"I think I will give it to him when he comes to the chapel", l promised. After sometimes, the Director did not come to the chapel. l waited for him hoping that he was the person to handle the message and prayers of the day. When I realized that he was not coming. I made to go to his
residence because any further delay could be dangerous. While on the way, I saw the Director
coming with an umbrella to the chapel. I turned back and went to wait for him at the church
auditorium. The boys were urging me to go and give him the letter since he was already there.
"Don't worry yourselves, I told them. I waited for the Director to finish what he came to ascertain for he had called his wife, making some inquires from her.
When he was through, he turned and left.
Immediately I followed him, aware that every eye in that chapel was on me. I called his
attention and he turned and I greeted, Good evening, Sir"
"Ehem, Thomas" he replied. I quickly presented the letter to him. He collected it, looked at it and began to leave. He then stopped as If he suddenly remembered something and
called me. I ran back to meet him.
"I received your letter", he said, and I listened feverishly to hear the outcome. He continues, "And I presented it to the board". They read it and considered it.
"I was delighted to hear that". "So the board read my letter, I thought.
"But, they said that if there are people
that must not be forgiven, It will be those involved in the Big Tymex of a thing because, there is the tendency of it turning into a cult if it is not eliminated. So, the board does not want them to continue at all".

"But, Sir, there were some that were mentioned among them who told me that they are not in that gang".
"Yes, they may not be involved in the club, but they are conversant with every modus
operandum of the club. They loved every activity that was going on there and were with them all the time. So they are included in the list. Infact, they will receive the lion's share of the
punishment. As I digested this, the Director added. Yes, I also presented Antonio Samson's
letter to the board. They said they didn't accept it at all. You know, we have been lenient with the miscreants because we consider the plight of their parents. It was as if they were beginning to take our leniency for granted. There was this boy
who left recently with the SS3. What's that his name?" He knitted his brows for some seconds.
"Yes, Bobby, that boy should have let the school a very long time ago, but for his father who Kept pleading With us, asking for another chance. This other boy whose elder brother really disturbed the school, Craig Alan, is a very bad boy indeed. However, don't be discouraged;
continue to pray for tnem so that anywhere they may find
themselves, God can still touch them there.
However, this should be a very big lesson in their lives, he concluded. Not knowing anything more to say, I thanked him as he turned to leave. He
promised to give the board the general apology letter, pointing out that if they failed to accept the apology, then the boys could write to the General Overseer of the ministry who had the power
Overrule the decision of the Board of Governors.
l went back and joined the prayer meeting which had reached its climax. Those at the back, the seniors, had been watching the Director and I talk for such a long time. They were anxious to hear the outcome. I shunned every talk for that period and went to the front to avoid causing distraction in the chapel.
The final day came which was a Friday morning. It was the long-awaited day that would tell the fate of everybody in Zion International College. It was a day of mixed feelings, a day of joy and a day of sorrows as the case may be. At the end of the prayers and exhortation during the morning devotion, the patron came up and addressed us for the last time before departure.
He told us that we were expected to be in the school uniform for the final general assembly of the school.
"You must observe your morning function, tidying up the compound before traveling. Prefects, take note", he said. All The prefects should submit their official property. The regulator should submit his bell and the Sanitary Prefects should ensure that the refuse bins, brooms and brushes are gathered and kept in the store". The patron finished his addressed and asked us to mind the kind of stories we told at home, that some would go home and tell only the bad events to the glory of the devil, leaving out good ones that God did.
Immediately it was 6:30a.m, every activity ended following the regulator's bell for everyone to move down to the assembly ground where the Director would make his final address for that term. On reaching there, we discovered that the teachers had not rounded off the remaining things they had at hand. So no staff or even the Director himself was there. Some of the students waited there chatting with friends while some returned to the hostel.
A palpable tension so thick that one could cut it with a knife gripped the miscreants. They
had clutched at straws but could not tell if the grip was firm or not. It was no more the issue of days or hours; rather a matter of minutes ticking inexorably by. They became feverishly anxious to know their fates after their last minute desperate efforts to escape punishment.
Discussions were going on at various corners of the hostel by the senior students who were the unfortunate folk. The junior students clustered in front of the Tuckshop, which the school provided for them to purchase snacks as they pleased. Some were eating as if they were just coming out from prison cell.