Temptation Alley (Part 6)

After a few months of persistence and resilience, Irene agreed to date me...I remember she used the phrase “against my better judgment” but who cared? I got the girl of my dreams.
I was so happy and for the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to fall in love. I wanted the whole world to know, I had her framed picture on my desk at the office…I even told my younger sister, who was her childhood friend, but she wasn’t very pleased.
She said she had seen it happen again and again and as usual, I was going to break her friend’s heart and ruin the good memories they made together growing up. I tried to convince my sister that this was different and that I was a changed person…I told her I had not been with any girl since I met Irene at the church. She paused for a while and almost couldn’t believe it.

“If that’s true, I guess there is hope for you then” she said and begged me not to mess it up. I told her I was ready to prove to all of them that there’s no one beyond redemption and “all it takes for a player to change is the perfect girl”.

I remember singing the popular Joe song “don’t wanna be a player no more” and my sister couldn’t help but laugh.

Irene had set ground rules before she agreed to go out with me. She said there wasn’t going to be sex until she got married…I didn’t really care about that, I just wanted her to be mine. It was going good although I was a complete stranger to this kind of relationship. 

I saw it as a little sacrifice to get what I wanted. Besides, it was beginning to help my relationship with God. The first time I kissed Irene, I felt like I had won the lottery…it was short but memorable. We were in my apartment talking and I was telling her how much she meant to me. I had written a beautiful poem that I read to her. She said she had a response but would rather show me, since she was not a wordsmith like me so she gave me a kiss…it was like 5 seconds of heaven. I wanted more but she stood her ground and told me not to be in a hurry and I would later see that it’s worth the wait.

I was seriously looking forward to the day Irene would be all mine...no holds barred, no inhibitions.
Some weeks after that, I was in my office and my boss walked in with a new Corp member that was just assigned to our unit.
Guess who it was? Dammy…my friend’s sister...back in my University days.

How could I forget that face? She was even prettier than when I first met her. She also remembered me and to my surprise, gave me a big hug and said she was really glad to see me. My boss left since he saw that there was no need for any formal introduction.

Dammy said her brother had won the US Diversity Visa lottery right after graduation and had travelled to the United States for his Master’s degree.

We had lunch and I showed her around the area…she kept saying she was really glad to see me. She said she was staying with a relative and it was on my way so I dropped her off. I saw Irene later that evening and wanted to tell her about Dammy and how surprised I was at how she was happy to see me. But she said she wasn’t interested in people from my past and didn’t want to know any details. As far as she was concerned, life started the day she decided to go out with me and whatever happened before then didn’t matter to her as long as it stayed in the past where it belonged. I could sense that she didn’t want to hear about it so I stopped talking about it.

I continued to see Dammy at work and decided to keep it platonic…I wasn’t going to be stupid to let my past destroy the good thing I had going with Irene...

PART 5                                                                                       PART 7

Picture Credit (c) madamenoire.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved  

Temptation Alley (Part 5)

I was beginning to lose hope in this ‘project’ until I went to church on this fateful Sunday…I was about 30 minutes late and they had just ended the praise and worship session. I was trying to make my way to the seats at the back; it was the perfect spot for people like me because of the view…you could easily see everyone in the church.

One of the ushers signaled me to sit somewhere else…normally I would argue but somehow, I just obliged and sat where she pointed. It was during the offering time that the person next to me handed me a note
“Been looking at you all through the service
Is this M.B.?”

M.B. was the nickname they called me at home, only my sisters and a few family friends knew that name. A lady that sat some seats away from me had sent the note. I responded that it was me and was anxiously waiting to know the person. She walked up to me and it was Irene…she was gorgeous. I remembered her immediately and we hugged.

We spent the next 4 hours at a restaurant on the island chatting. She was also done with her University education and had just gotten a job with the Human Resources department of a company that had its head office in Lagos.

She said she had only been in Lagos for a couple of weeks and the company put her in a hotel while trying to get her apartment sorted out. That must have been my best conversation with any woman in my entire life…it was quite nostalgic as we talked about life growing up. She asked about my sisters and how they were doing…I definitely wanted to see her again. I dropped her off at her hotel and for whatever reason; sleeping with her did not even cross my mind.

