A Chase For My Dream

Chapter 4

The nauseating smell from his mouth almost made me gag. He was so close that I could bet he heard my heart beat. Sweat began to trail down my chin. To say I was scared would definitely be an understatement.

He suddenly grabbed me wrist making me flinch.

"You're going to respect me and be a good girl else I won't hesitate to teach you a lesson" he sneered.

"Do you understand?" His voice was louder this time and with a hint of warning in it.

"Y-yes" that's all it took me to bring me to tears. Painful tears for how long would I take this?

***

Its been a week since Ole Sayo, my alleged husband gave me endless warnings and threats.

He had purposely made my stay here unbearable. I think he enjoyed seeing me crying my eyes out, but I had made up my mind I wasn't going to cry again. I am a girl, my mother would tell me that if only I had a chance to talk to her this once.

I had made a handful of friends who came to keep me company. Naserian was my now closest. She had found me crying a couple of times after threats from Ole Sayo and had comforted me with a lot of kindness.

"Why don't you try and get used to this  Naneu? You know you don't have a choice." Naserian was now asking me this for the hundredth time.

"I can't Naserian, you know I want to go to school and become a teacher not some old man's wife" I had decided I was not going to give up on my dreams though I could not even trace a single chance of them coming true.

"Shshhh... School is for boy Naneu you have to stop saying that and hoping for something that's impossible" she scolded me.

"That's where you're wrong, I talked to Keis and she told me that her elder brother told her there were girls from other communities in the school that he was attending"

Keis was also a friend I had gotten recently. She has an elder brother who attended school up to what they call secondary school. The brother was now a teacher at the communities primary school, which was obviously attended by only boys.

Keis had as well promised to try and get the direction of the school his brother was attending after I told her my escape plan.

"Its other communities Naneu, you can't go against our traditions you know you can be disowned right?" I hate that everyone believed in these traditions so much to give up all their hope for a brighter future.

If you asked me I'd say they were brainwashed. They all believed in one common thing. That school was for boys and women are to do chores and give birth to endless numbers of children.

I refuse to let them convince me into giving up. If one of us does not look for change then there will never be change. But how was I going to achieve all this.

Naserian continued giving me warnings until it was evening and time for her to go home. It was also time to milk the cows and put them in their sheds.

Ole Sayo had given me two cows, which was the same for the other six wives. I had learn how to milk from my step mother so it was not that hard though still not my favorite chore. In the past few days I had learnt that Ole Sayo was a strict man who could not think twice before giving his wives a good beating. He also had a lot of children as the first wife had eleven, the second had seven, the third five, the forth ten, the fifth eight and the sixth five. I was expected to follow suit and give him a lot of children as well. If only I'd wait for that.

The cows were skinny and did not produce a lot of milk considering that there had been no rain so they were not getting enough to feed on.

After I was done I went to my hut where I found an angry Ole Sayo impatiently waiting for me. The look on his face Immediately made my blood boil out of fear. I could feel my palms get sweaty in every step I made towards him.

His jaw was clenched and I could tell that his barely visible muscles were tense. What had I done to make him this angry.

"You little good for nothing" he yelled coming my way as if I was taking too long to get to him.

I was shaking and had my hands wrapped around myself in a protective manner.

He grabbed my wrist and immediately started punching me again and again. I tried to move away but he caught me and slapped me across the face. I was so sure that I would have a good number of bruises by the time he was done. He continued to rant but I could not ever hear whatever he was saying. I was trembling and suddenly freezing.

"You should know better than to go gossiping with those silly girls all day" he was panting from the 'great work'.

"Who ever told you that there is school for girls?" So all this was about school. I should have know that the word would eventually get to him in a way or another.

"You're just useless and weak, thats what all of you women are nothing makes you special so don't you ever mention going to school in my compound again"

"Useless"

"Weak"

"Useless"

"Weak"

Those were the only words that remained in my ears that whole night.
Is that all that I was? That we girls were? Useless and weak?

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Late update sorry🏃🏽‍♀ but at least its finally here. Vote vote vote. Follow my account and leave a comment.
What do you guys think about Ole Sayo? How will Naneu escape? Stick around to find out. Xoxo.