Evil 3 (the end)
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Seeing the child, both Ruth and Shade were heartbroken. That wasn’t the reward they expected to have after going through such pains. As Shade held her baby while still lying weakly in bed after going through the painful labour of childbirth, silent tears of agony fell from her eyes. “God, are you still there? Are my sins the worst that you decided to punish me this much? Why not take my life instead of this? Take me out of this hell”, Shade cried in agony.
Ruth held her and tried to console her. But she couldn’t find the words. What was she possibly going to tell her daughter knowing the weight of the burden which had just been dumped on her? A burden she had no say in its making. Only if the man she married had been a bit more responsible. Only if the father of her children had seen his child as his daughter instead of an instrument of pleasure. She couldn’t tell his daughter it would be fine because she knew it wouldn’t. She held Shade and cried with her.
The next day, Shade and her baby were discharged from the hospital. They came home to yet another hurt. The neighbors who came to welcome the new baby left with disappointment written on their faces. The sight of the child left anyone who beheld it in shock. The joy that comes with the arrival of a new baby was never felt. Rather, Shade who wouldn’t stop crying received words of pity and consolation from the visitors. What an irony?
Days passed and the hurt brought by the arrival of the abnormal child didn’t wean down. Ruth, Shade and her siblings were constantly in solemn moods. Shade cried continously even while breastfeeding her baby. She had lost appetite for food and anything needed for sustainability. She had lost the will to live. The only thing stopping her from taking her life was her baby whom she somehow had the sense of responsibility for. How deeply the bond between a mother and her child runs.
Ruth on the other hand was concerned about her daughter’s future and mental health. She knew that having such baby would hold her daughter down for the rest of her life. That wasn’t the future she planned for her children. That wasn’t why she laboured under the sun and in the rain to provide for them. That wasn’t why she became the ‘man’ of the house when the man she married became an invalid. She wasn’t going to allow her daughter to be saddled with the burden of nursing the ‘abomination’ her irresponsible father brought into the world. She made a hard decision. She decided to play God.
Two weeks after the birth of the abnormal child, the family woke up and found his lifeless body lying beside his mother. He died in his sleep. That was what Shade an everyone else believed. But Ruth knew what really happened. She knew she suffocated the child to death while everyone else was sleeping. She couldn’t let him torment her daughter for the rest of her life. Giving him a mercy killing was an evil she was willing to carry on her conscience as long as she lived.
The death of the child affected Shade differently from what her mother thought. Ruth had thought that the death of the child would be a relief to her daughter, but instead, it plunged her further into hurt and depression. She became mute and totally detached from reality. She neither cried nor showed any emotions. She maintained a straight face and rarely left the spot she sat. She didn’t ask of her baby, neither was she there when he was buried. She stayed like a log of wood with no emotions.
All efforts by her mother and siblings to get to her failed as she just sat and stared at them saying whatever they said. Their tears and pleas didn’t get to her either. She had lost every connections with the world. Death was her only craving. Ruth was aware of that thus she was always around to keep an eye on her. But that was not enough.
Six days after the death of Shade’s child, Ruth had just checked on her (Shade) and had gone back to the kitchen to resume her cooking when she heard her scream so loud. She ran to where Shade was and found her on the ground writhing in pain with a screwdriver stuck in her neck. There was so much blood pumping out from the site of the stab. Ruth rushed to save her daughter, but it was already too late. Before she could do anything to help, Shade had given up the ghost. She had left this wicked world as she had recently wanted. Her darkness was over.
As Ruth held the bloodied lifeless body of her daughter, she cried out her heart. She blamed herself for doing what she did. She blamed herself for being a part of the darkness that had befallen her family. She wept bitterly. Ultimately, she swore to avenge the death of her innocent daughter whose only crime was being born to a useless father.
Shade was buried a week later and the family started the process of healing from the darkness which had eclipsed them. Months passed and the pains of Shade’s death was gradually weaning off. Relative normalcy had returned to the household and everyone went about their normal activities.
Then on the first anniversary of Shade’s death, the family woke up and found Tunde’s lifeless body in bed. He slept and didn’t wake up the next morning. Nobody knew the cause of his death but his wife was not particularly pained about his demise. Hopefully, he made peace with his creator before his death. If not, I can only imagine how unpleasant the afterlife would be for him.
TOCHUKWU ANOZIE
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