A Collection Of Short Stories.

A woman's plight: Amaka's Story.

"...respect yourself." Amaka yelled.

She dropped her phone, sat back and turned up the music playing from the radio.
She closed her eyes, and suddenly felt the effect of the rush of the breeze on her skin, it gave her goose bumps. She allowed the wind mess up her hair and the few strands of hair that touched face, sent tingles to her whole body. She felt the serenity.

Until she remembered those words.
Her eyes flicked open and this feeling of uncertainty griped her. She couldn't help but feel her heart beat twice as fast. She knew she had a problem, and needed to deal with it fast.

"Amaka, calm down," she said to her self, as she felt a gripping pain in her chest. She suddenly clutch her heart and reached for the half full cup of water sitting on the table beside her.

She sensed relieve, as she gulped down the last bit of water. If only this water could solve her problems easily, she thought. Amaka tuned down the radio, I mean, what could be more soothing than listening to Victor Uwifo on a very breezy day at the Village Square, but Amaka's issues had passed the calming effect of the music.

Amaka has been married for fifteen years, at first, her marriage had been heaven on earth. She defiled everybody's advice and orders.
She had just finished secondary school and had a promising future, she really wanted to go to the university, all her friends were there, she felt left out, but what could she do, her parents only made enough to send her brother to school, she always wondered why, maybe it was because she was a girl child.

Amaka tried her best to convince them, she really tried, but all her efforts came to no avail. Until she met him, He promised to send her to the university, he promised to treat her like the queen she was. He showered her with so much love already, his sweet mouth didn't even help matters, She had already fallen deep into love with him. He wanted to make her his own, he already told her his plans to get married to her. All seemed to be going well, but the problem was that he was 10 years older than her.

"Amaka my daughter, you know I don't talk to much, I'm only going to say this once so listen like your life depends on it." Her father spoke softly.
"I am aware that you say you are in love with Him, and he his making plans to get married to you, I hope you also know that he his my friend and he is not in your age gap," He continued.
"Amaka, please think about what you are doing, very wisely, marriage is not a child's play. You are only 18. You still have a bright future ahead of you, Your life will not end, because you didn't go to the university. You can still become a teacher in our town school." He added, but this time his voice went up a little.
"Please my daughter, think about it, sleep over, pray over it and make sure you the right decision." He concluded and never brought up the issue again.

Amaka had already made up her mind, and nothing anyone had to say could change it, her mother tried, so did her friends. Even her very close cousin, who was reading Law in the university tried to speak some sense into her, but it all went on deaf hears.
Amaka was tired of seeing her friends, flaunt their success in her face, so she hurried the marriage process and within months, she became Mrs Amaka.

Soon after she got married, she took the university entrance exam and passed. She was granted admission to study Home Management. She was ecstatic, everything was falling perfectly into plan, she even had to move closer to her school so that she could be a part time student, which gave her enough time to take care of her family, and manage her school.

Her body had started to show some signs, so she decided to take a pregnancy test. She didn't expect the results, this was not the plan, she was obviously disorder. She didn't know how to take it, she was just in her 2nd year in the university and she still had 2 more years left.
Amaka, decided to keep schooling, until the pregnancy was visible. She told her husband, and even though he was not so comfortable with the plan, she persuaded him to agree.