After the hymn, everyone was seated as the convener had instructed us to, but she just stood there, with her hand on her nose. I wondered why she didn’t move, but before I could wonder any further, she rushed out of the church building, leaving all of her stuff behind. She left me, the convener and everyone else in the church dumbfounded. We all sat there shocked, but the church elder motioned to the convener to continue with the service.

I was lost in thought, wondering what had happened to her. Many questions came to my mind: Why had she left like that? What was she doing outside? Was she gone? How come she had left all of her things, was….? That last question died without completion as one of my friends brought me back to reality by shaking me and saying that the church service was over.

“How long has it been since she went out?” I asked my friend and he just laughed at me. He thought I was joking, since I had not told him how I felt about her, Chika.

“Hey man, why were you so silent all the way? The guys told me to check up on you,” Mike said, as he was getting ready to have his lunch. I remained quiet, so lost in thought that Mike had to knock my head with his phone. “Hey man, I’m asking you a question, what’s wrong? You’re doing exactly what you were doing on our way from church,” he said.

I looked at him, smiled and said that I was just meditating on the preaching, but Mike knew better. “You and I, we go way back to the extent that I know when you’re not telling me the truth. Sooner or later I will find out. Just make sure that it doesn’t come between you and me,” he said as he left the room.

By the way, my name is Precious. I’m a 5th year student, doing my honours degree in medical microbiology. For the rest of the week I didn’t see Chika. I felt a bit troubled, but I reminded myself that she often liked to stay in her room. I was going to see her on Sunday at church, but deep within me I knew that something was definitely wrong. Somehow I just didn’t want to accept that.

Sunday took forever to come but finally it came and to everybody’s surprise, I was the first one to wake up, a thing that I never did on campus. The guys knew that I was troubled but couldn’t tell what it was and they didn’t ask me because they knew they wouldn’t get an answer from me. We arrived at church but to my disappointment, when I looked at where Chika usually sat, she was not there.

My heart sank. Where was she? This feeling was now beginning to hurt. The service was very slow because all I wanted to do was go out and try to find out where she had gone. Last week I gathered up the courage to ask her friends where she was and they told me she had voluntarily withdrawn from the university.

I almost cried hearing that. Her friends did not talk about it and acted as if nothing was wrong. My emptiness grew, and suddenly I had no reason to wake up every day. It was a strange feeling because I knew I liked her but I did not know that I liked her this much.

Being new to these strange feelings of love, I did not know how to handle it. I wanted to talk to my guys about it but I just couldn’t, so I told myself that I was going to wait for two weeks to see if she would show up at church.

Two weeks had passed and by now I was truly troubled. On this particular day, my friends took me to a place we call the “Summer Hut” on campus, to ask me what was really wrong. The conversation started, but before I could say anything, a smile showed up on my face and everybody was surprised. I was smiling because the person I had been waiting to see had finally arrived on campus.

The guys did not understand but I excused myself. I wasn’t going to talk to her. I left just to think about what my next move would be. My life was happy again. A few more weeks passed and even though I had not spoken to her yet, I was happy to see her daily. Even though she was on campus, I could tell that something was wrong from the way she was behaving. The once cheerful girl that I knew was gone and she was always quiet and unapproachable.

A few days later, it was a normal Saturday morning for me. I woke up late as usual, and I was on my phone in my room when suddenly I heard girls screaming. I got up to see what had happened but since there was a crowd, I could hardly see what was going on. In no time, a car from Administration arrived with a nurse who rushed to Hall 5. I asked people what was happening but no one knew the details. Rumour had it that one of the girls was either dead or unconscious. Chika slept in Hall 5, room number 17.

The reality of this made me weak at my knees and I did not know what to do. What if it was really her? Worse still, what if she was dead?

I pulled myself together with the hope that it was not her. The shouting of the nurse brought me back to the scene.

“We need a stretcher!” she screamed to one of her colleagues, who was by this time already rushing back to the clinic to get a stretcher. By this time, every student was at the scene and those who were religious were already praying against the worst. (I must admit that even though I was known as a powerful man of God, I couldn’t join them in prayer or say my silent prayer out loud because then people would know.)

The stretcher came and the nurses rushed into Hall 5. The scene of the stretcher being carried out almost squeezed the life out of me. Chika was lifeless on the stretcher, and she looked so pale and so thin. I wanted to reach out to her but I could not. The warden arrived just as the car was leaving for Saint Joseph Mission Hospital and by this time most girls were crying and the prayers had intensified.

When they left for the hospital, people started dispersing but I just stood there motionless, until I felt a hand on my cheek. I saw that it was my sister, Gift, who was trying to wipe away the tears that were uncontrollably flowing down my cheeks. She smiled at me and asked one question.

“You love her that much?” she asked.

I simply nodded.

She explained to me that Chika was not dead but was in a critical condition. Before the incident, she did not complain about anything but on that particular Saturday, she just did not wake up when they tried to wake her. That was the slowest Saturday of my entire life. By noon, rumors started circulating that Chika was dead but I did not want to believe it. I don’t know why I stayed on campus.

My heart kept on telling me to follow her to the hospital. Noon came and the rumour intensified and everyone was especially disturbed because Chika was known as a good girl. The campus was in sorrow and those who couldn’t control it actually started crying for the life of their friend, Chika. Still, no one was telling me something I could believe. The nurses had not come back yet and someone said that they had communicated to the Dean of Students that Chika was in a critical condition.

That evening, nobody had the energy to do anything at all. The school was in sorrow. To try and forget their grief, some went to study, while others engaged in continuous prayers for Chika. At exactly 18:00, a car came and the people inside went straight to Chika’s room. I learnt that it was her mum and two sisters, and that they had come to take Chika’s belongings. I kept telling myself that this could not be happening and by this time, I did not even have the energy to pray or talk to my friends about it, although they knew that I was disturbed.

They took everything that belonged to Chika and when one of her friends asked them about Chika’s condition, all they could say was that only God could help Chika’s life. I went to my room after I heard that and prayed like I had never prayed before. In the middle of my prayer, God spoke to me. He told me to take courage for I was going to be disappointed in a few days’ time, and I would be faced with a big decision.

I so much wanted to ask God what He meant by the fact that I was going to be disappointed but I couldn’t because I did not want Him to tell me that Chika was going to die, so I just prayed for strength and wisdom, so that when the time came I would be able to make the right decision.

A week later, during classes, we were surprised to see police officers arresting my sister Gift. Because we were so close, I could not sit by and watch, so I went to find out what was going on.

“What is going on officer?” I asked.

“Gift is being arrested for the attempted murder of Ms. Chika Phiri,” the officer said.

I could not believe my ears and before I could ask any more questions, they were already gone. I couldn’t go to class anymore. My life was miserable. I sat in my room, thinking about what I was going through. Just then, one of my friends came and told me that I was needed at the Administration Office. I was asked what relations I had with the two ladies. I said that Gift was a very good friend and church mate whom I considered as my sister, and that Chika was just a girl I loved from a distance.

The Registrar looked at me with searching eyes and when he was convinced I was not lying, he continued to say that Gift confessed that she had poisoned Chika because she was attracting my love and attention. He continued to say that Gift loved me but since I did not notice her, she got jealous and decided to remove the threat forever. I left the room troubled by all that I had heard, but most of all I couldn’t believe the fact that Chika would never speak again, for that was the effect the poison had had on her.

I had to decide whether I was going to return Gift’s love and wait for her until her sentence was complete, or still love Chika despite her inability to speak.

How would you feel if someone close to you poisoned someone else that you also cared about?