The Girl from the Lane - 5th Installment

“Time is up folks.” The statement sliced through the room like a scythe in a field of grass and a rustling of papers followed, as the students in the room placed their answer sheets together.
“Please make sure that your student number is correctly placed on the appropriate sections of your answer sheets. Beyond that there should be no more writing.” The invigilator cautioned.
Sheila was satisfied with her efforts with this paper. Marketing was a favourite subject of hers, especially as this was the area that she was involved in at work. She had maintained a good average throughout the programme, and would receive her Business Administration Diploma. This was only a first step as she needed the diploma in order to enter the “Challenge Programme” offered by the University of the West Indies for a Bachelors Degree in Management Studies. No one in her family had participated in any type of Tertiary studies before. Even at this stage, she had established a new standard for her family.
Phanso was completely illiterate, and her mother just able to function at reading and putting numbers together. Her pregnancy had hit her mother very hard as deep down she had expected that Sheila would have held her head up and provide some degree of example for her four younger siblings.
It was amazing how different exposures could impact people she mused. Prior to her joining the company, all she had focused on was on having a job in order to support her children and herself. The concept of attending school at this age never existed. That was before she had met Mrs. Martin. She did not even have a concept of a degree, not to mention a post-graduate degree. For Sheila, school from an early age was her mother’s way of having day care for her children while she went out to work. At least, her mother knew where her kids were between 8.00am and 3.00pm each day. It took them a half an hour to walk home, and by then neighbours would give an eye until she herself got home.
Beyond that she was of little help to her children as far as their schooling was concerned.
When Sheila passed the local school examination at 11 years of age, it provided a route to an even better education- at the secondary level. Her mother wasn’t particularly sure how it would, but she knew that this was a way out of the “Lane” for her daughter. She knew that if Sheila was successful, it could provide an example for the other children.

As the invigilator collected her paper, Sheila’s thoughts immediately shifted to her own children. An involuntary wincing flashed through her as she recalled the accident earlier that morning. In her pre-occupation with getting medical attention for her children, communicating with their schools and her office, she lost track of news related to the accident. She knew though that eight persons lost their lives during the mishap, including three children. Her mother was not generally supportive of her, but had connected with her during the day to help. Miraculously, there was no injury to either child. How different it could possibly have been had the gentleman not given her his seat. Two of the three children who perished had been passengers in the bus. Including the two children, there were in total six casualties from the ill-fated bus.



As she made her ay home that evening, she marveled at the difference time made. In the snaking traffic from Kingston back into the Portmore community, the police was out in their numbers along the route. Had they been there this morning, eight persons would still be alive, and the numerous other injured persons would have been spared.
There was no sign beyond that of the carnage that transpired earlier that morning.

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