Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie)
The weather was sunny today. One wouldn't want to walk under the scorching heat of the sun but Cookie had no choice. Her father had sent her on an errand to buy him dried fish from his fish customer. Cookie had no problem with running errands for him yet, it was such an undesirable task to do especially since it felt like the sun was burning her skin.
Mr. Oyin's fish seller was two streets away from their house so Cookie took to running. She wanted to get there on time, buy her father's fish and then head back home quickly.
When she got there, she greeted the fish seller, "Aunty Rose, good afternoon."
Aunty Rose had a big smile on her face, "Cookie baby, good afternoon," She returned the greeting, "How are you?"
Cookie returned her smile, "I'm fine, thank you."
"How many fish do you want to buy?" asked Aunty Rose.
"Two," Cookie said.
"Okay. Was it your father that sent you?"
"Yes."
"The fish is not properly dried. Can you please wait until it is well dried?" Aunty Rose asked, more like pleaded.
"Alright," Cookie agreed. She sat down on a vacant bench that was a the corner of the fish seller's store, intending to wait for now.
Two minutes later, Paul, Cookie's former classmate came to the store to also get fish. When the seller told him the same thing she told Cookie, he had to wait so he joined Cookie.
"Have you seen your Jamb score?" Paul asked.
"Yes." Cookie replied. She was already expecting him to ask because that's how her classmates do.
"What did you score?"
"Em.." She stuttered, "I didn't do well." she said instead.
"That doesn't answer my question but okay."
"What did you score?" She eventually asked after some minutes of awkward silence between them.
"248. It's enough to get me admitted to the University of my choice," There was a tint of pride in his voice.
"Oh," Cookie mouthed, looking at anything but his face. Even if he didn't know her score, she felt embarrassed for he scored way more than she did.
Paul didn't like the fact that they knew each other but didn't have much to discuss so he brought up interesting gist. This got them laughing that Cookie didn't see her father's friend, Mrs. Wolo walk past them.
........
At home, Mr. Oyin was getting furious that Cookie hadn't returned from the errand he had sent her. She had been gone for almost an hour.
"What is wrong with your daughter?" Mr. Oyin asked his wife.
She turned to him, "Which of my Daughter?"
"Cookie."
"Is Cookie not our daughter? Why do you keep referring her as mine alone?" Mrs. Oyin asked, slightly offended.
Mr. Oyin waved it off, "That's not the issue here. I sent her to get me two fishes from Rose store but she has gone there to sleep."
"You know she doesn't take this much time when she's gone out to buy something. There must be something taking her time. Be patient." Mrs. Oyin told him and continued washing the clothes.
Mr. Oyin ignored her and went in search of Cookie. On his way, he met Mrs. Wolo. They engaged in an interesting discussion which later led to the topic about Cookie. Mr. Oyin told her he wanted to marry Cookie off to his friend, Musa.
Mrs. Wolo clapped her hands together in wonderment, "Is that so? So you really want to marry off that young girl to Musa? Wonders shall never end."
Mr. Oyin kept grinning from ear to ear with no shame at all.
"It's alright." Mrs. Wolo sighed, "I even saw her at the fish seller's store on my way here. She was discussing with a boy."
That was all the information Mr. Oyin's needed to know. He returned home wearing a thick frown. He was going to wait for Cookie to return even if it was going to take her ages to.
He picked an heavy stick from the ground and said, "She'll come home and receive my wrath."
Few minutes later, Cookie arrived with the hot dried fish he had sent her in a black nylon bag. She was weary and sweating from running back, unawares of what awaited her at home.
"Young lady, where are you coming from?" Mr. Oyin attacked her immediately she stepped a foot inside the sitting room.
"From the fish seller's shop," Cookie replied innocently.
"And what were you doing there that took you this long?" He inquired, waving the stick towards her.
"I was waiting for the fish to get properly dried. The fish seller told me to wait because-"
Mr. Oyin didn't let her to complete her sentence as he hit her head with the stick, "Shut up, you liar!" He yelled, "Who were you discussing with?"
Cookie brows wrinkled momentarily, confused at her father's question before she remembered she had been with Paul when waiting for the fishes to get dried, "I was talking with Paul but I swear to God. That isn't the reason why I took so long. I'm saying the truth."
"I told you to get me something but you went there to discuss with your boyfriend. Is that how you were trained in this house?" Mr. Oyin raged, "So you want to turn into a prostitute, not so? I'll teach you a lesson today."
Cookie screamed for help as her father began to whip her all over her body. Mrs. Oyin, Ruth and Alex ran to her rescue.
"Do you want to kill my child?" Mrs. Oyin asked, gripping the stick with her husband.
"I will kill her if I have to," His reply made Mrs. Oyin gasp.
"Your daughter has gotten into me!" He yelled, "She does nothing right."
"Since when has doing something that you think is not right been a crime that she has to be punished this severely?"
Mr. Oyin hissed, ignoring his wife's question. She was wasting his time. He wanted to whip Cookie with all his might. He tried to walk past his wife but she was fast enough to block his path, still holding tightly to the stick with him.
"Rachel! Rachel! Rachel! How many times did I call you? Leave me alone unless you won't like what I will do to you because of that shameless daughter of yours." Mr. Oyin warned.
"Kill me, Oyin but I will not leave you to go and kill my precious daughter." Mrs. Oyin stamped. They both kept struggling with the cane.
While this was going on, Alex and Ruth assisted Cookie to her room. As they tried to comfort her, she cried even more.
