#AFTER_THE_STORM
© jossyfrosh8
EPISODE 2
"Are you through with what I asked you to do? See, I have someone special from the government coming here tonight , I do not want to sight even the slightest dust. Where is that good for nothing child?"
I cringed in the corner of my room as I heard mother's voice from the sitting room.
"She..she..is in the bathroom…" Mama Zainab replied, I could feel the lack of confidence in her voice . She was afraid of mother…
"What nonsense! Is she giving birth in the bathroom! Would you call her out for me this minute! I do not have time for this nonsense!" Mother shouted at her and soon I heard the sound of her shoe as she walked away, climbing the staircase that led to her room.
I waited until I could hear it no more, then I slowly stood up, holding a hand to my rumbling tummy, back to my bed.
My stomach hurt a lot, ever since I did what I did last week. It was like somethings that have come together probably to hold the baby in place are now forcefully going back to their places…..the lady nurse had said it was cramps…to me it was a torture. I could hardly breathe.
Mama Zainab was our cleaner who didn't live with us, she would usually come from her house. She had been covering for me. She was the only nicest person to me and she was also afraid of mother.
The door creaked and I saw her coming in. Her white hair shone against the white bulb in my room…I could see concern all over her wrinkled face. She shouldn't be that old, probably in her early forties or fifties, but, try working for mother for two years and you would look twice your age….pardon my grammar for that but you know what I meant.
She moved to me on the bed, placing a hand on my forehead.
"Oh dear poor child! You are burning up. What do we do? Your mother must not hear of this! You know how she does."
I sighed heavily, closing my eyes, trying to stop the spinning room. I could still feel the blood rushing out of me, this time it was thicker, I could feel it as it squeezed it way out of its entrance, dropping into the last pad that I have been using since last night…actually the only piece that remained.
"Zainab, I don't know what to do. I …I can't do anything like this but I don't want to put you into trouble so I will try and stand up…."
I realized she wasn't saying anything, then I looked at her, she was touching a red stain on the bed…
"Oh my God! Are you on your period?"
I nodded quickly. She looked confused.
"Thought you told me you couldn't see it."
"Well…I later did." I replied weakly, hoping I would have convinced her enough. We were looking at each other and somehow, she connected everything together, looking at me in horror, she placed a hand over her parched lips. I knew I had lost.
"Oh my God! You were pregnant, from that rape, right?"
I nodded, bursting into tears. Quickly, she bent over me, hugging me and rocking my back with her frail hands.
"I am so sorry. Oh my God! You are too young for this. Why didn't you tell me, I would have followed you?"
I said nothing, the tears were just flooding down my cheeks. I had only told her of the rape but not the pregnancy.
"Did you tell her about the rape?"
"Yea, she didn't believe me." I replied as I recalled that night I had gone to tell my mother.
She was busy applying make-up to her face when I burst in…she was terrified and angry but I was more angry when I saw the same man still lying half-naked on her bed, covered only by the towel around his torso, looking at me as if nothing had happened.
I was dumbfounded and my heart was beating so fast. I was so confused.
"What do you want you this stupid girl? Are you crazy to have burst into my room like that? How many times do you want me to tell you to never come here?"
I had said nothing...instead, I pointed at the man. "He..he…raped me…he raped me." I stammered weakly, falling to my knee and looking at my mother desperately hoping she would arrest him or do something.
Instead, she had looked at him, he shrugged. "That girl is really out of her mind. Send her away."
Just like that, mother had faced me again and said to me sternly, pointing to the door.
"Get out!"
I had wanted to protest but, she pushed me out, slamming the door after me…I had cried bitterly that morning until Mama Zainab had found me .
"Did you buy any pill?" Mama Zainab asked me, interrupting my thoughts and I nodded.
"Good, do you still have enough pad?"
I shook my head.
She sighed. "You need more pad, your blood flow won't stop anytime soon. I am hoping your mother would pay me today for both last month and this month, with that I can get you some."
I smiled and was about to say something when the door suddenly burst open-
Standing by the door, looking as beautiful as her ever in her sparkling diamonds and expensive gown, was my mother, she looked very angry.
"So, what is happening here?" She demanded.
Mama Zainab and I exchanged looks and I forced myself to raise my body up a little….
"So, you both are having a family meeting, did my own invitation get lost in the mail?" She said further, now advancing towards us gracefully. Her eyes sparkling like that of a cat.
My heart was beating fast and this increased the flow of my blood…. worsening the cramp . I shut my eyes as I felt something tighten at my side.
"Madam, please, this girl needs to be admitted. She is not fine at all."
"Oh! Really? So when did you became a caretaker?" Mother said again, and I opened my eyes. Mama Zainab was already standing up to mother, who was looking at her with hatred.
