Cold Desert – Episode 4

COLD DESERT EPISODE 4

© Abhynha Yankey
All Rights Reserved.

BROKEN SHADES

My heart was crushed with heaviness.

He had satisfied his desire.

The pain was indescribable. I couldn’t hold my tears back, neither could I stand on my legs. I sat on my mat and cried as I watched my fresh blood flow down my thighs.

Sex is really painful. Is this what people deem as a profession? Are they mad or what? Even this one saw my eyes gushing out of their holes.

He left back to wherever he came from. I cried and cursed my late parents for leaving me this way.

I’m sure those men would have spared their lives if they had willingly given out the money.

Now look at me, I’ve lost everything. Every little thing on me has been lost.

As I pondered over all these, both parents returned.

As usual, my mum kept yelling till I came out. For once I couldn’t watch my dad in the eye. The beast in him was now riding on his forehead.

“Get the things from the car and get some food for your father. He is sick and needs rest”, she said.

He is what? Sick? Hmmmm…then he better dies.

From their conversation, I deduced that he came home on the basis that he was not feeling well, so was coming for his medication.

Eeiii Awurade, do I now look like a pill or capsule?

I went to the kitchen but couldn’t cook. I was really in pain. My mum slapped me from behind without asking me any question when she got there. It was after the slap that she asked why I was sitting idle when my father was hungry.

Father? Father indeed! To hell with him.

I ran out to sit behind the house. The burden was getting heavier than I ever thought of.

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*TRANSFIGURATION*

I ran out to sit behind the house. The burden was getting heavier than I ever thought of.

My father’s attitude totally changed towards me. He also began yelling at me. He finally decided he wouln’t eat from my pot.

Agh…even after all these, he still had dignity?

During one of my daily chores, I accidentally broke a plate because I was feeling dizzy and weak.

My father shouted at me and it woke my mum up.

“You must drive her out today! This attitude of hers is becoming uncontrollable. If she’s not a witch then I don’t know what I will use to describe her. I accepted her because her parents were always seen at church, but look”, he kept yelling.

My mum was able to calm him down because if I left,no one would ran errands for them. I was there not for anything but to ran errands and keep the place clean.

I guess he understood it and kept quiet.

What at all have I done to deserve all these?

After breaking my virginity,this is what he can do?

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*BLACK TUESDAY*

What at all have I done to deserve all these?

After breaking my virginity,this is what he can do?

It was a cloudy Tuesday morning and one thing was certain, it was my definitely going to be my worst day ever in the house.

“Hei, tell me, are you pregnant? Huh, talk! Or you have finally turned to be deaf. Talk before I slap the hell out of you!”, my mum kept asking when she saw me vomit a countless number of times in the morning and the previous day.

I suddenly turned into a perfect stammerer. For ten minutes, I couldn’t find the words to make a simple sentence.

She took me to the hospital when I was refusing to answer her questions.

They performed some test on me for what reason I knew not. She was called aside and given the results.

I thought everything was alright until we got home.

She dragged me by the ear to the hall where my father watched a football match. “Daddy, do you know we have been making fools of ourselves all this while? She has been sneaking out in the night to go have sex with those notorious guys on the streets?”, mum asked my dad.

“Calm down and explain what you are saying”, he said.

She explained the outcome of the result to him; I was pregnant.

I tried to explain myself but the battering didn’t allow me. The question about who was responsible was getting out of hand. Though I was scared, I finally mentioned my father’s name.

As if heaven had been forcefully torn apart, he screamed and began raining curses on me.

“Heeer, shut up! You think my husband will stoop so low and have sex with you? Daddy, that was why I didn’t want you to get closer to her in anyway. Auntie Akosua, the women’s movement leader told everything. I mean how she came to meet her in a very short dress trying to bend down in front of you. I knew a day like this will come”,mum lamented.

“Did you say you saw it coming? Why do you think I asked that she be thrown out in the first place? For some time I was getting her biscuits on my way back from church. During one of these times,it took the holy spirit to intervene. She stripped naked before me and asked that I have sex with her. I beat her up mercilessly and that was how come she has distanced herself”, daddy replied.

I did what? That was a man of God talking. Before I could open my eyes wide enough, my mum was already beating me up again.

They finally succeeded in throwing me out of the house. I didn’t have anywhere to go to.

___

*WRONG TURN*

They finally succeeded in throwing me out of the house. I didn’t have anywhere to go to.

I wandered on the streets. Hunger finally became my best friend.

I decided to make a stop and rest for a while in front of a bar.

The owner of the bar saw me to be a thief. She threw her pot of dirty water on me. As if that wasn’t enough, she rained insults on me and asked that onlookers beat me up. Some guys from nowhere pounced on me. I pleaded with them to let the poor pregnant teenager go. I only stopped over to have some rest and then continue my walk to nowhere.

They were not wicked though,they gave listening ears to my plea but warned me never to use that street alone again because it was often dangerous.

God really intervened on time. I would have lost my baby if not my own life.

I thanked them and continued my walk.

“Lady, lady, stop!”…the voice kept repeating itself.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me until i could ran no more. I turned and saw the owner of the bar running to me. I stopped when I became too weak and tired to continue.

I knelt down and begged her to spare me.

I wasn’t a thief. I didn’t touch anything. I kept pleading as she drew closer.

She was a fat plumpy woman who could take a second to bring out my intestines.

I knew the battle was finally over when I saw her hands, I hadn’t touched them,yet I knew it was big enough to take away my last breathe.

I kept praying to God to grant me a special place in heaven.

To be continued

 

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