I found my skirt and under wears in the middle of the floor in his living room where he dropped them. I couldn’t help the tears welling up in my eyes as I picked them up. I felt like a whore, I felt like I was nothing but a cheap slut. I was a disgrace to my parents, a disappointment. How I wished the earth could suddenly open up and swallow me.
“Are you sure you want nothing to eat or drink? I could ask one of the kids in the compound to get you something,” he came out of the room, he had put on his boxers.
“And I have told you no, thank you. All I want now is to get back home, go to bed and wake up in the morning to realize all of these have been nothing but one terrible nightmare. That’s what I want right now!” I was almost yelling at him. The anger in my voice was visible, he could see I was in no mood for his niceties.
I put on my dress, straightened my hair and wiped my face clean with the back of my hand. “So, when are you taking me to the doctor? I have fulfilled my own part of the deal, right?”
He smiled. “Yeah, you have. And I must say you didn’t do too badly, to be honest.” He was smiling at me and waiting for me to say something. I said nothing. I just kept staring at blankly at his stupid face.
“You will come here in three days time, by 12 noon and I will take you to the doctor,” he’d continued, grinning from ear to ear.”But there’s one more thing you will still do for me though,” he said.
“And what’s that?” I’d thrown angrily at him.
He moved closer to me. “When you come here on Friday, I will make love to you again before we leave for the clinic, and then after the D&C has been done and you’re okay, we can talk about whether you still want us to continue this beautiful relationship or not.”
I was so furious I didn’t know what to say to him. I decided there was no point saying anything to him. The man was clearly a lunatic. I just took one long look at him, shook my head dejectedly and headed out of the apartment. Mother, I was sure, would already be looking out for me…
Just like I expected, mother was already pacing in and out of the compound, awaiting my return. I only told her I wanted to see a friend and that I would only be a few minutes gone. But now, I was gone for hours and we had things we needed to do in the house.
“Rosemary, where are you coming from? Why did you take so long? You only said you will be gone for a few minutes!” mother was firing question after question at me.
“I’m sorry, mama, I didn’t know I will stay that long, we were discussing about our exams and other things,” I tried to come up with something.
“But you know we have things to do in the house, don’t you” she’d thrown at me. “We have cleaning to do, we have to cook, and you’re standing there telling you didn’t know you will stay long. Did your friend tie down your legs to her house?”
“I’m sorry, mama……” I pleaded. But she wasn’t even listening to my plea, instead, she was running her eyes all over me, gazing deep into my eyes. Then, she slowly began to run her gaze down from my head to my toes. Something was wrong. I felt a severe turning deep inside my tummy. Mother had evidently seen something.
“Rosemary, come here,” she said to me, the tone of my voice changing completely. I took two slowly steps towards her.
“Ah, mama, I said I’m sorry now, let’s go and start doing the work we want to do,” I tried to placate her.
“Its not about work, you look pale, are you still feeling sick?” she asked me.
“Me, sick? Of course not, mama, I’m perfectly okay,” I’d quickly thrown back.
“Are you sure?” she asked again as she ran her hand over my face, pulling my eyelids apart looking for God-knows-what.
I’m fine, mama, it’s just stress, nothing more,” I assured her, trying to force a smile.
“Stress? Which stress are you talking about?” she’d thrown back at me. “Are you your father that goes out very early every morning to look for what we will eat?”
“No, mama, but…”
“So, what are you now talking about?” I kept quiet. She was right. I shouldn’t be talking about stress at my age. But if only she knew what her precious little girl was going through, she would scream to high heavens.
“I don’t know why I keep thinking there’s something going on with you, something you’re not telling me, but I just don’t know what it is,” she said, still staring intently at me. “Are you sure you’re okay, Rosemary?”
I smiled nervously. “Of course, I’m okay, mama, there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m fine, mama, believe,” I said to her.
She looked at me for a stretch of seconds. “So, there’s nothing going on that I should know about?”
“No, mama, here’s no problem with me at all,” I assured her again.
“Okay, if you say so.” And finally, she dropped the subject as I heaved a huge sigh of relief. But I also knew it was only a matter of time that what I’m hiding will be out in the open. I had to do something fast about my condition.
It was difficult trying to act normal around my mum. She knew me inside out and could tell if there was something wrong with me. The days flew past and the D-day was here to go see Bobby’s uncle who will take me to the doctor. I got to his place and the first thing I noticed was that the door was not locked. That door was always shut. Slowly, I knocked on the door and pushed it open at the same time. That was when I realized the entire room was empty. Everything inside had been packed away. My heart started beating hard against my chest. My head had grown heavy and there was a heavy pounding going on right in the middle of it. What’s going on here, I’d wondered. Then I saw a paper lying on an old stool in a corner of the room. A note was written on it. I took a closer look and found the note was addressed to me by Bobby’s uncle!Â