Cookie's eyes ran down the welts from her arm to her wrist. "Why does he hate me so much? What have I done to deserve all this maltreatment?" She turned to Ruth who was sitting at her right hand side on the floor, "Why?"
"Daddy doesn't hate you." Ruth replied and searched for more words.
"Then why does he beat me even at the slightest thing?"
"I don't know," Ruth shrugged her shoulder, "You know how father can be."
"Don't tell me that. You and I know that if it were to be you and Alex, it wouldn't be the same. He gets angry whenever it comes to me and he doesn't listen to a word I say even if I'm telling the truth." Tears streamed down Cookie's eyes the more, "I'm tired of this life."
Alex hugged, regardless of the sharp pain she felt when he did and Ruth joined in.
"You're going to be fine." Alex assured her.
"Open this door!" Mr. Oyin abruptly started banging on their room door, it startled them, "Cookie you better open this door or else!"
It was a good thing they had locked the door when they entered unless Mr. Oyin would've entered unexpectedly and start whipping Cookie again.
Cookie rested her head on Alex shoulder and wished things were a lot different. But deep down her heart, she knows all she can do is just wish.
England (Deadre)In a medium sized room with pink walls, a queen sized bed, a large plasma TV, a wardrobe and other furnitures too numerous to mention, there stood Deardre in the middle of the room pacing back and forth.She had her hair styled into two loose ponytails. Her lips were chap and her face was pale from worrying and thinking too much. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd been attached to her parents. They'd never let her out of their sight except she was to go to vacation camps, prom night, holidays at a family members place, sleep overs at Martina's house and so on. So much changed after she turned twenty and since then the only thing that changed much was the fact that she got pregnant and her parents weren't by her side. It made her feel sick and sad that sh
Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie)"Ouch.""Sorry, my child.""It hurts, ouch.""I know, you just have to endure." Mrs. Oyin advices her, using the warm towel to gently wipe the welts on Cookie's arm. She dipped the towel into the lukewarm bowl of water, squeezed and then wiped. Cookie groaned as she felt the stinging sensation of the impart on her wounded skin."I'm sorry," Her kept repeating the words."Why do you keep saying sorry wh
Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie)"Have you come here to insult me?!" Mr. Oyin queried with rage. He wasn't willing to listen to anyone speak to him about his decisions."No. We are only saying that the girl is too young to get married now." Mrs. Ken, Louisa's mother said. Her hands were placed on Mrs. Oyin's shoulder. Every now and then she would give Mrs. Oyin a consoling pat, who would just nod her head but still did not stop to cry. The way she cries easily is what Cookie took after her."The Hausa's gives out their kids for marriage, including those who are just ten years old, so why can't an eighteen year old get married? How is she too young for marriage?" Cookie's father asked, "Rubbish!" He cursed.
Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie)The day got dark and it's was prettily cold outside. Cookie sat on her mother's lap with her head on her shoulder as her mother rocked her back and forth slowly to the sound of the flute played by Alex.They were sitting close to a fire arranged with fire woods, and watched as the day passed by slowly, wishing tommorow not to come.Each one of them were drowned in their own thoughts that no one spoke to the other in a long time. Cookie was thinking and searching for answers as to why her life turned out this way. She also wished there was a route of escape for her from all this.Cookie felt too weak to shed tears, she'd been doing so
Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie) Musa's had three large bungalow in his compound. One was occupied by his wives, the other by his kids and the third belonged to him. Since he had just gotten married to Cookie, he took her to the third bungalow as he was getting ready for their honey moon.Cookie was kept in a room after bring introduced to Musa's family. She didn't care to know their names or count how many children he had, she kept her head hung low for all the time but she was sure they didn't like the fact that their father and husband had brought in another wife. She didn't blame them, if Mr. Oyin had done the same, she knew she'd been unhappy with him.The room door she was currently occupying flew open and in came Musa. He had on a cunning smile as he approached her."My new wife," He called out as he reac
Delta state, NigeriaCookie continued to hide in Louisa's house. She was lucky enough that Louisa's parents were away and the men who constantly came in search of her couldn't find her.Louisa treated her like a sister. She had with her the little money her parents gave her before they travelled and she didn't mind spending it on her best friend. The only thing that bothered her a few times was long were they going to continue this? How long was Cookie going to keep hiding? Louisa kept asking herself but got no answer. She took some money and decided to go to the market and buy some groceries.Whe
Delta state, Nigeria (Cookie)Cookie's eyes flicked open the next day. She jolted when she became aware of her surroundings. She was sitting on a medium sized bed. She didn't know how she got there but she was sure the person who had carried her there was nice because they covered her with a thick blanket.Looking around, she saw that she was in a small room with cream walls and titled floor. There was a brown wardrobe at one end, a chair and a table that looked like it was used for study at the corner of the room. There was also a flat screen television pinned to the wall, a white bulb stood in the middle of the ceiling shinning brightly almost blinding her vision at first when she looked at it. She squinted her eyes then heard the room door open
Delta state, Nigeria (Fabian) 'Deardre, what's new?'Fabian texted, stretching his legs on a stool that was in front of him.'My parents and I reconciled. Yeah, I guess that's news and I'm also healthy.'She replied, 'What about you?''You won't believe it.'His reply caught her great interest, 'What? Did you win a lottery?'Fabian sent her a laughing emoji and typed, 'That would've been better I tell you but that isn't it.''Tell me then.'