The yellow rays of the sun crept through my curtains and sat on my eyes when I woke up. I rolled to the other side of the bed quickly, almost falling off. Ebenezer Obey’s evergreen music was blaring from the kitchen and our near-empty room was vibrating with its echo. Jide again! I sat up and pushed my back against the wall. Now my nose, fully awake and ready for its duty, caught the smell of boiling chicken in the room. Who was cooking chicken in this sapa infested hostel? I jumped out of my bed and ran to the kitchen. By the sink with a load of unwashed plates and mosquitoes were fighting for their share of the leftovers. Jide was peeling a tuber of yam into a tray, his waist moving with the rhythm of the song blaring from his music player. “ Jide how far”, I said and rushed to the pot. I reached for a chicken lap, my fingers burned, and quickly I dropped it on a plate. “ Baba drop that one na”, Jide said and dropped the tuber he was peeling and walked to the steaming pot. “ Just lap o, anyway how come? how you take get this chicken” I asked and sat on a stool close by. “ I stole it”, he said and opened the pot’s cover. “ Baba don pay” “ Thank God o, when did he pay na. I didn’t see any alert o. Wait let me check my phone” I said. “ I have not seen Bisi today o” Jide said and went back to the yam he was peeling. Bisi? That’s true. My leg froze and a flush of coldness washed through me. I ran back to the room to pick my phone. I dialed her number, it rang for some seconds, she didn’t pick it, when I dialed again it was switched off. I dropped the phone and yanked a blue pair of trousers hanging on a rod attached to the burglar-proof of my window. I was about to leave the room when I heard a heavy knock. Who could that be? Perhaps our neighbours I thought, then I remembered we were the only one left at the hostel, other corp members had left for their states. Maybe she is here. Thank God she changed her plan. I ran to the door, pulled the knob, and opened my arms wide like a flamingo flapping its wing, ready to embrace the love of my life, then the door opened halfway and I saw who it was, my hands dropped to my waist. “ Good afternoon sir, are you Mr. Ade?” He asked and pulled at the zip of his bag.** “ Yes, how may I help you? ” I replied as I searched his face with my gaze trying to remember where we had met before. “ Okay, this is for you. ” He said and pulled a white envelope from his bag. I looked at him amazed, what joke could this be? Letter? Maybe this was baba at his jokes again, folded in this envelope are the crisp notes of my salary. I took the envelope from him and felt its side, just air and the tips of my fingers pressing the rough edge of a folded paper. “ Merry Christmas sir “, the man said and went to his bike. When I got inside, Jide was watching a movie on my bed, a bowl of popcorn on his lap. “ Baba crazy things are happening,” I said and sat close to him. “ Wetin u dey watch ?” I asked and tore open the envelope. “ Who was that ?” Jide asked and paused the movie. “ I no know o, one guy like that dropped this letter and left. People still use letters?” ” Ehen na, Np was on his shirt abi?” Jide asked. “ Yes, but how that one take concern me?”, I said and my gaze sailed to the first word: Dear Aderemi. “ Ehen Np means Nigeria postal Olodo,” he said and played the paused movie. “ Shut up joor, ” I said and continued from where I stopped: Dear Aderemi, I have decided to return to the village. I know this would break your heart but it is a cross I must carry. My life is tied to that village and the name of my family is at stake. You are the best thing that happened to me this year, I wish to express my mind but words fail me. I pray we meet someday. With love, Bisi. ———— I was praying silently that we should be rejected so we could return to the secretariat and grab any office work available when he smiled and welcomed us to his school. Jide faked a smile, I maintained a straight face. “ I am Babatunde Ishola, You can call me Tunde, but I prefer Baba,” he said and smiled. He was in his late thirties, a perfect definition of an African man in his prime, his chest was broad like an ironing board and his beard was full. Jide would later say that if the world hadn’t changed, the man would be leading raids from one village to another. “ let me show the teacher that would take you to your lodge, she is a corper too”, Baba said and gave us our files. “ Miss Bisi!” “ Sir!”, a tiny voice answered from a class and a yellow lady with a round face came in. “ They are our new corpers,” Baba said, smiling softly. “ Welcome sirs, ” She said and pulled at her cap. “ My name is Bisi and … ——— “ Ade wetin sup now? ” Jide said and stood from the bed. “ You have been staring at the window for like a minute now, who sent the letter?” “ Hmm, na Bisi”, I replied and scratched my chin. “ Another format, so you guys