She was just so easy to talk to and she was really cute and charming (she still is). I made an effort to see Irene at least every other day…I would call her from my office phone but she hardly had time to take my calls. It was a sweet relief when the GSM phones finally got to Nigeria; it made it easier to stay in touch. It was around her birthday and one of the carriers had a ‘buy one, get one free’ offer going so I bought two and gave her one as a gift. She said I didn’t have to but I insisted that I didn’t know what else to give her.

I desperately wanted to ask her out on an official date but I didn’t know what to say or how to go about it. I remember the day I sat up till midnight trying to figure out how to go about it. When I realized it was past 12, I laughed at myself and wondered what had happened to me…Michael Babs, the smooth operator; the man with a honeycomb instead of a tongue.

What was it about this girl?
What did she do to me?
I finally asked her, about 3 months after I met her at the church, and she said no.
I almost could not believe my ears; no girl had ever said that word to me before. I was stunned and asked why, her answer was “I know you Mike, I grew up with you…besides, I’m a child of God and I cannot date an unbeliever”

I told Irene that I had changed and old things had passed away (I had attended the church for a while and I already knew some Bible verses). I said she was using the sins of the old Mike to punish the new Mike. I did everything to convince her but she said we should just be friends. I could sense that she liked me but my past scared here.
I really wanted this girl; she was like the missing ‘thing’ I had been searching for all along. Everything I wanted was in her…she had something that all the other girls didn’t and I wanted that thing.

I got more serious with church activities and even joined the ushering team just to show Irene that I could be the kind of man she wanted. She didn’t have a boyfriend, that I was sure of…otherwise; I would have met the guy. We stayed friends, I stopped bugging her but kept working on her emotions…I was using actions (after all, they speak louder than words).

I believe I got my big break the day I went to see Irene (she had moved to her own apartment). It was a Saturday right around noon and she said she had to "do" her hair but the hair salon was closed when she got there. I told her I could fix it, she thought I was kidding. It took over 6 hours for the braids she wanted but by the time I was done, she could not believe her eyes. She said jokingly that she could marry me just for that...

PART 4                                                                                       PART 6

Picture Credit (c) clutchmagonline.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved  

Temptation Alley (Part 4)

They had a lot of pretty girls, especially the ones in SS3 but I had already determined not to have anything to do with any girl that was still in secondary school. The trouble I could get into was not worth anything I was going to get from it. The school gave us (Corp members) accommodation within the school compound; the school also had boarding facilities for students that were from out of town. I taught Mathematics and Further Mathematics but instead of my new students to focus on what I was teaching, they were more interested in why a ‘fine boy’ like me knew so much about Mathematics. One of them actually said she thought mathematicians were supposed to be geeky.

Anytime I was in class, the girls would rather ask personal questions than listen to what I was teaching them. Most of them flirted with me but there was one that told me she wanted me and would have me (Let’s call her name Toks).

I was shocked at the level of moral decadence in these girls that were mostly 15 and 16 in a supposed all-girl school. The ones that were S.U's (What we called Born Again Christians back then) didn’t like me at all, they saw the way the other girls flirted with me and they hated it. One of them must have informed the School Principal because she had a talk with me…a very serious one with a stern warning.

The temptation continued to grow and I was almost caving in then they moved another female Corp Member to the same school. There was an issue at the first place she was posted to, so they had to redeploy her to this school. It was like an answered prayer, I didn’t care if she was beautiful or not I just needed a woman, one that I could concentrate on so I could get the school girls off my mind and avoid the looming trouble.

I believe her name was Chichi, I still don’t know her last name. She really liked me, she must have thought we had a real thing going but I played along. I made it obvious I was going out with her so the girls could back off but Toks was still on my case…she said had sworn that whatever it took, whether in this life or the next she was going to get me.

I'm not proud of this but I took off before Chi-Chi returned from the NYSC Orientation Camp the day we got our N.Y.S.C. certificates. I had her told I would wait for her at the school and we would travel together so she could meet my folks, she was really looking forward to it…I never saw her after that day.


I got a job with a Consulting firm in Lagos, it was a multinational company and my knowledge of Mathematics and Statistics made me the toast of my bosses. I was moving up fast and I started to think about settling down…I wanted a good girl (how ironic) one with a past better than mine.

It was right around the advent of Pentecostal churches in Lagos so I started attending one, close to where I lived. My main reason was to find a ‘wife-material’…I would keep looking around during church services, trying to find the pretty ones. I was 'sampling' and ‘substituting by elimination’ but was not too pleased at the results I was getting…these were church girls and supposedly good girls but I still didn’t see what I was looking for.
One of the major lessons I learned then was that “not all church girls are good girls”…anytime I got a girl then and we went out and talked, the secrets some of them shared with me made me wonder if I had come to the right place.
The things some of them did when I made them ‘remove’ the ‘church cloaks’.

There was one that opened up to me that she was also in church to get a good man…one that she could be sure would never find a trail to her erstwhile wild life. She told me how she was lucky to find a guy that really liked her and when they were about to make it official, she met the guys parents and realized that his dad used to be one of her sugar daddies. The guy’s father did not say anything and greeted her like they had never met before…she had her heart in her mouth all through the visit.
She figured the man later had a talk with his son; as the guy just started to act up, after that visit to his parents, until he eventually left her.
I had to tell her that I was also in the same boat with her and that God would help us find what we were looking for...

 

PART 3                                                                                       PART 5

Picture Credit (c) naijastories.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved  

Temptation Alley (Part 3)

She totally bought it and we decided right there and then never to let her brother know. The crazy thing about that approach was that I would be absorbed of the commitment of dating but would be friends with the girl while enjoying the benefits. The case was the same with Dammy, we were not dating but we were fooling around. I would cut classes so I could come back to our room to see her, while her brother was holding the fort for me in class. It wasn’t long before someone in the house informed her brother.

My friend set a trap and it caught me…I had left school as usual, told him I had to see a girl and he said it was okay. He promised to help me take care of any attendance issues in class. Not quite long after I got home and got busy, someone kicked the door open and it was my friend. I believe it was the combination of rage and betrayal that made him jump at me and god! He gave me a beating of my life. I couldn’t even raise my hands to defend myself.

Dammy scampered away as she managed to get her clothes back on. That was the end of our friendship, I apologized but he wasn’t even interested. He said he never thought I would do that to him and had thought I would never put my insatiable lustful appetite above our friendship. I had to move out of the room and find another place to live. My parents wondered what caused a rift between the two of us but I could not tell them. My immediate elder sister took a guess and was spot on, although I denied it. She said it had to be a girl and my friend was definitely the victim.

This event made me change a little bit…I had to reset my priorities and set boundaries. I’m not sure what my friend told his sister but Dammy stopped greeting me and didn’t want anything to do with me…my guess would be that he told her the kind of person I was and Dammy realized that she was conned. 
It was hard seeing my betrayed friend in class every day as we were no longer on speaking terms. I stopped trying to greet him after he threatened to punch me in the face if I ever spoke to him again. Word had gone round and most of our course mates chose to be on my friend’s side. I stayed off girls for a while (not completely as I didn’t even know how to do that) and concentrated on my studies…after all, we had less than a year to go.

I graduated and was posted to Oyo State for National Youth Service Corps…I so much wanted to be in Port Harcourt because I was hoping to end up in an Oil and Gas company. I decided to go nonetheless, but do everything to get redeployed to the state of my choice. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be as every resentment I thought I had, vanished the moment I got to camp and saw the girls. It was like a buffet and I had been starving.

It wasn’t long before I completely forgot the promise I had made to myself after my experience with Dammy and her brother. I was back to my old self…preying on the presumed credulity of the female corps members. In the first week of camp, I already counted 4…I felt alive, I was back and smoking. I was using everything a girl would consider ‘cute and charming’ to my advantage. I ended up not getting the redeployment I wanted because the girl that promised to help me (her uncle had a high post with NYSC) wanted more than I was offering so she backed out.

