DANIELLA💖
#EPISODE_14
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I rinsed the last plate remaining in the sink and walked to the living room to check the time on the wall clock. It was past eleven. The house was silent because everyone had gone to be-d. They all went to be-d quite early today.
I made my way to my room, got in and threw myself on the be-d. Since I got back from school, I hadn’t rested. It was one chore or the other— from cooking for the family to sweeping the house to washing my uniform to doing the dishes. Boy was I exhausted! I nee-ded to sleep.
As I snuggled into my be-d, I thought about everything that happened between Peter and me today. I really enjoyed his company. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing at the moment? Was he slee-ping? Watching TV? Or thinking about me like I was thinking of him? God knows. One thing was certain, which was the fact that I was beginning to like Peter. With that thought in mind, I smiled as I drifted off to sleep.
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I felt a tickling feeling on my l@p and I first thought it was an insect creeping on my skin but when it started to go un-der my Sk-irt, I jo-lted up from sleep and saw uncle Henry in my room. ON MY be-d!
What the!
“Shhh.” He placed his index f!nger on hisl-ips, moving closer to me.
I sat up on the be-d and withdrew backwards. What was going on? I couldn’t believe Uncle Henry was in my room. Could this be a dream? Could uncle Henry actually be in my room on my be-d right now?
“Daniella, I can’t sleep. I can’t seem to get you off my mind. I love you Daniella, I really do. plea-se make love to me this night.” He spoke in hushed whispers.
I was shocked to my very last cell. To say I was disgusted by what uncle Henry just said was an un-derstatement. How could he think of such abominable act? As he moved closer to me, I retreated.
“Sir, plea-se don’t do this to me. My aunt would kill me if she found out.” I pleaded, tears welling up in my eyes. Panic swept throu-gh me and to say I was scared wasn’t just enough. I was petrified. What if uncle Henry R@p£d me tonight?
“She wouldn’t find out. We would do it quietly.”
“No, no I can’t do this sir. It’s a sin. plea-se let’s not do this. plea-se, I beg you.”
He kept moving closer to me. “I’m begging you too. Let’s just make love only this night. I promise you; just this night and we wouldn’t do it again.”
I stood up from the be-d and moved towards the door. “Sir, I’m surprised you want to cheat on your wife and abuse your wife’s niece this way. This is wrong and I’m sorry, I can’t do this. plea-se leave my room sir. I don’t want my aunt to find you here. plea-se.”
He got down from my be-d and moved towards me. “I would do anything for you and give you whatever you want if you’d just allow me to make love to you this night. I would even make sure you don’t do any chores in this house.”
“No, no,” I shook my head vehemently, tears streaming down my eyes. “NO!” I shouted as I saw that he kept on moving close to me. “Don’t move any closer to me unless I’d report you to my aunt.”
“Okay, okay,” He raised his hands up in surrender. “I would leave.” He walked to the door and opened it, “Remember, this night never happened.” He said and walked out of my room, closing the door behind him.
As soon as he left, I locked the door andla-id on the be-d. I tried to forget everything that just happened, but Icouldn’t. It kept repla-ying in my mind. How could uncle Henry think of doingthis? Tears trickled down my eyes and I sobbe-d quietly until I eventuallydrifted off to sleep
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Sour and dry throat, high temperature, high state of fatigue, pain at the back of the eyes, excruciating pain in the forehead and n£¢k, clogged nose from thick mucus and difficulty in breathing. Anyone that has ever been caught with a fever before would definitely un-derstand the condition I was in at the moment. But even in spite of that, aunty Caro and her husband still insisted that I do the usual Saturday chores, not minding my illness. They never cared about how I was doing. To them, I was just the village girl that helped with the house chores. Any other thing about me had nothing to do with them. I can’t even remember the last time they asked me how I was faring in school.
This was the irony of my city life.
Once done with the chores, which I did quic-kly and tiredly, I had Eba and Okro soup for breakfast. No sooner had I finished eating than uncle Henry called me to his room.
“Sir?” I said the instant I got inside his room. He was sitting on the be-d, while aunty Caro was lying down in a way that her head was resting on uncle Henry’s th!ghs.
I sniffed and coughed.
“So why are you coughing in my room? You want to infect me with your cough or what?” Uncle Henry said and aunty Caro snorted.
I rolled my eyes in a way that wasn’t so obvious that I did. It had been four days since uncle Henry’s attempt to sleep with me and ever since that day, he had been acting prickly towards me. Everything that I did seemed to irritate him.
“Anyways, bring my wallet from that table.” Uncle Henry gestured to a small table which was just beside his be-d. I sniffed as I walked towards it to get his wallet. I picked up the wallet and handed it to him.
From the wallet, he took out one thousand naira note and handed it to me. “Take this. I’m expecting some visitors, so I want you to make Jollof rice. You know the ingredients to buy. I don’t have to tell you.”
