Bose would sit all alone in the kitchen and cry, the other kids in the house wondered what was happening to her. When they asked, she wiped her tears and said she was remembering and missing her late parents.
This continued until Aunty Mary returned…was Bose glad to see her aunt! She knew it would at least reduce the abuse for the time being, if it didn’t stop it completely. Her aunt asked what was wrong with her because she really looked sick. She said she had been battling malaria…her younger ones were quick to add that she had been crying a lot lately and had been withdrawn. Later in the day, Aunty Mary took her inside the room and asked what was wrong with her…she wanted to tell her but couldn’t. She opened her mouth to talk but cried instead.
Aunty Mary kept asking her random questions just to get a clue
“Was it the stress of your upcoming 'School Cert' examination?”
“Did something happen at school?”
“Did you fail your mock exams?”
“Is it me?”
To all these questions, Bose shook her head to imply a negatory
"Is it your uncle?"
"Did someone hurt you?"
Bose did not respond…she bowed her head and kept crying. She really wanted to blurt it out but thought of the threat by her uncle to “end her life”.
Aunty Mary held her…told her she was around now and Bose could tell her anything. Bose wished she could really tell her.
With Aunty Mary back, Bose was slowly becoming her old self…she already knew exactly how to avoid her uncle whenever her aunt wasn’t on a trip and she was doing a good job.
Uncle BJ was doing everything to get her attention but she just pretended not to get the message.
However, three weeks after her aunty came back…Bose started to feel really sick. She was nauseated by everything she ate. Her aunt got her some anti-malarial medication but they didn’t help much.
She missed school for a couple of days and on the day she went back, Lizzy saw her throwing up somewhere behind the class (Lizzy was the one that advised Bose to milk the opportunity when the abuse began). Lizzy asked a couple of questions about her period and Bose couldn’t even tell exactly when last she did that. Lizzy was more experienced in such things; she told Bose she was most likely pregnant. Bose immediately started to cry…she said it was over and that her aunt was going to kill her. Her aunt already said if she did not get better they would have to go see the doctor later in the week. Bose was freaking out and almost had a nervous breakdown…she was utterly overwhelmed.
She was thinking out loud…asking how she would explain it to her aunt if the doctor should confirm it.
How disappointed Bola and Paul would
be
How she would not be allowed to
write her Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations and would end up dropping
out of high school
How her aunt’s home would crumble
because of herHow messed up her life would become because of all these
Lizzy told her to calm down and unless she wanted her aunt to know, she had to be very discreet and clever. She also told her there was a way out of it. She confided in Bose that she had been pregnant twice and was able to fix it before anyone could find out. Bose asked how and Lizzy said she would have to abort it.
Bose screamed and said she remembered a lady, in her hometown that died after having an abortion. She was just 12 then but everyone in the neighborhood heard about it. Parents used the story to scare their daughters into chastity and her mother made her promise never to abort a pregnancy.
Lizzy told her that since her mom had died, the promise was no longer binding…besides, unless she wanted to mess up her life, there was no other way out of this. Bose said she would think about it and get back to her…Lizzy reiterated that time was not really on her side as it would get worse and the symptoms would make her aunt suspect her.
She asked if she should inform Uncle BJ…Lizzy said she should wait till after it was taken care of.
When Bose got home later that day, she stayed in her room for most part of it. Anytime she was called, she would go do whatever she was told to and run back to the room. Her aunt asked if she got any better, she said she was fine. Her aunt called her to come watch a movie with them, she said she was studying.
She wore the loosest fitting dress she could find and was trying hard to keep up appearances even as she felt weak and nauseous. Something in her really wanted to tell Uncle BJ before she went to school the following day…
© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved
PART 8 PART 10
Picture Credit (c) huffingtonpost.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
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