I processed what he just said. Could he be trying to by himself time to figure out how he could outsmart me? Will he try and cook up some lies to tell his wife and make me look like the wayward girl?
“Listen, I am being honest with you, I will lt you have the money tomorrow,” he said as though he read my mind and knew I had my doubts about him. “But you still need my help, Rosie, you still need me to help you,” he continued.
“Okay, thank you, but how do I need your help apart from the money I need you to give me?” I asked him, wondering what he was getting at?
“Do you know any hospital you can go to and ask for a D&C?<“ he quizzed me, a serious look on his face. “Or do you think it’s every hospital or clinic that undertakes D&C? And even for those who do it, you must go with either the man responsible for the pregnancy or your guardians or parents. So, who do you know that could go with you?”
I got his point. He is absolutely correct. This thing is not really quite as straight forward as I thought it was, even with the ten thousand naira complete in my hands.
“So, do you now see that you still need me, even after I must’ve given you the money by tomorrow?” he continued.
I nodded. “So, how will you help me?” I asked, curious to know what he has in mind.
“I will help you find out which of the hospitals outside of our neighbourhood you can go to. Then, I will go with you and stand as your guardian and sign the necessary documents that must be signed before you can be operated on.”
“Oh, wow! Thank you very much, Uncle Fred, that’s so kind of you,” I thanked him. But somehow, some thing kept ringing in my head, warning me there was still a catch to his generosity.
“Don’t thank me yet, young lady, there is still one little thing we need to agree on,” he’d cautioned me. I knew it. I knew he couldn’t be doing all of that for free, there just had to be something in it for him. And I was right. He dropped the clincher: “you will have to promise me that you and I will continue to enjoy ourselves together even after you have done the D&C!”
I didn’t say anything. I had no idea what to tell him. I was confused. I couldn’t think straight. I was just staring at the man like I was seeing a creature totally different from the man I had known as the husband to my Aunty.
“Rosie, you’re not saying anything, or do you want me to go on my knees and beg you?” Uncle Fred barged into my thoughts. He was pleading profusely, this time he was getting more desperate than I could ever imagine.
“Listen, Rosie, I really, really like you,” he’d continued. “Ever since you stepped into this house, I have always secretly admired you but just didn’t have the courage to open up to you. See, my baby, let me love you, let me take good care of you…”
I was now his baby! Somebody that just raped me o! Wonders shall never cease. I just stood there watching him, listening to him, totally amazed at how much power a woman packs in between her legs. “Look, my baby, I know you may not believe me right now because of the stupid thing I just did to you, and I understand. It will be hard for you to believe that I love you, I know, especially because of all that you’ve been through. But I promise you that I will take care of you, my baby….”
“Stop calling me your baby, sir, it is not right!” I snapped at him. The man was just acting like a little boy who had not had sex in a long while. To say I was shocked with his attitude would be understating the fact. It was like I was dreaming. This was the same man I had been looking up to with fear and respect. The man I held in high esteem and saw as the loving husband to my Aunt.
So funny how life can turn out sometimes. Aunty Florence was scared that if her husband found out I was pregnant and she brought me to the house, he would be mad at her and would insist that I should leave the house. It is that same man that is now crying and begging me to let him take care of me and help abort the pregnancy.
“But, I want you to be my baby, Rosie, so that I can take good care of you and provide you all your needs,” he was not done yet. The man was really serious about this.
“Sir, don’t you get it? You’re my Aunt’s husband for God’s sake!” I shot back at him, trying very hard to conceal my disgust. “Uncle, it is bad enough that you just raped me, I am yet to recover from that one and come to terms with the fact that my Aunt’s husband just raped me, now you’re asking me to be your lover again? I don’t understand!”
“Okay, Rosie, I can understand how you’re feeling right now, but all I am doing here is making you a proposition and it’s a very simple one that I know will benefit you the most,” he tried to explain himself. “Look, whether you admit it or not, you’re in a very bad situation right now. You’re carrying a pregnancy that you obviously do not want because of the circumstances surrounding it. You don’t have the money to abort it. You don’t even know where to go and abort it. But I can offer you both the money and the right place to go for the D&C. This is another man’s pregnancy, for crying out loud, not mine, but I’m willing to help you get it rid of it and go on to take very good care you on the condition that you become my secret lover, is that too much to ask for?”
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