CRISES, my first short story online. Do not forget to hit the subscribe button for notifications of new Posts you wouldn't want to miss!!

...Why should I  believe you?
..Because  I'm Veronica's daughter!"

      The laughter that filled the air after I had said that in the past keeps coming into my head where I'm lying helplessly in the pool of my own blood and I  wish I had more happy moments with my mother but it was rare. I loved her so much but it seems everything is over now.
     My fear,my mother's fear,the competition I await so badly to win,my wish to see Mr Ajibare Dickson someday, everything seems shattered now in front of me as a car runs me over. I have never felt this miserable,shattered and helpless like this in my whole life.
      "Wuraaaaaa..."
My mother's voice  echoes inside my head again and again. She's now at the road side trying to cross the road to where I am lying in my blood. I have never seen her scared as she is right now and before she could find her way to my side,a man who seems in his late forties, putting on a blue jean trousers and a black short leaves top rushes towards me.I think he's the driver of the car. People are now gathered,some are wailing while others watch.The man grabs me from the ground to the back sit of his car.
  "Wura! Wura!... hospital! Hospital!.." It's my mother's voice again. She's now at the back sit of the car with me.She holds my head so close to her chest panicking,  and I hold tightly the sachet of drugs in my hand.

     Maybe I should have believed Eriife that my mother can't hurt me. I know my mother can't hurt me but I was just scared.She was not educated.Maybe I shouldn't have found out about the pills.Maybe I should have submitted to the kind of life my mother had wanted me to live in the past. Everything was just fine and usual until three days ago....
           *    *     *
         In my whole life,I have never participated in sports because I have never liked running but on that Sunday afternoon,I was running under a hot sun. I was not chasing anybody nor was I being chased after.I have been running for the past six minutes  from Batiwaye street heading to Ajidahun street  which was, where I lived.My fear of being embarrassed again and the fear of my mum, when she noticed I have disappeared again kept me running.My mother  always got mad at me whenever I had gone somewhere without her. She scolds me publicly each time I had disappeared accusing me of going to my boyfriend's house.I always felt embarrassed whenever she says that at the top of her voice dragging the attentions of our neighbors on me.  I was very tired and sweating like a sacrificial goat yet,I didn't stop.My mother was asleep when I left the house and I wished she's still asleep before I got home. I wished God should just neglect all that I have wished for in the past few years just to make my mother asleep until I got home
      My name was Ajibare Wuraola.A black skinny girl who was sixteen years old.Wura was what people called me most,  including my mum and whenever I hear Wuraola which was my full name,I would know I was in trouble again!
      "Oh Lord, please help me just for today" I said inside me as I bent to wipe the sweats on my face with the tip of the faded blue coloured gown I was wearing as I reached the back of Ghetto house.Ghetto house was what people called the quarters I lived with my mother and it's always filled with unnecessary rantings.The house has always been the talk of our neighborhood.Fighting was a daily view that people must watch.Our surroundings was always  looking confused and people's belief was that, non of the inhabitants of the house had a goal.They were all ruffians but I,Ajibare Wuraola,I had a goal which was to be successful in life  and a wish to meet one Mr. Ajibare Dickson,someday.
   I quickly dried my sweaty face,adjusted my dress well,and I put a smile on my face like someone that had got nothing to worry about.I walked towards the front of the house and as I was about to pass through the entrance,mama Eri drew my attention back.Mama Eri was a middle aged woman who owned a wooden shop situated at the from of our house where she dresses people's hair in exchange for money and Eriife, who was about my age and my friend was the only child she had with her late husband as Eriife had told me.
           "Wura,where have you been?" She asked as she stepped out from her shop.The question sent shivers into my body. "Your mother has been looking for you" Her announcement took away my breathe that I thought I would faint.I never knew how I had gotten to mama Eri's side. I knelt at her feet and I pleaded with her to help me.
     "What do you mean?"she asked furiously
   "Ple..ple..please,just tell my mother that y.."
  "Wuraola is that you?" My mother's voice got my emotions spinned.My heart almost bumpped out from my chest as  I quickly turned to her direction.She stood some feets away and as she confirmed that I was the one standing,she moved closer.My mother was in her early thirties and she looked so fraustrated as she was coming closer to me
   "You have started misbehaving again, right? Now tell me,where did you go?"she asked standing in front of me.
"Ehm..iya wura,I was the one who sent her to get me some drugs from a chemist"mama Eri lied.
"You saw me  looking for her earlier and you didn't mention anything like that. Why?"
"I was feeling severe headache so I wasn't paying attention.I'm very sorry" Mama Eri pleaded with my mother but she wasn't looking at her.She stared at my eyes so much like she was going to drag the truth out of them. My heart started to  beat faster than before. I moved my gaze away from her and I stared on the ground.
      "Could she had noticed all was a lie?" I asked within myself but I couldn't find an answer.
