THE_FORBIDDEN_LOVE
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EPISODE_6
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✍️….
Meanwhile…..back at uncle Sam’s house
Uncle Sam’s conversation with his friend, Tunde on the phone…
“Guy! how far now?” Uncle Sam said.
“I dey oo. How you dey na?” Tunde replied.
“I’m good oo. Na wa see as you forget pesin. You go abroad, you no con remember your guy”
“Ahn ahn! Sam! Sam! No dey talk like that na. I spoke to you like a month ago. You know now, with work and all. I’ve been really busy. But how you dey now? When we go receive your wedding invitation”
“See my guy!!! Talking as a married man. Na because say you marry Chioma abi. You’re now giving me the “get married” talk. Not yet jare.”
“But guy seriously, you’re getting old oo. Your almost thirty and you’re not even thinking about marriage. Shay you still dey follow all those your babes.”
“No oo. Those ones are history. You won’t believe what that Cynthia did to me. She chop my money, con waka.”
“Ehn but na you cos am. Didn’t you tell her you weren’t serious about marriage yet.”
“Wo! E don do. I didn’t call you to give me all these talks oo. So how is baby now and your wife?”
“They are all fine. Baby is turning one in two weeks sef”
“Are you serious? See my guy that just got married oo. Na wa oo.”
“That’s why I’m telling to start thinking about it. I mean, you’re a successful banker, a smart guy and ripe for marriage. You’ve alre-ady achieved a lot so why not look for a woman who will stand strong for you. That will be your pillar. Okay see now, when I get home, I know my wife has alre-ady prepared one of my favourite dishes. When I want to you know, I know there is someone who won’t turn me down. She has always been supportive with my decisions, helps me avoid mistakes….”
Sam cut in, “E don do guy!! I hear you. E be like say na this Chioma fit you. I remember when you used to make jest of her going to church everyday parade. Who knew you would end up with her. Bad guy! ”
“That was before oo. I’m not like that again oo. But It’s all good.”
“Yeah…okay now! I have to go, let me leave you to your “wife”. We will talk later.”
Tunde laughs saying, “My guy!!! Okay now, we go see. Bye.”
“Yeah bye,” uncle Sam says ending the call..
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Uncle Sam’s pov
“Wow, wow, wow, Tunde my guy! Who knew this man would be happily married.” I said to myself after ending the call with Tunde, my long time friend. I couldn’t believe that the same guy who used to mess around with me while we were still in school could actually get married. Back then, he used to say married men were weak men and all of a sudden, he encourages me to settle down. Life is indeed funny. I went into my room to take a shower. I nee-ded to get out of my suits. As I stepped into my room, the image of Meso flashed throu-gh my mind. I never st©pped thinking about her and all that happened that day. I felt bad that I hurt her but I still wanted to be with her. The more I thought about her, the more I desperately wanted to see her. I shook it off my mind and told myself that she was in the hostel. It wasn’t possible to see her like I used to. I was even sure she would probably not want to see me if I did visit her. I knew she was still mad.
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Meso’s pov
Two weeks later, we had a guest speaker who c@m£ to talk to all the students in the school concerning S-x education.
“All boys and girls!!! Move to the multi-purpose hall,” the s£nior prefects said as they entered each clas-s.
I nee-ded to use the washroom so I left with Anabelle who decided to follow me. When I got in, I shut the door behind while Anabelle stood outside, waiting for me. As I pu-ll-ed down my p@n-ties, I checked to see if I was on my period. I had intentionally worn a sanitary pad that morning because I was expecting my monthly flow but to my surprise, It was as clean as I had put it on. I didn’t think it was a big deal since the day wasn’t over and so I took a pee and left the washroom to join Anabelle outside. As we got to the multi-purpose hall, we took our seats where other junior students sat and a few minutes the speaker c@m£ up to the podium. She started by introducing herself before proceeding to the talk of the day. She spoke on a lot of issues relating to S-x and even though it was something that was repeated often, she said something that struck me. She mentioned things regarding unprotected S-x, unwanted pregnancy, r@p£ and that was when my hears decided to listen. When she started talking on unprotected S-x, I recalled the day uncle Sam R@p£d me. I remembered he didn’t use a c0md0mand that was when I wished I would instantly fall down and die. I wanted to run mad. My eyes began to fill with tears. It meant I was pregnant. That explained everything. Why I hadn’t seen my period. Why I was always weak. I didn’t know what to do as I was seated there. I stood up from my seat and decided to take permission from the s£nior to let me leave the hall but she told me to remain seated since the program was about to end. When I sat down, Anabelle who had been sitting beside me asked if I was okay. I nodded and pretended like there was nothing wrong. She said, “Okay” and went back to listening to the speaker while I kept on trying to remain calm. Who would I talk to? What will I tell them? Just when I was thinking of all this. The program c@m£ to an end and the lady speaker announced that If anyone nee-ded advice or anything of some sort to see her after the program. In my mind, I debated whether to see her or not and concluded that I wasn’t going to. I didn’t want anyone to know. They would have to tell my parents and the whole school would find out. I would bring shame to everyone. I couldn’t risk it. As the students marched out of the hall to their various clas-ses, I told Anabelle that I would see her in clas-s and ran to the washroom. I entered into one of the vacant sp©ts and shut it behind me. I cried my eyes out. I cried in silence so that I wouldn’t be heard. I couldn’t believe that I was going to have a child for my uncle..
