Story of Rape and Love and Pain.
************
After secondary school in 2011, I waited a year before I wrote jamb. I needed rest from the rigorous Waec and Neco exams I had written. There was this bright girl in our street, 2poles away from our compound. She attended an all girls school and hardly had time for boys. She didn't even talk to boys.
No matter the swag we all try to put up in order to impress her she wasn't falling for our ploys nor schemes. She just wasn't feeling us. In those days, 2go was rampant almost everyone had a 2go account, getting this girl's 2go username was more difficult than wining an American lottery. The few boys that had the audacity to try talk to her received their own share of her indifference, she showed us levels.
We stopped seeing her in the street. In our corner where would gather and talk, gist about our escapades on 2go. We kept out an eye for her. She wouldn't coming walking past us, this continued for some time till we got the gist that she was admitted to study a course that wasn't mentioned in the University of Port Harcourt. Particularly I was challenged, others were bitter. The girl would surely show us more levels now that she's in school. From that day, I resolved to get into school the next year. I admired the girl, being admitted into school at such a young age was a feat. Inside my heart I wished to be her. Few months passed before I saw her again. She wasn't looking like the girl we all used to know. She was always looking sad and was more quiet than she was. She was looking like someone who was fighting a battle inside.
There was this one time I saw her on her balcony as she sat staring into space as tears trickled down her face our eyes jammed, she got up and went inside.
A guy in my clique of friends came to us one day. Telling us he had the story of the century. A story that would break the street. We all gathered that evening, about 6 to 8 boys. Stories was what we lived for. He told us that he heard from a reliable source that the girl is pregnant. We were shocked, some opened their mouths in awe. He said his cousin who schools in UniPort told him that what the girl does in Port Harcourt is to run after men in big cars and grace the bed of lecturers and students alike. He dropped another bombshell "she doesn't even know the father". We all shouted, I shook my head. A girl I had so much believe in and admired. From there she lost all respects we gave her. She became like an ordinary local girl to us. We didn't need to verify the story. What was said in the quadrangle was always "from a reliable source".
Days ran into weeks, weeks turned into months. The girl was still at home and she rarely came outside. We hadn't seen her for some time now. We concluded that she was pregnant and her parents had kept her inside in a bid to hide it. The news rocked the whole street truly, parents used the girl as an example to stubborn kids warning them that if they didn't change their ways they would end up like her. I felt bad and disappointed in her. I pitied her still. Such a young promising girl subject to that much stigmatization.
She gave birth about the time I gained admission. Before I left for school my parents admonished me not to go and disgrace our family's name just like her. They used the girl as an example in all the advice they dished out to me,
I came back home after the first semester break. I was the big attraction in the street. I didn't come back with a bad report as the last big star of the street. I gained respect the respect of my boys and girls alike.
One day while I was running an errand for my parents I saw her again, trying to put a baby to sleep. I went over to her, she was now looking like her normal self, beautiful as she had always been.
I walked up to her, the baby was crying and I the young mother was singing to the baby, it seemed the more she sang the more the baby cried. I was a few feet away from mother and child when the girl started sobbing, in between sobs she would say "I curse the men who raped me and brought you into this world to make me suffer". Still as she cursed I saw a mother who loved her child even under stringent conditions.
"hello" I said jerking her back into life.
"Fine baby, how are you" I touched the baby cheek
The baby cooed and stopped crying.
"look at you, you are so big" the girl spoke.
"it's God o, you ain't looking bad yourself".
From there on, we started talking. I got to know her more and her "predicament". She still kept the rape aspect away from me oblivious that I already heard her.
For weeks I would visit her. I grew a liking for her maybe cause of her condition. One thing was sure, I pitied her. In those weeks we became close, she told me I was the only friend she had, the street had ostracised her. My parents got wind of my visits, there weren't happy. Her parents told me to keep a distance as their daughter was "broken and on her way to recovery" she didn't need a guy in her life to disrupt that process.
The holidays were gradually coming to an end. Despite warnings to stay away from her I still visited her. I would she excitement in her eyes when I visited. I loved playing with her daughter who looked very much like her. The little baby had come to know me and wouldn't cry if I carried her.
"today will be the last I see you"
"yes you told me, you'll be going to school"
"will you be fine?"
"(I laughed), obviously"
"I mean it, will you be fine?"
"what do you want me to say, I'll be okay, you have to resume school"
"I'll keep in contact with you always"
"okay, try and be serious in school, you don't want to end up like me"
"you're sounding ridiculous now".
"yeah, heard that one over and over, they even said I'm a witch have you heard that one?"
She started sobbing . I sat where I was.
"do you know I was raped?"
(silence) I didn't talk.
" I asked you a question".
"No" I said
"I was raped on my way back from night classes"
She paused to wipe her eyes. I moved closer to her.
"3 guys, they raped me and left me for dead, that's how I got pregnant with her". She pointed to her baby lying in her crib.
"I'm sorry" I muttered, I crossed my hand and placed it on her shoulder. I didn't know what else to do. She smiled.
"apart from my parents you're the only one that knows"
"thank you for trusting me" I said.
"after the incident, I contemplated suicide, when they found out I was pregnant, I wanted to die. I wanted to terminate the baby, but I thought against it. Terminating the pregnancy meant the rapist had won the second time. So, I carried my cross" she pointed again at her baby.
"you're crying" she said.
"oh it's nothing, I'm just sad that people judged you without hearing your story"
"people tend to say things that make them feel good"
"why don't you let them know your story, at least they would stop judging you"
"pls don't tell anyone they should judge me. Of what good is it that I tell them now?"
I didn't say anything. I looked at the baby and wondered where the beast of a dad is now. Probably brewing the next evil he's to carry out in his heart.
I left her house that night feeling that admiration I felt for her return. What I felt for her became stronger. I needed to be with her. To nurse her through this rough path in her life. "She is broken and recovering" I need to be with her through the process.
She's strong. I need to be stronger for us.
..........................................Chronicler: Uzoma Anieto
No comments:
Post a Comment