EPISODE 3
Khadijat: “Father” she said, fear
had paralyzed her so much that
her words came out as a whisper,
even though she was screaming
with fear in her heart. The man
standing before her was carrying her father’s face, but it was like
she could not recognize him. His eyes were red rimmed and
bloodshot like he had been
crying, and in them were filled so
much hate and disgust at
Khadijat. Imam: “You Khadijat, you whom I
have loved so much, has brought
me so much shame” he snarled,
through clenched teeth, as his
fingers clenched the knife harder. Khadijat: “Father, I know I have
caused you pain, but I am sorry”
she cried. Imam: “You are sorry? Well sorry,
doesn’t just make everything
right, does it?” he asked. Khadijat
knelt down and pled with her
father, but whatever she said,
was falling on deaf ears. Her father still progressed towards
her, with hate, evident in his eyes.
She stood up and ran away from
his path, but her father followed
her. Imam: “I will take out that
abominable thing” he snarled, as
he swung the knife at her
stomach. It grazed her slightly but
it drew blood. Khadijat yelped,
but even her screams did not return her father to her senses.
Khadijat tried to run into one of
the rooms, but her leg tripped
over a small stool, and she fell.
Her father came and sat astride
her and then he raised the knife up and brought it down. Between the time that he raised
the knife and brought it down,
there was a small window, and
that was when Damilola’s mother
entered. She saw father and
daughter on the floor, and without asking questions, she
took a statue by the television set
and hit the Imam on the back.
The suddenness of the attack
made the knife fall out of the
Imam’s hand, clattering to the floor. He turned back to see his
assailant, and that was when
Khadijat pushed him off and
scurried out of the house. She ran
as fast as her legs could carry her,
without thinking as to where she was running to. Her father had
intended to kill her, she had seen
it in his eyes. She had stared
death in the face and somehow,
she had lived. All she could think
of, was running away from her father. The statue had injured the Imam
and drew blood, and for a
moment, Damilola’s mother was
scared that the Imam would turn
on her, and do to her what he
had intended to do to his daughter. But then, his eyes
glazed over, he blinked and then
looked at the knife in his hands. Imam: “Oh no, where is Khadijat?”
he asked, as if back from a trance. Damilola’s mother: “You are
asking me, you almost killed that
little girl” she exclaimed, edging
closer to the door, so she could
escape, at the slightest
appearance of trouble. Imam: “I had come here to see
her, but when I saw her” he
paused and rubbed his eyes like
he was trying to stop himself from
crying, “I could see the little swell
of her stomach, and I could not control my anger” he said. Damilola’s mother: “Liar! You
brought that knife here, with the
intent of harming your own
daughter. What do you people
learn in your Quran? She is your
daughter for God’s sake” she said passionately. Imam: “Don’t shout on me
woman! You do not know what
you are talking about. She has
destroyed the name I took years
to build. When I make the
prayers at the mosque, people don’t pray, they whisper behind
my back. The Imam’s daughter
allowed herself be defiled by an
infidel!” he yelled. Damilola’s mother did not bother
to say any more words, she ran
out through the door, and
bumped into Khadijat’s mother,
who was about to knock on the
door. Khadijat’s mother: “Neighbour,
who is pursuing you?” she asked,
puzzled. Damilola’s mother: “Your
husband has gone mad! He
wanted to kill your daughter, and
now she ran away, I don’t know
where she has gone” she said
panting with fear. Khadijat’s mother ran into the
house and held her husband by
his jalabiya, this was something
she had never done before. Khadijat’s mother: “Alfa, you will
kill me today. Just kill me because
it is my fault that Khadijat is
pregnant. I am the one who
should have watched over her
and known everything that was going on with her. It is my fault,
kill me and let my daughter be”
she cried. Imam: “You have rightly said it,
that it is your fault. But I will not
kill you, I will divorce you and
marry a woman who can take
care of her children and make
sure they don’t go astray. Now, pack your things and leave my
house” he said and pushed her
away. Khadijat ran across a busy road,
oblivious of the busy traffic. She
did not realize how far away from
home she had run, until she saw
a sign post. She was confused
and she stopped in the middle of the road. She realized too late that
she was in the path of oncoming
vehicles; she screamed and tried
to run to the other side. But, it
was a little too late, as a car
slammed into her and flung her to the other side of the road. She fell
on the rain washed tar road, and
soon, it became dark. The shouts
and screams from witnesses,
were like it was coming from
another planet. While people came to beg the
Imam not to send his wife
packing, his wife went looking
for her daughter, Khadijat, in all
the places she knew her
daughter went. She even went to Halima’s house, but the latter told
her, in no kind words, that her
daughter was not in their house. Khadijat’s mother: “Please, but
she was with you the other day,
help me my daughter” she cried
desperately. Halima: “Oh, I am now your
daughter. When you called me a
bastard and a society’s reject, you
didn’t know I could be
somebody’s daughter. Your
daughter is not here and even if she came here, I would not let her
stay” she said harshly and
slammed the gate in the woman’s
face. Khadijat: “Subhanalai! What am I
going to do now, where do I look
for my Khadi?” she cried, with her
hands on her head, not minding
that she had left the house
without putting on bra. Halima had her own problems;
she had found out just yesterday,
that she was pregnant. The
abortion doctor had told her the
last time that she couldn’t have
any more abortions again, because if she did, she might
never be able to have her own
children. The worst of it was that
she was pregnant for her
Christian boyfriend. No matter
how liberal her parents were, she could never marry a Christian, her
father was an Alhaji. Would I now be a single mother?
Which Muslim man would marry
me with another man’s child? “Ha Halima, you have really
outdone yourself this time” The thoughts kept reverberating
on the walls of her mind. She
should have been careful, she
told herself. If only she was not
addicted to raw sex, if only she
had heeded the advice of the abortion doctor and used
protection. “Enough of the blame game, now
you have to think of a solution
Halima. Can you risk
excommunication from your
family because of him?” She
thought to herself. She made a decision that, she
would keep the pregnancy, and if
her boyfriend accepted, she
wouldn’t mind converting to
Christianity. It would cost her a
lot, but what other choice did she have? She couldn’t condemn
herself to a life of barrenness. Everyone watched the young girl
splayed on the cold road, there
was blood around and they
thought her dead. Rather than
see if she could be saved, they
took out their phones and took snapshots of the accident, they
had to be the first to share the
eyewitness photos on the
internet. The driver of the car that
hit her had long vanished with his
car. Other drivers maneuvered their way around the body, with
pity etched on their faces, but no
real will to help. An elderly
woman, who was dressed in two
Hollandes wrapper and a market
bag in her hand, stopped and started screaming for help. When
she saw that nobody was making
any move to help the girl. She
took to her heels, with her fallen
breast flapping with the wind,
running towards the closest clinic. When she got to the bungalow
clinic, she started screaming on
top of her lungs. This brought out
the nurses who wondered why
the old woman was shouting on
top of her voice. Nurse: “Madam, wetin dey worry
you. Why you dey shout like
woman wey dey labour” Old woman: “Please, help me, a
girl has been knocked down on
Ola Iya junction. Please come
before she dies” she said with so
much urgency, that a man
dressed in doctors’ garb ordered the emergency unit to take the
ambulance with the woman, to
the site of the accident.
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Will Khadijat be saved
or will she die with a wish on her
lips?.
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