"It's okay" My mother said finally,facing mama Eri and I felt so relieved.
"And you," she faced me again and I quickly returned my gaze on her "meet me inside.I need to send you on an errand" She turned to leave immediately and I moved closer to iya Eri's left ear
"Thank you so much.I will make it up to you" I said to her in a hushed voice and I quickly followed my mother inside.
    On getting inside,my mother instructed me to go to Baba Ade's house whom my mother used to buy oranges from. She sells  them at a junction of our street which was just one metre away from our house.We maintained our livelihood from selling  oranges everyday excepts,on Sundays.
  "But,today is Sunday,mum"I complained.
"Yes I know.We just spoke through phone and he said he just returned from the farm. He  asked me to come before the good ones are picked. It's better you go now"
 "Ok,mum.I will be back" Little had I taken a step,she called me back.
"Wura,you will only go from here to Baba Ade's house and return from there.Don't visit somewhere else." She said and she removed a white nylon from the table that contains drugs.She brought two pills from its sachet,gave it to me and I swallowed them with a cup of water she handed over to me without questioning her. I'm used to taking the drugs that I know nothing about and It's been so long I have been taking them that I can't even remember when I started.
"You worry too much." I said as I dropped the cup on the table.
"That's because you make me worry and when I'm worried,it makes me angry,Wura.I can't watch you make the mistakes I made..I.."
   Oh my God! Not this Mr.Ajibare Dickson's story again in this hot afternoon.I wished mum would  just stop.
".. I can't just bear it so please, stop making me worry"She said finally.
"Mum,as from today,no more worries."I said
"That's what you always say so,why should I  believe you?" She asked returning the sachet of drugs inside the nylon.
"You should because,I'm Veronica's daughter!"I exclaimed and we both laughed. I loved seeing her laugh but she made it rare.
"Now go and come back in time.Your hair  is still undone .
 "Alright." I replied as I left for Baba Ade's house
           When I returned from Baba Ade's house,I left for mama Eri's shop to plait my hair and she seemed surprised when she saw me
     "You again!" She exclaimed
      "I have come to plait my hair" I said and she sat on a bench while I sat between her laps on a stool
      "Which hairstyle do you want?"
   "I want shuku." I replied and she started to divide my hair and non of us talked anymore.There was about five minutes silence before I decided to break it.
    "Mama Eri, thanks for the other time". I said and I expected her to say something but she remained quite.   "Mama Eri why are..."
 "What do you gain  when you make your mother worry? Why can't you just listen to her and stop being wayward?
"Now, everybody thinks I'm wayward because my mother accuses me of doing something bad everytime.Mama Eri, I'm not doing anything bad.I don't even have a boyfriend.I had only gone for a book at my friend's house" I said
 "But,you weren't with a book when you returned"
"Unfortunately,she wasn't at home... my mother is always worried for nothing"
  "The joy of every woman is to raise a child successfully. She's just being a mother"
    " Don't you think she's taking it too seriously? I'm sixteen for crying out loud. I think I  deserve a grown up treatment now." I said and mama Eri laughed at me. I felt awkward
  "Oh! So, you've grown?" She said
"Of course.It's time she stopped the public embarrassment she makes me feel" I replied her and she did not say anything again until she finished my hair.
        Eri and I walked so tiredly under the sun in our white inner and blue coloured pinafore gown which was our school uniform on a Monday afternoon, coming back from school.That day  in school was a big and special day because the final stage inter schools spelling drill organized by the state level government took place today.My school and three opponent schools were the schools that made it to the final stage and during the competition today,two opponent schools lost.The third round had me and a girl from an opponent school and it was so painful that the officials didn't tell us the results of the competition.They said, they would send  messages to the schools principal.I was  just so eager.
       "Eri,do you think I would win this competition?" I said breaking the silence.
"Of course.You are winning this for us remember?"she asked tearing the leave she plucked beside the untarshed road we walked.
"For our school and to assure my mother that the adolescent sun she's nursing is eventually rising.She worries too much"
"Your mother is just being protective.We all know your story"
"Hmn..thanks to that Mr.Ajibare Dickson of a man who made the fraustrating story lives. I swear I won't spare him whenever I see him!"
"Who's Ajibare Dickson?" Eri asked me looking confused.
 "Then you've never known my story if you haven't heard about Mr. Ajibare Dickson... well,Mr Ajibare Dickson is the man whom my mother said manipulated her when she was seventeen.The one who's the root of all the embarrassment I face everytime.The one who made my mother's life miserable after he disappeared into the thin air and the one, who made her sun set without rising again.." I looked Eri straight in the eyes and I said, "do you know him now?" I focused on the road again.Eri gave a slight smile and said,"I never knew that Ajibare Dickson was his name.." She paused then continued "Are you sure you are not going to spear him? C'mon, you've longed for that man!"
"You see, I'm just hurting inside.If I see that man,I would ask him a lot of questions. Alot of questions that he must answer.Why would he had chosen to make us this way?" Little had I finished speaking,a little boy about 11years putting on a short black trousers and a blue harmless top on our way,called our attention.He was looking dirty.
