Flicker Of A Golden Future
ADUBI Fatoye was in a terrible dilemma. What would she do with the pregnancy she was carrying?
She was more hopeless and sad because the young man who impregnated her had absconded and was nowhere to be found. Her aunt, Mojisola, had told her she should abort the ‘dirty’ pregnancy and get on with her life, but she feared that this might be the only child God would bless her with and so she had resolved that she wouldn’t terminate the pregnancy.
Adubi had never aborted any pregnancy in her life, as she was afraid of facing damning consequences and punishments from God. Such was her belief and she clung tenaciously to her faith. She was just a 23-year-old beautiful lady who studied Catering and Interior Decoration from a private polytechnic in Bariga, Lagos. She was a tender, lovely, tall and dark-skinned beauty, who was very humble.
Martins Abioseh, who disvirgined and impregnated her, had travelled to Ghana, with no intention of coming back to Nigeria. It was still a mystery to Adubi how she got hooked in the love bait of Martins, who broke her heart and eloped with another lady to Ghana.
Mojisola would not take any more of this petty and babyish belief of her younger cousin. She threatened fire and brimstone.
“From today onwards, you will not eat in this house and I won’t give you a kobo, if you don’t abort that stupid pregnancy you are carrying. Is that right?” she roared, with unmitigated anger clearly written on her face. She went further by giving the young lady a deafening slap right on her cheek. Mojisola was a very hard and tough woman who believed her orders must be obeyed at all cost. She was a very virulent and hot-tempered woman and had the boisterous and aggressive nature of a military despot.
She was short and stocky, like a wrestler. She always ordered her cousin about as if she was her slave. Adubi touched her cheek and sobbed like a toddler being punished for wrongdoings. She had a gentle and soft nature.
“Please, don’t do this to me… Please, I beg you in God’s name,” Adubi pleaded in tears. But her aunt had already made up her mind.
Mojisola was an unrepentant prostitute, a profession she had been doing for the past 20 years. She saw no reason why Adubi should keep the pregnancy. She didn’t believe in such saintly and chaste behaviours of her cousin. In the past, there had been several clashes between the two regarding their lifestyles. Mojisola was in her early 30s, with no child and she continued her depraved way of life, without batting an eyelid and any a feeling of remorse.
Since Mojisola was the head in the house, there was nothing Adubi could do. So, she suffered in silence, with her yet unborn baby. There were many days she would go to bed on an empty stomach. Most times, she would eat once daily, but she actually clung to her faith and belief.
“Nothing will ever make me abort my pregnancy,” she said to herself one Sunday morning. “Only death would make me part with my baby.”
Truly, Adubi faced untold sufferings. She did all sorts of menial jobs just to survive and feed herself, all these as she started counting the months as they rolled by. Her pregnancy was growing gradually and she endured the pains of lack and hunger.
(To be concluded next week Saturday)