***
Lisa was a nervous wreck and it was glaringly obvious.
“Can you sit still for a moment?” Alison whispered to her after while we looked for seats in the hall.
When we finally found some, I noticed that we could see where the lecturers were seated from where we were. Mr. David’s eyes darted around and when he saw us, his face tightened and his mouth twisted slightly as he frowned.
Lisa’s breath hitched and her eyes looked everywhere else but at him. Discreetly, I grabbed her hand and squeezed to reassure her. She glanced at me and smiled briefly before looking straight ahead at the podium.
Once we had, we were asked to prepare to leave the school the following day on a field trip.
“Finally, there’s something to look forward to.” Lisa said as we made our way out of the hall.
“I know right.” I smiled.
“You guys are so lucky. Why don’t Political Science students go on field trips? “Alison sighed while Stacy rolled her eyes.
Lisa and I laughed at them but my laughter came to an abrupt end when I bumped shoulders with someone on the way out. I looked up into a pair of eyes that were painfully familiar.
“Hey, be careful.” He said as he grabbed my shoulders to steady me.
I shrugged out of his hold and pulled away like I’d stepped on hot coals.
“What’s up with your weird behavior around Ryan?” Alison asked as she glanced back at him.
“It’s nothing.” I mumbled.
“No, it’s not. He keeps staring at you for some reason and your face always tells how much he bothers you.”
I fought the urge to look back and kept walking instead. I made a mental note to try to control my facial expressions more often.
“Just forget about it.” I said as I increased my pace.
I was glad that they decided to drop it like I’d requested. That night I packed for the three days we would spend off campus and fell asleep almost immediately afterwards. I had the most disturbing dreams in which I saw flashes of the near-accident we’d had when I first came to University of London.
When I woke up, I wondered if it had been a sort of omen to the challenges
I’d faced so far or if it was a warning of things yet to come.
◾◾◾
It was with a sigh of relief that I got off the bus when we arrived at the hotel, however it was unfortunate that we were to stay at the same hotel my parents and I lodged in. I squinted at the building in the bright afternoon sun and noticed that there were no improvements whatsoever and the signboard still had a few letters missing.
“Finally!” Lisa threw her hands in the air. “The smell of freedom.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but I think that’s the smell of cigarettes,” I said.
“Oh shut up, don’t ruin the moment for me.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
“Gather round everyone.” One of the coordinators said to draw our attention. “You’ll be shared into groups of four, partner up so that we can assign you all to your rooms and remember to be on your best behavior.”
Lisa and I teamed up with two other girls named Sarah and Jane. I smiled politely at the girls but didn’t bother to make any conversation with them, instead, I let Lisa do the talking. We walked into the reception and I couldn’t say that I was surprised to see the same lady from my previous visit seated at the front desk. I did notice that she seemed weak somehow but she didn’t seem to remember me, not that I expected her to. The night was uneventful as we simply settled in after we had dinner. The girls decided to watch a movie but I fell asleep halfway through. I was up earlier than the girls but I didn’t make the same mistake of leaving the room by myself at such an early hour of the day, instead, I took my time in taking a bath and getting dressed. It was 8am when we set out with the rest of the teams.
“Listen up,” Our coordinator, Mr. John, said when we arrived. “Today, we’ll start out with a simple activity since it’s likely to be your first time doing something like this. Our first location would be where we would explore the area, take pictures of the environment and make our observations.
We were given jotters for our observations and as we trekked through the streets, I made a few notes on the scenery.
I broke away from the others but when Lisa noticed, she called out for me to be careful.
“I will.” I waved a hand in the air as if I could brush away her concerns.
Their voices faded a bit in the background as I went farther from the group. I diligently wrote down names of the various species of plants and animals I could identify while I took pictures I thought might be useful.
As I peered at my phone screen, I thought I saw movement to my left. I lowered the phone and looked around carefully. Dead leaves rustled somewhere nearby and I took a step backwards, suddenly regretting wandering so far from the group.
A low hissing sound became more audible, I turned behind me to find the source. A sharp scream pierced the air and it took me a moment to realize that I was the one screaming. I’d stepped too close to a python that was now uncoiling itself to spring at me. At that moment, I was frozen and it seemed like all common sense had deserted me.
It all happened so fast that I didn’t see it coming. The snake sprang towards me and I threw my hands up across my face in defense but the strike never came. Slowly, I lowered my hands and looked to find it dead at my feet, a large stone smashed its head into a bloody pulp. My eyes followed a pair of feet encased in black leather sandals all the way up the long, muscular legs to a broad chest and finally, my gaze met that of the stranger who stood before me.
“You should be more careful.” His voice was deep and calm like a soothing baritone.
I nodded stupidly as I stared at the snake again.
“Pythons are very common in this area,” He said before he glanced in the distance. “Are you by any chance part of the students ahead?”
I nodded again. He didn’t seem much older than me and I guessed he studied in one of the universities nearby or maybe he was a recent graduate.
“Well,” He glanced at my ID card. “Monica, you need to keep your eyes open.”
“I will, thank you.”
His smile was brief but it reached his eyes and when he turned around to walk away, I noticed he had a slight limp although I didn’t notice any deformity in his legs.
“Are you hurt?” The words came out of my mouth before I could reign them back in.
“Oh, you mean this?” He gestured to the side of his abdomen. “This happened quite some time ago, I’ve had worse.”
“Wait,” I called out. “May I at least know the name of the person who saved me?”
“Didn’t anyone warn you about talking to strangers?” He smirked as he folded his arms across his chest.
“You know my name but I don’t know yours.” I shrugged.
“Fair enough,” He said. “I’m Charles.”
“Thank you, Charles.” I smiled and as I did so, I wondered why it felt so natural to smile at a complete stranger.
He simply stared at me in silence until the sound of voices interrupted. I distinctively recognized one of the voices to be Lisa’s. I guess I’d been gone too long. I looked around to guess the direction of the voice and then turned back to face him.
“I need to…” I trailed off and looked around me in confusion when I discovered that he was gone.
I shook it off and returned to the rest of the group.
“Where were you girl?” Lisa nudged me.
.
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