After he said that, I took the money from him and shuffled my way out sluggishly.
“What’s wrong with you? Why are you dragging your feet on the floor? Better be quic-k about what I s£nt you!” Uncle Henry said, irately. “And don’t let me remind you of my change, unless—”
I st©pped and turned to face him. “Um sir, can I use the change to buy drugs, maybe Procold? I’m having cough and catarrh.” I said and sniffed.
Aunty Caro sat up straight to look at me. “You have what?”
“Cough and catarrh.” I replied hesitantly.
“Ehhe, when I would warn you guys against putting water in the freezer, you’d not listen to me and now see, you have cough and catarrh. Anyways, what’s my own business?” She shrugged her shoulders. “At least this would teach you a lesson never to put water in the freezer.” Aunty Caro said, after which she returned to her lying position.
“I’m not the one that puts water in the freezer o. ” I muttered, walking out of their room.
“Err… Where are you going?” Uncle Henry voice made me st©p.
“I’m going to buy what you s£nt me.” I wanted to give him a duh look, but I knew better than that.
“Don’t you want the Procold again?”
“I still do.” I said and coughed. It was actually an exaggerated cough. I just wanted them to know that I wasn’t faking the whole cough and catarrh thing.
“Hmm, pretender!” Aunty Caro spat out.
“How much is the Procold?” Uncle Henry asked.
“I have never bought it in the city before, so I don’t know how much it’s being sold here. But in the village, they sell it fifty naira.” I said.
“I think it’s now one hundred naira.” Uncle Henry said, “Buy it and return my change to me, well that’s if there’s any at all. But I’m sure there’d be change left.”
“Okay, thank you sir.” I said and walked out of their room. Immediately I got out, another fit of coughing seized me. I coughed out the mucous, held it in my mouth and spat it into the toilet.
Afterwards, I went straight to the shop down the street where they sold food ingredients and bought everything that I nee-ded for the jollof rice. Then I shuffled towards a chemist shop close-by and purchased the Procold a hundred naira like Uncle Henry had said, leaving me with fifty naira change. I put the fifty naira in my jean Sk-irt pocket and made my way back home. I was so tired and weak when I got back that I had to relax in the kitchen stool for a while before going to give uncle Henry his fifty naira change. As I got back to the kitchen to start cooking, I bu-mped into Annabelle who was just walking out.
“Wait, wait, Annabelle. plea-se wait.” I said immediately, st©pping her. “plea-se I nee-d you to as-sist me in the kitchen. I’m really sick and I nee-d as-sistance in cooking the jollof rice.”
“Oh, so they want to cook jollof rice?” She asked, walking back into the kitchen with me, which made me have a glimmer of hope that for the first time, one of the twins was going to be as-sisting me in cooking.
“Yes. Your dad says he’s expecting some visitors, so he wants me to prepare jollof rice for them, I guess.” I explained.
“Oh nice. Because jollof rice happens to be my favorite food, I’d as-sist you.”
Oh really? I was going to say, but instead I said, “Thank you jare. ”
“So let’s start cooking.” She said, ru-bbing her palms together and I looked at her with amusement. She looked so excited to help me.
“Okay first of all, plea-se help me to slice the onions. I don’t want catarrh dropping from my nose when I slice it.” I said, bringing out the onions from where it was usually kept and I handed it to her.
“I don’t really know how to slice onions oh, but I’d try.”
We went on like that preparing the jollof rice, with me basically sitting down on the kitchen stool and instructing her on what to do, when to add each ingredient and the quantity of each ingredient added. While cooking, we talked about certain things like school, her upcoming WAEC exam since she happened to be in ss3 and a lot more. She did more of the talking anyway.
After Annabelle had added all the ingredients to the jollof rice, I told her to cover the pot, which she did and just then, Amanda called her. She immediately answered, leaving me in the kitchen alone. I kept sitting on the kitchen stool, waiting for the food to done and in the process, I sle-pt off unknowingly.
The smell of smoke jo-lted me up from my sleep and when I woke up, the whole kitchen was smoky. A fit of coughing seized me as I got up and my eyes began to water. Then suddenly, it hit me so ha-rd that I was cooking before I fell asleep. Oh no!
Immediately, I turned off the g@s cooker, but from the look of things, I was too late. The pot was burnt alre-ady. I was still coughing when uncle Henry and aunty Caro rushed into the kitchen, followed by Annabelle.
“What happened here?” Aunty Caro asked, covering her nose with the hem of her wra-pper tied around her che-st.
I was at a loss for what to say. How could I explain it to them that while I was cooking, I fell asleep and woke up to the pungent smell of smoke? I was in trouble. I couldn’t help but wonder what uncle Henry and aunt Caro would do to me now that I had burned the food. The thought of it made me petrified.
“Wait, hold on, you burnt the food?” Uncle Henry more of said than asked.
