Forgive – Episode 3

FORGIVE EPISODE 3

© Jones Kwesi Tagbor

Sir: Mother I don’t understand what you are saying. Can you please come clear.

My mother pulled him away from the door and entered the room. “Where is my daughter? ” she asked again. I could hear my mother’s voice but I was too weak to alert her. My eyes landed on his bloody bed sheet in a bucket beside his bed. “Jesus Christ! What is this? ” I asked myself shockingly. My mother checked every corner of the room but couldn’t find me. Louis stood her way in front of the door leading to his bedroom and crossed his arms. “Mother, it would have been best if you calm down and tell me what is going on rather than coming to search my room anyhow. Before you came I was watching a movie so probably you heard the sound from my TV”, he said. “Are you sure she is not here? Let me check the other room.” She requested but this time with a calm voice. “oh mother, why should I be keeping your daughter in my bedroom? Oh come on! What will I benefit from doing that? Mother, I respect myself so I will request you to do same for me. Your daughter is not in my room”. I replied with somehow an expedient voice. My comfortable voice erased any clue that could tell her of her daughter’s presence. “Teacher Louis, sorry to disturb you. The issue is that I sent my daughter to you around 4:30pm to deliver a message. Since then she has not returned home”, my mother reported.

“Oh that’s very bad of her. She actually came here to deliver the message but left after washing some dishes for me. It’s late now. You get going, I’ll pick an attire from my room and check from some mates of her to see if she is there. I will bring you whatever information I gather”, Sir. Louis convinced my mother. “Hmm. This girl will ki*ll me in this town. I think I should go with you for the search since she is my daughter. But please can I know the response you gave to her concerning what I asked her to come and tell you?” “Oh yeah. I will take care of everything. I will personally pay for her and even pay for her fees for the next term.” He said.

I could hear all what was going on inside the hall, so I decided to strengthen myself and crawl to meet my mother. Immediately I stood up from the bed, I fell on the floor giving a loud noise because the pain was just too much for me to bear. “What is that sound coming from your room?”, my mummy asked. “I’m even surprised myself. I will get back to you”, he said acting surprised in a confused state. He came into the room, saw me on the floor and begged me using sign language to remain silent. He fell on his knees and was requesting me to hide under the bed. “Teacher Louis what is going on?” my mom asked. Louis’ heart pumped higher upon hearing his name. I quickly went under the bed. “Oh nothing really. It’s just a bag that fell so I was packing and placing it back.” he lied. “OK. Thank you for the support you promised. God will bless you.

I will personally bring her for you to punish her in front of her peers at school if she returns to the house”, my mother said and left. Sir. Louis saw her off and was sure that she left. He came back and asked me to come out so he takes me to the hospital. He came up with a plan and an agreement between us. The agreement would be that, I will lie that I was kidnapped by masked men when I was on my way home and they raped me and later left me in a nearby bush. Adding to that, he will always give me half of his monthly salary as the reward. That sounded lucrative so I accepted the deal.

He took me to the Adidome Hospital which was not too far from Agorkpo. He told the nurses that he found me by the village road bleeding so decided to help me. They asked me what happened and I told them what we agreed on. Everybody felt pity for me. I was then admitted to the hospital that night. The following day Sir. Louis came with my mother to see me. My mother shed tears upon seeing my face. “Aww! my daughter, I’m very sorry for what happened. Put the blame on me because I sent you. Please forgive me”, she said with tears. I also joined her with my eyes full of tears.

Upon lab investigations, it was revealed that I was given a drug that made me weak. They asked me how it happened and I told the nurse that I didn’t know of that. The nurse asked me if I could recognise the faces of the rapists. I told them they were in masks and also blindfolded me so I didn’t see anything. “But I’m sure they were more than two”. They sympathised with me. I stayed at the hospital for four days before being discharged. Sir. Louis settled the hospital bill as well. My mother felt very indebted to him because she saw him to be a good Samaritan. My mother thanked him so much for his kind gestures.

I returned to school after two weeks of continuous treatment at home. Our end of term exams was due. I was in J. H. S 1 going to J.H.S 2.

The students who didn’t pay their printing fee were not allowed to write their papers but I had the chance to write because Sir. Louis paid mine as promised.

