“Sister, you didn’t tell me you were raped another two times.”
“My dear, I don’t like talking about it, but I can’t tell you the complete story of Halima without telling you about the rape cases.”
“But why will she do that? It’s really a wicked thing to do to a friend.”
“Aisha, life is a place for the good and the bad, I don’t really take Halima as a bad person. Halima is a very good person, just that she didn’t want to work hard, she didn’t want to suffer, she wanted quick money. There are other things I haven’t told you that happened while I was staying with Halima.”
“I would like to hear it all. Please sister tell me, tell me everything. I am really enjoying your story and learning a lot from it already.”
“After I was raped by the robbers at Halima’s place, I went to the hospital and discovered that I was pregnant. When I came back, I didn’t know what to do, my life became miserable. I wondered what Mum and Dad would say when I told them that their precious virgin girl was pregnant. They thought I was still a virgin because I didn’t tell them about the first rape case when I was coming to Lagos. Life started tasting sour to me, everyday I stayed home thinking of what best to do. Halima advised me to abort the baby, but because I was not a murderer, I threw away the idea.
“One day, when Halima left for her meeting with the men, I wanted to take an overdose of a drug I bought, not to kill the child but to commit suicide.”
“Sister! You wanted to commit suicide?
“Yes Aisha. The suffering was too much, the trauma I was facing then was much and I was dying slowly out of depression. The first attempt was to cut my vein and die, but I didn’t muster enough courage to do that, so I decided to take an overdose of a drug I bought.”
“What happened? Who stopped you? Did Halima come back? Please tell me my ears are itching to hear your survival story.”
“Allah spoke to me.”
“What? Allah! How?”
“Well, when I wanted to take the drugs, a part of me started remembering how Allah saved me from dangerous things that have come my way. How a poisonous black snake climbed my body one day when I was sleeping inside the class in the night where I went for night reading, and how everybody was shouting at what was on my body and it didn’t hurt me. The snake just fell off my body and they killed it. The second time I saw a snake when I packed into my hostel, but the snake was also running away from me.” I chucked. “It wasn’t funny then, but immediately the snake saw me. It started running out, and I too ran as fast as my legs could carry me .
“That part of me also reminded me that Allah had a purpose why he created me, so why take my life when I hadn’t done what he sent me to do? Then I decided that suicide was not an option to end suffering or depression. Each time I remember the breath that I have that the dead don’t have, I always thank Allah for saving me from myself, from committing suicide.”
“What about the baby?”
“Aisha, allow me to tell you the story, or do you want me to summarize the story?”
“Ah, no oh, please tell me everything.”
“Then allow me to.”
“Okay oh.” She laughed and I patted her head and continued.
“Well the day I woke up and told Halima that I felt like I had sex, that was the day the baby died. I woke up feeling very unwell with a terrible headache. I went into the bathroom to shower and to know if I could get better. Immediately I poured water on my body, I saw blood everywhere. I shouted and called Halima, and she rushed me to the hospital. The doctor came and asked to speak with me, to ask me a few questions on how it happened, but Halima took him outside saying I needed rest; that he can talk to her or ask her any questions. When she came back, she refused to tell me what the doctor said. She only told me that I lost the baby. I cried because I was already enjoying being pregnant and because I lost my first child.
“I told Halima that I was feeling like someone who had sex, but she said that it was probably the pregnancy, or maybe I wanted to have sex. She laughed it off and I didn’t ask any questions again about it or about what the doctor said. Maybe the doctor had wanted to ask me questions about the pregnancy, but she had not allowed him to because she was behind everything. That was how I lost my first pregnancy; thanks to Allah for the kind of body I have, I don’t look like someone who had been pregnant before.
**********
“While I was with Halima and the job wasn’t forthcoming, I decided to apply for the job of a sales girl in a shopping mall. I wasn’t earning much, but I used it to support my siblings in school and started saving money for another business. I had come across an article online which talked about being your own boss, so I decided that I didn’t want to be a sales girl forever, that I wanted to be my own boss. I saved a lot of money, but not much to be able to start the business. So I decided to go to the bank and get a loan, but my proposal was rejected by the four banks I went to. They didn’t even look at it and told me it wouldn’t work.
“I was disappointed, I felt really bad but I never gave up. I continued trying my best to work hard and save some money, but then it seemed like nothing was happening. The money I had saved, I used them to take care of family problems. That was when I decided to follow Halima to the meeting with the men, because she told me that I will get the money I needed for the business in just one night or a maximum of two nights. But after the encounter with the man and the dogs and after Halima died, I didn’t know what else to do.
“Halima’s death really shook me, it was the last thing I ever expected. I didn’t know the facts about her death, but some of her friends said that it was a ritualist that was behind her death. When one dies, different stories are heard of that person, some good stories and some bad. Halima’s father blamed the mother for allowing her to have such freedom and for accepting things from her without asking where she got the money from. He swore that none of his children will ever go to Lagos again.
“Halima’s death changed my thinking about life and each time I remember her last words to me (advice the youth, don’t let them lead my kind of life), it always gets me thinking. How will I tell the world her story? She didn’t just tell people my story, that might be her friends and my friends, but she said I should tell the world her story.”
