When the girl announced that her purse containing money had been stolen, everyone in the class started talking. Everyone was trying to convince the other that they had not seen the purse, let alone steal it. My other friends also joined in the conversation except me. The teacher stood in front of the class looking at our faces. I didn't know what he was trying to achieve by doing that. I was still sweating profusely, even though the weather was relatively cool. Finally, the teacher spoke. He would conduct a search.
"If you know you have taken the purse, or saw someone taking the purse, talk now before I conduct the search. If you own up now, there will be no punishment for you. I can assure you that. But if you don't own up, and I find out later that you took the purse, I assure you the punishment would be a very severe one," he said. His words even worsened my condition. I was virtually shaking. Frank saw how restless I had become, and told me to remain calm. I looked at his face, and said quietly to myself, "this guy doesn't have any idea what I'm going through. If he were in my shoes for just three seconds, he would collapse." I knew the purse was still under my desk, so I didn't even want to put my hand under my desk. I didn't want anyone to suspect me.
The search began. Pockets, bags, desks, even shoes were being searched. I was so terrified. So many thoughts came to my mind. One was to slip the purse into my pocket, seek permission to go out, drop the purse outside, then come back to class. No, that sounded too dumb. No teacher would give permission to a student in such a circumstance. I discarded it. One other thought was to take the purse and throw it to another desk without anyone seeing me. Wow, great idea, but how on earth can I do that? The last time I checked, I wasn't a superman. The teacher was seriously searching for it. He was almost at my desk.
I nearly urinated on myself. I couldn't stand the chance of being caught with someone's purse under my desk. How would I explain to my mum? How would Lucy take that news? Oh yeah, I still loved her in spite of all I have read from the letter. Since I had not heard anything from her, I presumed it was one of the devilish acts of JK. Finally the teacher got to my desk. He searched Frank first. He searched his pockets, bag and under his desk, but the purse wasn't found on him. The teacher ordered me to stand up from my seat. I stood up, raised my hands and he searched me. It was a thorough search. He searched my bag also, but nothing was found in it. I decided to sit down.
"Not so fast gentleman. I have to search under your desk too," The teacher said. My heart missed a beat when he said that. I knew my end had come. I planned evil against someone, and now, I'm about to face the concomitant effect of my evil plan. I knew there was no escaping for me. I decided to confess. Yes, that would be the noblest act in such a circumstance.
"ermm please sir..." I started
"hey gentleman, stop wasting my time and get up! " he shouted. I stood up. He searched under my desk, but amazingly, the purse wasn't there. I couldn't believe it. I stood still, while the teacher continued his search. I sat down after he instructed me to sit down. JK was the last student to be searched. The teacher searched his bag, and the purse was surprisingly found in his bag. How did the purse get into his bag? I was so shocked.
#to_be_continued
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