PART 5

MY FATHER’S FARMLAND

©?Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

The trio returned to school with heavy hearts. Ope kept casting glances at the
bag Oba was carrying on their way back in the rickety interstate bus they had
boarded. She was wondering how much Miss Johnson had given them, but
her mouth felt too heavy to ask any question.

None of the trio could sleep in their different hostels.
Early the next morning, Oba called the twin girls to meet him at the General
Lecture Theatre.
“ I have counted the money and it’s N500,000, which will pay our school fees
for a year, with 50,000 extra for our upkeep, but my question is after this,
where are we going to get the next…?” Oba asked
The sound of the birds Chirping around the theatre hall became amplified
because, for almost five minutes, the twin girls had no reply for their
brother’s question…
“ God who has started it will complete it…” Ola eventually said
“Hmm… I know that and I have strong faith in God too, but I love to work on
the realities we can see. God has been good to us no doubt but I want us to
think wisely on what to do!”
“ You have something in your mind already, Let’s hear it,” Ope said knowing
her brother’s approach in handling issues.
“ Well, I was thinking that we could speak to the management of the school,
explain to them our predicament and ask for permission to defer our
admissions for two years. In the meantime, we will use the two years to invest
this money wisely and make a profit that will see us through school”. Oba
suggested
Ola and Ope exchanged looks…
“ Like stop school and return after two years?… Oba, do you know how old
we will be by them?” Ope blurted out…
“ Yes… Oba we are girls, it is easy for boys to study even when they are 50
years old, but we ladies have a plan for our lives… Although your idea is great
and I would love to buy into it but will coming back to school be easy for us?”
Oba wasn’t sure of the answer too as he kept mute…
“ Let’s do it this way, I will drop out for you both. Give me my own share of
the money. I will go do business with it…” Ola said…

Ola was compassionate of the trio, she was always willing to go out of her way
for the trio…
“ No, it’s either none or all… We either all defer our admission or not…” Oba
said…
Ope had been quiet all the while as dropping out of school was not an option
for her. She was the most ambitious of the trio…She put her hands over her
ears as she wasn’t willing to listen to the other two’s ranting…
Without saying a word to either of them, she collected the money from Oba,
counted out her own part of the fees and returned the rest to Oba.
She stood up and walked away from them…
Oba and Ola knew Ope too well, She had just told them, all the talk about
dropping out of school was not for her.

Ope went straight to the Account department and paid her fees without
thinking about how she was going to feed or pay for the rest of her years in
school…
Oba and Ola didn’t know what to do next?
“Should we act like Ope or do what is realistic???” Oba asked Ola who also
didn’t have the right answers…
Tears flowed down from Ola’s eyes as she silently whispered…
“If only Miss Johnson was fine….!”

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