***********
“That word kept ringing in my head. “ ‘Tell the world my story.’ ” One day, I was using my phone when I saw an advert, showing how to learn blogging. I got interested in the advert and went further to make inquiries and I started learning how to blog. When I learnt how to blog, my first post was the story of Halima. I was surprised to see lots of viewers, people got interested in the story and started following me up to hear more. I quit that job because it wasn’t giving me enough time to research and post recent news on my blog. I developed my blog and started posting about different aspects of life—fashion, celebrities, education and lots of things.
“People started liking me and I started making money from my blogging. Maybe this was what Halima meant by saying let the world know about my story. I try my best to post things that are relevant in life, things that will help people. Before I knew what was happening, it was already five years since I started blogging and I am rich now. It was my hard work that brought me to where I am today. I own a car and a house, my parents and siblings are staying in the house I built for them and my mum and dad each have a car of their own. Every time I go for an interview, I always tell people about Halima. I feel she is watching me and I am always happy telling people that it was her last words on her dying bed that made me this successful.
“Last year I wanted to host a very big convention for the youths, you won’t believe that the banks who rejected me came asking to invest 100 million for the event. They came to my house, I didn’t have to go to them again. Life is funny and people are funny, that is why I always tell people “NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS”.
Blogging has not really been my dream, but being self-employed has been my dream, and now I am self-employed. People work for me, I create jobs for people and I have developed my business. It’s no longer a small business now but a very big business. Many people want to invest in my business. When I started, they didn’t know me, but now they all want to know and be my friends.
************
“Sister, don’t tell me you are through with your story oh.”
“What else do you want to hear?”. “What about Ayomide, don’t tell me you didn’t meet him again or even fall in love,” she said laughing.
“What do you know about love, this girl ? Anyways I met Ayo last year when I travelled to Benue for an event. I had wanted to go and thank them again, but I had forgotten the name of their place and where they stayed. He remembered me, it was difficult for me to recognise him, but when he introduced himself, I remembered him immediately. How could I forget the man who saved my life from the crocodiles? That was what I told him when he introduced himself to me. He had changed a whole lot; he was now tall and handsome and looked rich. And I guess he was married because I saw a ring on his finger.
“He told me that he had been following my blog, he said that he regretted not giving me his contact or even his address when I was leaving, because I told him I wanted to come back again and say thank you to him and his parents for helping me. I went and saw his parents, the house was more beautiful now than it was then. Ayomide was now a business man that excelled in his line of business. When we started discussing, he told me of how he suffered when he came to Lagos as well to hustle because nothing was working out for him in the village. He told me lots of things, how his uncle who brought him to Lagos duped him and left him stranded, he also told me of the number of times he had slept under the bridge just for shelter. His own life was even more difficult than mine was, but he is a man and I guess he took it as some of the challenges of life.
“He said it was one of his classmates that helped him with some money one day that he went to hustle and got into a fight with one street tout, and since then he picked up from there and that is what brought him to where he was today. He is happily married with two children. I met his whole family and he introduced me to his wife who was very beautiful as well and their children were lovely and adorable.
“I know you are disappointed. It’s written all over your face. You were waiting to hear that we started dating and probably will be getting married soon. Sorry not everyone who helps you must end up marrying you or dating you. Some people are brought to our life for a reason. We cross paths with people for a reason, a reason that might be either for the future or the present. Just like Halima, where do you think I would have been if I had not known Halima?
“Aisha, we have talked into the night again. It’s 4am in the morning and you are not even sleepy.”
“Sister, thank you very much for this story, I never knew you went through all these to attain this height, your story indeed had shown lots of things that happen in real life. Now I know many rich people or successful people today has a story, some good stories, some bad stories, while some terrible stories. I promise not to go back to my kind of life again, but to continue working hard to attain this height. I will never give up on my dreams of becoming a TV presenter. I will not go to get rich quick because it’s a scam and I will seize every opportunity that comes my way to be a better person.”
“I am happy to hear that from you, and please let it remain a secret that I was once pregnant and what Halima did to me. No one else should know about it please.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“I pray that Allah will help you and other youths to learn from our stories and also to be good and hard working and not just expect manna to fall from above.”
“Sister, when will you get married?”
“I think our discussion is over now, good night,” I said laughing.
“But sister, you need a good, tall, rich and handsome man to marry you because you deserve it.”
“Aisha please I don’t want to talk about marriage now, if it’s the will of Allah he will give me a good man and I will marry when he feels the time is right. Aisha please go to your room, I am sleepy and tired, I need rest.”
“Okay oh, let me sleep here with you so you will tell me about your dream husband tomorrow morning when you wake up.”
“Aisha no please go to your room, go to your room oh.” I jokingly pushed her to her room and made sure she locked the room before going to mine.
“Good night sister, I love you,” she said and I said I love you too Aisha, and smiled and locked my door. It might be one of her tricks to get me to tell her another story tomorrow, I won’t fall for it, I told myself and laughed.
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Photo credit: Netflix
