Curved Balls

A Poor Dish of Fate

I wake up each day in the years that followed Peace's demise surer than the last about what kind of life I wanted, but I was having a battle with getting into the university, to fulfil my dreams of championing Human Rights and Women Advocacy. It was like there was something I couldn't figure that was stalling my admission yearly. I had made my Senior School Certificate examination at that singular sitting the year Peace died, and I wrote University Matriculation examination every single year that followed.

By now, I was more like a stakeholder in Faith's business so I saved money for myself. I didn't have to bother my sister for the exam registration fees each year. The business was expanding we decided to have a new branch that I would manage, until I secured admission of course, as I continued to tell Faith, who by now had given up on schooling despite the firm resolves of her younger years, and her financial independence. She would say to me now and again: "Why do people go to school? Is it not for money in the long run?" And I would keep telling her that for me, it's school or nothing!

Faith met Amos, a young charming graduate but a sworn entrepreneur just like my sister, and talks of wedding began to echo through the air around us. At that stage of my life, I was already beginning to live like one with no other family but Faith. I never entertained thoughts of my family members, living or dead, not even on the anniversary of demise, departure nor birthdays. Only on occasions I passed through the area the barrack we lived was located did such thoughts cross my mind. But Faith's wedding plans made us begin to talk more about them in the house. For me, my mother was either dead or outside the country with my brother Andrew, because she has not dimmed it necessary to call on us, her children, since that morning she left.

John's promises of sending me money and other goodies were all I had to hold unto, no more no less. Dad was the only family we could reach, and he couldn't even show his face at the wedding despite the many trips the couple made to his new station in the build up to the wedding. His younger brother stood in for him to take the bride price at the very modest, but well attended wedding. I was her bride's maid and I was so happy for her that day and I wished her happy ever after. But, as much as I hate to admit, her marriage to Amos was the beginning of another phase of my life. Like it is said, a leopard never changes its spots.

I never liked Amos from the first day. I always knew there was something horrific behind his charming face that I couldn't figure. But for my sister's sake, I didn't show it. I just played along because for one, I had nothing against him, so I was just meticulous enough not to disrespect him, nor my sister for that matter in the name of a evil foreboding.

Two months into their marriage however, Amos raped me.That day, my world came crashing down.

I have never been of a big stature, so it was very easy for him to overpower me that evening when I came home to assist my sister to arrange dinner. I had not expected him to be home at that time. He was usually the last to come home, and I wondered who he left the management of his beloved Electronics store to. My sister was unusually late that day and I wondered if he plotted it ahead of time.

Amos blatantly ignored my pleas and even the confession of virginity. Infarct, you won't believe how he licked his lips at the news and gave a mischievous sneer. I lay on the floor weeping, until my sister came. The food I kept on the cooker burnt and went in flames. Amos put out the fire just as Faith walked into the fumed sitting room and found me laying still. she must have thought the worst as she pulled me up from the floor to sit with my back against the back of a sofa.

After my narration of what had ensued in her absence, she just led me into the bathroom and bathed me. That was the end of that incident. We never spoke about it anymore, like it never happened. A repeat performance followed the very next month. This time, I was to blame, according to my darling sister. I was labelled a seductress, and I knew that my time in that house was up. But before I could make any move, I found out I was pregnant!

If I thought I had seen enough, then I was a dreamer. Amos declared that he wanted me to have the baby. By that time, Faith was still to conceive. It was barely four months into their marriage. I was torn within me. I was clueless like never before. My only friend and confidant was my sister Faith who now sees me as a rival. What do I do? I was scared and felt trapped. I didn't want to end up like Peace by having an abortion. Yet, I couldn't have a baby, least of all for my brother-in-law and a devil like Amos.

I went to bed straight after dinner one night, it was about two weeks since the discovery of the pregnancy. A sharp pain in my abdomen woke me up before midnight, and behold, when I sat up, I saw a pool of blood in the bed sheeting between my legs...