   "Please,help me in putting this on my head" he said pointing to a sack looking heavy lying at his feet and as Eri wanted to help him,I stopped her.
  "We are not going to help this boy"
"Why?" Eri asked but I ignored her paying attention to the boy.
"So you need our help now? Even if I was to be powerful as Okonkwo in things fall apart,I wouldn't have helped you"
"Maybe!"he exclaimed
"Maybe what!" I exclaimed back at him trying to get hold of him but Eri was holding me back.
   "Maybe you can't be as powerful as Okonkwo! Your boyfriends won't let the powers remain in you..they would drain them like this.." he folded his palms so tightly with his teeth clinched "You bitch!"
 "What! Did you hear that?" I asked Eri trying to release myself from her helds but she dragged me away from the spot.She dragged me so far away from the boy before she released me.
"You should have let me put a brain into that boy's head.Making jest of me when my mother was scolding me weeks ago wasn't enough and he called me a bitch now?.We shall meet again and I will make sure I break his head for his mother" I said adjusting my school uniform.
"Hmn..Magaret Thatcher of our time.." break his head and I'm sure you are not going to last long too" Eri said jestingly.We didn't talk to each other again until Eri called my name.
"Yes."I answered.
"Don't you think you and your mother should leave that ghetto house?"
"Why?"I asked surprisingly
"How I wish that your mum would just leave that  house.I heard that once you are living in the house,all of your dreams would be shattered and your wishes will never come true." She said and I smiled.
"Don't tell me you believed that. It's just a superstition and I won't believe it.Besides,my mother don't have  money now to relocate if we wanted to.... Ehm.. Eri, please I need you to follow me to a pharmacy as soon as we get home"
"Why? Hope you are not going there to murder the pharmacist?"
 "Why should I? C'mon,I'm not a murderer"
"Because the rates you threaten to kill people these days are just too high... anyway,why are we going to a pharmacy"
 "You see,there is this drug that my mother gives me  like my life depends on it.I don't know the purpose of it and she's not telling me anything no matter how many times i ask her so,I just need to find out from a pharmacist"
"She is your mother,Wura and we both know that she can't harm you.So,why stress yourself?"
"Eri,drug abuse.Have you forgotten Mr.Okoro's campaign on drug abuse in school?I know you understand what I mean. What if this drug she gives me is harmful in one way or the other and she doesn't know.We both know my mother is not educated"
"What if this put you in trouble? What if your mother gets angry again?"
 "That's why we would have to go immediately we changed our uniforms.My mother won't be around now till evening.She won't know"
"You are always putting yourself in trouble. I just hope you don't put me in trouble too"
 "Eri, there is no trouble anywhere"
        Eri and I parted ways as we reached the junction that led to my house.
    "Tell my mother I will join her in the shop as soon as I have changed my uniform"Eri said as she made her way into a house built in a "face me and face you" form.
   "Alright!" I replied her hurrying towards ghetto house.I saw no one outside the house and I couldn't checked on mama Eri in her shop.I entered our room and I changed into a black coloured fitted gown. I searched every nook and corner of the house but I couldn't find any white nylon my mother used to take the drugs from for some minutes then suddenly, my eyes caught a sachet of drugs lying on the table.I  didn't even think twice before grabbing the drug and I rushed out from the house to Eriife's house.
     Without delays,we left for a pharmacy beside her house and I shown the pharmacist the sachet of the drugs.
"Please, could you tell us what type of drug this is?" The young man collected the drug and studied it for a while then, he gave us the sign that he's mute with his hands. He grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, juted some things down,and he gave it to me. Eri and I read it together. We both looked at each other's eyes and surprise got all over me. I collected the pen from the young man and I juted back to him,"what are its uses". He juted back some lines to me and before I could finish reading, everything became blurry due to the tears that were threatening to come out.
 The little I  read  hit me on the head like a hammer and I quickly juted back,"Are you sure?" But before I could pass the paper to the man,Eri stopped me and she said,
"He's a pharmacist,Wura. Please let's take our leaves now"
      I felt so empty.I never wanted to believe what my eyes have read but something inside me told me they were true. Eri held me out of the pharmacist shop
   "She had to go this far? How could she had thought of this!"
  "Wura,low your voice.People are watching...just calm down"
   "Oh! Really? I should calm? I really have to face my mother because I need explanations for this"
"Just ask her and I'm sure she has reasons for her actions. This might just be a misconception."
"Misconception!..is this my misconception?" I raised the drug to her face "Abusing me with drugs is misconception! Accusing me with what I have never done is also misconception?.."I started crying again "Eri, still when do I have to keep seeing more of these misconceptions? I'm the victim here and all..."
"Wura, it's okay."She cut me short and she held me in her arms. I couldn't help but cried."Just go home and ask your mum about it. I'm very sure she has something to say.i will see you later. I need to pick something from inside" Eri said and she left.

