“If anyone told me that I could easily lose the love of my life in a twinkled of an eye, I wouldn’t have believed such a person” I said as I adjusted my seat close to Joy as we began our discussion. The story of my life is such that many people find it impossible to believe, though I know that many people have different stories to tell about love. My story, however, is somewhat different; very few people who genuinely love a person can relate. I think Mary, can relate to some parts of my story but I don’t know if she lied to me about how she was in love with her classmate that she ended up taking care of him and seeing him through school with the money her father gave to her to start a business, only for Michael to end up getting married to another girl. I could feel her pain and disappointment when she told me her story. I understood the feeling of hoping that you have found the truth, only to realize that, you were in a wrong relationship. I knew that one day I would share my story with Mary.
“So, tell me what happened,” Mary said as she bites up a big portion of the cucumber, finding it difficult to say anything else. As good neighbours, I spend a lot of time with Mary than other neighbours of mine. I don’t know how we became so close that we had to share some of our stories and secrets.
I and my husband packed into the apartment two years ago, the house is made up of five flats, each fully occupied. It’s a nice place to live since everyone seems civilized and educated. We live at peace with each other such that, during the last Christmas, we had to share food among ourselves. Mary’s husband hosted a house party and some of us who were present attended the party.
Notwithstanding, I contemplated on whether to tell Mary, the whole truth about my love life or just skip to another discussion because, most times, the people you call your friends are people who end up telling your secrets to outsiders. At some point, I decided to tell her what happened to me many years ago.
“At my junior school, precisely in class three”, I said as I began my story. I fell in love with my mathematics teacher. How it started I can’t tell” I could see how Mary looked at me surprised, though I pretended not to see her reaction. I continued, “I knew that he loved me too because of the way he looked at me while teaching, and most time, he would ask me questions more than others”. I took another bite of the apple that was in my hand and continued my story. “I remember one day he called me to his office and asked me to sit in one of the chairs in his office. I sat there innocently, looking at him. He didn’t have anything meaningful to say but after a while, he said, Blessing, do you know that you are a beautiful girl? I didn’t say anything, but when he lifted his face to look at me, I smiled and said “Thank you sir”. It happened that we started becoming so closed that many of my classmates noticed it and started addressing me as the mathematics teacher's girlfriend”.
“How old were you then”? Mary interrupted
“Thirteen” I replied
“And how old was he”?
“I don’t know, but he did not appear too old, he should have been in his early twenties” I said carelessly.
“One fateful day”, I continued from where I stopped, “he called me to his office and told me that he was leaving the school by the end of the month, he did not tell me his reason, but I had already started missing him, so I told him if he wouldn’t love to see me in my senior class three. I knew that he did not understand the reason behind my question so he did not bother to respond to it. instead, he said that he would be coming around to see me. I wanted to cry but I had to hold myself in case anyone walked in”.
I could see from Mary’s countenance that she was fixated to hear the end of my story. Also, I could not wait to complete my story so I continued. “At the end of the month, he resigned, I didn’t see him any longer in school. I missed him so much. So, one day I sneaked out of school to his house, but he was not at home as his door was locked, I went there the following week, and I learnt from one of his neighbours that he had travelled. I was devasted so I had to use my mom’s phone to secretly call him. Fortunately, his line went through and we spoke at length”.
“Hmmm, nawa o”, Mary interjected as I began to bring my story to a close.
“Not long after, I realized that I was pregnant. This was after four months had passed. I became the talk of the town, my mother was disappointed in me and my dad almost drove me out of the house, if not for the intervention of my aunts”. At this point, Mary could not continue eating her cucumber, her mouth opened for some seconds then she closed it back, trying to believe what she just heard.
I didn’t mind her reaction any longer so I continued with my story. “I told my parents who got me impregnated, so they tried to reach out to Mr Samuel, but he denied ever knowing me or having anything to do with me” At this point, Mary almost cried because I added lots of emotions to what I said and tears began to roll out of my eyes. “How did you finally handle it”? she asked.
“It was not easy”, I said as I began to pack out the leftover fruits into the dustbin. “I was traumatized, but I later gave birth to a boy child he’s living with my parents in the village”. “As a result of that, I couldn’t continue my education” I added.
Suddenly, I heard a knock on the gate and it was my husband. I rushed to open the gate when Mary left for her apartment.
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