SECOND CHANCE

15

LARAI

The moment they set foot inside the wing, about 10 girls welcomed them happily. It's a well polished apartment with modern designed furnitures and colourful wallpapers. The whole room was admirable to Amaanee as she had never seen any place like this except for the hospital. It's very different from the room she was given before and she likes this one already.

Amaanee felt excited to meet them and it wasn't long that they got along with each other. They ate together, played video games and sat down for a long chat.

" How did you all ended here? Are you relatives? How comes you relate well with each other without fights?" Amaanee asked curiously.

"Yes we go along with one another but we do have our ups and downs too you know. So tell us about your self dear then we will take turns in telling you ours" said one of the girls named Fadeey.

Amaanee happily narrated her story, up to the moment she met them that day.

The girls felt for her deeply and were silent for some minutes meaning an old wound had been scratched. Aisha gathered the courage to talk saying;

" That's a heart touching story dear and sadly all of us have similar to yours or worse, it's a tradition that we tell our stories to each other especially when a newbie joins us so as to enable us know more about each other, it benefits us in giving the needed emotional support and live a happy life in this wing. We are 20 in number, each of us came here at different times and I'm the leader here. Jakadiya named this wing the Young Ladies wing. " she halted to take a sip of tea from the mug she was holding.

" We have about 5 wings that you should know about currently. Which are; Young Ladies wing, Widows wing, Married women wing, Pregnant women wing, Young men wing. There are more but these are the main wings you need to know. Each wing has about 20-30 members depending on the inflow of the packages."

Aisha was interrupted by her phone that couldn't stop ringing, she had to excuse her self and answer the call.

" That's too much to take in right?" A fair, tall and elegant lady said. " I'm Larai I will start telling you my story before Aisha gets back if that's ok by everyone here."

The room was silent signifying that she can commence.

" I grew in a village called Wawa in Gombe State. I never knew the love of my parents because my father gave me out as a gift to his friend Baffa Jibo. Baffa Jibo had 5 children all male which left  me the only female. His only wife Tani trained me well and never made me lack a thing my entire life." She paused to catch her breath and then continued;

" You will think that's the best life ever right? To me it isn't because I felt empty and scared all the time especially at night that's when my nightmares will start. It started when I was 4 years old, a man will come into my room and play with my private parts for hours. As a kid I liked it and it continued for about 2years, that's when the person started inserting a stick into my private part next was his manhood. I screamed the first time because it was painful but my mouth was covered with a piece of cloth so no one heard. I once complained to Baba Tani but she assured that it's just a bad dream and that I should be performing solution before I go to bed. At 8 I've already been turned to a sex machine, the person comes barking orders at times and steady, calm other times. Even when I try resisting sleep, my eyes will fail me in the end leaving me slumbering in a deep sleep." Lara adjusted her sitting position and continued;

"I was not opportuned to attend school as Baba insisted it's a waste of time. So I spent the whole day assisting Baba Tani and at night the unknown comes for me. One day, the two oldest brothers had a fight that lasted for hours, their mother couldn't sperate them and they refuse to say what the fight was all about. At the nightfall, Baba came back and was informed by Baba Tani about the unstoppable fight, so Baba called all the five brothers to his room and asked the two brothers why they were fighting and the eldest spoke;

"Baba I think it's better to reschedule our time with Larai because Sada is cheating, he goes in twice instead of the once per individual."

I was sent by Baba Tani to bring Baba Jibo's dinner but I stood by the door the moment I heard what Dadda said waiting for him to elaborate. Baba cleared his throat and said;

" You mean Sada sleeps with Larai more than once?"