Being in the last year of high school was not really as interesting as former seniors will make us believe with the NCAT approaching. Each and everyone of us were reading as hard as we could and going through past questions as if our lifes depended on them and let me tell you the truth I didn't or hardly think of Cynthia over this period and since the dream stopped coming made it even easier.
"Wow, congrats son" my dad said with a thin smile on his face, patting me on my back. "I'm really proud of you" and then I looked up at him with my joyous look and it seems like everything just dissolved around us including my mom because my dad being proud of me means the whole world to me and if I had known that getting into a college will changed the words that came out of my dad's mouth toward me then I would have grown up earlier and turned eighteen as many as possible.
"Tao seo" my mom said taking me out of my trance " I'm proud of you as my son..." she continued before taking me into a hug that almost choked me and even though I was in my mom's arm I still didn't take my eyes off the man in front of me. The man that used to stand against whatsoever I stood for. The man I used to assure myself that I dislike so as to give myself some self satisfaction even though I knew I didn't. "...proudest mother" I heard my mom said before releasing me from the hug.
"Congrats bro. I'm really happy for you" Tao oh said before pulling me into a manly hug.
During this period I was happy, I mean real happiness because my dad now looked at me as his son and not like a mistake from birth and I was now the prince of the family. And even though I was happy, there was still twenty percent sadness surrounding the eighty percent happiness which engulfed me whenever I was alone because Cynthia hadn't come to congratulate me.
I was admitted into the department of English language and linguistics because the was exactly what I chose. If it were for me and my future I would chosen a course like Biology or any natural science course but my mind was telling me not to make that mistake and so I chose English which I think my mind was okay with.
Cynthia had been in in my mind for months now but with the way things were, I don't think she was ever coming back. So I tried as much as possible to focused all my attention on my packing but the drawings were not even helping matters.
Oh yeah the pictures and with that I packed my favorite five which included my first drawing of her.
My first week in school were so stressful I wanted to call my mom and tell her that university was not going to be my way but my dad being proud of me made me rethink, and even if he wasn't proud of me I knew I could never go back home and declined my admission and with that in my mind I became more determined.
University life is quite different from high school life and the walking posture of students even confirmed that. There were a lot of students mostly white but we still had few blacks in our midst. At least there were two black guys in my department and with everything I've heard from people one was from Uganda and the other from Nigeria.
Four months after the first semester was when I had another dream. I was on a green lawn, beautiful green lawn and I was admiring the beauty of it when I noticed that someone was coming from the other end of the field so I got up to check who it was. It was Cynthia and she was coming toward me with a red rose in her hand. She was walking slowly, so slow I had to start jogging so as to meet up with her faster and before I could say a word she had already said "Congratulations" giving me the rose.
"Thank you" I replied perceiving the rose to show my appreciation.
"I'm sorry for not coming earlier, I just wanted you to focus all your attention on your education"
"It's okay but you should have come when I got admitted"
"Yeah I should have but I was busy then. I'm sorry" Cynthia saying sorry made me uncomfortable and I was praying internally for her to stop because to me she have never done anything wrong.
"How is your new school"
Thank God at least there is no more 'I'm sorry' I thought before answering "It's okay. It's fine"
"And how are you coping with your education generally"
"It's not really easy but I'm trying. What of you? What about your education? I asked but regretted ever asking because the light in her eyes faded instantly and was replaced by sadness before she replied with a fake smile .
"It's fine" but I knew things weren't fine with her wherever she was, whether on this earth or somewhere else but I didn't press her because I still wanted her to be there with me.
"So what of lilly?" and with that everything was back to normal and we chatted for hours before saying our byes