A Story Of Deceit

Episode 17

I had never seen Yemisi cry before, I was amazed at how much tears were dripping from her eyes, her eyes became bulgy, she couldn’t talk well in between tears. ‘So your son ran away, he has impregnated Yemisi oooo, my daughter’, Mrs. Soji said pointing a finger at Dayo’s mum like she’d poke her any moment, ‘Heh, Dayo, omo mi (my child), na lie, Dayo na good pikin’, Mama Dayo replied furiously, ‘good my feet, wherever im go, bring am back now, that one na your own business’, Mrs. Soji clamoured. ‘She said her son is not here, even if he his, I’m not leaving my grandchild and daughter with him’, Mr. Soji said. ‘Which grandchild?, my daughter is not giving birth to a b—–d ooo, it’s not me, you people will put to shame’, Mrs. Soji replied lewdly. ‘You’re are already putting yourself to Shame’, her husband said pointing at the passers-by that stopped to watch. After much argument with Dayo’s mother, which got her extremely angry. ‘Oya, make una dey go house?, una dey tell me set my pikin go impregnate village girl, this your wor wor pikin’, she cursed, ‘Eh, which village girl?, my Yemisi village girl, you blind abi you no dey see the person wey you say call village girl?, e be like say something dey worry you’, she cursed back.

They kept on raining abuses on each other, Mr. Soji tried to stop his wife but she was too stubborn, we were only able to leave when Mr. Soji grabbed the car key from Yemisi’s mum and threatened to leave, it was almost two hours since we came and with the signs, I saw, Yemisi’s mother was getting tired and also loosing in the brawl, ‘if to sey, my husband never wan dey go house, I for dey here wait for that your useless son, She said breathing heavily and walked towards our direction. ‘Your pikin na im useless, dem give your pikin belle, you wan come blame my son wey no be village person like your pikin’, Dayo’s mum ranted. At long last, we were out of there, I followed them to where their car was but I didn’t go home with them, Mr. Soji gave me an amount of money and thanked me for my help, while his wife threatened me not to ever show up in their house. I was scared for Yemisi, her father didn’t yell at her or say anything like he used to, he didn’t seem proud of her, her mother would probably kill her. I was still feeling weak and dizzy but at that moment, Yemisi mattered more.

When they left, I decided to visit my mum’s shop and probably let her know what happened that day but I had to eat something first as I was very hungry, I took a little change out of the money Mr. Soji gave me and bought something to eat. I headed to my mum’s shop by 4:30pm, that evening, the sun was still up but not as bright as it was two hours ago. As soon as I entered my mum’s shop, she screamed, which frightened me and other customers , I thought she was hurt, ‘Uwa, come here, halele’, she yelled. ‘Ma?’, I responded and went closer to her with concern on my face. She dragged me by my right ear and led me straight to the backyard, She looked at me like it was the first time she was seeing me, she took my left arm up and twirled me around severally like a ballerina which got me nauseous. I was starting to get furious and frenzied at the same time, she grabbed my left b**b through my shirt and pressed like she was trying to get substance from bitter leaf, ‘ah ah, mama, what na?’, I let out a yelp in pain. She stared at me like a stranger. ‘Mama, what na?’, I asked again and the response was a slap from her, I held my face in pain. ‘no wonder, you’re hide everyday, I not even see your body, see your eye are white, your leg are big, you’re fating, so you is a pregnant someone now? ‘, she asked furiously. I laughed out so much, I could feel pain in my ribs, that was the umpteenth time I was hearing the word ‘pregnancy’, that day. Why would she think I was pregnant?, it was so funny to me.

‘I’m not pregnant ma’, I said, another slap landed on my face, ‘but I’m not pregnant na’, I said again and yet another slap, tears rolled down my cheek. ‘So, you have not sleeping with boy? ‘, she asked. ‘eh?’, I said, I wanted to say no when I remembered Dayo, my hands founds it’s way to my head, that’s when I reasoned, ‘After all, I was no longer chaste, the illness could be symptoms, I had missed two months cycle, it could be why I was putting on weight’, I couldn’t utter a word, tears just flowed freely. ‘Later now, you will talk sey you’re not prostitute on men, oya talk who are the child father?, let him comed and carried you away’. She said.

More tears came out as I thought of the fact that Dayo was responsible for my pregnancy and was also responsible for Yemisi’s pregnancy and I was having pity on Yemisi a while ago, I didn’t know I was also pregnant. I meant nothing to Dayo, Yemisi and I just played like fools and succumbed to his tricks, while he had gone back to the city to continue life. ‘Abi, no father, you’ve give pregnancy in yourself’, she mocked. ‘if you know, you couldn’t kept the baby, talk na, let me carry you and commot it tomorrow, you is not training up a pikin in my house’, she said harshly and walked back into the shop.

Even if my mother had not advised me to abort the baby, I still wouldn’t have kept it, what did I know then?, I wanted to still go to the city, I didn’t know that abortion was murder, I thought it was a normal thing, I had heard about multitudinous abortion stories from girls in our village and they seemed fine.
They said it wouldn’t hurt and even if it did, the pain was determined by how far one had been pregnant. I was two months pregnant, I didn’t need a baby, I had dreams so I made a resolution to abort the baby.
I wanted to call Yemisi to tell her all about my predicament but who would I say the father was? I was distraught, hurt, I lost appetite, I lost focus, all I could do was cry due to my mother’s spiteful talks and scornful looks, my mother went on and on about how I would cry the next day for the abortion, she didn’t even try to give me hope but I was grateful for one thing, she promised to pay the bills for the abortion, I just wanted to be done with it and leave that godforsaken Boma. I almost told my mum about my plans for the city but I decided to be quiet about it, I just had the feelings that if I told her I had the money to travel, she would change her mind about helping with the bills for the abortion.

As I went to sleep that night, I wished that I would wake up in the morning and all the trauma would go away.

The next day, that morning as early as 7:00am, we left for nurse Bidemi’s house, well, she wasn’t a qualified nurse but in Boma, she was popular, almost everyone went to her house for treatment or abortion like me. My mother dragged me along like a kid on our way to nurse Bidemi’s house telling me how much I would cry. I sincerely thought I would take pills or something but when I got there, I realized it was D&C (Dilation and curettage), it involved several sharp instruments, it was then I realized that I was just about to abort my first baby, I wanted to just quit the abortion and go home after I saw those horrible tools but it was too late, my mother would not even hear of it. When it was time, I hesitated even after the prep talk from the nurse, I cried like a baby but my determination for a better life made me stay still and while I lay down to go through the pain and I also layed curses on Dayo, I swore to find him and get back at him, when I reached the city.