Outcast (Episode 1)

I lay there seriously pressed but didn’t dare open my eyes, let alone stand up to go empty my already full and pressed bowels. All the while, I was silently praying and hoping that the idiot would leave the poor girl alone so I could quickly dash to the toilet before I urinated on my body.

I opened my eyes and peeped again. The stupid fool was still there. I cursed under my breath. Clara kept pushing away his hand and he kept putting his hand back there in between her legs and pressing her chest. I couldn’t understand why she just lay there, closing her eyes tight and doing nothing other than feebly pushing away his hand. I started getting the impression she was actually enjoying it all. This was gradually becoming the norm every night. My aunt’s husband would wake up in the middle of the night trying to devour the helpless little girl. No one dared to ‘report’ him to my aunt for the unbridled fear of being reproached or even disbelieved by my aunt.

The other kids were fast asleep and my aunty’s ‘fat pig’ like loud snores from the bedroom could be heard miles away. The noise of the neighbor’s generating set did all it could to camouflage the snores unsuccessfully. If snoring were to be a sport, my aunt would be a gold medalist. We were six kids in all, his four kids, Clara and I.

I was aged 10 at the time and had lost my dad the previous year. My poor mom couldn’t cater for her seven kids alone and was overjoyed when my aunty told her she would take me with her to Lagos. My mum had agreed and had felt relieved that my aunt was offering to help soothe her pains. I was also happy. I had heard a lot of what had been said about Lagos, the acclaimed ‘local America’. My status was to change and I was to claim bragging rights for the next few weeks before my departure to Lagos. It felt like I was traveling overseas and joining the big league. I could sense the envy and jealous stares from my peers at the breaking of the news of my impending travel to the city to them. The envy was not restricted to my friends. Even my sisters all silently wondered why it was me and not them that was to be taken to the city. I could read it all in their faces. I enjoyed it all and I walked taller with an extra hump on my shoulders.

Then the day came when I was to be taken to Lagos and for a brief moment, all my feelings of excitement was replaced with feelings of uncertainty and fear of the unknown. Then it hit me that I might not see my friends and siblings for some time. I became clouded with sad nostalgic feelings and I cried softly. After saying my goodbyes to my friends, siblings and most difficult of it all, my mum, we set off for Lagos.

Then, my ordeal started.