When Frank, the new guy, told me he had received a letter from Prempeh College, I was certain that I would also be accepted by the same school. I grabbed our post office box key and rushed to the post office. I was so nervous that I missed a step, tripped, and fell hard to the ground. I heard one of the women selling by the roadside scream, "You are the fourth boy to fall in the same spot today! What is wrong with boys these days? Do you always have to stare at my sweet granddaughter? Can't you just glance at her once and move on?" she yelled.
I hadn't even noticed the girl the woman was talking about until I got up and saw her laughing uncontrollably at me. I thought about explaining to the woman that I wasn't staring at her granddaughter, but I decided to stay silent, smile, and walk away quietly. I resolved not to take that route on my way back. After all, our elders say, “It is only a fool whose testicles are stepped on twice.” But wait a minute—the girl beside the woman was genuinely pretty. When did such a beautiful angel fall from heaven? I couldn't believe there had been any other banishment apart from that major one that expelled Satan and his cohorts from heaven.
So who could this girl be? I had never seen her in our not-so-big town before. Could she be spending the vacation with her grandmother? Oh, how I wished I could see her again and perhaps get to know her better. But I had already decided not to take that route on my return. I just hoped against hope that one day, somehow, I would get the opportunity to meet her and have a chat.
When I arrived at the post office and reached into my pocket, I realized that the key wasn't there. The only thought that crossed my mind was that the key must have fallen out of my pocket when I fell. I didn't like the idea of going back to search for it, but I had no choice. I returned to the spot to look for the key. Luckily, the woman wasn't there, just her granddaughter. I explained my missing key to her, and she offered to help me search. A few minutes into our search, she found the key. Just as she was about to hand it to me, her grandmother appeared. "You again? What do you want from my granddaughter? By the time I count to three, you must be gone," she commanded angrily. Not wanting any trouble, I took the key from the girl and quickly left.
At the post office, I opened my box and found several letters inside. I took them all home, eager to see if the one I was expecting from Prempeh College was among them. Sadly, it wasn’t in the pile. Disappointed, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t used our post office number; I had used the one for my church. Just as I was about to head to the mission house to check for the letter, I met the pastor's son at the gate. He handed me a letter and walked away. Since EK and MA had already been accepted to continue their secondary education at OWASS, I was confident that I would also be accepted into my first-choice school, Prempeh College.
I looked at the address written on the back of the letter and was shocked. "This must be a mistake," I said to myself. Yes, it was from a secondary school, but it wasn't Prempeh College or OWASS. It was from a school I had never heard of before. How on earth would I be posted to such a school? Can you guess where I ended up?
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