KUNLE part 2(the complete story)

BEMUSEMENT

"I am really sorry ma, but the missionary School is setting a pace, and for this reason would  not condone any form of immoral behavior however little," These were the last words from my principal to my mum, as he handed over my expel letter to her in his office.  The news of my pregnancy had spread like wild fire, and was the topic on every student's lip.

Kunle, I mean my Kunle  denied  the pregnancy and eventually relocated to God knew where after being  shamefully dismissed.

Returning to the tension in my family; I just wish one had the natural option to choose his kindred . 

The Effangas, regardless having just two children(myself and my kid brother)  Saw disowning me as a way to uproot reproach from thier  lineage  while  maintaining  their religious office which was  at stake.  My father particularly vowed to kill me and commit suicide,  if I ever came an inch close to home. All efforts to plea on my behalf by friends and relatives seemed abortive.

I dropped out of school, life become miserable for me with no choice other than move from the City to live with my maternal grandmother in Creek town village .

Early  pregnancy didn't seem easy at all, I saw hell, coupled  with the poorly given maternity attention i had

 To make matters worst; my biggest dream, the international scholarship scheme I applied for came through two months to my delivery. Some of my class mates who got selected left for schooling overseas, while all I did day and night was get wrapped in depression shedding unfortunate tears under my bed pillow.

'A failedchild' that was the best descriptive adjective to qualify me. I had become  a shadow of my aspirations, and hated myself the more every time I stared at my school uniform loosely hanging in the clay wardrobe.  What I needed was a pen,  but  got  tied down by the  longer pen that writes on naked bodies.

Sometimes I just wondered if being a girl child was the worst crime I  had committed. I mean I stayed over seven months in the village without even a flash call from my parents, talk more of friends or even Kunle that had vanished into thin air. Everyone was gone. 

It was at this point I realised that life is  simply a race and the fact that you stop running wouldn't stop others from continuing.

TRAGEDY

At exactly nine month I was delivered of a baby boy. My withered grandmother had put in her best gray energy to ensure I forgot the injuries that did transpired, but it wasn't that easy. I always saw  myself as 'a done deal'. I can vividly recall one of this crying evenings when I asked her; "Eka would I ever be a doctor again?"

She looked deep into my eyes,  held  my both arms and then replied; "Adiaga Iyene" (wealthy daughter), as she fondly called me in the Efik dialect , "One day you would be writing this as a story for another to be inspired". And I believe today  all she had  said makes great sense, because right now I can feel  your inspired eyes caressing through the letters of my  story as she had earlier professed.

So like I was saying, I started my business  of a nursing mother at a very early 

age. We had limited resources to cater for myself and my tender boy, so I resorted to the  enterprise of selling pap in the morning and peeled oranges much later at evenings.

Just when I thought my misery was subsiding the biggest one happened.

I lost my baby boy from poorly managed convulsion when he was a year and three month. This was the hight of it all. I had begged the ground to open up and receive me that day. It shouldn't have been my Emediong. He was the reason I lost my education, family and aspirations.

What can I say, maybe God always knows best.

After the death of my boy, I decided that I was  going to return to school. I vowed within my self to pursue my dreams even though it was going to cost me my last breath.

Talking, of the devil and then he appears, the hunter of  breath finally came after my  last hope, my grandmother. He snatched her away  the same year. This time I didn't know whether to shed blood  or vinegar.These were her last words before kissing the dust;  "Eyen mmi(my child), never live in the past"

When my parents came for her burial rites, I was so expectant that they were going to receive me back  especially after all the ill fate that had befallen me.  But nothing of that flavor ever happened, i was left to fend alone like a chick without a mother hen.

SUNSHINE

Like the holy book would have it;  "When the Lord turned around the captivity of zion, they were like them that dreamed." 

God decided to answer my prayers and showed up in my helpless state  . A short while after the burial,  I was recommended by a neighbor to serve as a house help for Dr Linus Ekone who at the time surfered the shock of  a partial stroke due to the sudden death of his wife and children in a ghastly motor accident .

My job description was simple, as I was employed to assist him in his  handicapped living.

This I embraced with utmost affection.

Our relationship soon  grew beyond master and maid.

He began to trust me with honest biological commitments

Until his  benevolent  decision to have me adopted.  This implies that i am presently the only surviving child of Dr Ekone (by adoption). And I so believe the Effangas  (my biologicals) would be guiltily proud on knowing this news.

So light showed  up again  in my life.

My dreams re_garminated as I returned to school and concluded my West Africa Examination ( at exactly sixteen years).

After this, I   proceeded overseas to study medicine and surgery. 

I got certified, and then  decided to return and manage my father's hospital (Immaculate Maternity) where Kunle  and his dying wife today seeks my salvation.

If only we had the spell to rewind the hands of time, we would try to be extra careful while handling the clock.

Nobody, not Kunle or even my arduous parents would have ever imagined me climbing to the ladder that fate has placed me.

Today I have Kunle begging me to safe is dying wife and  my parents sending apologies from all hemisphere, the same apology they refused from a naive child when she needed them most.

What part of the mercy do I begin from?

Is it the unjust disowning? 

The mental trauma been through?

Or the painful part that I lost my  first womb candle out of poverty?

Indeed to be a Christian isn't easy!

Nonetheless, I would let bygones be , because like my late granny had told me, we are a product of the past, but  banned from living in the past. 

So I  have decided to  forgive Kunle, operate upon his wife on gratis and reconcile back with my family

MORAL LESSON: God expects you to look beyond your past and express his love  even when the people in question aren't worth it!