Trina was just like any girl not just “just like any other” but she appeared ordinary. Going to senior high school, going out to church, had friends, had fun just like any other. She had dreams, hopes and aspirations. Trina was no perfect but was human too. Trina was eighteen years and in one of the High Schools in Ghana.
“Hi girl, what’s up?” Karen walked up to her friend who was looking intently on the field. “I dey. The sun is just too scorching and you left me alone to chat with your guys.” Trina complained. Karen laughed so like her friend.
“They are not my guys. They are my friends. Let’s go and meet them.” Karen did not hesitate but pulled Trina by the hand behind her to where her friends were sitting. They were at the stadium.
Trina did not like the way the guys were dressed nor how rowdy they behaved. Karen seemed to fit in perfectly with them. In no time, Trina got herself lost and found herself alone. That was Karen for you.
Her friend loved fun of any sort. She did not mind the company she kept as long as she had fun. People in school labeled her bad girl because she sometimes clubbed. Trina did not mind labeling her as such. Karen loved to date guys. And dated she had. A lot of them for that matter. Trina hated that and yet … Karen was the best friend she had ever known. Oh, so much irony. Did they not say opposite attract?
Trina knows Karens’ parents were abroad. She even had the opportunity to speak to them on phone sometimes. Karen loved anything that was family. She adored her elder siblings, Kobby and Kate. She loved Aunt Mayah, her guardian and her cousins. But her promiscuous and careless lifestyle painted her black out rightly.
In the final year in school, Karen had some visitors in school who accused her of playing a part in a scam where a man was swindled of almost Gh¢200,000.00! Everyone knew Karen to be bad but to that point? No one ever thought possible.
Karen was arrested. She slept in cells. Trina wept her eyes out. She could not believe it. Karen remained silent, never saying a word but casting glances at the back of the crowd as if silently communicating with someone while continuously looking at Trina. Trina could read assurance in her eye but was puzzled. How could anyone be so calm when prison cells gaped at you?
Karen was put on bail two days after. She rushed to school to see Trina and spoke to another guy and left just like that.
That night, there was a fierce shoot out in town between two notorious gangs of armed rubbers. Eight people were shot dead and most of the rubbers were apprehended by the police. To the surprise of many, these “wise” people were young guys who had only one girl in their midst. She got connections in town and hinted them on who to rob. Young people who had bright future ahead.
Trina woke-up the following day and remembered her friend was no longer with her. Pain stabbed through her heart and silence fell upon her like a blanket. She hated every pinch of pity she got from her school friends. She had two much to endure. She could hear Karen’s laughter, her voice, she could almost see her. She had to be hallucinating.
Four weeks after, the guys who swindled the man of his money were arrested with the accomplices, two young girls. Trina did not want to follow the story any longer. Knowing fully well Karen was one of them.
But she was not. Lloyd is the guys Karen spoke to weeks back when she came visiting, his father was almost in a state of bankruptcy and needed money urgently to keep his business going or the family would soon stink with poverty. Karen noticed how he sulked and got closer to him. Lloyd then related his problem to her. Having rich family friends, Karen got one of them to give Lloyd’s father a loan which was swindled by some guys. Karen had to pose as one of the culprits in order to make her own investigations on her suspects. On the night of the shooting, she had taken a well rewarded tape of their activities to the police after she befriended one of them. On her way back to her house, she was shot dead! For the sake of a family in need, Lloyd’s family.
This was what the police had gathered when they came to the school. It was then Trina realized the fate of Karen. Students realized their prejudice. Teachers discovered their ignorance. Aunt Mayah, Kobby and Kate got to know of a funeral but Trina felt her loss. Karen was bad. But she put her life on the line for a family. She had love in her heart.
Her family gave up on her. They know her to be a bad girl. They almost did not care though they accepted her. But she loved her them.
Students held candles. All wore black. Trina wore white. Her eyes were swollen. She alone understood the girl they were burying. Karen was resting from the world which spited her.
As the sun set and shone its golden rays on her tombstone, Trina smiled through her tears and looked at the bible in her hand. Karen held it before she dies. She gave herself to Christ.