I ended up getting posted to a Secondary School in Ibadan…an all-girl school

PART 2                                                                                       PART 4

Picture Credit (c) nairaland.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved 

Temptation Alley (Part 2)

I continued this lifestyle when I got to the University; I got in a lot of trouble and got beaten up a couple of times by Cult guys because I either went after  their girlfriends or girls they were chasing.
It was more of a game to me and I believed I was holding the aces. I changed girlfriends like I was changing clothes but there was something missing; it was like the famous Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s saying/poem

“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Not any drop to drink.”
 
All the relationships were fluffy…there was no essence, there was no substance. Something in me craved for more but I didn’t know what it was or where I would find it. So I kept searching, girl after girl…relationship after relationship.
I had some relationships that only lasted a couple of days; the longest I had then was with a girl named Tonia…I was convinced she was the one, so I hung on for about two months and the ‘craving’ returned. I wanted something more and she obviously wasn’t it.
 
I had a friend back in my University days; he was such an awesome guy…a loyal and good friend. We were roommates and we studied the same course. Our school did not have hostels so we rented rooms and lived outside the campus. You know those friends that would help you write your name on the attendance list when you missed a lecture.
Those friends that would make extra copies of the lecturer’s handouts for you because you didn’t have the money yet and collect the money later.
Those friends that would cover for you and diffuse a potentially volatile situation when you were in the room with one girl and another one showed up. We had lived together for 3 years; he was more than just my guy…he was like a brother but guess what I did to ruin the friendship?
His little sister (Dammy) got admission to study Mass Communication at our school…she had to stay with us while she sought for her own place.

I kinda liked Dammy from the first day I saw her but didn’t want to date or sleep with her because something in me saw her like my own younger sister. However, after spending a weekend together, just the two of us (My friend had traveled home to see their dad) I couldn’t help it.

The arrangement before her brother left was for me to sleep in another guy's room...whose room was opposite ours.
I had wanted to just gist with Dammy for a while before turning in for the night but one thing led to another and before I knew it, she was all over me.
I  knew what I was doing, I knew exactly what was going to happen and I orchestrated it. She was a very pretty girl which made it difficult for me to restrain myself…I knew it was a bad thing

1 She was barely 17 then while I was 21

2 She was a virgin

3 I was going to break a serious 'bro code'

We had talked about a lot of stuff; I even remember helping her paint her nails…fingers and toes.

I saw the way she was looking at me and how she blushed every time I gave a compliment on her beauty…she said I was the most interesting guy she had ever talked to.

Then we moved the topic to relationships, sensuality and things like that. She was naïve but not shy, she was inexperienced but wasn’t afraid to explore. I had given a detailed explanation on the best way to kiss a woman and she wanted me to show her…that was it

I sensed she had regrets after the deed was done so I had to deliver my perfectly scripted

“I’m so sorry…

T’was in the heat of the moment…

But t’was so awesome that I wouldn’t have it any other way…

We could try to get to know each other better…

Let’s see what happens…” speech.

She told me not to worry about it and although she had determined to stay chaste till her wedding day, there was nothing we could do about it because she also got caught up in the moment.

That speech never failed me…it was so good that it made girls feel like it happened by mistake and they were the ones that strung me along; which ensured nobody was hurt and nobody was ‘tied down’ either...

PART 1                                                                                       PART 3

 

Picture Credit (c)eurweb.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

Temptation Alley (Part 1)

My name is Mike and I am about to tell you a story of how I messed up my hitherto beautiful marriage because I could not resist the urge to dig in, one last time, my ‘immoral indulgence’. How a short stop at Temptation Alley got me where I am today.
If I could turn back the hands of time, I would make better choices and would chose fidelity. 
I would handle my marriage with the reverence and honor it deserved and would show my wife…well, ex-wife what she really meant and still means to me.
 
I have known Irene practically all my life. We grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same Primary (Elementary) and Secondary (High) Schools; although I was a couple years ahead of her.
She used to come to our house to play…she’s about the same age as one of my younger sisters and they were good friends. I will get back to Irene but let me share the tell you a little about my background first.

