I was trembling on the bed where I lay. The rage in my father’s voice and the fire in his eyes scared me to death. I couldn’t speak. I could only open my mouth but not a single word came forth.
“Are you deaf? I said is it true you’re pregnant?” he yelled at me again. And as he reached to grab me by the hand, the doctor pulled him back.
“Sir, this is not the place nor the time to start scolding your daughter, what is important now is her health,” the doctor came to my defence. His intervention was so timely. I was crying uncontrollably now.
“She is still in a critical condition and as you can see, she’s obviously scared and shattered both physically and emotionally. The last thing she needs now from you now is threats and condemnation otherwise if we’re not careful we might have a really bad situation on our hands.”
“Daddy Rosemary, please, my husband, you have heard what the doctor said,” my mother said quietly, holding my father by the arm to calm him down. “Let us allow her to recover first and let the doctors do their work, please, I beg you,” she pleaded.
Father was staring angrily at me. He was itching to get his claws on me and tear me to pieces for bringing him shame. I know how much I have disappointed him. I have let my family down. But it’s not my fault. They have to understand that this wasn’t my making. I was only a victim of circumstance.
“Look, I don’t understand you people,” father turned to mum and the doctor. “You say she needs medical attention, fine, I agree. But is she too weak to open her mouth and tell me a simple yes or no? Is she too weak to tell me who the bastard who got her pregnant is? Answer me, is she too weak to open her mouth and talk?”
At this point, the door opened and Aunty Lisa appeared, looking very apprehensive. “My dear, how are you? How are you feeling?” she was asking as she raced towards me. “I just heard in the house not long ago that you were rushed to the hospital, what happened? How are you feeling?”
My father and the doctor gave way for Aunty Lisa to join me by the bed. She turned to my mother. “Mummy Rosemary, what happened?”
“I just found her soaked in blood in bed this morning. It was gushing out of her womanhood like tap water,” she narrated to Aunty Lisa.
“Oh, my God!” Aunty Lisa exclaimed, looking really frightened. She bent over, wrapped her arms around me and like the doctor, she too whispered into my ears: ”Hope you have not told them I gave you the drugs?” And I replied: “Huhn, huhn.”
“Sorry, dear, don’t worry, you will be fine, okay?” she consoled me. But my eyes were gazing into hers for answers. For direction. What happened with the drugs she gave me? Was it supposed to make me lose so much blood in the process? Now that my parents have gotten to know what I’ve been hiding from them all this time, how do I wriggle out of this now?
“Mummy Rosemary, please, you have to take it easy with her, she has been through a lot,” Aunty Lisa turned to my mum. She and my dad seldom talked. My dad let her know that he didn’t like the fact that she was living a single life and as such didn’t want me to hang around her.
“What do you mean by she has been through a lot? What do you know about my daughter’s condition that we do not know?” my father snapped at her.
“Ah! Rose, you have not told your parents anything?” she turned to me. I shook my head slowly on the bed, a fresh bout of tears running down my face.
“What is it, Lisa? What is going on, please talk to us!” mother was almost in tears.
“Mummy Rosemary, your daughter came to meet me yesterday and told me something happened to her weeks ago. And that is what resulted in the pregnancy in her womb,” she started to explain. My heart was trembling heavily as I listened to her. It was as though the entire world was about to fall on my shoulder.
“Lisa, what exactly happened to my daughter? Stop going round and round and speak to me!” Dad was almost snapping at her.
“Sir, your daughter was raped! She was raped by a male friend who wanted to have sex with her at all cost!” she dropped the bombshell.
“My daughter, raped? By a male friend or a boyfriend? So, Rosemary, you have a boyfriend?” father turned to me. I quivered in bed.
“No, sir. He is not her boyfriend,” Aunty Lisa came to my rescue. “According to Lisa, he is just a guy she knew in church. She was passing in front of his house weeks ago and he invited her to come inside to know where he lives and then began to pressure her for sex. It was when she refused to have any sexual intimacy with him that he now drugged the soft drink he bought for her and took advantage of her. And that is what has resulted in the pregnancy!”
“My God! Who has done this to me? Who wants to put me to shame?” mother cried out, pacing up and down the room.
“So, Rosemary, who is this boy raped you? Where does he live? Where can I find him?” my father turned to me. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was cry even more.
“Will you shut your mouth and talk to me? Where can I find him?” father yelled at me.
“He…he… ran away, sir…” I stuttered.
“Ran away? To where?” mother asked me.
“To Lagos!”
