Voices

Voices within

My name is Rachel .....
I used to be the envy of all,not for being a bully but for being intellectual and a straight A student,I didn't have a choice .
It was either focus on my education or sell akara in the blazing sun at enerhen junction ......

We had a hard life,but it was ours ,i made a vow ,I was going to excel at my studies and that way attract educational bodies.
I got the delta state examination board  to put me in a private school ,mayhap my woes won't have started if I had not been too ambitious...

Did I do it?
Yes I did ,I was exceptional ,gifted and so the envy grew.
Her name was oma,suffice to say she was my  best friend ...
The food that sustained me for days on end after school came from her house,I was immensely grateful and I showed my gratitude by working for my keep....
I would clean and dust and run errands with a book in my hand,my brilliance made her mother tell her to court me as friend ,since she needed the push factor for her studies....
I loved her like a sister ,but the tears that flow as I write today tells me otherwise...
She grew to detest  me and I was oblivious to all this,I was more interested in school and getting a better life ,one devoid of begging and being tired before I could find comfort in the warm embrace of books.

My life changed the day she asked for me to see her off to get earrings for a birthday at igbudu market.
I didn't like the idea ,it was too far a journey for earrings,I followed anyway....
I was bloodied 30 minutes later,gang raped by 5 mean looking men ,swinging axes and cutlasses.
I was a virgin,the niceness of Emmanuel had not softened my heart enough for the act.
I had promised to give myself to the man that would pay my dowry,it all came flashing before my eyes ,under the  wicked grin and jeers of my best friend oma...

I never spoke up,but I never went back there.
I lost the scholarship ,I got pregnant a child that died at birth,my sorrows knew no bounds .....
I am broken beyond repair..