Jennifer sat still at a corner in the sitting room. Her younger ones played around while her mother came from time to time to urge them to lower their voice. Jennifer was just 8 years old.
“Jeni come and fold this thing for me,” Michael, the smallest child said to her.
Jennifer did not answer him. She seemed to be lost in thought. She just stared aloof. Michael came and touched her. She looked at him and looked away.
“Every time you will not help somebody,” Michael said and went back to play.
After a while, there was a knock on the door. The children kept quiet. Their mother came out from the kitchen where she was and asked who was knocking.
“Nke m open the door,” they heard their father say.
“Daddy oyoyo, daddy oyoyo” filled the air as the children waited anxiously for their mother to open the door for her husband to come in. when he came in, the children jumped on him, asking him what he brought for them. He gave then the biscuits he bought for them and they thanked him. Jennifer was the last to drag herself and hug her father.
“Are you okay?” he asked her when he noticed she was behaving abnormally.
Jennifer nodded her head without saying a word.
“Nke m what is wrong with Jeni?” he asked his wife.
“I have not noticed anything wrong with her.” She replied. “She has been with Michael and the twins since, watching TV and playing.”
She touched Jennifer’s body to check if she was running temperature but she appeared normal.
“Did you wound yourself?”
Jennifer shook her head
“Then why are you quiet?” her father asked worried.
“Nothing,” she said.
Her mother turned her around and examined whether she had any injury anywhere but there was none she could see.
“Is it because of the shoe you asked me to buy for you?”
“No.”
“Are you hungry?”
She shook her head.
The other children stood for a while watching. When they could not make out what was going on, they went, sat on the floor and started eating their biscuits.
“Honey let me handle this.” Mama Jennifer said to her husband. “Drop your bag in the room.”
“This is strange o. Why will Jeni not tell us what is wrong?”
He looked at his daughter for a while and went into his room. Mama Jennifer sat on the couch and brought Jennifer and sat her on her lap. When Jennifer sat, she turned her face and writhed her face in pain but her mother did not notice it.
“Jeni m, tell me what the problem is.”
Jennifer kept quiet.
“Did anyone beat you?”
She shook her head.
“Then what is wrong?”
Jennifer kept quiet. Her mother tried for a while to get her to say something but she did not.
“Nkem the food on the fire is burning,” she heard her husband say from the room.
Jennifer’s mother quickly lifted her and sat her on the couch and rushed to the kitchen. Jennifer writhed in pain again but her mother did not see. Her parents met in the kitchen and discussed what the problem could be.
“Where you able to find out what the problem is with Jennifer?” her father asked her mother.
“No. she refused to tell me.”
“She has not done like this before.”
“I am worried about her.”
“Do you have drugs in your first aid kit?”
“Let me check.”
She went to the room and checked while her husband turned the soup in the pot. She came back and told him that everything was intact.
“Just incase she develops symptoms in the night.”
He went to the palour and sat down.
“Come sit with me,” he told Jennifer.
She got up, went closer to him and sat down. She rested her head on his laps as he flipped through the channels in the TV. He put a football station.
“Daddy we want cartoon,” the twins told him.
“Not now,” he said.
“See people’s daddy running round and round,” Michael said. “What are they pursuing inside the TV?”
“Football.”
“Then why are they pushing each other?”
“When you grow up you will know.”
They kept quiet and ate their biscuits.
“Food is ready,” their mother announced as she entered the parlour.
“Have the children had their bath?” her husband asked her.
“Not yet.”
“Mummy we want to eat first,” one of the twins said.
“You will bath first,” she replied. “Remove your clothes and come.”
They all got up and started removing their cloths but Jennifer still lay on her father’s laps.
“Ada, you don’t want to bath?” her mother asked her.
She shook her head.
“Why?”
“Nothing.”
“Bath the others first,” her husband told her. “You can bath Jeni later.”
“OK.”
She took the twins and Michael to the bathroom and began bathing them one after the other. When she was done with bathing and dressing them, she brought them out to the parlour.
