THREE
I started school and within a month, compliments started raining, complaints followed and within six months my parents were already thinking of changing my school. My teachers requested for my parents. 'Mr Blyds, your daughter is super intelligent; with students like her, teaching will be so easy for us teachers,‘ Mr Ben commented.
'Thank you very much Mr Ben,‘ my mom smiled.
'But she does have a problem relating with others, she wouldn‘t play, or go out for a break and even when her mates try to relate with her, she shuts them out though I notice she wants to play with them but it‘s just hard for her. I understand people with the gift she has, have the problem of relating with people with less intellectual abilities or even relating to anyone at all. And that‘s where we have to work on,‘ Mr Ben explained.
'You mean she‘s an introvert?‘ my mom asked.
'No, introversion is not a disease, but what she‘s has is a disease for people like her,‘ he said and my mom was mute in fear.
'Thank you Mr Ben, we will find a solution to that,‘ my dad assured him.
'Please do, we can‘t lose a talent like her to that— thing, whatever it is.‘
'Thank you,‘ my dad nodded and Mr Ben smiled at me in my dad‘s arms.
'Good evening Sheila.‘
'Good evening Mr Ben,‘ my dad replied.
'Good evening Mr Blyds, take good care of her please.‘
'We will,‘ my dad said and pulled my worried mom on the shoulder. We turned and started to walk to the car.‘ 'We have to talk to Brad,‘ my mom whispered to dad in worry.
'We will baby, just calm down till we do.‘
'No, I say we see him now.‘
'Okay.‘
'That is not a problem Thelma, truly it is a problem known to people with even less her IQ but high; but it is the norm you imbibe in her that matters, that is why we encourage people to build them with love so they won‘t grow up leading a hard life. All you need to do is work on giving her much love, show her life is filled with love and happiness. Although she might not be free with many people but she will at least have one or two friends,‘ Brad explained while he sat on our couch that evening. 'One or two friends?‘ my dad was worried, 'that‘s like having no friend at all.‘
'Don‘t get me wrong Ted, it could be more than that, moreover, one or two friends might be all she needs to be happy, it‘s not about the tons of friends you keep Ted.‘
'You are right,‘ dad exhaled.
'So what do we do now?‘ mom asked in a low voice, accepting her fate.
'Shower her with lots of love Thelma, teach her never to look down on anyone 'cos that‘s where their problems really lie; lesser intellect annoy them, irritates them, thinking that how could they not see from their own point of view. And know that these things apply to people with the normal high IQ score we know like 200, 250, 270, but hers is over normal high; so she needs extra care. I hope you understand?‘
'We do,‘ my parents nodded, looking at me on Brad‘s laps.
'Beauty, you will make it easy for us to take care of you right?‘ Brad asked smiling at me.
I nodded and smiled back at him and my parents smiled.
'That‘s my baby‘ he scattered my hair, 'I got to go now Thelma.‘
'You don‘t want to stay for dinner?‘
Some other time Thelma, I have to get to somewhere before heading home,‘ he stands, putting me on the couch.
'Okay,‘ my mom said.
'Ted, take care of our babies.‘
'The big baby is enough stress to take care of,‘ dad said.
Brad chuckled at that. 'What! You mean I stress you out?‘ mom retorted.
'Oh no, no, I –I meant I can‘t have enough of you baby,‘ dad cajoled holding her arms.
Brad and Mom smiled at dad knowing well what he meant and what he didn‘t. 'Dick head,‘ mom poked dad‘s forehead and he held his head and laughed.
Brad started walking to the front door.
'You keep doing that in front her, and she will think you are less intellect,‘ Brad joked.
They turned to me instantly then they burst out laughing as they walked out of the living room.
