SARÉ by Olowojesiku Deborah IyanuOluwa
Episode 6
Papa kept to his promise by always coming occasionally to check on me. Surprisingly, the bubbling joy I always had back in school whenever I set my eyes on him was no longer there, he became like every other normal person to me. At a point, I had to start asking myself what made me love him to the extent of going to sleep with him in his lodge. Well, the deed had been done, I decided to put the past behind me and try to move forward. Whenever Papa came around, he would buy things for me and the baby, he would sit with me for some time and try to know how the baby was making me feel but most times, I wasn’t always in the mood to talk to him, surprisingly, I didn’t understand why.
After my morning sickness ended, My parent decided I learn a skill so that I wouldn’t waste the nine months. When asked what skill I would like to learn, I told them catering since I had a passion for cooking and baking. Mom took me to a standard catering school and I was enrolled there. At first, I suffered discrimination because of my already protruded tommy but I was later accepted when my colleagues realized that I was a nice person. I channeled my energy into what we were being taught and in a short period, I became one of the best students.
The rumor of my pregnancy got to the church and my parent was stopped from being workers, the Pastor claimed they couldn’t be workers in the church if they couldn’t train their daughter in the way of the Lord. As if that wasn’t enough, I was made to stand in front of the whole congregation and was publicly chastised. The pastor advised the young girls in the church never to be like me, he even told them not to be friends with me so that they wouldn’t get corrupted by me. That was the saddest day of my life, I wished the ground could open her mouth and swallow me up. On getting home that day, my Dad informed us that we would start attending a new church, I was happy but I wished I never brought so much shame to my parent.
Through the help of my parent and the youth leader of our new church, I drew closer to God. Miss Sandra, our youth leader will always give me notes containing encouraging words, and that was exactly what I needed at that period. I would have attempted suicide but the fear of going to hell prevented me.
Nine months passed and I went into Labour, it wasn’t a funny moment, that was when I realized that my mom went through a lot just to bring me into the world. I had just gotten back from the catering school when I felt my water broke and the next thing that followed was a sharp unimaginable pain. Luckily for me, Dad drove in immediately and ran to get the baby things when he saw me. While driving me to our family hospital, he called Mom and Papa relating the situation of things to them.
When we got to the hospital, I was taken into the labor room but the doctor made my parent realize that I couldn’t deliver the baby myself hence, I had to go through a cesarean section. My Dad signed the letter immediately, I could see that he couldn’t bear to see his only daughter go through so much pain. After forty-five minutes, I was delivered of a baby girl, and when she was placed in my hands, I realized that she was Papa’s carbon copy. When I set my eyes on her, I hated her immediately and pleaded with my mom to take her away from me.
Everyone around me was confused, new moms were always known to fall in love with their babies immediately after they get to meet them but the reverse was the case for me. Mom had to quickly cover up for me that the situation surrounding the child’s birth made me react that way. Later, when Mom was alone with me, she spoke some sense to me and warned me never to harbor any ill feelings towards the innocent child because I was the one who called her into the world.
I tried to carry my baby and treat her as a mother should treat her child but it was obvious I didn’t like her. After breastfeeding her, I would always hand her over to my mom. Papa, upon seeing my reaction towards the child asked if he could take the child with him so that his mom would take care of her but my mom made him realize that it wasn’t nice to separate a baby from her mother.
Heaven knows I would have accepted Papa’s advice but my mom’s stern look and warning won’t let me. And to think my parent spent so much to make the birth of my baby a reality. Even when Papa tried to pay part of the hospital bill, they told him not to bother about it.
Surprisingly, I didn’t know why the sudden hatred for my daughter. It seems the devil was really interested in me.
To be continued.
