Pleasure And Pain – Episode 6

By Femi Odunayo

They say information spreads like a virus when not properly controlled. Barely two days after Nancy returned home, information circulated across that she was back in town, and it didn’t take long before the reports reached Ekosodin, the place where Nosa was based.

Ever since her sudden disappearance, Nosa had been traumatized and devastated, he began consuming alcoholic drinks more often than usual, he was doing this almost every day, and he was gradually turning into a drunk. His friends tried to discourage him from this act but their efforts were rendered futile, as he always found a way to become intoxicated after drinking to stupor. Rumours around Ekosodin had it that his situation was caused by his one-time girlfriend, Nancy, and his well-wishers around his neighbourhood were not pleased about the development. So when news broke out that Nancy was back in town, his friends felt the best way to bring him back to his senses was to accompany him to her location, so that the both of them could finally settle their issues amicably.

Ochuko, Emmy, and Badmus advised Nosa to pay Nancy a visit at her home, eventhough the husband to her aunt doesn’t want him there due to an ugly incident that took place sometime ago. Nosa bluntly kicked against the idea giving reasons why he doesn’t wanna go there, but they assured him that it was the only way to show that they meant business. They also made him to understand that the rationale surrounding their reasons for wanting to accompany him there was to create peace between the both parties involved, and not to enact a war. Nosa promised to think over it, without actually making any promises; Three days later, he agreed to go there, and – on the day they were to embark on the visit, two other guys in the hood decided to follow them along, and together they were numbered six all together, including Nosa.

On getting to the place, Nosa parked his car outside the compound, and four of the guys disembarked and headed to the house, they included Emmy, Badmus and the remaining two other guys, while Ochuko and Nosa remained inside the car.

The four of them stepped into the compound which was fenced and met Mrs. Osadolor collecting dried clothes which were hung on a rope, but Nancy was no where to be found. They approached towards her and Emmy started explaining who they were and why they came. Everything was going smoothly not until the conversation became heated, just then, the two random guys who had accompanied them dashed into the house in search of Nancy, which wasn’t part of the initial plan. Seeing that the guys went into her house without permission, Mrs. Osadolor threw the clothes on her hands away and quickly went after them, while Badmus and Emmy followed shortly.

Getting inside, they discovered that Nancy wasn’t around. They were about leaving back outside when Mrs. Osadolor came for one of the random guys and gripped him on his shirt. The second guy was trying to separate the fued, instead, Mrs. Osadolor grabbed the first guy firmly on his testicles attempting to pull it off. This got the two guys aggravated, as they relinquished their anger on her and strated beating her mercilessly. Emmy and Badmus rushed towards them and joined hands in separating the fracas. While the first guy was punching her like a punch bag, the second guy was kicking her on her stomach and other parts of her body.

After several obtained bruises and fist cuts, Mrs. Osadolor couldn’t take it any longer, she fell down, collapsed instantly and passed out.. When they realized that she wasn’t vibrant anymore, the four of them ran away in the speed of light, while Mrs. Osadolor laid helplessly on the floor with nobody coming to her rescue.

***

Thirty minutes later, Nancy arrived back home from the market where she had gone to purchase some food items. As she stepped into the room, she saw what appeared like a lifeless figure lying on the floor, and the person looked exactly like her aunt. She moved closer to her aunt who appeared to be sleeping on the floor while her room was vacant. After several attempts to get her to talk, all her efforts proved abortive.

Nancy became scared when she couldn’t resuscitate her aunt back to life, then she started screaming for help. Her persistent wailing seemed to have attracted the attention of neighbours who ran into the house, in a bid to ascertain what the problem was; About four men and three women ran inside at approximately the same time, and met Nancy crying while holding on to her aunt who remained unconscious.

They kept asking millions of questions which Nancy couldn’t provide an answer to, then they figured it was best to rush her to the hospital. One of the men sprung up to get his car key, and they bundled her inside the vehicle, and then, they rushed her to the University of Benin teaching hospital (UBTH) at Ugbowo, which is barely a kilometre drive from the university.

Mrs. Osadolor was admitted on arrival, and taken to the emergence ward, the doctor confirmed that she was in a severe coma, then she was put on life support. A phone call had to be put to her husband, an immigration officer who was based at Abuja, the federal capital territory.

Mr. Efosa Osadolor flew to the Benin airport in about two hours time, and he got to the hospital to meet his wife in a critical state. The doctor informed him that his wife suffered internal bleeding which appeared to emanate from physical brawl. The only way they could get to know who did it – is if she survived to give a first-hand explanation of the matter. The doctor then assured Mr. Osadolor that he had good news and bad news respectively. The good news being that she would recover from the coma, and the bad news being that she lost a three weeks old pregnancy, after being childless for ten years.

Mr. Osadolor was almost in tears after seeing the situation that is wife was going through, he was so vexed that he couldn’t wait to know who had brought so much pain on his family. The person was definitely going to regret his or her actions.

Nancy narrated the little she knew about the incident to him, but there wasn’t enough evidence to know the culprit.

Later that day, she woke up under intensive care to behold herself on an hospital bed, while drips were placed on strategic parts of her body. The doctor, her husband and Nancy were there to comfort her, but the doctor warned them not to disturb her until she was strong enough to talk.

Mr. Osadolor had put a call through to the then Commissioner of Police in Benin, who was his childhood friend to assist him with policemen to guard over her while in the hospital so that the suspect(s) don’t come back to finish her, knowing she was the only one who could expose them.

The next day, she spoke for the first time since her collapse, and her health was getting better. She narrated the whole story to her husband from the very beginning, and right there, Nancy received a deadly military slap from her uncle-in-law who also act as her father. It took the intervention of the policemen on guard, before he let go of her, after his wife started crying and pleading that she not Nancy, was supposed to be blamed for not nurturing her daughter in the right way, otherwise, Nancy wouldn’t have aborted for a guy three times, and even get pregnant for him the fourth time.

The hospital ward was turned into a drama theatre, as Nancy went on her knees begging her father in tears, but he refused to yield to her pleas, insisting that she must abort the child, whom he called a bas***d.

The doctor intervened into the matter in a calm way and excused furious Mr. Osadolor to his office, and then advised him to revert his decision on Nancy, stating that she was prone to losing her life, considering the fact that the pregnancy had already matured, and it wouldn’t be appropriate should he lose his only child left, after his wife had also lost a baby. Two wrongs they say don’t make a right.

Mr. Osadolor had a re-think about his decision and forgave Nancy, but melted out serious punishment to her, plus the fact that she was gonna be grounded for a very long time.

Nancy’s case was solved, but the equation wasn’t balanced yet. Nosa was next-in-line..

…to be continued