“I… I” I stuttered, words failing to escape from my mouth. The heat coupled with the intense tension in the kitchen made my whole b©dy we-t with sweat. I scratched my head, raising my eyebrows pleadingly.
Uncle Henry lunged at me, raising his hands to hit me, but he st©pped for some reasons best known to him. He hissed and stormed out of the kitchen. The manner at which he left the kitchen made me twice as scared as I was. It looked like he was going to get something to flog me.
“How did the food burn?” Aunty Caro asked, one arm akimbo and the other lifting the hem of her wra-pper to her nose.
“Daniella, I thought you were in the kitchen the whole time the food was cooking on fire. Why did you allow the food burn?” Annabelle asked, sounding a bit worried for me. I left their questions unanswered. The only thought on my mind was why uncle Henry stormed out of the kitchen the way he did.
“Can’t you answer?” Aunt Caro shouted, raising her right hand to hit me, but I dodged. “How did the food get burnt? Weren’t you in the kitchen? Answer me!”
“What happened?” Amanda asked, looking around with surprise as she stood in the kitchen doorway. “Why is the kitchen smoky?” She fanned her left hand in front of her nose.
“Out of my way!” Uncle Henry stormed in, pushing Amanda away from the doorway and ma-king his way towards me. He was holding a barbe-d wire. The sight of the wire made me stagger backwards and my back hit the wall, hindering me from escaping. As he raised the wire up to hit me, I lifted my left arm up in front of my face to avoid it from hitting my head.
“Uncle—” Before I could beg, the wire c@m£ in contact with my skin and I cried out in pain. Thinking he was going to flog me just once, he kept on wh!pping me with all his might over and over again, while I kept exchanging my arms in front of my face to prevent it from hitting my eyes or my head.
“Aah! plea-se, Uncle plea-se! I’m sorry!” I kept crying out, but he turned a deaf ear. The pain the barbe-d wire was impacting on my skin was unbearable that I dragged my back on the wall down to the floor. “Aah! Sir plea-se!”
“Shut up! What were you doing that the food got burnt? Eh? Tell me!” He barked, “What I’d do to you today eh, you’d live to remember it.”
“Uncle plea-se, I’m sorry.” I begged, crying profusely.
“Shut up!” He hit me with the wire where I had been protecting. My head! No one ever hits my head, because mama once told me that my head was my destiny and that I shouldn’t allow any soul, regardless of who they were and what they repres£nted, to hit or even t©uçh my head. Ever since she told me that, I never allowed anyone mess with my head. So you can imagine how riled up I was when uncle Henry hit my head with the wire.
“My head!” I shouted and held unto the wire uncle Henry was about to hit me with again. “No! No! Enough is enough! Leave me alone! Nob©dy hits my head, nob©dy!” I shouted, my voice sounding so rou-gh from screaming. “Why are you beating me like I’m an animal? Yes, I committed an offence, but that doesn’t make me any less of a human. This is child abuse and I won’t take it anymore! I’m sure you can’t beat your children like this, so plea-se st©p beating me like this!” I spat out with a fit of rage. Wherever I got the boldness from, I didn’t know. All I know was that I was surprised at myself.
“C’mon shut up there! How dare you!” Aunty Caro moved towards me and sl@pped me so ha-rd across my cheeks that catarrh escaped from my nose and I started to cough.
“You have the gut to raise your voice at me?” Uncle Henry asked with venom in his voice and terror in his eyes. He tried to drag the wire from me but I dragged it with him. I wasn’t willing to let go, no matter what he did to me. I was too outraged to be afraid.
“Daniella, leave the wire now!” Aunty Caro commanded, but I blatantly ignored her. I kept on dragging the wire with her husband.
Obviously tired of dragging the wire with me, uncle Henry let go and sl@pped me ha-rd across my face, causing saliva to escape from my mouth.
“Animal!” He cussed, kicking my w@!st ha-rd .
“Ow! My w@!st!” I cried out, holding my w@!st and lying on the floor. “ukwu mo! ”
“Die!” Uncle Henry spat out and turned to aunt Caro. “Madam, warn this stupid girl you call a niece, unless it’s me that would kill her in this house and there’s nothing nob©dy would do.” He fumed, after which he started to p@n-t heavily. “Now she’s burned the whole rice. Useless girl!” He marched my legs before walking out of the kitchen and I cried out in pain.
“Shut up!” Aunty Caro shouted, but I kept crying loudly. She scooped a little of the burnt rice and stuffed it in my mouth. “I said shut up! Shut up!”
I coughed and spat out the rice in my mouth.
“Mummy plea-se.” Amanda said, taking me by surprise.
“It’s only you that is going to eat this rice.” Aunty Caro hissed and walked out of the kitchen.
The sound of my cries bec@m£ louder andAmanda and Annabelle crouched down to console me.
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To_be Continued