... I was awestruck with my mouth agape.
"I mean, this particular restaurant sir" I said still so shocked, pointing at it.
"Ah ah, wetin happen (What happened)?" The man probed staring directly into my eyes.
"But, I ate here yesterday, they even packaged some food for me to take home" I let out.
The man now staring at me as if I was going out of my senses busted into laughter, laughing out so hard.
"This particular restaurant?" He quizzed also pointing at it and I nodded.
"My dear like I said earlier, this place has been empty for like a year now so I don't think it's this particular restaurant you came to"
By Blessing-Enejo Abrahams Elleywrites.
"It is" I said looking around.
"It's this place. A lady, I mean a waitress even opened this same entrance door yesterday for me to go in" I said as tears made its way down freely.
"You mean this particular restaurant?"
"Yes" I said.
"Then I'm confused" He said looking so lost.
"No wonder the food tasted exactly like my mother's" I said shedding tears.
"Ha, this girl you're getting me more confused. How do you mean? Are you sure you're ok? " He quizzed.
"My mother and father died a few years ago and, my Uncle who took me in with him also died a few months ago. I have since been staying with my grandmother and it's not been easy. I had to run away from home when the t0rture became too much for me to bear. I was locked up for days without food or water and to my surprise, I was given food here yesterday after starving for days." I said with gaze fixed and in tears, and then I looked at the man.
"I know it was my mother who gave me that food. She also made the waitress give me some money"
"You mean it? A ghost?? " He quizzed and I again nodded.
"Eyaa" He added, shaking his head.
I left there and I couldn't stop turning back my head to look at the restaurant.
After walking for a few minutes and in tears, constantly looking at the money in my pocket, I decided to go back to the uncompleted building to rest, and I was there till the next morning.
Very early the following morning, I walked out of the building to see if I could get something to eat when I saw some people gathered before this shop with plastic buckets. I was curious, so I went close to see what they were up to only to find out that they were there buying cold sachet water from a wholesaler so they could resell by the road. It seemed like a very nice idea so I brought out the money from my pocket, crossed over to the other side of the road to get a new plastic bucket. I came back and joined the queue to get water, ignoring the eyes that were already staring.
That was how I became a street hawker from a very young age, hawking till my pregnancy started shooting out.
Several women approached me that they wanted to help, and that I should come stay with them till I put to bed but I refused cos I didn't want to be maltreated and ab√sed the second time, so I chose to rather fend for myself ignoring side talks and mockery.
I carried my water every morning and hawked cos my own life depended on it. Even the woman we were buying the water from begged severally so I could come stay with her but I refused.
Some people patronised me while some didn't but I didn't let that stop me. I remained in the uncompleted building and I was there for months.
One morning, a man staying very close to the uncompleted building came with female police officers, and I was taken away with them only for them to go drop me at an orphanage...
Of course I was treated right at the orphanage, but what I had gone through in the hands of those who were supposed to be nice to me made me give up on trusting any human.
When I was six months gone, I got tired and bored of sitting in just a place so I told them at the orphanage that I wanted resuming my sachet water business but they refused, so I had to bear it till I was 9 months.
The night I went into labour, the pain was too much for me to bear. I groaned and gnashed my teeth in pain for hours but the baby wouldn't just come out, and then all I remembered after a few minutes was that I could no longer feel anything.
I saw myself later walking along this narrow path, turning and looking around, and then, my mother appeared all of a sudden, standing before me wearing a pure white robe.
"Go back! Who will take care of your baby?" She probed.
"But, the pa!n was too much to bear" I said slowly to her.
"Go back, you will no longer feel pa!n" She said.
And then, I turned back immediately and I jerked up and found myself still on the hospital bed covered with a white cloth with some nurses still around. As soon as they saw me jerk up, some of them almost jumped out through the window.
When I asked them what happened, I was told that I pushed the baby out myself even though I was unconscious, and then I died after birthing the baby. I was so sh0cked to hear that, that I looked down at my stomach immediately, and to my surprise, my stomach was no longer as protruded as it used to be.
"Where's the baby?" I asked one of the nurses and she told me that she was being bathed.
"She?" I questioned and she nodded.
"Congratulations" She said, and the other nurses too who had summoned a little courage and started to come close said so in chorus.
After just a few minutes, I was still sitting on the bed trying to comprehend all that was going on when the baby was brought to me wrapped in a white showel but, as soon as I saw her face, I remembered all I went through immediately in the hands of Stephen and her he@rtless mother, and the h@tred in me manifested. I h@ted her cos she brought nothing but b@d memories, and the fact that she was fathered by my own cousin shattered my heart. I started to shed tears staring at her, not of joy but of p@in, sadness, and of sorrow.
"My dear, there's something of great concern though. I don't know if anyone in your family or your baby's father's family has it" The nurse who brought the baby said.
On hearing that, I looked up.
"What is it?" I quizzed.
And then, she unwrapped the baby and showed me his hands. Lo and behold, the baby had four fingers with the little fingers on both hands missing. My jaw dropped in awe and I remembered how I bit off Stephen my cousin's finger who happens to be her father, and I began to wonder if that was why the baby's both same fingers were missing, and I hated her the more for even coming out to look like her father.
"Do you know anyone in your family who has something like this?" The nurse quizzed again, snapping me out of whatever was going on in my head.
"No" I said shaking my head, shedding tears.
"Don't worry, the baby is fine and healthy" She said and I again nodded.
Well, very early the following morning, I sneaked out of the hospital and ran far away without the baby. I couldn't take her with me cos, she brought back nothing but bad memories...
