THE WAKE-UP CALL

My eyelids were extremely heavy and my eyeballs felt like they were popping out of their sockets that morning as I went to shower and get ready for school. I was very weak and it was a Monday morning. This had never happened to me before and it seemed very strange. I had two classes that Monday morning and about four more others from afternoon through evening which meant I would be going back home from school by 7pm if the lecture was not dragged on by the lecturer. I was feeling dizzy and though I still stubbornly took my bath and prepared for school, I figured out I couldn’t go to school that morning so, I sat on my bed, ordered for pizza and fought to stay awake and await the pizza delivery man...

While waiting for my pizza, I took some medications which mummy had advised me to keep at handy in case of unusual illnesses just like this one and though I argued with her about the efficacy of drugs as I hated them with a passion, I was glad in my heart that I took those drugs as she advised. Few minutes later, I heard three taps on my door and guessed it was the pizza man. I stood up, went to the door and after exchanging pleasantries with the pizza man, I collected my order and went into the kitchen to boil water for hot milk which I intended to take alongside my pizza...

I took my breakfast as slowly as possible, reason being that I couldn’t have been any faster since my eyes could not even differentiate between my cup of milk and pack of pizza. Everything was not fine with me that morning and as I tried to think about what it was that was disturbing me, my mind went on a journey. Still, after all the time I spent trying to figure out why I wasn’t feeling well, I found out nothing. I got pretty mad and decided to take a cup of very hot coffee, after all, people said “coffee keeps you awake” and awake I intended to be! I made coffee, drank it and felt like my eyes were a little open. This was exactly what I wanted! Open eyes!...

I began making calls to my friends to tell them that I wasn’t going to make it to school as I wasn’t feeling too well. I also called to borrow notebooks from my other friends who I was sure would write notes. After doing this, I felt like I had achieved something at least. Now, even with my achievement, I still felt weird. It wasn’t the sickness this time around. I just wasn’t myself at all. I was having a stubborn feeling and no matter how I tried to shake the feeling off, it stayed and even got worse. I knew everything was fine at home because I spoke with my parents the night before and they assured me that all was well. In fact, my mum and I wasted almost the whole airtime on making fun of each other and my dad, so, home was at peace. I had no grandparents to be worried about and the only other family I knew were my cousins Ugo and Adanna and their parents, Uncle Raymond and his wife, Aunty Ezinne and as far as I was concerned, they were very fine. I mean, wasn’t it Uncle Raymond that sent me the money for the mobile phone I just got? Biko. If he could send me twenty five thousand naira for a mobile phone, he could as well be very fine. I knew also that if things were not fine with him, he would have called to let me know. Or, was it my best friend, Tope? We spoke not quite long ago and she didn’t complain of anything.  All these came to my mind because of the premonitions that were mentioned in the last fellowship I attended. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t having premonitions I knew nothing about. I wanted to be sure that my present feeling of discomfort was not arising from something I should hitherto have known about. I didn’t feel up to praying but, I however said a few desperate words to the Almighty God that I serve and sat back on my bed...

Twenty minutes later, my phone rang and the caller was my dad...My mum just passed away! I screamed terribly and cried like never before. I began to perspire stupidly and before I knew what it was, my roommate poured a bowl of water on me and I opened my eyes very widely only to realize I had been sleeping and it was all a dream!