THAT NIGHT
Episode 5
I woke up hours later to find myself lying on a bed. Scared that I had been kidnapped, I tried to stand up from the bed to survey the environment where I was but I couldn’t due to the throbbing headache I was experiencing. While I was still trying to know where I was, a lady dressed in white walked into the room I was.
Me: Hello, please where am I, and who are you?
Lady: hi dear, thank God you are awake. I am Nurse Linda and you are in a hospital
Me: hospital? How come??
Nurse Linda: a good Samaritan who saw you lying unconscious brought you here
Me: hmmm
Nurse Linda: he would be here any moment soon
Me: he???
Nurse Linda: yes
Nurse Linda examined me, gave me an injection, and changed my drip. She wished me a quick recovery before leaving my ward to go attend to other patients.
Later that day, a man in his late fifties came with his wife into my ward with the claim that he was the good Samaritan who brought me to the hospital. He introduced himself as pastor Ajayi and tried asking me questions about myself but I couldn’t reply as the shock from the event of the previous night was stuck in my memory making me see every man as a rapist.
When they couldn’t get me to say anything, the wife urged him to let me be that I will surely come around. A few minutes later, the doctor came into my ward and told the pastor and his wife that I was gang-r#ped. The Pastor’s wife shook her head in pity and spoke encouraging words to me.
I was discharged a few days later and the Pastor’s wife asked me to come to live with them. Since I had nowhere to go, I gladly went with them. Despite their love and care, I only said little to them.
Getting to the Pastor’s house, I got to realize that they have three children, two boys, and a girl. The boys were studying outside the country while the girl who happens to be the last child was in a boarding school.
I was given a room in the house and was treated well. The pastor’s wife took her time to always teach me the word of God and also speak soothing words to me, she would always tell me to learn to look at the brighter side of life.
Since I was unwilling to tell the pastor and his wife about myself and what happened to me, they deemed it fit to get me a psychologist who would help me overcome the trauma of the rape.
Mrs. AkinOla was employed to help me feel better. At first, I won’t speak to her, all I just do is to stare at her till she was ready to leave but as time went on, I began to open up to her. She took me like a daughter and was always ready to listen to me.
Gradually, i started opening up to her and began to let go of the bitterness in me but I didn’t want to have anything to do with the male folks. Whenever Mrs. AkinOla was less busy, she would invite me over to her house to come to spend time with her.
I got to know that Mrs. AkinOla has a son who goes by the name Edwin, he is an engineer in one of the biggest petrochemical company in the country. He loves his mother so much that he never wants anything to do wrong with her. Edwin wanted to be friends with me but the event of the past prevented it.
When my life was beginning to have meaning, another catastrophe struck. It was the last Sunday of the month and every last Sunday in Pastor Ajayi was always glorious as it was called the love feast day.
During the sermon, I started feeling uneasy where I sat in the pew. I decided to go to the restroom and wash my face thinking that would make me feel better. As I stood up, I suddenly became dizzy and fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was people pouring water on me to revive me.
When the church members saw that I wasn’t responding, I was taken to the hospital and after a series of tests, I was confirmed two months pregnant. My world came crumbling the third time. When I was just trying to pick up the broken pieces of my life, an unwanted pregnancy surfaced.
I felt ending it all was the best option because I just couldn’t face the world with the pregnancy of a bastard, I hated myself, I hated the baby growing in me. While on the hospital bed, I grabbed the scissors in the drawer and stabbed myself in the belly wanting to kill the baby in me.
To be continued.