I am the only male child in my family with two elder/older and 2 younger sisters.
I am sure I didn’t really start playing with boys my age until I was in secondary school.

I liked the tea parties, the hopscotch, playing dress up and the girlie games…I must have played with a doll at some point. My friends always say that I am so in touch with my feminine side. The beauty was evenly distributed in my family so I am like the male version of my beautiful sisters. I have the body, the looks and I am a fashionista par excellence.

Somehow, growing up in an all-girl, one boy environment had its perks…I learned the art of "what a woman really wants to hear" from my sisters and this made me quite the lady’s man.
I also learned how to really listen to a woman…this endeared me to a lot of girls and gave me the reputation of a player.
Even girls that were older than me wanted to be with me. I had my first girlfriend at age 13 and two girls fought over me when I was 14 years old. I felt like a king. Boys wanted to be me…boys in my school would ask me for tips and how to woo girls. My name was popular in other schools around us; most of them did not know me in person but had heard about me.

There was no "girl talk" I couldn’t or still can’t participate in? Fashion, Make overs, relationships (from a woman’s perspective), chick flicks, crushes…name it, I’m your man.
I can say confidently that I am better at applying makeups than most girls…I fix hair and can braid beautifully and effortlessly.
I remember a girl that I met at a Literary and Debating Society event back then…she asked if I was truly Michael Babs, I said yes; she said she had expected more, going by the things she had heard about me. I believe my response was something like “the taste of the pudding is in the eating”…even I was shocked that she still ‘let me’ after pretending not be impressed.

All these things formed my perception of women…I saw them as gullible and exploitable. My motto was “Tell her what she wants to hear and she’ll give you what you want from her”.
As at the time I was 17, I was already a notorious heart breaker…jumping from one girl to the other. My reputation preceded me but did not stop the girls from flocking to me like moths to flames.
I dated many of my sister’s friends and ruined their friendships. They would warn their friends to stay clear of me but to their friends, I was like the forbidden fruit - desired all the more because it is not allowed. I dated cousins and I even dated sisters (The younger one knew I had dated her big sister but like she put it, she just couldn’t resist my charms)... 

                                                                                                      PART 2

Picture Credit (c)globezhair.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved  

I Should Have Spoken Up (Conclusion)

“It’s a miracle” was exactly what the doctor said when Bose was discharged…she was at the hospital for 12 days. The doctor told them it was nothing short of divine intervention because the mixture Bose took had caused a trauma to her uterus which caused an acute uterine rupture and also affected a lot of things and it was really tough getting the bleeding to stop without removing the uterus.  However, the doctor told her aunt that it may be difficult but not impossible for her to conceive and he would also recommend a C-section anytime Bose wanted to have a baby in the future because if there had been a previous rupture, the person should automatically be scheduled for a caesarian section.

Aunty Mary pulled Bose from her school and registered her for the General Certificate Examination which was an equivalent of the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination she was supposed to take that year. She made Bose take her to Lizzy’s house and she informed Lizzy’s parent of all that happened…it was a shock to see that Lizzy came from a strict background. Apparently, she had also been exposed to that kind of life by her elder brother's friend who frequented their house under the guise of visiting his friend.

As suggested by the doctor, Bose was sent to a therapist to help her deal with what she had been through …she almost stopped after the 2^nd session because she said it made her feel like she was re-living the experience but the therapist encouraged and helped her through.
Bose found out that she would have been better off if she had spoken up right from the start. The way her aunt handled the issue made her regret all the times she kept quiet and took the abuse. She found out that Uncle BJ’s threats were just empty threats. She learned so much at the therapy sessions that opened her eyes to all the options she could have explored to forestall what happened.

Uncle BJ tried everything to appeal to his wife but she did not allow him back in the house…she said she would have been able to forgive him if it was just a regular extramarital affair but she did not want a molester under the same roof with her children.
Bose and Bola said they would leave the house so that Uncle BJ could come back as they did not want to be the reason for their separation. Aunty Mary said she would rather have them than have her husband because they were just like her children and their late mother once chose her over everything else. She revealed to them that Uncle BJ was not the biological father of her first daughter…he married her when she was already 6 months pregnant; the person responsible for the pregnancy had denied it and traveled abroad.

