Scandal of Grace

29

CHAPTER TWENTYNINE

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I got tired out eventually and stayed on a street helplessly. A man driving by that night stopped to ask me why I was alone by the roadside. I was scared to my bones. I feared that he was like Uncle Salami. So, I stayed there, ignoring him. He drove away soon. Another woman stopped after what seemed like eternity. I was starving and shivering too.

She looked at me from her car and she had a girl beside her. The woman, who I later found her name was Miss Rose asked me, "Why are you out in the cold by past eleven, dear?"

I started to cry.

"Where are your parents?" Miss Rose asked again. I shook my head, still crying. I could not make out any words.

"Should I take you home?" I shook my head again

"My house?"

I nodded.

That was how she took me home, fed me and clothed me. It turned out it was an orphanage home in Lagos she was travelling to. That was where she worked. The girl in her car was an orphan too. Miss Rose was not married with any child to call her own but was busy taking care of other kids and helping them find new happy families.

That night, we slept in a hotel and continued the journey the next day. I told her that my parents died in a car crash and no one would come get me from the hospital so I wandered the streets on my own.

Miss Rose was really nice and motherly. She was the only one I allowed to teach me and take care of me, except when I took karate lessons for self-defense. Every child in the home took self-defense lessons. I was not interested in the other orphanage workers.

Another life changing moment came and that was the day Pastor and Mrs Alexander came in and wanted a ward to adopt. Miss Rose specifically chose me for them and I agreed. I wouldn't say I regretted accepting to go with them because I might not have gained so much strength to stay afloat till the moment.

There were times I would cut my body to hurt myself just because all I felt for me was hatred and nothing else but pure hatred. I would hate on others secretly and try my best to avoid contact with them.

But it was never them, it was me, my inability to love anyone appropriately after life dealt with me at a very tender age. If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? That was a line my current dad would answer with prayers. Those prayers had surely led me here, little by little as it seemed.

I did not want to use phone to avoid any form of tracking from my wicked relatives. I just wished to see my siblings again and know that they are alright. That was not too much to ask.

Stephen never dropped my hands. He held onto them like his life depended on it. I cried all through my story. I cried, not because I was still angry, but because I was finally letting go and thinking about those things would always hurt. I could only get better. One part of me was scared that he would judge me. However, when he spoke, I was relieved.