Never Walk Alone: A Brief Story of Andrew Godwin

 

Andrew is a quiet boy right from birth. He enjoys staying in a calm place and nothing ever bothers him as having a third party in his comfortable room with him. I said third party because he takes solace in keeping his best friend, Sharon – a teddy bear – around him. I think calling him a phlegmatic would not be a rude way of describing a gentle man like Andrew. He lives in Ontario, central Canada with his family.

On 13 July 2021, a family friend came for a visit. She is a little short or say down to earth. Sitting at the living room alone, she thought to herself, “This would be a best time to get to know Andrew.” Therefore, she headed-on to his room but unfortunately, the door was locked. She knocked, “Andrew!” she exclaimed, no response. After staying a while, she left for her former arena – the living room. Jane cannot really enjoy being alone. She is not wired that way. Her friends at school cannot have enough of her vibes. She grooves and enjoys being the life of the party. On many occasions, she has been the redeeming feature for most of the little girls whom the senior schoolmates wanted to bully. With just a raise of her voice, a help is already on the way. That is who Jane is – never walk alone. Imagine such a blazing damsel in the company of a boy like Andrew. I guess you already know the story.

Having waited for a long while, she decided to set out for her house, but something told her that a normal person would not stay alone in a room for hours if there were nothing more to it. She tried her luck again to see if Andrew would be kind this time and just open the door to say hi to him perhaps, see her off the road. Fortunately, this time, Andrew opened the door but not for her, he wanted to take a walk down the street with his friend, Sharon. “Hello Andrew”, said Jane. “Hey Jane”, he replied. “I’ve been here waiting for you!” Jane exclaimed. “Why is that?” Andrew asked her. Jane is already getting a bit uneasy with his insensitivity. She quietly said, ‘I thought I could spend some time with you and maybe get to know more about you. But I guess I know you already.” She showed her back to Andrew.

Andrew took his friend, Sharon and they went on a walk.  On the terrain, along the boulevard axis that leads to his house, he sat there, observing the wind, not knowing there is a group of guys waiting to ­check him out or you call it savage. “Hey! Whatchadoing there?” One of the guys asked him. You should imagine what Andrew would do at this point. Can you guess? He stood there waiting for the guy to come near. His concentration was on Jack, and then there was a noise behind him. A loud voice called the attention of everyone around. As he looked back, he saw Jane with her mouth filled with the alarm of come help my friend, Andrew!

In a moment, help came! CSIS personnel came to rescue the scene. The guys were arrested. On their way home, Jane told Andrew, “You can’t keep being like this, Andrew. You need friends around you. You can’t keep walking alone. It’s not safe out there…”

By Taiwo A. Gbolagade 

for CMRC, Dept. of C&S. 

January 2022.

Taiwo Ayodeji Gbolagade is a postgraduate student of the Department of English, University of Lagos. He majors in the field of Discourse Analysis and is also passionate about sevice to God through men.