      I started  to head home with so many thoughts roaring inside my head.How would I ask my mother about this that I won't get angry and say what is unexpected to her.By now,she will be expecting me to join her at the spot she sells orange because she knew that I would have been back from school.She never wanted me to stay away from her but how long will that continues?  Yes, everything must stop.Not wanting me to mingle with people, abusing me with drugs,just only me and her everywhere,every seconds...just everything.. everything must stop today.She might come home any moment since I won't go to her today.Definitely,she will come to me. I know she will come.

      In few minutes,I realized I'm at the front of our house already.I felt so powerless and hopeless.Maybe the boy we met earlier was right.Maybe I can't just be as powerful as Okonkwo but nothing has drained my energy other than my mother's action....
"Wura,where are you coming from and where is your school uniform?" The voice made me stopped.It is nobody's voice other than Mama Eri's so,I quickly put a smile on my face before turning to her direction.
   "I was back from school earlier.I just went to.."I was saying flying my right hand in the air to point to a direction before I was interrupted.
   "Went where!" My mother angry's voice coming from the passage of the house  interrupted me.Though,I wasn't surprised.
"Tell me,where did you go!"she yelled again immediately she walked closer to me.
"Mum,You are yelling!" I yelled back at her with a teary eyes
"Yes,I will yell. I'm your mother!"
" I deserve some respects too!"
   
