MARRIED💞
Episode 6.
©Miriam Edem.
“Is that so? Why didn’t you tell me this despite you saw me worried? Yet you told me there was nothing wrong with us when you had same burden, I said to my mother.
“I know, but I didn’t want you to be desperate because I was already planning on something for you, I’m sorry, my mom apologized again.
“Mommy stop apologizing please, you did nothing wrong neither was it your fault, I said and she sniffed.
“Were you in your safe period? She asked.
“What is that? How am I suppose to know when I was not calculating anything? I asked back and she stood up rubbing her forehead.
“Mercy left very early in the morning in search for the men but she’s just wasting her time, nothing will happen. What surprises me is that our rape doesn’t concern people, even if we cry out and report nothing will be done about it, my mom said.
‘What is going to happen now? Mommy I’m scared, I don’t want to get pregnant and I won’t keep it either, please do something, i fearfully said and she squatted back facing me.
“Have you noticed, we are very fertile. None of our sisters has ever been childless and when once we take in, it is fixed, my mother said and I looked at her and scoffed. I wanted laughing because it sounds funny and stupid to me, at least in my school I have been seeing young girls flushing out pregnancies whenever they mess up but why will my own be different?
“Wait wait wait, is there a kind of super glue in our womb or something? I asked and a knock came on the door and my sister that looks like a bouncer walked in…… Chinenye mother.
“She’s awake? She asked touching me as if i was sleeping to her then I greeted her.
“Sorry about what happened okay. They are very lucky, very lucky because if we had got our hands on them eh, she said and I bowed my head.
“I wish I can find them, they won’t live to tell what I will do, they are monsters….. I mean how could they sleep with someone as if she’s a piece of rag? My mother asked and my sister shook her head and I looked at her.
“Is it true? I asked her.
“What’s true? She asked back and my mother told her what she told me and she heaved.
“For your sake Sharon I pray it shouldn’t be so, she replied.
“What should not be so? I can’t keep such a confused child what are you saying! I shouted.
“Ssshhhhh I won’t let you keep it either, though we gave you something to drink that night when you opened your eyes before passing out again, but if it still stands, you won’t keep it, my sister seriously said and my mother looked at her.
“What are you saying? Do you know how many of our sisters that has died trying to take out the baby? Are you ready to risk my daughter that way? My mother asked.
“Chi calm down, she’s my daughter as well and I won’t accept her to be ridiculed the way we are same way I won’t allow Chinenye go through the same thing. What are we going to tell that child when he or she grows up? Such a confused child with no particular paternity even though the bastards ran away, please she has to let it go and you have to support her, My sister said.
“No mother wants this, but then I need my baby alive please, if this is going to tamper with her life then please let her keep the child, my mother said.
“Was she safe? My sister asked.
“She doesn’t even know and you know how very fertile we are, my mother replied.
“I pray what we gave her works and I hope those idiots didn’t release in her. They suppose get small conscience na for a small girl, my sister said.
“I wish our rapists had same conscience to spill out but have they? My mother asked and i saw her face pale. I knew what happened to me equally affected her, and I wish I could turn back the hands of time, but even if I could, what about the future????
That evening I managed to go out just to sit outside despite I was still feeling pains, but it was too boring inside. My sisters gathered around me but I saw great fear in Chinenye eyes, she feared she may be next and the rest of my sisters. 80% of births in that compound are mostly females, and its on very rare cases any of my sisters gives birth to males. Most of the male children will be taken away by their father if the paternity is known, but for a confused state like mine we will have to train that child. Here was I thinking I was the only one thinking about my family problems and why we are in such a dilemma, I didn’t know my sisters were equally worried and everyday they keep thinking of “who will be the next”.
It was such a pathetic moment for all of us and I couldn’t stop crying when I saw the weakness of my family despite we pretended to be tough and carefree. Chinenye who am older than with just months held me tight, she was most scared and I didn’t know she was looking up to me all this while and when she saw I fell victim, she automatically counted herself to be next.
“Chinenye stop thinking rubbish, what makes you think you’ll be raped same way? I asked her.
“But sister you were the toughest and I had so much faith in you that it won’t happen with you. I said to myself if you don’t get raped then I won’t get raped either no matter what, but its a lie I’ll be next, Chinenye said and I cleaned the hot tears that flowed. She just reminded me something, something I once beat my chest about that no man will lay me down as a weakling, but I was not only laid down by just a man but men and I could not do anything. Nothing hurts than that, and if determination could avoid such a thing from happening to me, then my determination was more than enough but what went wrong? With that thought I cried out painfully that my mother ran outside asking my sisters what happened but they couldn’t understand why I broke down that way, then she took me inside…………..
After a month of that incident, the holidays was already over and I sluggishly returned back to school hoping it will ease me of the depression I saw myself slowly in. Mary came round apologizing for the embarrassment she gave to me and my family but she was not my problem any more, maybe she was right after all but then the truth is always bitter.
“Sharon common na I’m sorry, I never knew my mother will take it that way. You beat me up and my mother was slapped back I think its a draw, let’s forget about it, Mary insisted and I looked at her. Truth be told I had forgotten I had a fight with her, but then I can’t be friends with Mary when I know she has a mouth that cannot be covered, maybe because she has a big mouth or something. I can’t afford to be friends with her before she will broadcast me to the whole school, I can’t risk that after my family kept what happened between us…… I applaud them for that.
“Look I don’t have any problem with you, I just want to be alone, I told her.
“Ahhhh did it reach that extent? Okay I promise I will change, I will never do that and it will never happen again. If you want I’ll even apologize to your family, Mary said and I began to hear the students laughing at the window side. Mary who loves aproko jumped to see what was going on but it was a girl throwing up,
“Eh Amaka don carry belle, Mary came back laughing clapping her hand….. Radio without battery and just what I was afraid of.
“How did you know? I asked her since I didn’t bother to leave where I sat.
“Shuooo how won’t I know? As if I don’t know what pregnancy vomit looks like, something I do see from my sisters before they got married sef, she replied and I became very interested.
“Ahh so your sisters were even pregnant before getting married? I asked her.
“Sshhh don’t let anybody hear this o, please abeg, Mary said and I smiled.
“So if they have been pregnant why have they not given birth yet? I asked.
“They took it out na, there’s a drug they will take and one hand it goes off, Mary replied and I looked at her. I began contemplating if I should tell her what happened to me, because a closed mouth is a closed destiny and she may know how to help me out since her sisters are abortion experts yet they mocked my family as if they were saints.
Despite Chinenye mother told me she gave me something to drink, I have on my own drank different concoctions giving the pregnancy that may be hiding by the side no breathing space, in fact it should just give up and disappear even though it was not confirmed I am pregnant yet.
“But this one you’re very interested I hope you’ve not? Mary asked winking at me and I understood what she meant by that.
“You know am beginning to believe you’ve equally gone through that path, I replied her.
“No if its that one I haven’t, and certainly not in my secondary school please, Mary replied and I heaved as I suddenly had headache……….
TBC
#milove
