THE ORDEALS OF NNEOMA
Episode 14
*****
As they left, Dera was leading the way while her mother followed her with a cane.
A few minutes later, Dera got in front of a mechanic workshop and stopped. Stella looked around and was feeling disgusted. The whole environment looked untidy with few spoilt cars and scraps scantily scattered on the floor.
“What are we doing here?” Stella asked.
“He is here,” Dera replied.
As they were talking, a man came out from the workshop.
“Madam, can I help you?”
Stella refused to reply to him. She looked at her daughter and asked her whether he was the one and she said no.
“Then who is the person?”
“Ifeanyi.”
“Who is Ifeanyi!” Stella yelled at the man standing before them.
“Ifeanyi is my apprentice, please what’s the problem.”
“Let me see the stup!d boy that made my daughter pregnant.”
The man was shocked.
“Ifeanyi!! Ifeanyi!!” the man shouted.
Ifeanyi was hiding at the back of one of the spoilt cars watching as things unfold. When he heard his master calling him, he jumped out of his hiding place and quickly went to meet them.
“Do you know this girl?”
“Yes sir, she was my classmate when I was still going to school.”
“She said she’s pregnant for you.”
“Me? I never had anything with her. She was just my classmate. I don’t know what she’s talking about. I swear.”
Dera started shouting that he was responsible for the pregnancy but Ifeanyi was bent on denying it. He stood his ground that he never had anything with her as his master pestered him.
“Madam you heard him, you people should try another place. This poor boy here withdrew from school to learn work because his father couldn’t afford the school fees. Please don’t cause more problems for him. He was just your daughter’s classmate.”
Stella was dumbfounded.
She was at first disgusted to see that the person was a mechanic but knowing that the person her daughter was accusing was a teenage apprentice got her denigrated.
Her daughter was still crying that her love disappointed her when her mother dragged her out of the workshop.
When they left the workshop, Ifeanyi’s master called him aside.
“Tell me the truth, did you sleep with that girl?”
“No sir, I’ve never touched her.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
Stella never spoke to Dera again till they got home. They both sat on the bench in front of the house.
“You see what you’ve done to yourself.”
“I’m sorry mummy but he’s responsible for it. He’s the only boyfriend that I have.”
“Why won’t he deny it? Does he have a life?
How on earth could you allow such a l0w life to touch you.”
Dera buried her head in shame.
“Let this not repeat itself next time, we will get rid of it.”
Dera frowned her face in disapproval.
“Wait, are you okay? Do you want to keep the pregnancy? Never!”
“I know he loves me, maybe he denied me because his master was around.”
“I can see you have lost your senses. How can you keep a pregnancy for your age mate? What does he have to offer? I can see you want to suffer for the rest of your life. Not when I’m still alive. You must t£rminate the pregnancy and let me not hear it anywhere,” Stella said and angrily left for the living room.
Dera kept mute and sat outside for a while before entering the house.
Later that day, Stella brought some p!lls and gave them to Dera. She waited for her to swallow them before she left.
A few hours later, before Nneoma’s father came home, Stella called Dera.
“Did you notice anything in your body?”
“No.”
“You did not see bl00.d from your body as if you are having your per!od.”
“No.”
Stella was surprised.
The following day, there was still no change in Dera’s body. Her mother told her not to go to school that day.
Dera was alone in the house when Stella went out to buy something.
Soon after, Stella came back with a rubber can containing brown liquid.
She opened it and told Dera to drink the liquid.
Dera tasted it and it was very bitter. Her mother encouraged her and she drank it to finish.
In no time, Dera started complaining about stomach pains accompanied by bl££ding.
“It’s normal, you will be fine soon.”
“Okay,” Dera said as she groaned in pa!n.
The bl££ding and stomach pa!n kept on increasing that Dera couldn’t bear it anymore.
She started wailing, her mother tried controlling her but to no avail. Her mother was frightened when she started losing strength, so she quickly called a taxi and took her to the hospital.
