I must’ve run like three streets away from ours before I finally stopped and sat right in front of shop that was unopened. There was a dusty looking bench in front of the shop, tired and overwhelmed, I sat down on it without bothering about the heap of dust on it. What should I do now? How do I get myself out of this mess? How do I stop Aunty Florence from using me as her spiritual bait for a child of her own? And even if I want to stop her, where do I go to if she chooses to throw me out of her house? I can’t go back to the village, I do not have the resources to do so, so what other options do I have? God! I couldn’t believe Aunty Florence of all people could do this to me! The tears just continued to roll ceaselessly down my face…
Only God knows for how long I must’ve been in that state. I didn’t know when Aunty Florence got close to me and grabbed me by the shoulder.
“You this girl, you want to kill me?” she shouted, apprehension written all over her face.”I have been searching everywhere for you. It was one of the neighbours who told me they saw you sitting here. You want tie?”
I didn’t say a word. I tried to bring myself to say something but nothing came forth. That very moment, I hated her with every part of my being. I trusted her to help me solve my problem and get me out of the mess I was in but he just chose to pull the rug from under my feet and take advantage of me.
“Listen to me, Rosie, I know I have offended you, I know I have hurt you deeply but please, I beg you, forgive me and let’s go home,” she said to me. She reached for my hand and pulled me up from the bench.
She took me back home. I had no other choice. I had no other place to go to. Back at home, she pleaded and pleaded with me to help her.
“If you do this for me, Rosie, if you stay here and have this baby, I promise you I will do whatever you ask me to do. You know I have money. I am rich, my husband too has money, so you can be sure I will spoil you silly. Then, if I now take in, that’s more money for you. By the time I finally put to bed, trust me, you will have so much money you won’t know what to do with it, I can guarantee you that.”
I told her I had heard all she said to me. And I gave her the impression I believed every word she said. But of course, I would be stupid to do so. She just confessed she’d been lying to me all this while about helping me, so why would I believe her now that she would do the things she was promising to do? But inside my head, I was starting to think of other plans. And only one idea was ringing in my head. It’s my only option. But I would need help to make it possible, and the only person I could think of was Stanley, the young guy upstairs who had been eyeing me ever since I arrived Lagos….
I liked Stanley. From the very first time he set his eyes on me, he had been on my case. Once he noticed I was outside washing clothes or engaged in some other house chores, he would come meet me and start sweet talking me. And to be honest, I liked him too. He was tall, good looking and spoke very good English. He was in his early twenties. But I didn’t let him know I fancied him. I was already battling to get myself out of one trouble, I didn’t need a Stanley to add to it for me. I was sure that if he knew I was already pregnant for someone, he would take flight and never come near me again.
“I need your help, Stanley,” I’d told him the following day when I saw him within the compound.
“Seriously? You need my help?” Stanley exclaimed, he couldn’t believe I had actually come to him for help. “Ask me for anything and I will be more than ready to do anything for you,” he said excitedly, seeing this as an opportunity to get close to me.
“I need a job, Stanley, and I need it fast,” I said to him.
He was a little puzzled. He wasn’t expecting that. “Job, what kind of job are you looking at?” he asked, sounding like he genuinely would like to help.
“Anything that can put some little money in my purse,” I replied, trying not to sound like I was in some kind of trouble that required money to fix. “I am just trying to save up some money for some personal needs,” I added.
He thought about it for a while and then said: “I will talk to a few people around, you won’t mind even it’s a sales girl job, right?”
“No, I won’t mind, only problem is that I will need to close early to come prepare food for my aunty and her husband before they both return from work,” I told him. And he said it was okay.
My plan was actually to get a job without Aunty Florence knowing. She also leaves very early for work like her husband. If I leave home after they’re gone and I could return home before they’re back, then I should be able to save some money to get rid of this damned pregnancy in my womb. I had already added weight. My tummy was bulging, but people didn’t notice because I was wearing tights that kept my tummy looking normal. But, soon, I knew those tights would no longer be able to conceal the fact that I was pregnant and everyone except Aunty Florence would start wondering what was wrong with me. And I was running out of time. I wasn’t prepared to let me Aunty Florence use me as her own bait to conceive, I had to take my own destiny into my own hands and decide which path was best for me.
Two days after, I heard someone knocking lightly on our window around noon. It was Stanley. I came out to meet him and found he was excited about something.
“Pretty Rosie, how are you doing?” he greeted with a huge smile on his face. He had renamed me Pretty Rosie, that’s what he’d been calling me and I had no objections to it.
“I’m doing fine, thank you,” I responded. “You seem excited this afternoon, what is it?”
“Well, you too will soon join in the excitement, now guess what?” he said.
In my mind, I was wondering, could he have……? “Please, Stanley, what is it?”
He beamed at me with another big smile. “I have gotten a job for you!”
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