Sir. Louis became more nicer and caring towards me and my family. Almost everyday he was in our house to check up on me. He was gradually becoming part of the family.

Because of how he became close to my family, my mother don’t find any fault from me whenever I told her I was coming from Sir. Louis’ house.

One evening at his place, he requested for sex again. He said since I was no longer a virgin, there would be no problem if I engaged in sex. He equally assured me of taking care of me. The foreplay started and in no time, I was lost in the mood. Everything happened in the sitting room. I washed down at his place before going home. I didn’t feel that pain I experienced on the first instance instead, I enjoyed every part of it. I was gradually becoming an addict. As a means of keeping to his words, anytime he received his salary, he would buy me a new set of clothes. It was becoming a glare that there was something more than a mere teacher-student relationship from the other teachers. Some tried to interrogate me but I was smart enough to dodge their questions.

It just occurred to me that for the past two months I didn’t experience my menses and the third month was almost close. In that same week, I started feeling feverish. Very early in the morning, I had to run from my room and throw up. I noticed a green substance from my stomach but I didn’t care much. My brea$t was becoming bigger as well as I was feeling weak. My mother noticed the change and asked me what was wrong with me. I told her it was fever. I went to report my symptoms to Sir. Louis. The first question he asked me was when I last experienced my menses. I told him, close to three months, I’ve not seen it. “Forgive are you sure of what you are saying?” he asked. “Yes, you know I won’t lie to you.” I said.

He stood up from where he was sitting and became restless. I could see sweats engulfed his singlet. “Did your mother ask you anything about this?”, he asked again. “Not really. She only asked what was wrong with me and I told her I was suffering from fever”. “OK. Good girl. Yes, it’s true. It is just a simple fever and I know one herbal medicine that can cure it within few minutes. First thing tomorrow morning I will go and get the herb for you. So ask permission and come here in the morning since you are on vacation.

The next day, he went to get the herb and boiled it. Per the normal way of using the herb, it was supposed to be dried for about two days before boiling but because Sir. Louis had no time to waste, he boiled the herb as soon as he got home. As planned, I came to his place soon after my parents left to the farm with my other senior sister.

“Forgive I’ve boiled your herb for you. You are to take one full cup every two hours. It would be advisable you stay close to the toilet so beware of that. I think this one is already cold so you can take it now.

He told me he will be going to a meeting in the village so by the time he returns, I would be fine. ” He offered me the herb in the cup as he stood up to get dressed. Unknowingly to me, the herb was meant for aborting pregnancies. He quickly dressed up and left me behind. After about thirty minutes, my stomach was on fire. It was as if my intestines were being cut off from my system. I was in serious pain. There was no one to call. Unlike these days where there are mobile phones to quickly call for help. After an hour to two, my heart started pumping very fast. My stomach inflamed and I found it difficult to breath. Before I realised, I started bleeding from my private part profusely. “What exactly is happening to me?”, I asked myself. I felt like passing urine and because of the pain, I decided to do it in the room. Ooops! the fetus came out. It was very small but a complete human being. Just that it has not fully formed. Not long after this, Sir. Louis came to see me in the mess.

He knew what he had done, so the scene was nothing to make him afraid when he saw me. He came to me bending before me and said, “Sorry for this pain you are going through. You were pregnant and since you are a student, I didn’t want you to drop out of school. The medicine was to terminate your pregnancy. You will be fine with time.” He said. I became motionless. Before he could realise, I fell into coma because of the over bleeding”. It looked like I passed out.

He hurriedly went out for a taxi to rush me to the hospital. The blood from my private part had messed up my clothes. I was taken to the emergency ward upon arrival at the hospital. They fixed oxygen on me and did other procedures while I was unconscious. The doctor detected what happened but didn’t say anything. He called for my mother to come. The woman came and the doctor told her to call for Louis’ arrest because he nearly killed her daughter. My mother didn’t think twice before landing a heavy slap on Sir. Louis face. She went to call the police and likewise reported to our headmaster. The police came to take Louis away to their station. “Madam, you are the cause of your child’s problem. Why should you allow your child to be with this man to take care of her?” the headmaster told my mother. My mom pitied herself and regretted her actions. She decided to teach Sir Louis a lesson that he will never forget.

To be continued

 

ALL EPISODES OF FORGIVE