"Madam, please, if nothing at all, please give her some money, let me get some pad for her, I don't mind if you take it from my income, please."
Before I knew it, Mama Zainab was on her knees… I shut my eyes again as I felt another cramp coming…I couldn't breathe, the more I breathed the worse it got so I just held my breath until it dissolved…
"Mama Zainab?" Mother said sternly. "I realized that your work is not important to you. You are fired! And you…..!" My eyes sprang open….she was talking to me….
"If you do not get your lazy body off that bed this minute and meet me downstairs, I will throw your bags into the street!"
Without looking at us, she stormed out of my room.
Mama Zainab was still crying and I didn't know what to do to stop her from crying… because I was too.
Later she stood up, cleaning her face and moved to the door. She pulled down my towel which was hanging on the door. Then she walked back to the table, opened the drawer, took my scissors and began to cut the towel into pieces.
Had she gone mad? I thought to myself but she began to fold the pieces in multiple folds one by one. There were eight in all and she handed one to me.
"Use this. Go clean and remove that messy one. Hurry up before your mother comes back."
Sadly, I collected the pieces from her, I later understood she had folded it in the shape of a pad and it was really thicker. Without thinking, I embraced her and we both cried.
"Let me come with you Mama"
She smiled and patted my back. "You will only starve to death if you do that. I love you, dear. God will save you one day."
Without taking another look at me, she walked out of my room, shutting the door after her.
____
*Hours Later*
The party had already started and our floor was filled with many people. People were dancing to the deafening music. I was in a hidden corner, in my dirty clothes, sitting on the tiled floor as I accessed each guest.
Nothing interested me more in life than fashion- I breathed it. Anytime mother was asleep, I would always sneak back to the sitting room to put on the TV. I could spend hours watching Fashion Opera. It was the only thing that brought me joy. I knew the names of almost all the world designers by heart; I could tell their work by just touching or seeing it.
Mother didn't know this. We usually held parties every last Saturday of the month, both known and unknown people would come, especially mother's customers. I used to wonder if these people were unaware that the mother was sleeping with all of them but the irony was that, some would even come with their wives. I didn't understand.
Anyways, I love the parties, though it would give me much work to do before and after. I mean, now that mama Zainab was gone, I even had much more to do. But one thing that encouraged me was that I would get the chance to see the latest outfit and cloth even though I never owned any. I always dreamed that one day, I would own my own clothing line.
I sighted mother talking with her friends. Her vain friends. Sometimes I wondered what kind of relationship they had. You would see them laughing with each other even though they hated each other and might not talk again till next month when we would throw another party.
Mother said they were serpents and they were jealous of her wealth and achievement. It made me wonder, what achievement?
She was comfortable and our house was really big and beautiful. She drove a nice car but she was a dignified whore!
Well, maybe sleeping with men and asking them to bring their wives without them suspecting a thing was an achievement. You could tell me.
Mother was beautiful, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen actually. Unlike her friends, she did not need plastic surgery.
She had used a pair of contact lenses, replacing her dark-brownish pupils with an indigo ocean. Her hair was red gold, tumbling out of her scalp and cascading down her back like a waterfall. Strawberry lips that seemed as if something has just wiped half of the lipstick off...I realized her friends were looking at her shoes, pointing and gasping…..that was when I realized she was wearing the Luis Vitton Black Italy Pumps but they were also fake. You probably would not understand but Luis Vitton is a world designer and I know all his works by heart even though I do not own any, I can tell which was fake. Those were always cheaper than the normal price.
Mother was vain.
She would throw parties each month for two reasons: it was either she had something to celebrate or had something to show off. Today they were both. She never liked her friends and they didn't either. I wonder if they were all wh*ring around like her.
My mother was smart and clever, she covered her whoring pretty well with charity stunts, the funny part was that the wives of those she slept with were parts of her contributors.
It was mother's 37th birthday for the fifth time. I hope you understand. she has been clocking 37 for the past five years so, you can calculate her age.
I looked away as she sighted me looking at her before she was distracted by one of her fake friends again.
I swallowed that was close. She never liked me anywhere around her party. She once said I was a colossal disgrace….
Anyways, I continued accessing the guests…and I felt my stomach turn inside me as I spotted Honorable. He was talking with one another man that I couldn't recognize.
I hated the man so much called the honorable. He was also mother's closest customer, he bought her the recent car she is driving now. He was also a divorcee, if not, I would have reported him to his wife, I still had plans for him though for raping me and making me commit murder…he was turning his face so I looked away…his name was the top list on the people I would deal with in my future when I have finally become somebody….
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 3