Unfulfilled promise episode 34 – 35

Unfulfilled Promise
season1
Episode 34

Unedited

They drove home in tension again with her mum shaking her head and continuously asking how could she have done this. The doctor had pronounced her at least four months pregnant after the result of the test they had waited for had read positive.

When they got home, Oleng rushed to her room but her mum followed her to torment her.

“How could you, Oleng? How could you? Didn’t I warn you? Didn’t I tell you not to bring that boy here again? Just look at yourself now. Where’s the boy now? He’s in the States enjoying himself while you’re here carrying his bastard. I never knew you were so stupid. Stupid enough to get yourself pregnant at such a tender age. You’re just fifteen for crying out loud!” Mrs. