Everyone sat in silence, presumably listening to the edifying sermon being delivered by the chaplain. He

lowered his head to yawn before raising it again. He looked around to see if anyone was dozing and to

his surprise, most of them had their heads bent and were deep asleep.

“So much for the wisdom, the chaplain was passionately delivering to this hungry congregation.” Mgozi

giggled to himself. He tried to listen to the sermon but his mind drifted off to dream. He spent several

minutes staring into thin air, motionless before he heard the chaplain say something intriguing.

“Who are you? It’s quite possible only God can answer that question.”

He pondered on that until the service ended. He was moved. Could anyone or even, did he really know

who he was? Who was he? What was he capable of? He was so young and always quick to cast blame on

others. Listening to this statement left him wondering what the difference was between right and

wrong. He walked out with one of his friends and tried to take his mind off the subject.“Hey Elijah, do

you ever wonder what kind of person you are going to grow up to be? I mean, do you sometimes fear

what you might be capable of doing if circumstances changed? Or what is truly inside of us?”

Elijah looked perplexed. He chuckled mockingly before replying,“ Man Mgozi, I am not in touch with my

feminine side.” He laughed and dashed off.

Mgozi giggled as he watched him speeding further. Maybe he was right. No one at their age ever

bothered to think about things like that. He had come to realize that the majority of people lived their

lives unconcerned about the concept of self-actualization. Maybe Elijah was right about him. He was too

sensitive. You did not have to have everything figured out. Some things just did not have explanations.

Nonetheless, Mgozi had always wondered what the driving force was behind man’s actions. He was

curious to find out the motive behind the drastic decisions of bible personalities like Cain who killed his

brother Abel, all because of a jealous fit. Maybe Elijah was right. He spent too much time drilling ideas in

his head. He strolled off to the dormitory. It was Sunday; time to do laundry before the most tiring day

of the week began, Monday. He went to the dormitory and sorted out all his uniforms soaking them in a

basin. He looked around for detergent and failing to find any decided to look for some in his friends’

belongings. He checked in Arthur’s and did not find any, went ahead to check Sido’s but there was none.

He was about to check Elijah’s when he recalled the kind of person he was and decided there was no

way he could have any. He reached for a bar of soap and decided that it would do. As he turned to

move, something caught his attention. It looked like a flashlight but he knew exactly what it was. He

pulled the mattress up and yanked it out. If there was one thing Elijah had mastered, it was that a secret

is exclusive to only one. He had never mentioned to him that he had smuggled a cell phone into school.

It was not a smartphone, just a simple old-fashioned button Nokia. It did not even have a password

which made it easy for him to begin looking through it. There were several calls made to a single

number. Further scrolling proved it was the only number in the phone book.

“Surprise, this odd, I don’t care, freak actually has a girlfriend.” Mgozi giggled gleefully. He tapped on the

inbox to see if there were any messages from the girlfriend. To his surprise, there was just one message.

It read in Luganda; “Enkya Ku Makya, Ssaawa Musanvu.”(Tomorrow morning at 1.00 .am.)

It was dated recently. He wondered what was going to happen the following day so early in the morning.

The thought of Elijah waking up so early just to meet up with a girl seemed to be highly unlikely. This was the boy who would walk around the school block with the trousers worn inside out completely

unbothered about the comments being made or insults being thrust at him. There was something else

going on and he was almost positive it had nothing to do with a girl. He picked up his basin and left the

room. He wondered whether he could simply ask Elijah what he was up to but then realized that he was

not certain how close they actually were. Elijah was a very private individual with a strange sense of

sophistication. His behaviour was often somewhat erratic.

He washed his clothes for the rest of the morning. When he was done, they all went for lunch. After

which, they spent the evening watching movies in the entertainment room. Then came supper and

prep-time and finally it was time to sleep. He went back to the dormitory where students were ironing,

polishing, and preparing for the busy Monday morning. It was like any other ordinary Sunday night. They

played cards and talked until it was almost midnight. Each gradually fell asleep until the dormitory was

in total silence.

Mgozi had been asleep for about three hours when he felt someone nudging his shoulders viciously. He

awoke to the smell of smoke. There was a lot of it all over the entire dormitory and quite clearly coming

from a very strong source. The building was on fire! He turned to see who had woken him up. It was

Sido and judging by the way he was limping; he was injured.

“Man, what’s going on? How did this……?” Mgozi asked confused.

“I don’t know but the doors are locked. We tried to move out and failed. All the doors are locked.”

Mgozi remained silent contemplating what he had heard. The dormitory was on fire! For a moment he

was certain it was a dream and none of this could be real. He had heard about fires in other schools but

that could not be happening right now. He had been in this school for four years and nothing like this

had ever happened. He began to cough repeatedly until Sido pulled the blanket off his bed and covered

him.

“Keep low. Smoke rises. You don’t want to suffocate.”

He began following him and they made their way out of the room. Sido kept reminding him to remain

low as they grappled through the corridor. He heard something fall and land with a loud bump. He could

barely see where he was going so he did not bother to see what it was. Suddenly he tripped over

something. He could not make out what it was, so he bent down notwithstanding the heat and his hands

reached out to touch. He stopped when he made contact.

“Sido, who is this?” he spoke nervously.

“What? That’s someone”

“Yeah, I can feel the arms. I don’t know why he is not answering me.” Mgozi said while tapping the

hand. Sido remained silent. Mgozi was perplexed. He had not yet come to terms with what was

happening. He had just awoken to what seemed unlikely. “Bro, who is there?” he went on. “Whoever it

is, this is not the time to play around.”

“Mgozi, stop it!” Sido spoke in a serious tone.

Mgozi could detect the gloom in his voice. Suddenly reality set in, and he realized that this was not a

dream. Someone had set fire to the dormitory while there were asleep and shut the doors so they would remain trapped inside. He released the arm and froze in shock as it dropped down lifelessly. This

boy was dead. He remained motionless for the next minutes. There was a corpse lying a few centimeters

from him. He did not know who it was but he had not seen Elijah or any of his roommates. He felt Sido’s

hand reaching out for his and he was led down the stairs to the prefect’s room where many students

had gathered. Sido began speaking to the boys.

.“Are there any boys left up?” Someone asked.

“Yes, but now they cannot come down. It is too late” Sido replied looking distressed.

“So he is the last.” They all turned to Mgozi

Sido nodded his head in response. Mgozi was still in shock that this was happening. The dormitory had

been set on fire and they were trapped inside. According to the conversations, there were other fatal

causalities.

Where was Elijah? He wondered searching through the boys.

He could not see him anywhere. He was starting to worry. Elijah’s personality was unstable and in a

situation, like this, it was hard to predict how he would react. Mgozi was worried that he was still in his

bed dead asleep. Elijah was a deep sleeper and so often he ended up missing the morning preps. He

would not even bother to hide. Somehow he just was never found. He then remembered the message

he had seen on Elijah’s phone and felt relieved. According to that message, Elijah was not even in the

dormitory, so he was safe. He looked at his watch and saw that it was 4:30 a.m. There were about

twenty students in this room and the fire was starting to make its way there. He heard another loud

sound similar to the one before he discovered the body.

Suddenly he felt someone touching his arm. He turned to see Ayebare standing behind him. He smiled

at him and tapped his shoulders only to realize that he was in pain. He had been injured very badly. They

stood for a while without speaking. Mgozi looked at his injuries. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain

but was doing his best to maintain his calm. Mgozi did not want to bother him with questions that he

might not even have answers to, but the urgency was of the essence.

“Ayebare, have you seen Elijah?”

Ayebare remained silent. Mgozi looked at him eagerly waiting for a response but he did not receive one.

Instead, he raised his head and looked at the ceiling. Mgozi decided to ask another question.

“What are these guys planning?”

“They have cut the window frame to create a way out. They are almost done.” He spoke while coughing,

drawing breath through his mouth.

The smoke was starting to rise in this room as well. Noise could be heard from outside. He guessed that

other students from other dormitories had gathered outside watching the building burning down. Mgozi

tried one last attempt to find out what Ayebare knew.

“Man, have you seen Elijah? I can’t find him.”

“Mgozi, Arthur and Bamwesige? Where do you think they are?” Do you even care or are you just

concerned about your friend?” 

Ayebare was not being very clear about what happening and he was seething with indignation. Mgozi

was starting to realize that a lot had happened while he was asleep and was now really confused.

“Where are they?”

“The last time I saw them was when something heavy fell from above and hit Bamwesige on the head.

Arthur got burnt badly and stopped responding an hour ago.”

He paused like he was preparing to drop another revelation. He mumbled something in his local

language that seemed like he was swearing.

“Mgozi, when did you last see Elijah? Because we thought you were together in this.”

“No, I wwas asleep. The last time I saw him was before I fell asleep yesterday. Why are you getting

angry? Where is Elijah? Is he also injured?” Mgozi was almost pleading.

Ayebare looked at him bitterly before replying.

“Someone saw your friend Elijah pouring some liquid around the dormitory at 1 a.m. He is the one who

set the dormitory on fire.”

The revelation sounded like something cut out from a movie. Elijah had been his friend for four years

and he could not understand why in the world he would wake up out of the blue to commit arson. He

knew his friend. They had shared so many moments over the years. There had to be an explanation for

this. He was about to say something when he remembered the strange text message he had seen and

froze. It logically added up. Elijah had a phone, a Nokia with buttons; very unusual for teenagers to have

any other type of phone other than a smartphone. Why did he have this phone? He had never

mentioned it, not even to him. This was very suspicious. What was even more suspicious was that he was

not in the dormitory. This meant Elijah had set the dormitory on fire and locked the door safely on the

other side, leaving the friends to burn and choke to death.

An alarm was raised to inform everyone that an exit had been successfully created. The survivors began

to make their way out. Reaching outside, they were all led to the school vehicle and taken to the nearest

hospital. He could hear the siren of the police and fire department arriving. They were too late. Mgozi

looked out of the window of the bus as it drove off. He had his eyes so focused on an individual moving

on the road. He rubbed his eyes to ensure that he was not dreaming anymore. It took a minute to

believe that it was actually him. There he was, walking several meters from the crime scene he was

responsible for. Elijah did not look any different from the boy he had called his friend for four years. He

was not nervous or uneasy or looking unscrupulous like an evil villain. He was the usual carefree boy. He wondered whether he should alert the rest but then hesitated. What could they do? There were only

three teachers and the rest were injured students who had had enough for one night to begin pursuing

someone. He kept staring at him until he lost sight of him.

A week later, he went to the police station to make a statement. He sat in the room with a police officer

asking him whether he had known about Elijah’s plan or at least had any information about his current

whereabouts. He denied knowledge of anything. She went on to ask about Elijah’s character and

behaviour since Mgozi was his close friend.

“How did you know Elijah Atwine?” She asked

“I met him when I join in senior one.” He replied

“And you were friends ever since then?”

“Mhmm.”

“How would you describe him?”

“Well, he was. He seemed to be a normal person. He had a bit of indifference towards several things,

but nothing unusual.”

“Ok, so be honest. What do you think led him to commit this crime? Was he bullied? Any mistreatment

at school or home?”

“I don’t think so but then again, you can never really tell what’s going on in someone’s life?”

“Was he not your friend? You should know.”

Mgozi laughed dryly, “I don’t think anyone can ever truly know what’s inside.”