Uncle BJ had always pestered her for a relationship but she preferred the other guy. When he later heard what the guy did to her, he said he would marry her and they did not have to tell anyone that he wasn’t the one responsible for the pregnancy.

Aunty Mary said if he could do what he did to Bose, he could also do it to 'their' daughter since he wasn’t the biological father.
Aunty Mary kept the real reason for the separation from her children.

Uncle BJ moved to another state and rented an apartment but got arrested about a year after that for molesting a neighbor’s daughter. Unfortunately for him, the girl’s father was a Police Officer.

----------------------------------------------------------------
We have all read Bose’s story and I know people that took it personally. If you gave them Uncle BJ, they would not hesitate to kill him…but the truth is, there are a lot of 'Boses' out there. They are closer than you think.
Uncle BJ was the villain in this story right? You would be shocked at how many men do such things…and use threat as a means of molesting these innocent children. There are a lot of 'Uncle BJs' around us, people we see as responsible men.
We usually focus our attention on and condemn pedophiles while hebephiles and ephebophiles are having a swell time.

Hebephiles are adults that are primarily sexually attracted to adolescents or children who have at least started puberty and have signs of adult sexual maturation, but are still young and developing both mentally and physically. Once she starts to blossom, they want to pluck. (70 year old man rapes 11 year old girl…did you hear that story?)

Ephebophiles are those that have sexual interests in children who are post-puberty…children between 14 and 17 (Principal caught with student…did you see that on social media as well?) Usually, it would be men that are trusted with such girls that take advantage of them. They abuse the access they have as an uncle, as daddy’s friend, as a family friend, as a teacher even as a pastor to molest and abuse these girls (and boys in some cases)

I beseech us as parents or guardians…let’s teach our girls how to identify inappropriate advances and actions and HOW TO REPORT IT. When it comes to our kids please let’s take preemptive steps…a child well informed is better equipped to deal with such if it happens. Let your kids trust you enough to share their fears with you…watch out for unusual behaviors and withdrawals. Don’t force them to go to places they are reluctant to go or to visit people they, all of sudden, don’t like visiting.

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved

PART 12                                                                                          

Picture Credit (c)thecitywire.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

I Should Have Spoken Up (Part 12)

The silence that pervaded the room for the next couple of seconds was second to none…one could hear a pin drop.

“What?” said Uncle BJ as he got up in anger and attempted to slap Bola…who ran behind her aunt. Emotions were running wild, voices were being raised, it was becoming a scene and somewhere along the line, Bose started to gasp for breath. The doctor was summoned and he sent all of them out of the room. He said Bose’s life was more important to him than whatever they had going on.

As confused as Aunty Mary was, she wanted to hear what Bola had to say or why she leveled such an atrocious allegation against her husband. She made her husband stop the taunting and bullying so she could ask Bola a couple of questions.

“Are you going to listen to this crap? Allowing her to talk is like saying you don’t trust me” said Uncle BJ.

Aunty Mary made it clear that the only way to dispel any controversy and eliminate confusion was to allow Bola explain herself.

Bola stepped forward and responded that she had seen Uncle BJ rape her sister not once, not twice. She mentioned that it happened mostly when Aunty Mary was away on her business trips. She talked about the many times she had tiptoed into the living room in the middle of the night because she heard her sister crying and begging uncle BJ not to, but he would say it was just a little price to pay for letting the three of them stay under his roof.

Aunty Mary turned to Bola and asked if she was sure of what she was saying

Bola answered that a while back, she had seen both her sister and Uncle BJ in a compromising situation but didn’t know what to make of it…she was really confused by what she saw so she dismissed it. Not long after that, she had heard a sound in the middle of the night and gotten up to investigate…she heard her sister’s voice and heard Uncle BJ telling her to keep quiet. She found it hard to believe, so she peeked through the key hole to be doubly sure and what she saw startled her. She said that was the day Bose lost the purple top that Aunty Mary bought her for Christmas…she saw Uncle BJ rip the top and try to strangulate Bose with it. Bola added that she almost screamed but was too petrified to make any sound…she also didn’t know what would happen or what Uncle BJ would do to both of them if he knew she had seen them.

