The man shook his head. It was his own way of saying to me: ”Don’t worry, enjoy your stay here while you can, but you’re dead meat when we get home.”
“Okay, so his uncle too was transferred to Lagos immediately the boy living with him ran away to Lagos, right?” he said to me.
Then, he turned to the doctor: “So, doctor, what exactly is the situation now, is she still pregnant or she has lost the pregnancy altogether?”
The doctor drew closer to me and took a close look at me. “From the preliminary tests we have run, there is every possibility that she may have lost the pregnancy. But we will need to run some tests to examine her to confirm the exact state of her condition,” the man explained.
“So, even after all the bleeding, she could still be pregnant?” my mother asked him.
“Yes, ma, the bleeding may not have been severe enough to disrupt the foetus growing inside her,” the doctor continued. “But as I said, we wil have to be sure by running some tests.”
“Yeeh! My God o! You this girl, so you want to take an innocent life with your own hands?” mother said to me.
“Woman!” father snapped at her. “What innocent life are you talking about? A baby that has no father? A child whose father is a rapist? You must be out of your mind!” Father’s eyes had grown red. He did not find mother’s emotional outburst funny to say the least.
“Daddy Rosemary, you don’t understand….”
“Understand what?” father interjected, his voice sharp and venomous. “Is that how you pray to become a grandmother? Other mothers like you that have become grandmothers, is this how they became grandmothers? Imagine the nonsense you’re saying, that she almost took an innocent life? Be praying that pregnancy is gone, otherwise….” He let it hang and kept quiet. But you could feel the anger seething through him.
I understood father. He wanted mother to know how pissed he was with what she was saying. It was his own way of saying it was a good thing I tried to get rid of the pregnancy. I know my father. It is bad enough that I was raped. To be pregnant is something he won’t be able to stomach it. So, if at the end of the day he cannot see any pregnancy again, it’s good for both of us. That will save him from eternal shame and save me from eternal tongue lashing and neglect from my dad.
“Rosy baby, please, be strong, okay? Don’t worry, you will be okay. I will be back to see you later in the day and bring you some beverages,” Aunty Lisa said to me, getting set to leave.
“I can see you’re in safe hands here, so you should be back home soon. But I will be back to see you and find out what the results of the tests they intend to run say,” Aunty Lisa said, holding me gently by the hand. “But I am almost one hundred percent sure that the pregnancy is gone. Don’t worry, you will be alright, okay?” I nodded slowly, a faint tear running down my face. She is my lifesaver. If my parents had found out about my pregnancy by themselves, the story would’ve been different.
After Aunt Lisa left, the doctor and a nurse came to run the tests. They needed to know if I was stil pregnant.
“When can we know the result, doctor?” my father asked.
“Later in the day, sir, it will be ready,” he responded.
“Okay, I am going to work now. On my way home from work, I will stop over to find out what the result says.” And without as much as look in my direction, father turned and left the room.
I was distraught. Only God knew what was in father’s mind. I knew I was in trouble but what I didn’t know was the depth of trouble that I was in. There was no telling what father would do to me when I got home. But first, I had to pray that the result came back negative. Then, every other thing can follow.
“Rosemary, why did you do this to me?” mother said to me the moment father stepped out of the room. “Why did you go and bring shame to me and your father? And you know how much your father loves you.”
I tried to speak but couldn’t find the words. Something held back my tongue. I was too shaken, too distraught to know what to tell my heartbroken mother.
“So, you cannot talk to me, ehn? Now, that your father is not here, you cannot talk to me?” she asked, wondering why I was just looking at her.
“Madam, I think you need to let her rest, please…” the doctor said to her. But mother was not interested in all that.
“Doctor, you keep saying she needs to rest, can’t she talk again? Let her talk to me, please!” mother’s voice went up. She was apparently getting frustrated by the whole situation.
“The doctor turned to me. “Can you talk to your mum for a few minutes? Do you have the strength to do that?” he asked me. He was more or less asking for my approval whether to let her stay and talk to me or not. I had no other choice.
“Yes, doctor, I can talk to her,” I replied.
“Okay.” He turned to mum. “Please, ma, just a few minutes, she needs to rest, she lost a lot of blood.”
“No problem, doctor, thank you,” mother returned. She turned to me as the doctor made his way out. “Rosemary, how did you get yourself into all this? Why did you go to a boy’s place? When did you start visiting boys at home, Rosemary?”
As she was talking, tears welled up in her eyes. My mother was terribly saddened.
“Mummy, I am sorry…I didn’t know he was that kind of person,” I tried to explain.
“Why couldn’t you shout when he was raping you? Why couldn’t you scream for people to hear you?” she asked me.
“He put something in my drink. I was helpless, I couldn’t do anything.”
“What did he put in your drink?”
“He put a drug that made me weak and drowsy.”
“But after he raped you and you left his place, what did you do? Who did you inform?”
