The Wife ESCAPED!

After successfully sitting for her final junior exams, Caro prayed for success while she awaited the results. She knew she had done her best in the exams and had tried as much as possible to avoid getting on the bad side of the invigilators or school staff.

She really hoped that she would not have any reason to re-sit any subject because she wanted to be done with that private school once and for all. It wasn’t palatable to her how Madam Mary spent so much just so she could write the exams and any more association with that greedy school would mean more money still. She just could not wait to join a public school.

“Caro! Caro!”, her guardian called, and she quickly abandoned her washing at the side of the house and rushed to the front.

“Ma! I’m here!”

Sighting her, Madam Mary simply grabbed her and held her in a tight hug. Caro was confused and did not know what to think as the woman held her tight for several minutes in total silence.

When she broke the hug, her face was all smiles which further added to her ward’s confusion. But she said nothing to enlighten her. She simply reached into her bag and extracted a large envelope and handed it to Caro. The girl quickly dried her hands on her wrapper and grabbed the envelope. She flipped it open and brought out its lone content. First glance gave her heartbeat an increased tempo, but after running her eye down the paper, she squealed in joy and jumped into the arms of her guardian like a little child!

Later that evening was a memorable time for Caro. It was Saturday and there was no much work to be done, so it was celebration galore. For the first time since she left Trisha’s house, Caro enjoyed her choice of soft drinks. She was sure the woman would have bought a bottle of champagne if she could afford it – she looked so happy and fulfilled that a stranger would think she was the one who had passed the exams.

After their late and elaborate supper, she took it further by inviting Caro to a game of ludo. Up until then, Caro had no idea that a ludo board existed in the house or that the woman could play, but throughout the duration of the games that night, Caro did not win any round. And she had been a local champion back in the village!

*****

It was easy business for Caro to gain admission into a senior secondary school and within a week, she had been appointed as the class perfect. Neat, smartly dressed, discipline, efficient, mostly honest and standing at almost six feet, even the big bullies in the class knew where they stood with her: behind.

She ruled the class like a kingdom and even grumbling became a sacrilege. At the end of the first term, the class won the award for the best-behaved class in the school and Caro herself won the award for the best-behaved girl in the school.

The sound of her name brought shivers to her classmates and joy to her teachers. The age-old culture of bringing along a cane whenever you came to teach SS1 died a mysterious death. Students of SS1 became the most punctual, quiet and least difficult of all students in the entire school and it didn’t take long before it began to reflect on their report cards.

Even though Caro maintained her customary first position, teachers found it difficult to score other students. Almost no one in the class did below average and their class teacher was forced to stop announcing positions after each exam result was out.

When Caro breezed into the next class (SS2), her former class teacher advised her guardian to pull her out of the school before the end of the second term and enroll her in a private school, so she could write the final senior exams with SS3 students. According to him, he was sure she would easily do better than most of them in the exams. It was around this time that Caro felt the need to broach the subject of work to her guardian, but that woman would not hear of it. She maintained that since her business was doing very well after opening a shop at her house and renting out the one at the market, Caro had no need for any kind of work. When the girl argued that fruit selling was not a profession, the woman retorted, saying that that was why people went to school – so they could learn a profession and get a good office job. Left with no other option, Caro was forced to inform her that she could sew very well, but her guardian replied that even if she had all the money in the world, she would never buy a sewing machine for her to start such a business.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

After several evenings of back and forth arguments, Madam Mary finally conceded and allowed her to get work in a shop owned by a friend of her friend. But on one condition: that she come first in her second term exams in the private school.

***

Caro knew very well what she was doing when she decided to get a job in a cloth-making venture. She knew how expensive her final senior exams would be and she had no wish to put all the burden on her over-willing guardian. She would secretly pay for as many things as she could and leave the conspicuous fees for Madam Mary to handle. Already, she had a healthy amount of savings stashed away and it would most likely also be employed in paying for some of the numerous fees and levies associated with her final exams. So she really did not need anyone to tell her that she needed to work hard on her studies since she had no wish or means to write the exam twice.