COMMUNICATIONS 101: THE BACKBENCHERS

 COMMUNICATIONS 101: THE BACKBENCHERS

David was in 4th year doing IT and loving it. He had dutifully attended most of his classes save for the times he needed to attend to something in the family business or the Clearing and forwarding business whose shares, the dad had taken over from his uncle, Mwangi. Still to be done though was a mandatory common course, communications 101. He registered for it and began to attend the classes. From his days in primary school, David loved to be a backbencher. This was not only because he loved to do other personal things as the lectures progressed but also that he disliked the Front benchers especially those who asked endless questions or liked conversations with the lecturers.  He was also an early person to class and when he came in, he would walk to the seats at the very back. Sarah on the other hand preferred to come to class one hour or 30 minutes before time either to have a short preparation before class began or to remind herself of what had been taught in the previous class. That way, she always felt part of the class and would be able to follow up during lecture progress. Every time Sarah came into a class, she would go right behind to do her prep thing and then move forward around 5 minutes before the class began. It was at the backbenches of the Communication 101 class that David met Sarah. On the 2^nd week of the class, which was usually Thursdays from 2 to 4 PM, David walked into class and right behind there sat a lady attentively reading something. She had short, unplaited hair. She wore a black, white polka dotted dress, a front buttoned navy blue pullover and some black closed leather shoes. As David approached the back area, Sarah lifted her face to see the gentleman approaching. David had a glance at her beautiful face and was filled with awe. She then buried her head back into her book. David came and sat on a seat an arm’s length distance away. ‘Hallo’ he greeted. ‘Hallo to you, “Sarah replied. ‘Are you here for Comms 101’, David enquired. ‘Yes. But I must finish something before that’, Sarah replied. ‘Okay. Good day then’, Said David. ‘Good day too’ Replied Sarah as she went on flipping her book. David sat there not being able to do much but wishing that the conversation could go on. He was also reading a programming book occasionally stealing glances at Sarah. That was like 20 minutes before the lecture began. As time went by, more students came in in increasing numbers and five minutes before time, Sarah picked up her things as David was looking. ‘I have to move a little bit to the front,’ she said to him. ‘That’s okay, “David replied. So, Sarah moved to the front as David remained at the same place. So, the class progressed and ended some minutes before 4.00 PM. When the class ended, there was a strong urge inside David to follow Sarah out to progress the conversation, but another voice told him to let go. Before he could move out, he noticed Sarah Walk out but there were many students ahead of him and by the time he got out, Sarah was nowhere to be seen. David had no more lectures that day and so went home to his apartment in Kahawa Sukari. He made himself Ugali with scrambled eggs and continued to do the programming work that Eric had assigned to him. He could not well get that lady, Sarah, out of his mind and looked forward to the next comms 101 lecture. Hopefully to see her again.

@Stephen Mungai