NKEM 11
The pain stopped her heart from breathing. It turned it to a stone. Her tears blinded her eyes as she ran, not knowing where she was going. She stopped a few meters away and removed her shoes. She flung them in opposite directions, ran and tripped but she was quick to pick herself up, determined to be far from Nkem and the pain he was causing her.
She was nearing the dusty road that led to Nkem's house. She was not going there but going past it to somewhere she had not decided. To her left is a stretch of a long narrow road, a long trek leading to the motor park. Motorcyclists were known to fork out suddenly from tiny paths that entered into the main road with top speed because the road is rarely used by the villagers.
As she took to this road, one of such motorcyclists sprang out of the bush, revving the machine, raising a cloud of dust behind him. Her heart jumped into her mouth at the suddenness of the maddening sound. She made to avoid the hell rider but this confused the rider who could no longer control his speed. He ran into her, throwing her off the road while he staggered off the bike that veered dangerously like a maddened cow. It crashed on a tree but kept sliding down until it stopped a few distance away.
He was quick to recover, he dusted himself, ignoring the bruises in his hands and knees, he went for his bike and zoomed off before he could be stopped. Her wail as she fell attracted some farmers who were deep inside their farms. It was the billowing shirt of the rider that they saw when they came and the cloud of dust trailing him. They found her where she was lying, writhing in pains and mourning inaudibly.
She woke up in the hospital with pains all over her body. There was a sorrowful look of the faces of her friend and her mother. As soon as they saw her come to, both stood up from their seats and rushed to her. Her mother spoke first.
"O my daughter, you are back. We feared for you".
She tried to sit up but she felt her hand suspended to something. She saw the drip hanging on the wall and its tiny hose plastered to her right wrist. Her left hand was lying at her side, bandaged. She looked at them strangely and darted her eyes to the little room that smelled of stale iodine and medicine. It was a long hall partitioned with curtains with each compartment housing a patient as it were.
"What happened?"she asked. She didn't wait long because the answer came to her immediately. She remembered the revving motorbike, the cloud of dust and the pain that engulfed her entire body afterwards.
Suddenly, she remembered something else. Slowly, she moved her hand to touch her belly to be sure what was in it was still intact. Simultaneously, her eyes met with that of Nkiruka who shocked her head. She knew instantly what it meant and the tears summoned themselves to her eyes. She wept quietly replaying the past event in her mind. She couldn't tell how long she had been in the hospital. She felt too weak to ask. The loss of the pregnancy was something more painful than Nkem's betrayal.
"It is okay, Gladys. You don't have to worry about that bastard of a man", Nkiruka said looking into Gladys mother's face as if to confirm her stand.
"True. I don't want to see his legs here. Except...except... hmmm... except someone is still swimming in the pool of love."
Nkiruka tilted her thin neck with a slight frown on her ebony face at Gladys' mother's statement.
"Perhaps, it will be good if you go back to Lagos after all. You can't stay in this village with everything that has happened.
"Exactly what I was thinking", her mother intoned.
Hello again. It's been awhile I transverse this space. Hope you are doing great? Thank you for always reading to the end. Until next time, I'm yours truly,
Julius Topohozin.
