I felt a stiffness in my feet. It was like I was glued to the floor where I was seated. Anike let let go of my shirt and cried bitterly.
“Wale, you impregnated a mother and a child?”Mama asked in astonishment.
“Mama I never knew she was mummy Amaka’s daughter. She never told me. She told me her name was Patricia. I never knew.” I defended.
“You are a bastard Wale. You raped me. I tried to stop you. I tried to push you away but you took advantage of me. Now I am three weeks pregnant and carrying your child. Only for you and your mum to come and kill my mother.” Anike cried out.
I covered my face in mortification. I could not believe this was happening to me at this moment of life. Just when I thought everything was going perfectly for me.
Just when I had gotten into my 300level in the university. I was filled with regrets. I wished I had stopped when Anike had told me to stop. I really wish I did.
I remembered how I had visited her that very first day. I remember how we had gotten into an argument about the channel she chose to watch. She stood up angrily and walked to the door to open it. I remembered how she wanted me to walk out that very day, but instead, I walked to her and shut the door back.
I stood facing Anike and trying to apologise for my wrong doings when the light went off, when the TV went blank, and everywhere became silent again.
Maybe I wouldn’t have done what I did if the light never went off that day. May be all this wouldn’t had happened if I had walked out that day and let her shut the door.
It was in the midst of the darkness we stood in, that courage descended on me and I began to tell Anike every sweet words that came to my head. I held her hands and expressed my feelings for her. I told her just how much sleep I had lost because I couldn’t stop thinking of her.
Anike starred in my eyes speechlessly. Just like the movies, I saw the look in her eyes. It was that look that says I feel what you feel for me. It was that look that said Wale kiss me right now. I took a step further, and yet another very slowly, and drew in for a kiss.
Anike never moved; she never did. She stood still waiting for me. She knew what I wanted to do. I grabbed onto her lips and kissed her.
At first Anike never responded. She didn’t move her lips. But after a few maneuver with my lips, she responded and kissed me right back. She held me on my neck and I held her waist too. A passionate kiss was ignited. The fire in our hearts burned. It was like she had this feelings for me too. It was like she felt what I felt in my heart for her.
Anike and I staggered to the cushion when things went hot. We were still kissing and fumbling with ourselves when I pulled out my cloths and flung it to an unknown direction. I helped pull off Anike bra and top. Her breast was exposed.
Anike never fought back or stopped me. I wish she did. I loosened the button of her bomb shorts and dragged it down. Anike was without panties. I pulled off my trouser and flung it away. I was stack naked and still kissing hot with Anike. We were completely locked in a romance together.
I pulled off her shorts and it came down her legs with ease. Anike never stopped me. I felt she wanted this. My body wanted her too. How was I suppose to know I was about making love with the daughter of Madam Amaka? How? Patricia was the name I knew her with and not Anike.
I was about going in when Anike stopped me with her hands. She pushed me up with her hands.
“Wale stop this. This is not right. We cannot meet in just two days and we are doing all this. This is not right.” She threw at me indignantly and struggled to get up to her feet.
I held her back to the floor. I was speechless and didn’t know what to say. I knew it was not right. I knew I was about doing something bad. But my body could not resist her. It just couldn’t.
Anike looked like she was out of mood. I tried kissing her to get her back. She struggled to push me out but I held firm. She told me to stop it. She beat me continuously with her hands but I felt no pain. It was in that process that I slipped into Anike and she suddenly stopped and lied flat on the floor.
Probably she had given up the fight. It was now too late to fight back again. I had sex with her that day. I watched her shed tears while I continuously went in and out of her. I remember how I reached c—-x and let everything out in her. I was stupid not to have used a condom. I was a fool not to have spilled my semen somewhere safe.
My eyes opened to reality. I realised what I had done. Anike cried bitterly. She covered herself with a pillow. I tried to explain but she shouted at me and pushed me out of the house. She threatened to call the neighbours if I didn’t walk out of the house.I was scared and so I left. I left that day knowing fully well I had defiled a lady. Our sex was not consensual, but the romance and kisses was. I was confused to a point. I didn’t feel it was a rape. I do not know what to call my actions that day.
From that day, I tried to apologise to Anike but she gave me no ears. She totally stopped talking to me. She was unforgiving. She passed me without saying a word. I returned to knock at her door on several occasions but she never opened up. After trying for the first two weeks, I gave up as well.
Only to receive the breaking news of her pregnancy.
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“You all are under arrest.” A firm voice echoed in the room jolting me from my reverie.
I quivered in fear when I sighted five police men dressed in uniforms. They walked in with their guns held in their hands.
Anike had called them right before she ran into the room. She must have sensed danger, or probably thought Nigeria was like the US where one calls 911 at the sense of immediate danger.
My mother cried out bitterly. She was going to be arrested for killing Madam Amaka. I too was going to be arrested as well for a possible rape accusation. I couldn’t stand it. Papa would curse the day he gave birth to me. He was going to be alone now. I knew mama and I was definitely going to prison.
“Who did this?” One of the police man asked.
“Who killed her.” Shouted another.
“Officer they did.” Anike cried out.