     I said to her angrily  without knowing where the courage was coming from. I held the drug in my hand so tightly and I felt like hitting myself. I shouldn't have talked back to my mother but the words were said already so,what should I do? I just needed somewhere to go  to avoid escalating the issue because I was burning inside. I thought of going back to Eri's house since she hasn't returned from home.That was how I started to run towards Eri's house.The house was just at the other side of the road
"Wuraola,you are not going to run out of me!Wura come back here!"
Mum kept shouting and I couldn't stop running.Before I Knew it,my mother had started following me shouting my name.She kept following me and I kept running and, without checking if the road was free, without thinking twice,I crossed the road.
                 *.              *.            *
              Now I really want to ask my mother about the drugs but the pain I am feeling in my chest is not allowing me.Blood refuses to stop coming out from my ears and nostrils.The pain is intense but I really want to speak with my mother because I'm so scared that this might be my last chance.
I raise my left hand that holds the drug slowly to my mother's face and she quickly hold onto my hand with her right hand.
"Wh.. what's this for,mum" I force out the words out of pain. She opens my palm studying the drug with destress written all over her.
"Where did you find this?" She asks
"Why did you choose to be giving me this drug?" I ask very slowly without taking my eyes off her "Why?"
"Wura, this drug are..are not for you. Contraceptives are not the drugs  I used to  give you.It is for me.I use them for my menstrual cramps .I.. I .." tears flow down her cheeks ".. I will tell you the drugs you take,okay? Just get better and I will tell you everything"

    What is it that my mother wants to tell and why is she saying the contraceptives are not the drug I take? If not contraceptive then, what?..
       "..Maybe it's a misconception."
 Eriife's word flashes back in my head and more tears gush out from my eyes.Then it dawns on me that,the truth that ruins you, it's better it remain hidden for how long it takes because no truth remains hidden forever. Sometimes,what you see,what you hear, even what you feel might not be true and, when they appear to be sort of misconceptions,I hope it's never too late. Never too late not to have blocked every path that could lead you to the truth.Too late not to have made damages that would make you lifeless when the truth lies at your feet.Not too late not to have empty the pot of elixir that could cure your obstinacy to realize the truth.Guilt engulfs me. I know I have made a mistake.I have mistaken my mother's drugs to my drugs but I have never seen my mother takes drugs.I never knew she had drugs.I thought all were for me.

     Since mum just said that, contraceptives are not my drugs then,what are my drugs? What's the truth? I really want to know.I try to gather more strength to ask her but  it seems we've reached the hospital already because the car seems stopped and what I expect is for me to be taken into the hospital but it isn't.what I hear surprises me. I hear the driver calls out "Veronica?". How could a stranger knows my mother's name? Then,mum shout out "Dickson!"after she has raised her head to look at the stranger's  face.
"Yes, it's me. Ajibare Dickson!" The stranger's announcement throws a smile on my sickly face. Yes,yes I have a lot of questions for this man.Why is it that i'm meeting this man at the point of death?
 
     "...How I wish that your mum would leave that ghetto house.I heard that once you are living in the house,all of your dreams would be shattered,and your wishes will never come true.."

       Eriife's words come back again.No,no they are all superstitions.God please,i don't want to die. I want to hold the man I'm seeing  but I feel so weak.
"This is not the time for this!!" My mother screams and the man rushes out of the car.. I hear the man calls out "doctor!, doctor!" as he carries me into the hospital..



