Chapter 5

*Flashback

  I was born in a very happy home. We weren't rich at all. I went to a Government Basic School. Those ones that people don't consider respectable schools but my parents gave their all to ensure I had a good life. I was happy, I made friends with the other underprivileged children in my community and I was happy even though the struggles were there. My uncle was one of the best people in my life. He is a very rich business man. Money for him was never a problem. He was one of the nicest people I knew. He would visit us and buy gifts for us.

   Things turned around when they were traveling to Kumasi and their bus collided with a tipper truck. It was horrible Cynthia. None of them survived in the bus including my parents. I was just thirteen years when they died and of course I needed to be in the care of someone or get taken to an orphanage. My uncle was given custody of me to be my legal guardian and that's when I saw the devil buried behind all his goodness. That man made my life a nightmare. He made me work like a horse. I was made to clean his children's rooms and do work not even his own children would ever do. If I ever tried to refuse, he will use a belt to whip me till I bleed all over. If I ate their food, his wife would slap me and make me eat their leftovers and a lot of inedible things. There were times were they would call me useless, a stupid orphan and even insult my dead parents. His children would mock me and make me feel like I am not a human being with emotions. They would do bad things and pin them on me so that I get punished in very cruel ways. There was even a time when his oldest daughter Natasha told her stupid dad that I brought a boy over when he and his fat and foolish wife went out one evening. That man beat me till I could barely move and then made me sleep in the store room with cockroaches and mice.

     It got to a point where he instructed me to live my door opened in the night. If I didn't do it, he would inflict knife wounds on my body so I had to obey him. One evening he came into my room and locked the door. You can imagine what that useless old man did to me...

    'Did he rape you?' she asked with her voice shaking. Her eyes were filling up with tears like she on the verge of crying. I was already weeping just replaying the events in my mind.

    'Yes. I remember the pain of painfully losing my virginity in a way I never imagined I will ever lose it. I was innocent Cynthia. I felt like I lost all my purity and my cleanliness. My bedsheets were stained with blood. It was so painful I thought I was going to die in the room. I told his wife about it but do you know what that old hag did to me? She put me down on the dining hall table and pushed grinded pepper into my eyes. I decided to keep the rest of his sexual abuses to my self and suffer alone. He started seeing me as business opportunity. He would invite his male colleagues to sleep with me and get paid in exchange.

    All that went on for two years and a half. I attempted to run away many times but anytime I get caught, I am made to pay the price very dearly. At a point, I wanted to just commit suicide because I thought death was better than the hell I was living in. Then I realized that killing myself over those people wasn't worth it. I tried to escape again and alas I was successful. I had only Gh¢50.00 on me at the time. I wanted to use it to pay for the taxi from Devtracco Estate to East-Legon. It wasn't enough but the driver was very kind so he didn't take money from me.

   'You should have told the driver about the abuse. He could've taken you to the Police Station where they would have been arrested and in prisoned', she commented.

   'I was only concentrating on how I would survive since I didn't know where to go. I have been living on the streets for close to a week now until I was found. I am just scared that I might experience the same thing here'.

  'Oh you poor thing. I am so sorry you went through all that. Those people need to be put behind bars. If they knew they wouldn't treat you well then being in the orphanage is better than suffering through that', she used her hand to wipe tears from her eyes.

   I removed the blanket from my body not caring if I was naked or not. I just wanted to show her the scars on my body and some of the wounds yet to heal. She gasped out of shock. They are all over me like tiger strips but in very ugly patterns. 'Oh My Gosh, this is so bad. The wounds don't even look like they have been treated. How come we never noticed them. They are all over your arms and legs. 'I wore clothing that covered my entire body. I just felt embarrassed for people to see them. They are so ugly. They disfigured my beautiful body', I broke down in tears. 'Dress up okay and you can decide to sleep or come downstairs if you want to. The television there too is working. Feel free to turn it on and watch whatever you want'.