When the music fades

Hi Readstars. How is your day going? I want to share my encounter with you all.please enjoy it as you read!!!!

My name is Melive, I am the fifth of twelve children in my family. As a teenage girl, I never had what girls of my age had. My family could barely eat one square meal a day. Life was difficult for us . When it comes to clothing, it is the worst situation ever because we couldn't afford fancy clothes or normal clothes, even the underwear. Imagine we had only a pant and a bra and my sisters and I took turns to wear it . Most times I would wait for two weeks for my turn to wear the bra and pants.The only thing we could afford was making clothes out of sack bags. We couldn't even afford footwear, I have never seen the four walls of a School since I was born. Even though we were poor we still looked pretty in our caramel skin.

My dad his a hot temper, he used mum as his punching bag and always blamed her for the cause of his misfortune.

On a faithful day He had warned her sternly never to come home late especially on weekends because the road was lonely. Even though she was an industrious woman, an epitome of beauty; she still had lines of different colors running through her body as a result of several beatings from him. When she came home, she already knew the "normal thing". She went into another mud house waiting for him to come and give her the beating of her life. He started hitting her as she screamed helplessly .

The last time we tried to intervene and stop him from hitting her, he gave each of us the beating of our life to the extent that we lost the youngest amongst us. She was only two years old. Mum was pregnant with the thirteenth child but he didn't take her pregnancy into consideration. Mum was screaming until we had a sound like if something had fallen with a mighty thud. What could that be? we didn't hear the sounds that came from the stick which he used to hit her . We rushed to know what had happened, you won't believe it!! when I said mum laid lifeless on the floor with her unborn child. My unborn sibling I don't know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. It didn't matter to us anymore what mattered was that mum was gone.

Dad bought a bucket of water and splashed it all over her but to no avail. She was gone!!. he told us never to speak or cry about mum's death. He hurriedly went to the backyard and he came out with a shovel and digger and buried her right there. The next morning he told us that he couldn't fend for us and everyone should find their source of living. I knew things would be going to be hard for us because it was only mum that did her best to put food on our table. I was devastated and kept wondering if he was our biological father because he showed no love or care for us. I didn't know how we would survive, especially my younger siblings.

Dad left the house. We had to look for a way to survive and my elder siblings and I ran errands for people . The money we realized was not enough, we only ate at night. We had to leave some food so that five of our younger siblings would eat in the morning. We shared everything we had with love .

I had a friend by the name Kirry . She asked me if I would love to work as a nanny in the city which I agreed to immediately. Even though I was too young to accept a job of that sort, I told my siblings and l they agreed to it. The only problem was that there were no fancy clothes. I had no fancy clothes at all. The only fancy thing we could ever boast of is the bra and pants we wore in turns and it already had a tear and was wearing.

I pleaded with my sisters to allow me to take it to the city though It wasn't my turn to wear the pants and a bra. The second child in our family wore it at this time. My siblings agreed with my plea and gave it to me. My elder sister from the little money she had with her, she bought an oversized distressed looking gown for me .The next morning, I left with Kirry to the city, she sponsored the tip. She was also going to work as a nanny. She was two years older than I am. When we reached the city we went to her uncle's house who later took me to the family which I would serve as a nanny.

It was a big mansion. I have never seen such since I was born. Mr clems and his family welcomed me well but Mr clems said he needed someone older that I was too young to do a job like that I pleaded with him and he accepted. I was taken to my own room that night I slept like a baby. No mosquito bites or ants climbing my body.

Mr clems had three sons, they are Mike, Dyke and Iyke. and a daughter Pamie who was just my age. Mr Clem's wife had eloped with her sugar boy lover. My job in that house was to assist his daughter prepare for school. I don't cook or clean because there were other servants in the house to do those chores. Pamie was lovely she gave me some of her old clothes to wear.

I missed my siblings so much, I know life must be so hard on them unlike here where I ate like five times in a day or more Pamie talked to her dad about my schooling, I turned down the offer because I had not been to school. He offered to take me to adult school where I would learn basic things.

In my own class in adult school I was the youngest amongst them. Months passed and life was better in the city, I was well fed so I added a Little bit of flesh and got myself new clothes and footwear. Pamie said I needed good cream and soap to maintain my natural skin. I had caramel skin and it was very attractive. Mr Clems second son Dyke and his friends had meetings in the large compound, there were six of them and whenever I was called to serve them drinks they had their eyes on me. I was shy and I didn't know how to respond to them especially when I got comments.

"Beautiful damsel from the moon how are you?

