I want to picture this scenario in your mind
You are fresh from high school, getting ready for your time at the university
Finally, you get accepted into the university
All is good in the beginning
You are focused on your studies and life, as an individual
Things start to change along the way
As you well know life….it is never stuck in one place!
In your second year at the university, you get yourself into an intimate relationship with this older man
One that is working in foodstuffs
Selling on a small-trade basis
He is like this shining beacon of hope for a good future with him
And so, you fall so hard for him so fast!
In a blink of an eye, you are pregnant
And it is his!
Back at school, you got all these eyes on you and ears on the ground you walk on
From your close relatives who know what is going on
So, they report back home to your family and the warnings begin being passed on to you
About how you need to choose between your studies and your man
In the beginning, you deny anything unusual going on
But after a while, all cards are brought on the table….well now, since your belly has grown much bigger!
So then, you make way with your heart and follow your man
You start a life with him
No wahala in the start
….all is smooth as you get by
Waiting for your little one to step foot in the adults and men’s world
Voila….your child is born
It is a baby-girl
And the big part of your life begins now….as a young mother and a married woman
A few years down the road, your man’s true self is brought out to the world to see
He begins controlling you, wanting to know about x,y,z
Demanding for a,b,c,d
Until the final stroke when he attempts to steal away your rightfully earned monies and property
The case just never seems to end even in the courts of law and public order
Your people back home keep telling you to divorce the man for your own sake and that of your children but alas….you just won’t hear any of it
This one day, he draws up a plan to actually kill you in guise of a robbery gone wrong
Young men covered in black show up at your residence with the intent of killing you but your messiah seems to be on close look-out for you
You and your children raise an alarm louder than a bomb
It works this time….
You are saved
Perhaps, they don’t even know what is going on
Poor things….
On another occasion, your eldest child narrates to you how Daddy called her one day intimately and shared with details of how she is supposed to take care of her siblings since he is not sure he will be around to do so himself
He shares details and pictures of all her aunties and uncles
She didn’t take it seriously that time
It gets more serious now…
Your man gets home one day
With his grand plan of hacking you to your death
As you are sedated, lying in your matrimonial bed with him
With no ears and eyes on you
Isolated from the rest of the world
He laces your food and drinks and not before long, you feel like lying down for a bit
Only for you to wake up and be told that you are in a hospital bed
From surgery and getting into another real soon
Just so that they can save your face
You were savagely hacked by HIM!!!!
He practically left you for dead!
As if that is not enough, he goes ahead to pick up a rope from the grazing goats in your compound
And heads out to one unfinished housing structure
Where he hangs himself
Why he does that…I just can’t tell…
Shame, guilt, fear, remorse, pride, cowardice…I don’t know
Successfully, you make it out of surgery and death and the hospital
You return back home
Your memory is getting back to you slowly…in bits…
You are taking it one day at a time
The rest of your family and friends devise a plan on how to let you on what went down till this date
Doctors suggest that the environment has to be conducive for that, a happy one with quite a bunch of merry-making
It’s all set up
They gather up their courage and pull to the side and start talking
They let you know on how he made all this happen
The one person you still loved, trusted and hoped would come around for you
It breaks your heart….you stare in the open sky and space
So sad, right?
You gather yourself and choose to live your life as you raise your kids, as well.
You resolve not to leave your house, however haunted they say it is
How is that picture coming? Is it coming your way?