My parents started showering lots of love on me, I received lots of love from them before but it increased in hundred folds, they taught me lots of things about life. You cannot know about life just reading through large books, or by having over 400IQ score. You would still need the elders to teach you. They thought me many things, human behaviours, habits, attitudes towards them even animal behaviours; as they told me, animal behaviours has a lot to do with human behaviours. I was a fast learner, good learner, so I imbibed everything, swallowed it down with water. And everything they taught me kept me going in all my activities through life till this day. My early years in school weren‘t so interesting as I faced a lot of challenges all through. Knowing I have a strange gift became a problem for people and me and a burden for my parents. I changed school many times just for the fear of getting known for what I am and within months in my new school, I‘m all over the school again as the weird girl. Changing school affected not only me but Sean as whenever I moved, he moved too. And because Sean has a high IQ too, he wasn‘t affected in his studies but moving from one school to another isn‘t interesting to any student and of course at this stage, I would grow old in elementary school. Missing the environment, friends, teachers, is sad to think of, though I wasn‘t good with making friends or relating with them but I loved them and having different people in my memory and losing them every now and then wasn‘t helping my wanting to make friends at all.
Just some few months in my new school, my parents were summoned again but this time, by the head master.
'Your daughter has been a great concern to us in this school,‘ my head master started.
'We don‘t understand Mr Charles,‘ my dad looked at my mom then at the head master, 'is everything alright?‘
'Uh I don‘t know if it‘s a problem or— the thing is, she is very brilliant, that‘s even an understat—‘ 'That shouldn‘t be a problem, should it?‘ my mom cut in uncomfortably but comported herself, smiling at the head master.
'Yes after all her brother is brilliant too,‘ my dad added.
The head master smiled at them. 'Yes Sean is brilliant too but we both know we can‘t compare the two of them, don‘t we?‘ he asked gazing at them.
My parents were short of words, they abased their eyes.
'You know the last time, we had to give her double promotion to class four which is even too small for her but this time we don‘t know if we would have to take her to JSS three,‘ 'What!‘ my parent exclaimed.
'Why?‘ mom asked.
'The fact is her brain is higher than this stage that‘s if it‘s not higher than high school,‘ he said.
My parents looked at each other and then at Mr Charles.
'Some days back, her mate brought her brother‘s assignment to school for her to do and Sheila –solved it for him.‘
My parents looked at him in confusion, they didn‘t understand, what‟s so special about that?
'You know why this is strange?‘ the head master asked, reading their faces and my parents shook their heads. 'That brother is in JSS three.‘
My parents widened their eyes in astonishment. 'And she did it brilliantly. Sheila knows all the figure of speech at her age, even I confuse them sometimes and all these weird things happening made us decide—‘
My parents frowned.
'—we have to run some tests on her.‘ 'Tests?‘ mom blurted without thinking.
'Yes; to know the level of her intelligence.‘
'Oh,‘ my mom said. She became weak instantly but tried to look bold in front of the head master.
My mom and dad were so disturbed when they got home. My mom sat in bed, worried while my dad stood looking out the window.
'What are we going to do?‘ my mom asked in tears.
My dad sighed and walked to the refrigerator to pour himself a glass of water. He drank and put the glass down.
'I‘m going to change their school.‘
'What!‘ mom jumped up, 'we can‘t keep doing that to them, this is like the fifth school they are changing in two years. It will affect her.‘
Dad chuckled. 'Seems you don‘t know the kind of daughter you have; nothing is going to affect her intellect.‘
'And Sean?‘
'Sean is brilliant too, with 300IQ I wouldn‘t worry about him.‘
'But it‘s not only about their intellect, is it?‘ mom looked at him, 'what kind of test is he even talking about?‘
'I don‘t know and I don‘t want to know but I‘m not having my kids in that school for another day,‘ he stressed.
'But Ted honey they will still know them in their new school,‘ she sobbed.
My dad pulled her into his arms and patted her head on his chest.
Again; I changed my school but this time it was permanent, my dad made sure of that. My dad was worried about my mom‘s words even if he pretended it didn‘t hit him, it did. So he looked for a way to make these troubles go away.
A week after, my dad called me in his room.
'Sheila, I need you to do something for me.‘
'Okay dad.‘
'You are changing your school.‘
I looked at him. I knew already after all, it was so obvious. Anytime I stayed home for that long, during week days without the school declaring holiday then it was time for my new school birth and new school birth means new strange faces.