         Veronica faints in my arms when the doctor announces that, they couldn't save Wura. That she's no more. she's being rush inside a ward and the doctor attends to her. When she wakes,all she keeps saying is "Wura is not dead, I want to see my child" She keeps on saying it until the doctor says,she should be taken to her child's body. I feel like screaming maybe I would feel at ease. I'm feeling so guilty for killing an innocent girl who likely to be my child. I help Veronica to where Wura's body lies helplessly and she leans on  her lifeless body.
"You are not crazy,okay?" She says to Wura's dead body,faces me and says,"Our daughter is not crazy, right?" What's Veronica saying? What does she mean Wuraola is not crazy? She is not taking her eyes off me so I think she needs an answer and I quickly stammer, "Yes,yes, she's.. she's not crazy" then,she turns back to Wura's body with a smiling face. She continues speaking to her
"You want to know those pills I give to you right? They are anti-depressants. You see, when you were diagnosed with depression at the age of nine, I stopped taking you the hospital...
      " Mr.Johnson,the child she gave birth to is likely to be depressed at the age of 18yrs because of the situation her mother was throughout pregnancy period.When you notice any sort of disorderlines in her, please bring her for a check up and make sure her mother takes her drugs too for the improvement of her depression."
       That was exactly what the doctor said to my angry father when we were leaving the hospital sixteen years ago.My father was so angry with me when I got pregnanted at the age of seventeen and I had to stopped schooling. I was so naive then to make Dickson manipulated me with his lies and he disappeared after he got me pregnanted. My father was rich and famous for his wealth and he couldn't have me  ruined his reputation so,I was kept hidden.I felt so lonely and depressed throughout  pregnancy period.After I gave birth  to you,dad still don't want me to go out with you. He doesn't want anybody to know so, accepted my fate.
    My father didn't like you because he believed you were nothing but a disgrace to the family. I couldn't cater for you too because I kept on thinking about Dickson. I thought he would come for me and you but he didn't.My depression state keeps getting worse and you were so lonely and I couldn't help it. You grew up being a quiet girl and nobody  noticed anything about you. We thought you were fine not until  you stabbed my father's right arm with a knife in his sleep one Saturday afternoon when you were nine .His scream made me and Rahmat,our maid ran to his room just to find you  holding a knife stained with blood.Dad was rushed to a hospital and the doctor also diagnosed you with depression after dad was treated.
   
       My father threatened to have you in a psychiatric home as soon as we got home. He called you crazy and he said he couldn't live with a crazy being like you.He said people like you don't deserve to be among humans and he's going to take you to where you belong. His threatening brought me back to my senses. You were the only one I had left and I didn't want anyone to take you away from me.I promised myself to make you better again then,I started buying you the anti- depressant I  used to take and I left home with you. That's was how we ended up at ghetto house where no family could ever think we could be.I took you far away from home.  I even got rid of all records of you as a depressed patient by paying the doctor with some ransoms because, I don't want people to call you crazy.The word crazy in our society is insanity,Wura...I..I don't want anybody to take you away from me that's why I left everything just for you. I left my family, I left our  house to live in that cheap house just to take you away from the world that  would  see you as insanity. I always wanted you around me because I..I used to be scared you might hurt yourself and others.
   
        I believed you when you said that, you were not visiting your boyfriend's house but I couldn't stop saying you were, because, I had to give the world a reason for keeping you so close before they started noticing anything and, when I sensed you were normal,I couldn't stop giving you those drugs because, I was so scared that things might go wrong again.Wura, I'm so sorry I kept everything away from you...Your dad is here now and you should forgive him,okay? Your dad and I are going to protect you. Nobody will call you crazy..just get better and you would go wherever you want.I won't stop you anymore"

      Veronica now rests her head on Wura's shoulder. I don't want to see her like this after so many years. I want to take her away from here but I don't know how.
"Veronica?" I call out and she turns to me
"Let's go get Wura something to eat" I lied
"No,you go get it. Wura needs me here" she says and she leans back on Wura's body.
    "Okay" I reply and I take my leave. After few minutes,I return with the doctor which injects her and she falls asleep immediately . A nurse helps me in laying her on the bed
    "Thank you doctor" I say and the doctor says I should follow him to his office.
 "Her condition is worse right now. Please get her the anti- depressant pills I have prescribed for her and get her a psychologist.Let her be among people,show her love and watch over her.By God's grace she will be fine"The doctor said to me in his office.  I feel like I'm the root of all these problems. What should I do now? Veronica is now mentally unstable .How do I explain this to the world. I hit my own daughter to death with a car. I think Nemesis is dealing with me right now.
"I need to save Veronica. She needs my apologies" I say to myself as I rush out of the doctor's office.
           
        The end.

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