It was on a cold night in 1996 she was birthed. The cries of her mother woke up the entire neighborhood, surrounded by just her siblings and no companion to assure her of what this new phrase will bring.
Her skin dark and shiny as porcelain. Eyes shut, with little fingers and toes. “Weeeeinnnn”, the unforgettable wail she gave as if she understood the challenges of life which were already hung upon her frail little shoulders.
No more Education,
No more comfortable strolls to the market,
No more smiles,
It was a dark future.
She grew up to be beautiful, bright, intelligent and cared for. After her mom passed on to the great beyond, pitiful stares were all she got. Whispers and murmuring wherever she went. She never understood it, of course, she wouldn’t, until came the incident that changed her life forever.
The sun was shining so bright that it affected the lens of the eyes, hot so much that the usual 10 minutes walk to the Market Square took all of 30 minutes. The sun was bright but it sure wasn’t fair, or was it? She arrived the market and headed straight for the foodstuffs she intended to get. Pricing & haggling on a bright unfair day wasn’t at all an easy task.
‘Hello beautiful, which way are you headed?’ it was the way he said it, as he made to tap her while she paid up for her wares ready to leave the marketplace.
It was the way he said it, as he made to tap her while she paid up for her wares ready to leave the marketplace.
She heard the voice and made an effort to turn and her words stuck in her throat as she only could stare. Man, he was all shades of an abominable sin. He was brightness, shining in all the glorious light of the now fair day and the way he kept staring her did do something to her.
‘Hi’ was all she said making a gesture with her polythene bag. A gesture so harmless and innocent, yet the determinate factor of what her life would come to be.
It will be in the first week of the summer holidays while preparing to get her school uniform to the seamstress for replication that she confirmed her fears and worries. Alas, she was with Child. What to do? Who to tell? What next?
She had but a few 24 months to graduate secondary school. Why now? She was heartbroken, she had failed her mother. Now she understood it all – the murmuring, the hushed whispers. It was expected she would do same, follow in her mother’s step as they call it. This was a dark period, a mistake so grave she won’t be forgiven. In the quiet of her heart, she prayed for God’s intervention. It never came or did it?
It was the 3rd week and the fourth day after the discovery of her most undesirable state. There was no drumming, no singing or shouts of joy. Instead surrounded, were the fuming angry faces of her relatives, her cousins, uncles and her sister-in-law. Seated with them was an old looking man smiling at her, speaking fast with her uncles while they nodded.
She didn’t understand what was happening but she was getting a fair idea. Angio her eldest uncle had been speaking to himself more often after she was found out, always shouting,
“No this shame can’t befall us!”
She had no one to fight for her, she was weak.
She was being sold out.
Her tears would do nothing but infuriate them further, she was sick.
No more Education,
No more comfortable strolls to the market,
No more smiles,
It was a dark future.
A frail-looking being on the bed, broken skin, buggy eyes, all flesh gone, skinny looking hands and an anguished face twisted with the look of pain. Her stomach was full, but not formed in the usual pregnant way it should. Tears rolling from her eyes, her arms apart on the bed, stretched in weakness. She was hungry yet could perceive only the smell of drugs.
It has been 4 years, 7 months and 17 days. It has been the most painful and excruciating journey of a lifetime.
What she would give to take back the ‘Hi‘ on that bright unfair day at the Market Square, a response that unbeknownst to her had altered her life. A twisted unfortunate life that even the smiling face of her 4-year-old child could do nothing to erase her regret, suffering or ease the pain of her 17 long years.
And yet here she was again…
Ngunan Ioron Aloho
Social Activist | Educator | Entrepreneur | Writer
This is a very beautiful story..Well put together and captivating!
Well done