'And I really need my beautiful Sheila to listen to her dad now, will you?‘ my dad continued disrupting my thoughts
I nodded, 'yes dad.‘
'That‘s my baby,‘ he smiled. 'Sheila in this new school you are going, I want you to pretend you know nothing. Whenever you are given questions to answer, attempt just some, or half of it and leave the rest unanswered okay? That way they will accept you as a normal child,‘ he threw out without thoughts. I furrowed at that, 'am I not a normal child dad?‘
'Oh no beauty, you are. Uh—I meant—‘ he scrambled his brains to invent some stories, 'you know you are a very brilliant child and special.‘
'And that isn‘t normal?‘
'No my love, it is normal but people in this world are less brilliant that they think people like you my daughter are not normal.‘
I raised my brows at that. They always taught me otherwise.
He continued, 'so you see why I said that they are the one that aren‘t normal.‘
'Then I shouldn‘t be abnormal, I shouldn‘t follow them I should be normal.‘
'My love yes, you should be yourself but you will do what dad wants right?‘
I looked at him and saw something I‘d never seen before in his eyes. My answer at that particular moment meant a lot to him but I didn‘t know why, so I nodded knowing well saying or doing otherwise would mean breaking his heart.
He smiled, 'thank you my love, thank you,‘ he hugged me fondly but I didn‘t understand why he seemed so worried, he was not telling me something.
Afterwards, my normal life started.
I started living a fake life; a fake life that made my life easy, fake life was my real life, fake life was me. It was the only life I could live to make me a normal child as dad had said, and it really was working for me. Pretending not to know wasn‘t easy but with time I learnt to adapt.
My dad already told the school that no matter how brilliant I was, I must never be given double promotion. So I started going steadily pretending to be the low student but what I called the low student was still close to the best student in the school. My dad was still worried. He needed me to be the lowest student which was just the average student for normal children or should I say abnormal children as dad called them. He‘d always made me feel everyone was the same, all normal, but this time, to get me to do what he wanted, he called them abnormal. What a way!
Everything was steady, never talking nor answering questions in the class, not that I did that before anyways, unless in rare situations. I was always silent in class even before I started my fake life. I started failing myself intentionally, not answering questions I knew, answering just half of all the questions given to me and with dad still insecure, I had to drop to answering less than half most times.
It hurt so much. It hurt to know something and pretend not to. It hurt to see your mates bragging about being the first and knowing it all when you were constantly failing intentionally. It hurt deep into my bones but I loved my dad and I would do anything for him, even die for him. Tell you a secret though? After pretending to know nothing in school, I went back home, rewrote all questions asked in my question book – a book I set aside for that purpose only – and answered them all without my dad‘s knowledge; only then would I be at peace.
I got to stay in one school this time; no strange faces again, no teacher or principal complaining about Sheila. It was so peaceful and I loved it. Sean was already in high school in the boarding house and I was looking forward to joining him soon.
I finished my elementary and moved to high school. And now I saw Sean every day and also made friends with my fake life. But no matter how hard I tried pretending, people still figured out I was brilliant, I don‘t know how it happened but it did. I got to high school and to my surprise I was not allowed to go to the boarding house like Sean. I was so sad about that but still happy we were in the same school, at least we got to see in school again. I missed seeing him in elementary school, missed eating lunch with him, missed having someone I trust to play with. My parents insisted having me close to them, so I was going from home and the excuse they gave me, ―Sean is in the boarding house and we can‘t have you too leave us or we would die of loneliness‖. They knew that would make me pity them because they knew how much I loved them and wouldn‘t have them hurt, so I let go the issue of going to the boarding house. Besides, I would miss them too anyways, been so used to them that I couldn‘t do without them too but I missed Sean too, only if they would bring him back home then I would be so happy our family was complete again.
Two years in my high school and I had no problem. My fake life was still on. My high school wasn‘t easy though I would say compared to my elementary it was way easier. I never had to change schools. I never had to be scared of meeting new faces the following month which meant I could have friends, finally.