STORY SERIES

A SHATTERED LIFE-1 by Ada RuChi 

 continued...

      Five months after his mother's burial, he came home and found his brothers arguing hotly. After a while, he was told that they were arguing on what to do with their mother's properties. He was shocked and pleaded that the mother's properties should not be a cause of division in the family but his brothers ignored him and left the house swearing never to return except the father leaves the house and gives the money their mother had to them.
      His father brought home a woman one rainy evening and introduced her to Emmanuel as his "fiancee." Emmanuel had never been so angry in his life, he hated the woman instantly and swore to make life uncomfortable for her. For a week, he and his father said nothing to each other and the woman quickly occupied every space in the house. She even demanded that Emmanuel should refer to her as mother which he rejected vehemently. He was unhappy, frustrated and hurt but suddenly his life had to adjust to the beginning of a NIGHTMARE. 
     The woman began to abuse him physically and sexually. At nights when his father was out, he had to clean up, eat and lie with her in bed. The woman starved him and when he refused to have sex with her, she burnt his arm with a gas cooker. He began to conceive ways to commit suicide, he tried to run away but had no where to run to so he always came back. He was frightened and even had to quit school after he fell from a three storey building when the woman tried to make him hold her hand. Emmanuel was hospitalized and he confided in me, he pleaded with me to tell the doctor to kill him which will save him from the embarrassment and pain he was passing through. I held his hand and pleaded with him to live and he finally agreed to give life another 'shot.'
       After he was discharged from the hospital, he was sent to live with his brother in another part of Calabar. He changed his school and started to build his shattered life slowly. He joined a Basket ball team and started attending church services regularly. He met new friends who had heard his story in bits from people and they encouraged him to go for professional therapy and start a new and happy life. Again all his hopes were dashed as his brother took him back to stay with the woman in their father's house.
     The day he moved in to stay with the woman started with a fight and she stabbed him on his leg with a knife. He was immediately rushed to a Chemist store where the wound was cleaned and covered. He lay outside that night and thought about the days before his mother's death and how everyday gets tougher for him after her death. He slept off with tears running down his cheeks and his mother's rosary tightly pressed to his chest.
     When I asked him to remain in his father's house after the father and the woman ended their relationship,he replied, "I have had enough for one year. I would be going back to Akwa Ibom State for assistance and I want to be close to where my mother lies."
      The last time we spoke, Emmanuel told me that he believes that someday he would recover from his emotional wounds. He believes that someday, somebody would give him the love his mother gave him and that someday, he would see his mother again. He believes that one day, those that tortured him would feel the pain that he has felt and would cry more than he ever cried. He believes that his shattered life would someday be repackaged in a better and brighter way and that he would find happiness and joy. He believes that his family would one day be united and the troubles would end.
     I cried bitterly as he told me this story and I believe also that someday, he would be really happy and would feel the love his mother had for him again. I believe that someday his emotional trauma would end, his wounds would heal and he would live a better life in a better world.