She talked of the many nights that her sister sobbed all through, after leaving uncle BJ’s room…how she would ask Bose what the problem was, hoping she would spill the beans or at least confide in her but she always told her not to worry about it and that everything would be alright. Bola added that she had wanted to tell Aunty Mary but didn’t know if anyone would believe her…she also heard Uncle BJ threaten to kill Bose if anyone found out and that really scared her. The brutality of the rape she saw made her feel like he could actually do it.

She asked if Aunty Mary remembered the day she was asking different questions about rape and what the punishment was, according to the law of the land. The answers she got that day made her feel like there was no succor for Bose and the law wasn’t going to help much.

Aunty Mary definitely remembered that day and how she was 'weirded out' by those questions…she wasn’t sure why Bola was asking and why she would be so interested in such a gruesome topic.

“But you could have told me…someone could have informed me…somebody could have said something” said Aunty Mary as she tried to find a seat. The weight of the ensuing reality was too much for her feet to bear.

“I’m so sorry ma…God knows I wanted to tell you, I just didn’t want anything to happen to my sister” Bola responded 

At this time, Uncle BJ was trying to rationalize the situation by saying they needed to hear it from Bose’s mouth as her sister could be lying. He was stammering/stuttering…Aunty Mary was just looking at him intently. He later resorted to emotional blackmail and how he was there for them when they needed help and they wanted to pay him back with character assassination and by labeling him a rapist. He moved close to his wife and was trying to say

“Darling are you going to believe this brat over me? Don’t you know your own…” before he could finish the second sentence, his wife landed a dirty slap on his right cheek.

“You better pray to God that my niece pulls through or else I will see to it that you rot in jail. It’s all making sense now…was this not the same thing that happened between you and Agnes our maid when we lived in Yaba?

You denied it…you said the girl was the one trying to seduce you and when you didn’t fall for it she cooked up a story to destroy your home. The girl cried and swore that you were the one that came to meet her in the bathroom while she was taking her bath but you said it was the other way around.

I chose to believe you because you’re my husband and sent the poor girl away with ignominy

You said I should never bring a maid to the house again because they are agents of the devil looking for homes to destroy and I obliged.

Even if you were born a shameless goat…I would have expected family to be the line for you. You knew Bose when she was a toddler, you knew when she was wearing diapers…didn’t that mean something to you?

How could you do this? After everything I’ve done for you.

Since I married you…I’ve fed you, clothed you, provided for you, put a roof over your head and you had the effrontery to use that same home as a bargaining tool to violate my blood. I never asked you for anything but to be a responsible father and even that you could not do…” Aunty Mary went on and on as Uncle BJ looked on like a thief caught in the act.

He had no excuse; he couldn’t talk his way out of this one.

It had already become a scene, a dirty one at that, in the hospital lobby…as the few people and some of the nurses were gathering to know what was happening while pretending to help resolve the issue.

The doctor later came out of the ICU where Bose had been taken...Aunty Mary and Bola rushed to meet him, Uncle BJ just sat in a corner. The Doctor said Bose was still unconscious but was slowly responding to treatment. The doctor confirmed that there may have been some forced intercourse in the past as there were still mild signs of abrasions, bruises and lacerations and he could get a report for the police if they needed one. He said he was trying desperately to save Bose’s uterus because she’s still young, otherwise he would have just suggested and performed a hysterectomy but he would watch her for a while and if nothing changed…

The shame was too much for Uncle BJ to handle so he decided to leave…Aunty Mary collected the car key and the keys to the house from him and threatened to make a scene and call the neighbors on him if he came near the house.

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved

 PART 11                                                                                          PART 13

 

Picture Credit (c)nlm.nih.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

 

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved