Nadia!
By EXCELRHYMEZ
Episode 19
Mr Ojo had just beaten up his wife who seemed not to be tired of the beaten.
Mr Ojo: if I continue with you, I will kill you in this house. Foolish woman
Mrs Ojo: You are the foolish man, your hands are not clean and that is why calamity is falling on you, your evil has gotten hold of you, wicked man!
Mr Ojo took a big stick and threw it at her but she dodges it and the stick landed on the television that was hanging on the wall shattering it to pieces
Mrs Ojo: You see yourself? You’ve broken the television, you see your life? Tell me what you will sell now? Tell me useless man, you are a failure’, you have failed, you have sold everything in the house and used the money to drink, the only television left in the house you’ve broken it, maybe you will go and sell your kidney now to make money! Hunger will kill you in this house you will see.
Mr Ojo: After the hunger has killed your foolish father and wicked mother.
He started running after her and she ran out of the compound into the streets. This was not the first time she was having a fight with her her husband, she is used to his beatings and the whole area knew them and no one dares interfered in their fights anymore. Mrs Ojo remembered when things were rosy and beautiful for her and her husband, she had cars upon cars, her children were schooling in the best schools in the country and her business was booming, but gradually everything had gone into the dust.
Maybe it was karma, maybe she was paying for her sins and her wickedness. She saw a stone near an uncompleted building and there she sat down and cried, as she remembered what happened 18years ago.
Queen was her co-wife, she has been married into the house three years before Queen came, and when Queen came she was the love of everyone, she was a queen indeed, beautiful in heart and in face, at first both of them had lived in peace until Queen told her she was pregnant, she became jealous because she was in the house before the arrival of Queen and she had not been able to take in, she did everything possible for Queen to lose her pregnancy but that was not the case, Queen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 9 months later. Her hatred for Queen increased when after two months of putting to birth Queen told her she was pregnant again, she had advised Queen to abort the pregnancy that it was too early to get pregnant after putting to birth and Queen had insisted on talking to her husband first and after Queen told her husband of the pregnancy they decided to keep it. Queen later told her that her husband was excited about the pregnancy and they were going to keep it. She remembered her anger and hatred and jealousy, she remembered plotting severally to poison Queen so she can miscarry but even after eating the poisoned food, Queen blossomed with her baby and the pregnancy, she remembered the day Queen finally put to birth, she remembered taking Queen to the hospital and after which she planned with the midwife to give Queen a dead baby, she remembered paying 700 naira to the midwife who took a dead baby to Queen as her baby, she remembered Queens tears as she held onto the dead baby crying and kissing it all over, she remembered taking the baby from Queen saying she was going to bury it and giving it back to the midwife to give it to its real family. She remembered taking Queen home and the sadness in the house that day, she remembered how she rejoiced in their sadness. ”Its karma indeed” she said to herself, I am paying for my sins”
Episode 20
Nadia and Ruth has resumed school, and they were already preparing for their exams, at first Nadia felt awkward because she was still leaping on one leg and she heard whispers almost everywhere that she was the missing girl, but with Ruth by her side, she was confident that she will scale through. They both had a lot of catching up to do in their school work and so they were reading like heaven was going to come down. Sometimes the pregnancy tells on her and makes her weak but that didnt weigh her down, she strive more to get what she wants. Even when her exams started her course-mates felt her pregnancy would affect her and make her unable to write her exams but they were all shocked when Nadia kept working harder and harder determined to make it.
When her pregnancy became at 6months, the school authorities noticed and summoned her, it was against the medical school rule that a student be pregnant while in school, the punishment for such offence was immediate suspension and Nadia was summoned to defend herself. It was no news to the entire school that she was kidnapped for almost a month and so when she started her story of how she was raped continuously everyday, the professors and doctors who sat at the panel ready to suspend her, started crying, some were even applauding her for finding the courage to return back to school, so many of your mates wouldn’t be able to survive the trauma and so many will not return back to school, but you are a very strong woman and you came back, and I am so proud of you” that was the chief medical director's statement. And so after a 45 minutes of sitting, it was concluded that Nadia be allowed to finish her school if she is ready and able. Nadia was so happy when they gave her their decision, she knelt down and cried and thanked them promising not to disappoint them.
Stanley and Frank already started buying baby things, and in no time the house was filled with everything a baby needed. Nadia was grateful, she was happy, she knew that her life will change once the baby comes, but she also knew she had shoulders to lean onto and people who will support her.
One day she and Ruth were on their way coming from their different classes, and they were walking home, she suddenly became thirsty and they branched at a shop to buy some water, and then she heard that voice, the voice that she can never forget in her whole life, she turned to see the direction it was coming from, and there they were, the four of them, sitting and drinking band smoking. Nadia froze at where she was standing, fear gripped her and she couldn’t move, Ruth didn’t know what was happening to her, ”Nadi, Nadi, what is it ? What is wrong? What’s happening to you, Nadia, talk to me, Ruth grabbed a chair and gave it to Nadia to sit down, but she was too frightened to sit, she suddenly turned and started running, Ruth ran and caught up with her and led her home, she made her sit and rest for a while and when she was calm again, Nadia explained what happened to Ruth and mama, and told them that the boys who kidnapped her were same boys she saw at that shop. Ruth quickly jumped up and called Frank, and in the next 15 minutes Frank was already there with Stanley, they quickly drove down to the shop where the girls had seen them, with Ruth sitting at the front of the car giving directions. By the time they got there. The boys were gone.
Stanley decided to ask the woman who owned the shop about the boys, but Ruth didnt think it was a nice idea, she felt if the woman knew them she might tell them that some persons came looking for them and they may disappear forever. But Frank and Stanley told her not to worry that they know how to play the game. Then frank and Stanley went and sat down at a table and ordered for bottles of beer, they sat and drank for few minutes and then Stanley got up and went to the woman who stood there admiring the twins. ”Madam o, our friends been say them dey come here come drink say make we meet them here, but hold up nor let us quickly reach here and we nor fit call them because our phones don off. I nor know wheather them don come go or them never reach here” the woman looked at him from head to toe and said ”who be your friend because I never see you for this my beer parlour before, if your friends dey come here you suppose they follow them come here too, how come I nor know you? Frank laughed before answering, ”madam na because I nor dey stay here, all of us na the same school we go and me and my brother na Lagos we dey stay, na yesterday we enter town, we decided to hook up today,” he turned as if he was looking around for them, I nor know where those four aboki don’ enter now! The woman suddenly started laughing, ”so na aboki you dey call them too, especially DAGGER, e tall logologo like aboki, Anthony, chinedu and Samson their own good small but Dagger, ah I nor know where that boy for come, anyways sha, them don commot, them nor even mention am say una dey come, but them say tomorrow them go come again by that kain three, na because una nor quick come make una miss them so, them really Sidon tey today before” she concluded, ”you say tomorrow 3 o'clock ba?” Stanley asked, ”yes, tomorrow three o’clock them nor dey miss my snake pepper soup so them go dey here by three” ” okay madam we go come here by three tomorrow, we sef go like to taste that your pepper soup,” ”ah you go like am” she said , na fresh snake we dey use here, you go enjoy am, she said. ”No wahala frank said, but madam nor tell them say we dey come tomorrow abeg, we won surprise them abeg, ”ejima that nor be problem but you go find me small thing o, so that I nor go spoil your surprise tomorrow”, madam the madam Stanley hailed her and then brought 500 naira and then gave it to the woman who happily collected it, praising and hailing them as they walked away! Ruth was thrilled at the drama that was just displayed. She prayed and hoped they capture the boys by tomorrow so that justice will be served on the boys already!
To be continued
Do you think the boys will be caught tomorrow?