I didn’t believe I was the same
person she was talking to. It has not always been like this. Christie has
always been a darling girlfriend. It was close to me proposing to her. I took
her from the gutters in her pains into the memorable success which she is today
and all I can get from her was this humiliation I saw today.
I was walking down the street whilst
publicly chanting to disturb the neighbourhood if anyone wanted my services as
a housekeeper. I made an average of N600 a day. My works ranged from cleaning
to babysitting, washing of clothes and clearing of grasses. In short I was a
GRA (general running around). I was diligent in this work and I prayed one day I
would make it so well that my children wouldn’t suffer the same stead which I suffered.
It was an unbearable pain for me at first but after a while I got used to
it. Christie was sighted after cleaning
chief’s house beside a gutter crying profusely and I wondered what a little girl
like her is doing there. I walked towards her and asked what was wrong. She told
me her story and the pains in me grew stronger. She had lost all senses of
identity as I escorted her to bury her mum a couple of days later. She was all Christie
had and now she was gone. There was nothing else. The house was practically
empty thus I made a promise to her which I fulfilled. I told her I would sponsor
her through school and from the proceeds of my hard work; my first responsibility
started.
She moved into my house and I had to
be a father and brother to her. It was her senior secondary school days and in
two years she was writing her SSCE. I paid and when the result came out she
graduated the best in her school. The pains and blisters showed up as the best
thing in her result. I prayed and thanked God for giving me the opportunity to
be able to partner in her success. It was time for university admission and we
did together also. She never joined me in the labour of days that produced the
first school fees and resumption in the university seems the hardest thing for
me to do. I borrowed money from friends which took me months to pay back but
the matriculation was awesome. The glamour of that day was a blessing I would
never forget. Days passed and months before she came back home as the first
semester has ended. When she came back, she was looking different. Emotion arose
within me and I pushed a little towards her for a relationship that would last
a lifetime. To me now it was an investment. The day I disvirgined her, we both
cried and promised ourselves heaven on earth. Which she also did. The whole
aroma of love was scented in the air and the blessing that followed was when
someone gave me a car to be using as a taxi. My income increased and taking
care of her was easier. Days passed and months passed also and the final exams
period started.
My daily contributions was collected
and without stress she was about to graduate and I know my first success could
now be pronounced. She came out with a 2nd class upper thus after
youth service it was easy for her to get a job. It was at this moment that Christie
changed. The sexual part of the whole relationship stopped. Quarrels were easy
for her to build and in seconds she reminded me in names calling that I was an
illiterate. It was always painful and one faithful she brought a guy home. I was
furious when I entered and I saw her sitting on the guys lap with their tongues
twisted in each other. I snapped and raised my voice on her. To my surprise,
the same good girl I saw sitting beside the gutter the first day I saw her
shouted back at me and called me names. She rushed into the room and parked her
things. She wrote a cheque of 200,000 naira as a departing gift and that I should
never contact her again.
Her final words were “I should look
for my mate” …………. Victor I can’t marry an illiterate like you.
So funny how life treats us sometimes
and I looked at myself in pains and anguish as tears dropped from my eyes. All my
life efforts are gone and God permitted it. Please is it fair what she did to
me?
