What the Future Holds

Life in its elegance, in its plethora of beauty, is but an enchantment of the eyes. A pre-destiny of a creator, it is but nought to what we desire it to be.

“Sandra ooo” “Sandra oooo” … “This pikin…”  I am forced to awake on the chants of my mother’s call every morning; the routine of the last decade of my life. It is the time of the morning when the sun has not declared its right over the moon, thus the navy blue skies still tell us it is but 4am.

My mother would tap me hardly and I will jump out of the mat and over my 7 brothers who lay around me; she would tell me to be quick and get ready for the day; wash the pots and plates of the previous night’s feast on a swallow, and then put the ground nut on the fire for the days sale.

I was fast becoming a woman; I could feel my breasts growing bigger everyday, and my hips where expanding. The pride of a young damsel where these features and I was no doubt blessed to be quite fruitful at this early age of my life. The added pride to these monuments where the stares of passers-by, who may not want to buy my ground nut for its taste, but for a complacent stare at me. I had learnt from Aunty Nene, that when men stared at me, I was to pretend I did not know they were staring, but I should make the object of their stare more visible. My excitement would reach its peak whenever I bent down to pack the ground nuts in a nylon bag, then my cleavage would show my endowments more and the buyer would stare until I caught him. That often left an end remark; “keep the change fine girl”.
What more excitement would arouse a young woman of my age? Then my mother would call me “the chicken that laid the fat eggs”. I would never keep the extra change to myself, but I would submit it to Mama.

An hour after noon is the usual time that my groundnut is always to have finished, and I am often left with nothing to do, than play with the conductors, young men and urchins of the El yakub park. We would spend countless hours gisting and hitting at each other before I would make my transit to Maruraba before it was 5pm. I was a brilliant child who could tell the time from the reflections of the sun; I had only stayed in school till my primary five, nonetheless, I spoke english like I had a full secondary school education.

Uncle Wale and Uncle Ofu were the big brothers of the el yakub park. Wale was a huge man who had a big tummy, he had married two wives and was a perpetual flirt with every lady who ever stepped foot at the park. Ofu Ofogbu was a quiet muscular and  handsome man, who smelt like engine oil. I could not explain why I was attracted to Ofu. He would call me to his zinc structured nest and ask me to sit on his lap, I would do as instructed and then he would say I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. He would fondle my breasts and call me his wife, he would then append a kiss to my cheeks. I was not shy of Uncle Ofu, and I was ready to be his wife if he ever asked.

At 7pm I was not yet home. I was scared to even attempt it, my “pinafore” was stained with red spots. It was Ofu, we had played on the back sit he had removed from his old bus, after which he asked me to be his wife. My mother was excited when I got home, she called me a woman, and now said I was fit to get married, that I was ripe enough. I thought she knew what had happened and maybe Uncle Ofu had told her. I was happy but I was in pains also.

Four months after the incidence between me and Uncle Ofu had occurred, I was already showing signs of pregnancy, doom was at hand, I was going to be a mother and bring forth one of my kind into this earth. My mother had sent me out of the house to go and bring the father of the foetus I bore. I took her to Uncle Ofu’s shed, he denied ever having anything to do with me. My mother left me at the el yakub park. Aunty Nene however picked me up on the second day; I had slept at the shed and had barely eaten anything in the past forty eight hours.

It seems I will be with her for a very long while, my mother has vowed not to have anything to do with me, at a time I am heavy and due for delivery. I am a very young girl, I fear for both my future and that of my unborn.