MY JOURNEY 2

My elder sister went to the police station the next day, and reported the case. All the men including the land lord were arrested. Two days later they were bailed and the landlord gave us the remainder of our rent and sent us packing. The matter died at the police station. I decided that I was going to become a lawyer.



I never got over the death of my sister. For years I would close my eyes and see the blood and imagine the way she must have dragged herself on the floor in pains, trying to get to the door. I swore off men, I realised that all the problems that came to my family had to do with men and pregnancies. I was having a battle with getting into the university, to fulfil my dreams of becoming a lawyer.


Sister Faith got married, and that was the beginning of another phase in my life. her husband was a never do well. I could see it from the first day I met him, and I always wondered why she couldn’t see it. Our father wasn’t even present to take the bride price, it was his younger brother that stood in for him. As for our mother, it seemed like she had jumped out of this world with our brother Andrew, that morning they left us.


Two months into their marriage, Uncle Amos raped me. That day my world came crashing down. I have never been of a big stature, and it was very easy for him to overpower me that evening when my sister sent me home from the shop to make dinner. I lay on the floor weeping, until my sister came. She asked me what had happened, and when I told her, she took me into the bathroom and bathed me. That was the end of that incident. We never spoke about it. It was like it never happened.


A repeat performance followed the very next month. This time, Sister Faith blamed me, saying I was seducing her husband. That was the beginning of the end of my life in that house. I soon found out I was pregnant, and the house became a place of torment. Uncle Amos wanted me to have the baby, stating that my sister had not given him any yet. This was barely four months into their marriage. My sister said that would happen over her dead body. I was scared and felt trapped. I didn’t want to end up like peace, and I didn’t want to have a baby, least of all for the devil called Amos. I had dinner one night, and went to bed. A sharp pain in my abdomen woke me up, and I was bleeding.

My sister and her husband quarrelled In the middle of the night, while I bled out on my bed. That night, I stared death in the face, but in my suffering, I refused to die. I was not going to end up a failure and refused to die so young. Uncle Amos accused Sister Faith of giving me something to remove the pregnancy, and Sister Faith said God was vindicating her of the evil she married. They went on for hours.

By morning, I had stopped bleeding. I knew Aunty Faith was responsible, but I was simply glad to be alive. Two days later, she sent me to live with her friend in another town. Her friend owned a saloon, and I was to learn the trade. I asked her what about my plans for school, and she asked me if she had a university education?



Madam Linda was older than I expected. I wondered how exactly Faith knew her. I spent one year and three months with her, working like a slave. She was a miser, and giving us food to eat was a hardship. She had six of us under her in the saloon and we all shared a room in her two bedroom flat. That was my first experience living without family. I became close to Gladys. We confided in each other, and were counting the days till we would free to leave. I learnt everything there was to learn, saving all the tips I got, with dreams of opening my own place after my days with Madam Linda. Dreams I shared with Gladys.

You can I imagine my Joy the day we ended our apprenticeship. Gladys invited me to stay over with her at her uncle’s house, until I got a place of my own. We set out that evening, as Gladys said it was not far from where Madam Linda stayed. We got on a bike, and stopped at a junction.  When we got there, the bike man said he did not have change and Gladys went in one direction to look for change.

When five minutes passed and she was not back, the bike man asked me to go and look for her. I went in that direction, and asked people of her and I was told a lady of her description, had gotten on another bike there.
I couldn’t believe it. I had only five hundred naira in my pocket, as my money was in the bag Gladys had with her. It had been her idea for us to use just one bag to pack our things, since we were going to the same house. Thirty minutes later, I had to accept that Gladys had played a fast one on me. I was penniless, homeless and alone. I walked around the area, until shops closed then I looked for a corner by one shop, and wept.



I wondered what I had done to life to deserve all this misfortune. I thought about my life, and my family. Things were not supposed to turn out the way they had. I was twenty-three years old, and it seemed all my dreams were never coming through. That was the longest night of my life. I wondered the usefulness of my existence and if there was ever a time I felt there was no God, it was that night.


The next morning, I sat deep in thought, wondering what I was going to do and where I was going to go. I knew I wasn’t wanted in Faith’s house and I didn’t even want to go there. I had nowhere to go. I was wandering around the area, deep in thought, when I was hit by a car.



I woke up in a hospital, and stared into the eyes of a very beautiful woman. She was smiling down at me. She was the one that hit me, and brought me to the hospital. She told me her name was Mrs. Anna. She was an elderly woman. I stayed in the hospital for two weeks, I had two fractures. Mrs. Anna came to see me every day and she consoled me after hearing about my misfortunes. When I left the hospital, I moved in with Mrs. Anna. That signified another turn in my life.


Mrs. Anna was a widow and she had children older than I was. While I was with her, she enrolled me in jamb lessons, and my life was back on track. That year, I got admission into school but not for law like I wanted, but mass communication. Mrs. Anna paid my tuition and I resumed school. It was a happy time for me. Then the devil struck again and my benefactor died. I was just getting into two hundred level. I got a call from one of her sisters and I went home to see the house overrun by strangers. After the burial, the house was locked up, and I moved into the school hostel.

I started making hair for students, to carter for myself and it was taking its toll on my studies. Three hundred level was a very difficult time for me. I could barely feed myself, and buy books. I had some offers, to join girls to go for those types of parties where you are paid for coming. I always declined. Not because I was spiritual, I was never a spiritual person. But because I didn’t want to go through the pain of having a man touch me. I had vivid dreams of being raped by Uncle Amos regularly.


Then I met Daniel. I was in my final year in school, and still struggling to make ends meet. I went to a cybercafé in school, with the aim of searching for my siblings on facebook. I found John, but didn’t find hope and Andrew. I sent John messages, and I was excited about hearing from him, after all these years. In my excitement, I ran into Daniel. He was coming into the café while I was going out. For the first time in my life, I felt an attraction to a man. Apparently he felt it too. We exchanged numbers, and became fast friends.


Daniel was not a student, he told me he had finished his university education three years before. Our love blossomed. For the first time since the death of Mrs. Anna, I didn’t have to worry about money. Daniel catered for all my needs and he became my world. I told him about my life and he was very understanding.

Three months into our relationship, I spent the night with Daniel and he changed my perception of men. The next morning, we were awoken by a cold bucket of water, being poured on us. I didn’t understand what was going on, until I heard Daniel apologising and pleading. Daniel was married and at closer look, I found my missing sister Hope.... Daniel's wife.






to be continued......





LIFE IS A CHOICE MY FRIENDS
SO CHOOSE WISELY
ENOUGH SAID