“Jennifer oya come,” she said.
“No.”
“Do you want me to bath you?” her father asked her.
She shook her head.
“Let mummy bath you.”
“No.”
“Should I bath you myself?”
“No.”
Her mother came to her and lifted her. She struggled a bit.
“What is the meaning of this one?”
“Jeni go and bath,” her father told her. “Then you come.”
Her mother dragged her to bathroom and undressed her. Jennifer cried as she was being dragged. In the bathroom her mother removed her pant and she shouted. Her mother was shocked at what she noticed on her pant. She saw dark spots. On a close look, she noticed it was blood. By then she was breathing fast. She touched Jennifer’s private part and Jennifer shouted.
“Ukpabi eee,” she shouted and carried both hands on her head.
Jennifer’s father rushed into the bathroom.
“What is it?” he asked.
His wife gave him Jennifer’s pant.
“What is the meaning of this?”
She pointed at Jennifer’s private part.
“Nke m what are you trying to say?” he asked impatiently. “Stop using sign language.”
“Someone abused Ada.”
He dropped the pant and his eyes bulged in anger.
“How sure are you?” he asked.
“I am a mother. I know when such things happen.”
“Clean her up and bring her out quickly. She will tell us who did it.”
He fumed and went into his room. Jennifer’s mother bathed her as quickly as she could. Anytime she touched Jennifer’s private part, she would writhe in pain.
“Who touched you?” she asked Jennifer as she cleaned her body.
Jennifer just whimpered and didn’t say a word. Her mother carried her to the children’s room to dress her up. Her father stormed in, dressed in a jean trouser and a tight fitted t-shirt.
“Who did this to you?” he roared.
Jennifer kept quiet. He advanced menacingly and Jennifer hid behind her mother who stood in the way.
“Take it easy,” she begged her husband.
“How will I take it easy? Someone had the guts to abuse my daughter.”
He turned to Jennifer and asked her again. She did not talk. He stormed out.
“You better start talking now.” Her mother told her.
She just continued whimpering. Her father stormed in again with a cane in his hand.
“Will you talk now or should I flog you on top?”
Her mother wanted to stand in between and he shoved her aside and went closer to Jennifer. Jennifer shouted in fear.
“Tell me now,” he said as he reached out to hold her.
“It is uncle Bassey,” Jennifer blurted out and burst into tears.
There was momentary silence.
“Which bassey?” he asked her.
“Your teacher?” her mother asked.
“Yes,” Jennifer replied.
“The one that lives down the road?”
“Yes.”
“When did this happen?”
“After school today. He told me he wanted to show me something and took me to a room when all the others had left the class. Then he…then he…”
“then he what?”
“He put his ntanta inside my pant.”
“Kai!” her father shouted. “Bassey Bassey. You will meet your ancestors today.”
He rushed into the kitchen and got a machete and rushed out of the house. Jennifer’s mother hugged her and told her all will be well. Michael and the twins came into the room.
“Jeni who beat you?” one of the twins asked.
“Is it daddy?” the other twin asked.
No one replied them. After a while, they heard heavy knock on the door. They were quiet. Then they heard the banging.
“Stay here let me see who it is,” their mother said to them and left.
She saw the door was ajar and met a neighbor almost inside the parlour.
“What is happening? Where is your husband going with a machete?”
“What!” Mama Jennifer shouted. “Which side did he go?”
“He just ran out of the compound.”
“Bassey o.”
“Who is Bassey? What did he do?”
“He is Jenifer’s school teacher. He abused her.”
“Ewooo! That means your husband is going to kill him now.”
“I need to run after him.”
“Who will take care of the kids?”
She went in and brought the children out and left them in the care of a woman, their neighbor. By then the whole yard had gotten wind that something was going on.
When Jennifer’s father rushed out of the compound with a machete, his male friends and neighbours rushed after him asking him what happened. Soon, it was a group of men rushing down the street. Everyone took notice. Some looked out of their windows at the drama that was unfolding.
