she felt that she had very little time in school and could not afford to waste it on petty arguments, thus she gave deaf her to everything coming her way. Some guys would give up after some time of trying to get her attention yielded no results but some kept on bothering her without relenting. For example, Mark was a senior student in the school and was in his final year, Susan's arrival in school brought problems to his relationship with Claire whom they had dated for three years. Mark would mostly stare at Susan whenever they met even on pathways till she would disappear. This earned him regular slaps on the face from Claire since she could not stand her boyfriend staring at another woman as if his entire life depended on her existence. Claire tried to avoid unnecessary trouble in the best possible way, she would choose paths which she knew would not come across Susan and it worked for a few days before Mark realized that it has been a long since she saw Susan, she missed her presence just seeing her around came with unexplainable contentment. Mark started avoiding her girlfriend after classes to go look for Susan, he asked around and also visited their class. In no time Claire realized that Mark was no longer available for their evening walks after classes and that meant something was amiss. One day after class she decided to go look for him and ask what was happening but he was not in class nor the hostels. She took note of that and decided to follow him up the next day and see what was up with him. The following day Claire left class in time to catch up with Mark before he disappeared to wherever he was going. She waited till his class came to an end and then followed him at a watching distance before they came to a corner in the school compound with a huge tree where Susan was studying harmoniously under its shade. Claire was so annoyed and felt frustrated by her boyfriend that she did not even realize when she started shedding pained tears, the expression on her face Said it all. She looked so wronged and pained that she started sobbing like an aggrieved child. She wanted to run back and cry out her frustrations but on second thought she decided to stay and tell her what happened between Mark, her boyfriend, and Susan.