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I kept on crying in silence until I could cry no more. I just sat there on the toilet seat and stared into space for as long as five minutes until I heard the sound of the siren which indicated long break was over. I heard two other girls come into the washroom so I wiped my face with my uniform, stood up from the seat, flu-shed the toilet and c@m£ out pretending like I had just used the toilet. I found out that the girls were jss2 girls and not my set mates. I went over to the sink, washed my hands and headed for my clas-s.
When I got to the clas-s, I found Anabelle sitting on her chair and re-ading a book so I went over and took my seat beside her. When I sat down, she looked at me and gave a puzzled look. I looked at her hoping she wouldn’t start with her questionnaires, then I asked why she was staring that way.
“What took you so long?” she asked
I told her that I had a running stomach and she believed without asking further questions. We had Introductory Technology and so Mr. Alabi walked in, which shut everyone’s mouth. All throu-gh clas-s, I was just thinking and thinking, I didn’t know what I would do next. If there was anyone I was going to speak to about the child in my wo-mb, it would be uncle Sam since he caused it all. I nee-ded to act fast and prevent my tummy from growing bigger so people wouldn’t suspect. I had heard when other s£niors talked about how some students had been expelled for getting pregnant. I didn’t want my case to be that way. I am so sure that throu-ghout that day, I panicked a lot. My heart was pounding and I didn’t think it would reduce. School ended and the boarders left school for the hostel while the day students went to their various homes.
When I got to the hostel, I went straight to the room, took off my shoes, put my school bag aside and layed on my be-d without taking my uniform off. On a normal day, I would have taken it off, washed it and possibly taken a shower but I was in no mood to do all that. In fact, I was very weak. I felt sick thinking about everything all over again. In my mind, I was hoping I wasn’t pregnant and that I was getting it all wrong. I f0rç£d myself to sleep until I heard the bell ring for dinner. When I got to the dining hall, I almost felt like throwing up because of the strong smell the yam and egg possessed which was supposed to be our dinner. I thought the egg smelled rotten and so I instantly lost my appetite. I decided to go back to the hostel and prepare for prep since it was immediately after dinner. We usually had prep in school and so I got my things re-ady and without waiting for anything or anyone, I left the hostel for school. I got into my clas-s, went straight to the back and sat on one of the chairs. A few minutes later, s£nior Daniel walked in. I was surprised because I didn’t think anyone would guess I was alre-ady in school.
“What are you doing here all alone? Waiting for your b©yfri£ndabi” he said as he walked up to me and took the seat in front of me. I’m pretty sure he was trying to make me laugh or smile but I just shook my head and told him I decided to come early for prep. He said he had asked after me at the girls hostel and was told that they hadn’t seen me until he found someone who told him she had seen me going towards school with my school bag. I didn’t mention not having dinner because he would be upset with me and try to get me to eat something. He was a nice s£nior but I just wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. He saw that I gave him straight answers when he asked questions and didn’t smile at his joke so he asked if I was okay. I told him I was fine, just tired and again he believed me so he c@m£ closer and hvgged me. I alre-ady got used to hvgging s£nior Daniel and so I hvgged him back. I actually felt good hvgging him. It reduced all of the tension and pain I was feeling at that moment. I actually felt loved but he was another person I wasn’t willing to share my secret with.
“I love you, my baby!” he finally said and let go of me. He told me to try to balance school and get enough rest so I wouldn’t feel tired and weak all the time. I nodded and held back the tears that were alre-ady forming in my eyes. Why couldn’t I tell anyone about the real pain that I was going throu-gh. I wanted to scream and tell someone that I was being abused by uncle but I just couldn’t. He stood up when we heard other students voices and told me he would see me after prep.
During prep, I was asked to jump by my school mother, s£nior Onome, who caught me putting my head on the table to sleep several times. She always tried to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time during prep and so whenever I was caught doing something else other than studying, she made sure she punished me for it. I was really feeling sleepy and tired but she wouldn’t un-derstand any of that and so I kept jumping until I was able to stay awake a few minutes before prep was over. When we got to the hostel, I went straight into the bathroom, washed my uniforms, took a shower and went straight to sleep. I didn’t even talk to any of mates throu-ghout that night, including Anabelle..
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Uncle Sam’s pov
It was a Friday morning and I was too tired to stand up and prepare for work. I had sle-pt late thinking of what to say when I eventually call the girls hostel to speak with Meso. I had collected the hostel information from my brother’s wife so I could contact my Meso. I nee-ded to talk to her because since the night of my misbehaviour, I hadn’t felt peace. I nee-ded to hear her voice. I nee-ded her sincere forgiveness. I was quite shocked that she hadn’t said a word to anyb©dy because I thought that would be the case but I alre-ady had a feeling she wasn’t going to spill.
Later that Friday afternoon, I got home early and the first thing I did was dial the hostel number. It started ringing and before I knew it, a woman answered;
“Hello? Riverdale girls hostel, how may I help you” the lady on the other end of the line said.
“Good afternoon, my name is Sam, Meso’s…I mean Mesonma’s uncle. plea-se, I would like to speak with her”
“Do you mean Mesonma Okojie?”
“Yes plea-se”
“Okay, plea-se hold on. Let me get her”
“Alright thank you”
After about three minutes waiting, I heard my Meso’s voice;
“Hello?” she said.
“Hello, Meso. It is Sam. How are you?”
“I’m fine, uncle Sam”
“How’s school?”
“fine”
“And the hostel? Hope you’re coping?”
“Uncle Sam, there’s something you nee-d to know,” when she said this, I suddenly bec@m£ anxious to know what was up.
“Meso, what is it?” I asked.
“uncle Sam, I can’t tell you on the phone.”
“You can’t tell me on the phone? why?” I asked squee-zing my face. “Did anyone hurt you? Because I’ll come over to your school right now and give them a warning”
“No, uncle Sam. It’s worse than that. plea-se just come to school right now.”
“Meso, are you okay? what’s wrong? I’ll be there in a few minutes okay? plea-se just be okay for me. I’m coming,” I said as she replied with an okay before dropping the call.
What could be wrong with Meso? I thought. I didn’t un-derstand because it was Meso who ba-rely wanted to see my face and now she insisted I drive down to her school. Has she told someone about what happened between us? Is this some sort of plan? Something doesn’t seem right. I finally told myself that it wouldn’t get up to that extent. I called her and not the other way round so there was no possibility of her snitching on me. I took up courage and decided to drive down to her hostel.
When I got there, I greeted the security officers that were at the gates and told them I was there to see Meso. One of them went inside and c@m£ out in about two minutes with a woman. I was still standing at the gate because they said they weren’t allowed to let unexpected visitors walk in. I greeted the lady and told her I was there to see Meso so she took me to her office and told me to have a seat.
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Meso’s pov
That Friday morning, I had decided to call uncle Sam and tell him about my situation. I didn’t want to keep shut and allow my tummy grow bigger while I was still in the hostel. After school that Friday, I decided to call him after our afternoon siesta, an hour of the day when every student was to be in be-d, slee-ping and just resting. I was going to tell him about my pregnancy but not long into our siesta, one of the young house mothers called for me. I went into her office and she pointed at the landline phone that was on the table, saying my uncle was on the line. It was at the corner of the room, the sp©t where one was to answer calls from home so I approached the table and picked it up.
“Hello?” I had said before uncle Sam revealed himself. He asked about my well-being and school and all in which I replied but I decided to bring up what I had planned on telling him but I couldn’t talk freely because one of the house mothers was still in the office with me. So I told him he nee-ded to come to school. I made it known to him that it was urgent and so he said he would be in school soon before responding and dropping the phone. I stood up from the chair I had been sitting on, greeted the house mother with a thank you before leaving. Not long after, she c@m£ to call me again and this time as I got into the office, I saw uncle Sam in his corporate clothes sitting on the chair in front of the house mother’s desk. I falsely smiled at him while he stood up to hvg me. The house mother then said I was excused to talk to him since I knew him while she left the office to give us some privacy. Immediately, without beating about the bush, I told uncle Sam that I was pregnant. I told him that I hadn’t seen my period for the past two weeks and I wasn’t feeling normal. I told him I got irritated easily and didn’t have the appetite for the meal we were being served at the hostel.
When he heard this, I could tell from his eyes that he was shocked. He put his palm on his mouth and shook his head. He was disappointed. I even almost bur-st into tears because I knew this wasn’t a small issue. Despite it all, I still saw my uncle Sam as the man I loved like my father but more like an elder brother, that was why I didn’t want to tell anyb©dy because I knew he would be in so much trouble. He told me it was going to be okay and that we would try to get rid of the baby. At first, I objected and didn’t hesitate to show how scared I was but he calmed me down and kept on saying it would be okay. He hvgged me and I hvgged him back, the man who had hurt me and gotten me pregnant at this stage of my life..
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TO BE CONTINUED