Palava! (Part 2)

Where It Leads…

Continued from previous story…Palava! (Part 1)

“Or, is it daddy?”

Aunty S asked Gift, and Gift shook her head.

“No, it’s not daddy,” she answered.

“Then who is?” Aunty S asked again.

After much pushing and prodding, Gift eventually revealed to Aunty S that it was a young man in his twenties from the neighborhood who was responsible. Aunty S was first relieved that it wasn’t her husband before the real interrogations began.

“What is his name?” Aunty S asked Gift.

“John,” she answered.

“How did you meet him?” Aunty S asked.

“Em…where I went to fetch water,” Gift responded.

Aunty S was shocked, and she asked Gift to tell her how exactly she met John and how their relationship bloomed into sexual intercourse.

“One day, when I went to fetch water, he walked up to me and told me that he liked me. He also asked me to give him my phone number, but I refused,” Gift narrated. “Then another day, when I went back to fetch water again, his friend was the one who came to me and talked to me on his behalf. He said John liked me and that I should give him a chance. That was when I gave John my phone number, and we began to communicate from there,” Gift added.

With that narration, it dawned on Aunty S why Gift had always delayed whenever she went to fetch water, and when she would ask, Gift always had one excuse or the other to give. It was either that the queue was too long, or there was just something else.

Even when there was sufficient water in the house, Gift always insisted on getting water.

She completely stopped minding the stress that came with fetching water, as it became her favorite chore to do, and Aunty S never suspected anything because she felt that Gift wouldn’t indulge in something like that.

“Where is he from?” Aunty S asked further.

“He is Igbo,” Gift answered.

But when Aunty S asked more questions like where John lived, what he did for a living, or if he was still in school, Gift couldn’t tell. Aunty S later found out that John didn’t even have a rented room of his own. He usually took Gift to his friend’s room to have sex with her.

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• X
• WhatsApp

Aunty S then collected John’s phone number from Gift and called him. She didn’t hesitate to introduce herself and also state the exact reason she called. Fortunately, John didn’t deny knowing Gift. He also didn’t deny having sex with her. So she invited him to her house for a one-on-one conversation.

John showed up with his friend days later.

“What do you do for a living?” Aunty S asked him.

“I am a welder who is still under apprenticeship,” John answered.

“Where are your parents?” Aunty S asked.

“They are in the village,” he said.

“What about school? Did you finish secondary school?” Aunty S asked further.

“Yes, I did,” he answered.

“Okay, now that you have seen the result of your handwork, what do you want to do about it?” Aunty S asked. “Is she going to keep it or get it aborted?” She questioned John.

“I don’t know oh, but I am not the only boyfriend Gift said she has,” John said. “She told me that she has other boyfriends,” he added.

Aunty S was shocked to her bones, but she didn’t let that stop her.

“But you are the one she mentioned,” Aunty S insisted, and besides, if he wasn’t sure about being the father of the baby, he wouldn’t have shown up because he already knew what he was coming for.

John couldn’t deny any further.

“So what will you do?” Aunty S pressed for answers.

“I really don’t know, but in Igala land, where I come from, aborting the first child/pregnancy of a man is a taboo,” John answered.

It was then that Aunty S realized that Gift didn’t even know what tribe John was from because she initially said he was Igbo.

“That settles it then,” Aunty S said. “As you are leaving, you will go with Gift so that you two can start a family together,” she added.

John shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“She can’t come with me oh,” John muttered.

“Why not?” Aunty S asked.

“I don’t have a room of my own. If she comes with me, she won’t have any place to stay,” John said. “Let her stay here for now,” he suggested.

John didn’t have a job, and he was barely fending for himself.

“That is not going to happen,” Aunty S refused vehemently. “She will go back to her village, and when you are ready, you will go and pay her bride price and do the necessary things,” she added.

After that, Aunty S called Gift’s parents in the village and informed them about what had happened. Her father, who deeply wanted Gift to stay in Abuja and have a better life, was gravely disappointed. He had to send some money for Gift to be transported back to the village, which was far away in Edo State.

Nevertheless, Aunty S kept in touch with John, ensuring that he was taking responsibility by checking up on Gift and some financial support that he could come up with, and John, in turn, was very cooperative.

Until some weeks later…

John became unreachable, and he was nowhere to be found.

When Aunty S conversed with Gift’s father over the phone, she was told that the last time they heard from John, he said he wasn’t the only man who had had sexual intercourse with Gift, and as such, he wasn’t sure he was the father. Hence, he would not be taking responsibility any further.

Gift’s father, not wanting his daughter to give birth to and raise a child without a father, took her at three months pregnant for an abortion, and the baby was taken out.

He pleaded with Aunty S to let Gift return to her home in Abuja to continue from where they stopped after Gift was rid of the pregnancy, but Aunty S declined firmly. She had seen enough to last her a lifetime, and she didn’t want to deal with something like that, or even worse, in the near future.

So, currently, Gift is in the village without the baby, and Aunty S has gone back to being without a child. Up till this point, everyone in the neighborhood still calls Aunty S “Mama Gift.”

Should Aunty S have taken Gift back and given her another chance?

Should John have been held accountable and forced to take responsibility?

Should Gift’s family have kept the baby regardless?