“No I was the one who killed her. Officer take me. Please leave my son.” Shouted my mother with her hands raised high. “My son did nothing.” She added. “Wale take care of your father for me. And also your child when he arrives. Love him the way I loved you.” Mama said with tears cascading down her face.
The police man quickly dragged her hands backwards and handcuffed it.
“Nooo. Mama do not take my blame. Do not bear the consequences of my own crime. I refuse to be the reason you will leave Papa. I refuse.” I protested.
“I am doing this for you Wale. I am your mother. Allow me to bear the consequences of my own crime.” Mama said.
I turned towards the officer and explained bitterly. “Officer I killed her. I smashed her head with a bottle. I killed her because she was wicked to me. She sexually abused me for ten years of my life. She made me go through hell. But it was a mistake. It was not on purpose. Take me officer. I killed Madam Amaka. My mother is only overwhelmed with love and pity for her child. Mama I want you to live the rest of your life with your husband. I will kill myself if you are taken away from him and also from me.”
I turned to Anike who was still sobbing.
“I am sorry for everything Anike. I am about to pay for every crime I ever committed. I wish I can bring back your mother but I can’t. I loved her too like my own mother. It was an accident. I beg for just one favour from you Anike.
I am the only son of my parents. The only child of my old parents. Please keep this pregnancy and give birth to the child for them. I pray it turns out to be a boy so he can replace me when I am gone.”
“Get away. Officer take him away. He is a killer and a rapist. He is a wicked person. I do not want to hear anything from you. Get away.” She screamed.
I watched as the officers unlocked Mama’s hands and dragged me up from the floor. I was handcuffed and was about to be pushed out of the room when my mother cried bitterly and collapsed.
“Help my mother. Help her please help her.” I cried out to Anike.
That day was the last time I set my eyes on my mother. That day was the day I forgave completely. I forgave Madam Amaka for everything she did to me. I asked for forgiveness from God as I was being thrown into the police Hilux, and I silently prayed Anike forgives me too.
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That is my story…. That is how I ended up being sentenced to twenty five years in prison. I am forty five years old now. I had bagged a lighter sentence. The court felt pity on me after hearing my story, but justice was not denied.
In Twenty five years, I never saw my dad visit me. I never saw my mum either. She never attended my trials in court. I never saw Anike, I never saw my child. Tomorrow I shall break the streak. Tomorrow I shall be released from Shurgaba Prison. Tomorrow I shall be free.
************
I walk out of the prison a free man. I had come in as a boy and now I leave a man. I turned to take a last look at the prison gate I had come out from. I was never going back in there again. There was so many lessons life has thought me. There are so many lessons I had learnt.
I arrived my fathers house carrying my bag, only to find a red flashy jeep parked outside. Two men stood beside the jeep. As I walked closer I realise that it was my father. He was old but still standing. His face and limbs were shrunken. He should be eighty five years now.
Beside him stood a man; a man who looked just like me. I needed no sooth sayer to tell me that he was my son. He was clad in suit. My bones of my bones. My flesh of my flesh. He is my own son.
I walked over to them and my father starred at me piercingly. He was still unchanged. He was still his strong hearted, stiff, strict, unshakable and no nonsense person.
“Tayo that is your father.” He said.
“What about mama?” I asked.
Mama was the only person that came to my mind. She was the only person I could think of at that moment. I wanted to tell her that I had paid my dues for my crimes. I wanted to hug her tightly and kiss her cheek. Mama would have been so happy to see me back.
“Your mother is dead. She died the day you were arrested. She slumped and died. That was why I never attended your court trial. I was mourning my wife. I was mourning a woman I loved. A woman whom your stupid actions killed. Wale you have hurt me, but I forgive you. Your son here has proven to be a better man. He has lived up to his expectations.
Tayo is a medical doctor now. He wanted to finish what you could not finish.”
Tayo looked at me with tears of Joy running down his face. “Daddy I am happy to see you. This is the first time I am seeing my father in Twenty five years. All I saw was pictures of you when you were still a teenager.”
I hugged Tayo and cried. I could not hold my tears anymore.
“How about your mother Anike?” I asked.
“She is married to a white man. She lives in the US now. She has three children. And I managed to talk to her. Mama said when ever I see you, I should tell you that she has forgiven you. She has let go of the past, and wishes you the best in life.”
Everything seemed perfect. My father was still alive and strong. My son was now all grown up and a medical doctor at a young age of twenty five. Anike had forgiven me for killing her mother and raping her. She had forgiven me for all the hurt I caused her. I in turn had forgiven Madam Amaka long time back for all she did to me, and for making my life a miserable one.
“Papa you need to tell me your story.” Tayo said “I want to know all of it. How did it all happen? What really happened? How did you end up this way?”
“My son I will. But it is just too long. I already told a writer to help write down my story. He is my very good friend.”
“Who is that writer? What is his name?”
“His name is Praises Chidera Obiora, the one man who is good at what he does.”
Tayo smiled. “Papa I will love to meet him. I cannot wait to read this story which he has written.”
“Yes you will. And you will enjoy it.”
As we walked into the house that day, I felt happy, but yet incomplete. My mother was absent. I caught sight of her portrait on the wall and a tear ran down my cheeks. I miss you mama.
The End
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