I would just spread a fake smile across my lips. On a faithful day I wanted to serve them drinks, I didn't know I was stained with blood on my skirt. Dyke called me aside and told me I had stains of blood on my skirt. I had to go upstairs to clean myself up. I felt ashamed of myself. Pamie gave me what she called a pad, I have never seen or used it before, it was smoother and less itchy like the piece of clothes I used at home.

The next day I didn't not go to school because of menstrual cramps. I was alone in the house . I went to the sitting room to watch TV. Dyke came in with a woman. They had their mouths tied up together in a kiss and I ignored them.

One week later I fell sick and Pamie got malaria drugs for me. Dyke seemed to be monitoring me . He would tell me to serve him food in his room. I am not comfortable in his room because he touches me in such a manner I find offensive, but to be honest I enjoyed it because I have never felt that way before. Till one day he forced his self on me and broke my virginity. It was a painful experience but I enjoyed every bit of it. He continued having sex till I started feeling sicky I told him, he already knew I was pregnant and gave me some pills to take. The next morning, my bedspread was stained with blood. I cleaned myself up when I went to school ,I felt liquid rushing down to my pants. I got up and left. I told dyke that I have been losing blood since he gave me those pills, we offered to take me to the clinic and when we got there, he explained to the gynecologist in charge. He gave me some pills which I took and stopped bleeding and my body came back to normal. He took me to the movies, restaurant and stadium. When we went to Iyke's friend's house, Iyke got a phone call He left me behind in his friend's house He said he would be back to pick me up shortly. I was offered a drink by Iyke's friend that made me weak. I was raped by his friend who gave me a huge sum of money, telling me not to tell anyone. I kept quiet and lived my life like nothing had happened.

After a few weeks. He begged me to accompany him for a walk and I reluctantly accepted. We visited another of his friends and In the middle of discussion with his friend, he got another call and walked away leaving me behind and his friend offered me a drink, which made me weak after which he raped me. He gave me money and told me not to talk about it to anyone. This continued until four out of six of his friends raped me.

One day he was downstairs washing his car ,I sneaked into his room and went through his phone ,I saw the chats with his friends. Oh my gosh! I didn't believe what my eyes saw! In one of the chats with one of his friends they had a deal where his friend was telling him that he would pay him double of the money others had paid to have me. All these while Dyke made money with me. I also discovered that he didn't get any call in the middle of discussion with his friend ,it was all faked I was shocked at that time I started feeling weak and sick and constantly vomiting, I think I was pregnant again.when Iyke told me to accompany him for a walk, refused and shunned him.

Mr Clems was away on a trip and he would not be coming back soon. After a few months, my belly started becoming visible. Pamie got so worried and asked who was responsible. I was confused because I had been with Dyke's friends including Dyke. I was so ashamed of myself for not decoding the hand writing on the wall. I had to say dyke is responsible. He denied it threatening to take my life. I was a poor girl and had no one to speak for me but Pamie stood up for me. She nursed me and made sure I didn't lack anything money can buy. I put to bed a bouncing baby boy and called him Patrick. He was a source of joy to me. Pamie suggested I go for a DNA test to prove to the paternity of the child. she got some of Dyke's hair samples and when the test results were out , as luck could have it dyke was the father of my son. Pamie confronted Dyke even with the test results and he said it was fake.

I moved out of their house and decided to go back home. I have not seen my siblings for two years now. I had enough money for us. I reached home and they welcomed me well. They were surprised to see a little boy that looked like me I told them it was their nephew They were so much in love with my son. After we ate a good meal for the first time at home, I told them my whole story. They were thankful to GOD for keeping me alive and healthy. Life became better for us we moved out of the mud house and rented an apartment. We began a small business of fries and we made money out of it which with it changed our lives forever. We don't have to share underwater or clothes anymore.

After five years, one afternoon I told my son to stay with one of my sisters as he wanted to follow me to the warehouse to get some goods. He accepted to stay behind but as soon as I crossed the road I still didn't know that he had followed me. The last thing I saw was a car on speed that crushed him to pieces . I wept uncontrollably and rolled on the tared road rolling from one end to the other, I held the pieces of my son close to my chest. My siblings heard what happened and rushed to the scene. They held me and took me home to comfort me. My son was buried the next day. I missed him so much he was the music I had playing in my heart and it has just faded. I thought about my mum who was no longer here to reap from the fruit of our labour. We haven't seen dad since he left us. No one knows whether he is alive or dead. I developed high blood pressure. I had to let things go. Today was supposed to be my son's tenth birthday and I have just dropped a beautiful flowers on his grave.

@Gianna-B

Thank you for reading.

Lead image credit: taken from unsplash.com