THAT NIGHT IN ROOM 401

PART 7
“THAT NIGHT IN ROOM 401″
©Opeyemi Akintunde

” Mercy Killing? You want me to kill your husband, Sis Grace…? This is definitely not you Speaking.. Please, this is stress speaking… ” Doctor Jack looked ME perplexed

“And it’s absolutely normal because you have been through a lot in the past two months, you have been sitting by your husband for the past 2 months…, Spending so much, and not to mention your in-laws attitude towards you… I quite understand, but what you need is a break especially for the sake of the baby” Doctor Jack said while looking at me with the most perplexed look I have ever seen in my life…

I barked out at him with tears flowing…

” That is not my point, all you have mentioned doesn’t bother me… I am thinking about Daniel… He has been lying on that bed for two months not responding one bit, Daniel is no longer in that body, I can’t keep watching him lie there lifeless with his skin peeling… He has suddenly turned dark skinned… Let him die and go to rest… This is not about me… Have you checked his weight of late..?

I broke down in tears as I managed to convince Doctor Jack…

“He looks like a shadow of himself… So skinny…… He hasn’t moved an inch since we brought him here… And it doesn’t look like he will…,Daniel lived his life in pains on medications. Why do this to him again? I am sure in his subconscious he wants to wake up but he can’t, so why this continuous torture…. .Doctor Jack please… ”

” Sis Grace where is your faith? ”

” Do you know how many prophets I have brought here… Doctor, My faith is dead and it looks like I will be dead soon, because the thought of seeing Daniel in this state is driving me nuts knowing I am the cause of …” I stopped talking before I said too much

There was silence like that of graveyard IN that office, which must have lasted 2 mins…

” I will do it… ” Doctor said after giving it a long thought…

” You will?” I asked

“Yes… but for a good reason which is to preserve your life and that of the baby… because I won’t want to lose the three of you… ”

” Thank you Doctor Jack, Thank you”

At this point, I felt I was running insane, I was literally at the hospital for two months on a daily basis with the hope that Daniel would wake up… and with the refusal of Doctor Jack to abort my pregnancy, the baby was growing daily…

Within those two months, I had tried different hospitals but I couldn’t do the abortion there because my popularity was an hindrance. The moment I entered any hospital I would be received by the nurses with prayers and praises of how my music has helped them… So how was it possible to tell them I came for an abortion…?

On the side, I had been using home remedies for the abortion, but this baby was bent on coming to planet earth…

For those two months, I never heard from Larry, like he never existed before…

Doctor Tapped me and said ” I also need you to do me a favour, before I do the Mercy killing I need you to travel to somewhere nobody will find you, so that you will escape all the Igbo rituals for widows, so as not to jeopardize the life of the baby…. This baby means so much to me…”

Indeed, if only he knew the true identity of the father of the child… I thought…

” So when will you be doing it?” I asked eagerly

” Let’s give him a few more days to see if he wakes up, but if not.. I will do it on Sunday, that means you should take your trip between tomorrow or next… ”

” Thank you Doctor… ”

Where was I going to go was the next question on my mind as I walked towards the door.. Then he said his last words…

” Sis Grace, I have a feeling you are not telling me the whole story, but please when this whole episode is over, Go and seek the face of God”:…

Exactly… the prayer mountain I went when I was just 14 years old, where the Lord told me “I will use you as a light to many nations”…That was the best place to go, to see if God can repair me, thereafter live a life serving God. Possibly start a foundation in Daniel’s name…

No…

I have an unfinished business before going back to God…before my repentance…

Larry must pay for what he has done to me… and the only person who can help me is my mother… Mama Supepper of Igbonla village….

I am about to open another chapter of my life to you, a life I had left in my past, I never thought I would return there… I left that life when I was 13 years old, I am going back to the life before Christ…. It’s time for Larry to know where I come from…

I am going to Igbonla for revenge….or shouldn’t I?

Before I continue my story, what do you feel right now about me??? Hatred?, Disgust?Pity?…What would you have done in my shoes….

THAT NIGHT IN ROOM 401

PART 8
” THAT NIGHT IN ROOM 401″
©Opeyemi Akintunde

I Could hear the distant beating of the popular Bata drum “Iya ilu” ( Mother Drum) being beaten and the Shallow sound of the Omele Ako ( a smaller drum) as I drove my Jeep towards Igbonla… Igbonla was a village known for festivities…. There was always one party or the other….We had no worries, in fact there was a popular saying that ” Why don’t you have any worries like people from Igbonla”.

As I drew nearer, Something gripped my heart, what it was, I couldn’t tell… Was it Fear? Or Anxiety of not knowing what to expect, or was it the Holy Spirit telling me not to go back to Igbonla… I suddenly stepped on my brakes and my mind flashed back to hours earlier…

The day had been an eventful day for me, as Doctor Jack had called me very early to inform me he had done the Mercy Killing. He gave me instructions to get out of town immediately and switch off my phone for now as my angry mum in law was on her way to the house. No wonder Doctor Jack had sent me home last night insisting I should go home and rest, while my mother in law stayed with Daniel. I suspected he was going to carry out our plan… So waking up to his phone call this morning with the news that my husband Daniel was dead didn’t come as a surprise.

I had my minutes of weeping as the realization that Daniel was gone hit me… I rose up quickly after few minutes when the thought of being whisked off to my husband’s hometown for the widow’s dehumanizing ritual hit me. I parked a few things, took my documents, Papers concerning properties I had secured myself.

To be fair to Daniel I left all his properties for his family. The only thing I took that wasn’t mine was the Jeep he got me for my last birthday.

I dropped a note for his mother…

“Mama, I am sorry for the loss, I know You never loved me from the start and staying behind will be an unwise thing to do, You will take me to your village for the widow’s ritual which will not be healthy for the baby. I have gone into hiding in other to deliver the baby in peace…all your son’s documents for his properties are in the Locker beside the bed in the master bedroom. I am sorry for your loss… ” Your Daughter, Grace…

I dashed to the bank and withdrew 1 million Naira in cash in other to start a new life in Igbonla, but here I was few metres to Igbonla and I was having the strong feeling this was a strong move…

Tears,Tears,Tears. …. and I began to scream to heaven on the lonely road to Igbonla….

” God!, You told me you will keep watch over me lest I dash my foot against a stone… Larry was a big stone, why didn’t your angels send him away from me????, Why? Why?… God why did you let me have feelings for him, Why! Why did I get married when it wasn’t the right time, I got married when I was just 19…Why was Maami diabetic?… I had to rush into marriage to take care of her and my sisters, God you promised me a good Life with you when I was just 13, when I gave my life to you, but you have not been fair….

” Just always trying to Justify their bad deeds”…I turned around to see who spoke, It was “Saawawi”….The popular mad man of Igbonla, It was surprising to still see him mad after all these years… He kept ranting in my local dialect…

” You fell on the ground in shame, instead of getting to yours knees to try and rise again, You tried to use the mud to cover yourself in shame so no one will see you”…Saawawi said looking ME straight in the eye…

He asked me for money, which after I gave him, he said, ” You have no place here again”

But who was Saawawi( A person who speaks nonsense) to give me an advice, God had failed me, It was time I started taking care of my life… This was the end to Grace the Gospel Musician, I am returning back to who I was before, Orishamuyiwa (the gods brought this one) … I removed my sim card from my phone and threw it into the bush….

My mother was going to help me Kill Larry and the traditional healers would give me Local herbs to flush out the baby….

There was no peace until I had accomplished these two important things first, before taking my own life….God had failed me, because I committed just one sin, he let all these disaster befall ME….

Before I continue my tale, please answer this, Is it right for God to punish me this much for just one night of adultery, or is it the devil?, or am I the one punishing myself… Let me read your comments….