Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 11
The sun was very bright and very hot over the big city university. It was the kind of day where the heat feels like it is pushing you down toward the ground. At the front gate of the school, a taxi stopped with a loud screech of its tires. The door opened, and out stepped Aunt Clara. She did not look like someone who had just traveled for many hours on a dusty bus. She was dressed in her very best yellow lace. The lace was thick and expensive, and it had tiny shiny stones that caught the light. She wore a very tall headtie that looked like a crown. She had gold bangles on both of her arms that made a clicking sound every time she moved. Aunt Clara walked onto the campus with her head held very high. In her mind, she was a queen coming to visit her prince. She expected to see Tobi sitting in a beautiful garden, surrounded by books and important people. She expected to see Seyi somewhere in the background, looking hungry and sad, perhaps carrying Tobi's heavy bags or washing the floor of a classroom.
Clara walked past the big library and the tall science buildings. She saw many students running to their classes, but she did not stop to ask for directions. she thought she was too important for that. She marched straight toward the hostels where the students lived. She remembered the room number Tobi had sent her in a message long ago. She found the building, but as she walked down the hallway, she began to wrinkle her nose. The air did not smell like the expensive perfume she was wearing. It smelled like old food and dirty laundry. She reached Room 4B and pushed the door open without knocking. What she saw inside made her heart stop for a moment. The room was a mess. Tobi's expensive trunk was open, and all his nice clothes were crumpled on the floor like old rags. There were empty boxes of food everywhere. But Tobi was not there.
"Where is my son?" Clara shouted at a student who was walking past. The student looked at her fancy lace and then at her angry face. "If you mean Tobi, the boy who always asks to borrow money, he is not here," the student said with a little laugh. "He was called to the big office. The office of the Dean. I think he is in very big trouble." Clara did not wait to hear more. She turned around and ran out of the building. Her gold bangles were clinking loudly now, but she did not care. She felt a cold hand of fear around her heart. The Dean was the most important person in the whole school. Why would her prince be in the office of the Dean?
She found the building with the big wooden doors. She pushed them open and walked inside. The office was very quiet and very cool. Behind a large desk sat an old man with glasses. This was the Dean. And there, sitting in a small chair in front of the desk, was Tobi. Clara almost did not recognize her own son. Tobi looked very thin. His face was pale, and his hair was messy. He was wearing a shirt that had a big yellow stain on the front. He looked like he had been crying. "Tobi!" Clara screamed. "What are you doing here? Why do you look like this?" The Dean looked up from his papers. He looked at Clara's expensive lace and then at Tobi's dirty shirt. He sighed a long, tired sigh.
"Are you this boy's mother?" the Dean asked. His voice was like a hammer hitting a stone. Clara nodded her head quickly. "Then you should know that your son is facing expulsion. That means we are going to kick him out of this university today." Clara felt like the floor was moving under her feet. "Kick him out? But why? I sent him so much money for his fees! He is a state champion! He is a genius!" The Dean pulled out a long piece of paper. "This paper shows that the school fees were never paid. We sent many letters, but your son ignored them. And as for being a genius, Tobi has not gone to a single class in three weeks. He has spent all the money you sent on parties and on friends who are no longer here. He has wasted everything. Unless the fees are paid in full by this afternoon, he must leave the campus forever."
Clara looked at Tobi. Tobi could not even look at her. He just stared at his dirty shoes. He looked disheveled and broken. He looked like a little boy who had been caught stealing from a jar of cookies. Clara felt her anger rising. She had worked so hard to give him that money. She had taken it away from Seyi's mouth just to give it to Tobi. And now, Tobi had thrown it all away. She grabbed Tobi by the arm and dragged him out of the office. "We are going to find Seyi," she hissed. "Seyi must have some money. I know he has been working. He must save his brother. He must pay these fees so you can stay."
They walked out into the big open square in the middle of the university. This place was called the quad. It was full of hundreds of students who were eating lunch or talking under the trees. Clara's eyes moved quickly, searching for the boy she used to call a servant. She expected to find him at the back of the cafeteria, perhaps scrubbing a large pot or carrying a heavy bag of trash for a small bit of bread. She wanted to find him in a place of shame so she could feel powerful again.
But then, she saw a group of students standing in a circle near the fountain. They were all wearing green vests that said Student Work-Study Group. These were the students who worked for the university and also studied very hard. They were the most respected students on the campus. And in the middle of the circle stood a young man. He was wearing a crisp, white shirt. The shirt was ironed so perfectly that it did not have a single wrinkle. He held a clipboard in his hand, and he was giving instructions to the other students. He looked tall and strong. His face was calm, and his eyes were bright with intelligence. This was not a servant. This was a leader.
It was Seyi.