When Jennifer’s dad got to Bassey’s compound, he saw Bassey chatting and laughing with some friends. Immediately he saw Bassey, he charged with the machete raised. Bassey saw him and took to his heels. His friends ran with him.
“You Idiot,” Jennifer’s father shouted as he pursued Bassey. “You raped my daughter.”
All the people there shouted in shock. Many of the men who were holding Jennifer’s father let go of him when they heard what he said. Few held him begging him not to kill anybody, that they would resolve the matter amicably.
Bassey ran into his house and locked the door. His friends jumped the fence into the next compound. Jennifer’s father hit the door with the machete but just left marks on it.
“If I don’t kill you today, know it is not me.”
He was red with anger.
“Just alert the police,” Mr Martin, one of Jennifer’s father’s friends and neighbours said to him.
“I left my phone in the house.”
Another man brought out his phone and called the police commissioner in the state who promised to dispatch force men to the scene.
“When and how did this happen?” another man asked him.
“This afternoon after school.”
“How is she?”
“She is traumatized.”
“When will people stop abusing innocent children?” a woman said, clicked her fingers and shrug her shoulder.
The men stood in groups discussing what had happened while the women stood in another group. Jennifer’s mother soon joined them and emotionally told them what had happened.
“You need to take her to a clinic,” someone suggested.
“That is after the idiot is in jail,” Jennifer’s father said. “If I don’t kill him myself.”
"No. Immediately. Do you know if he left any rubbish deposit inside her?"
"No. Immediately. Do you know if he left any rubbish deposit inside her?"
They heard police siren and two hilux jeeps landed. Police men alighted and came into the compound. The man in charge asked to know what was going on. They pointed him to Jennifer’s father, who told them what had happened.
“Where is the criminal?” the police man asked.
“He locked himself inside.”
He gave signs to two of his men who broke the door open and went inside. They soon came out with Bassey. Jennifer’s father lifted the machete again but a police man collected it from him.
“If you kill him, it is you we will arrest,” the police man in charge told him.
The people booed Bassey as he was taken to the hilux. Those whose hand could reach Bassey donated beating.
“Who is going with us?” the police man in charge said as they handcuffed Bassey to the back of the hilux.
“I am going to make a statement,” Jennifer’s father said.
Some other men also agreed to follow him.
“Let me bring my car,” Jennifer’s father said.
“No.” Mr Martin said. “You are not in the right frame of mind to drive now. Let us go with mine. It is parked very close.”
Jennifer’s father went to his wife and told her to take Jennifer to the clinic close to them so they will check her medically and treat her.
“When will you come back?” she asked him.
“When I get to the root of this.”
Mr Martin drove his car close, Jennifer’s father entered with some of his friends who volunteered to go with him. They drove off after the hilux. Then Mama Jennifer went back to the house with some close friends and they took Jennifer to a clinic. The rest of the people dispersed with a dramatic story to tell the rest of the week…….
-Chinedu Isaac
No part of this publication should be used in any form without the permission of the writer or the WTI team.
The uncle next door.
Chinedu Isaac. WritingsThatInspire
photo credit: google images
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These things happen everyday under our noses. Things parents and guardians should learn from this story are:
These things happen everyday under our noses. Things parents and guardians should learn from this story are:
- · Be careful who you leave your children/wards with.
- · Be careful who they call ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’.
- · Try and know all the people they relate with
- · Make sure you are observant to pick up early warning signs.
- · Just in case it has happened, handle the situation with care. It is a fragile matter, especially as regards the victim of the abuse.
Things children should learn:
- · Be careful who you call uncle and aunty.
- · Don’t stay in secret places
- · When an 'uncle' or 'aunty' touches you in a way you don’t like, stop him or her.
- · Always tell your parents whatever is going on.
- · If it has happened to you already, talk to someone about it and then let it go. [The best person you can tell your problem is JESUS. He has the power to heal you of the pain and wipe away the hurt of the memory.]
SAY NO TO ABUSE!
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