Clara stood still for a second. She could not believe her eyes. She looked at Tobi, who was skinny and dirty, and then she looked at Seyi, who looked like a king. The jealousy in her heart turned into a hot, burning fire. She could not handle the fact that the boy she tried to bury was now standing so high. She did not think about where she was. She did not care that hundreds of people were watching. She opened her mouth and let out a loud, piercing scream that echoed across the whole quad.
"Seyi!" she shouted. "Seyi, come here this instant!"
The sound of her voice was so loud that everyone stopped talking. The students near the fountain turned around. The students eating their lunch looked up. Even the birds in the trees seemed to go silent. Seyi stopped talking to his group. He slowly turned his head and saw Clara standing there in her yellow lace, dragging a dirty Tobi behind her. Seyi did not look scared. He did not look like he wanted to run away. He handed his clipboard to another student and began to walk toward Clara. He walked with a steady, slow pace. Every step he took showed that he was a man who knew his own value.
He stopped a few feet away from her. The crowd of students began to gather around them, forming a large circle. They whispered to each other, wondering who this angry woman in the fancy clothes was. "Why are you screaming my name, Aunt Clara?" Seyi asked. His voice was very quiet, but in the silence of the quad, everyone could hear him.
"Don't you 'Aunt Clara' me!" she screamed, waving her arms in the air. Her face was starting to turn a dark, angry purple. "Look at your brother! Look at Tobi! He is in trouble! He is about to be kicked out of school because of unpaid fees! And look at you, standing here in a clean shirt like you are better than everyone else. Why aren't you helping your brother? You have money from your little businesses. You must give it to me right now so I can pay for Tobi's school. How can you be so selfish while your own blood is suffering?"
Seyi stood very still. He looked at Tobi, who was shaking with embarrassment. Then he looked back at Clara. For many years, Seyi had been afraid of this woman. He had been afraid of her voice and her heavy hands. He had been afraid of the chores she gave him and the way she made him feel small. But as he stood there in the middle of his university, he realized that she had no power over him anymore. He had built his own life with his own hands. He had harvested his own strength from the hardship she had given him.
"My brother?" Seyi asked. He said the word slowly, as if he was trying to remember what it meant. A small, calm smile appeared on his lips.
"Yes, your brother!" Clara yelled, stepping closer to him. She looked like she wanted to slap him. "He is your family! You owe him everything!"
Seyi shook his head slowly. He looked around at the hundreds of students who were watching the scene. Then he looked Clara straight in the eyes. "You seem to have a very short memory, Aunt Clara," Seyi said. "Back in the village, for many years, you told me every single day that I was not part of your family. You told me I was a servant. You told me that my only job was to work until my back broke so that Tobi could have a good life. You told me that I was nothing but a tool to be used."
The crowd gasped. A low murmur of voices started to spread through the students. They looked at Clara with eyes full of shock. Clara's mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
"So I am confused," Seyi continued. "Servants don't have brothers. Servants only have employers. If I am a servant, then Tobi is not my brother. He is just the son of my old boss. And I do not owe an employer anything once the work is done. I have worked for you for ten years, Aunt Clara. I have paid my debt in sweat and in pain. The money I have now belongs to my future, not to Tobi's mistakes."
The silence that followed was even deeper than before. It was a silence that felt heavy and thick. Clara's face was no longer just purple; it looked like it might burst. She had come to the school to put Seyi in his place, but Seyi had just shown the whole world exactly what that place was. He had turned her own words against her like a sharp sword. Tobi let go of his mother's arm and covered his face with his hands. He wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
Seyi turned around and walked back to his group. He picked up his clipboard and started talking as if nothing had happened. He was the master of his own world now. Clara stood alone in the middle of the quad, surrounded by hundreds of people who now knew her secret. She was no longer a queen. She was just a cruel woman in a yellow dress, standing in the middle of a harvest she never wanted to see.
The wind blew across the campus, carrying the sound of the students' whispers. The battle was over, but the story was far from finished. Clara looked at the big university buildings and felt very, very small.
Do you think Seyi was being mean to Clara, or was he finally telling the truth?
Clara expected to find Tobi as a king and Seyi as a beggar. Why was she so wrong?
Tobi wasted all his money on friends who left him. What does this teach us about choosing friends?
Seyi said, Servants don't have brothers. They have employers. What did he mean by that?
What do you think Clara will do next now that she has been embarrassed in front of the whole school?
The Truth has been Revealed!
The secret is out! The whole university now knows how Aunt Clara treated Seyi like a servant. The pride of the village woman has been broken in the big city! But a woman like Clara does not give up easily. She is angry, she is embarrassed, and she is looking for a way to get revenge. What will she do to try and pull Seyi down from his new position of power?
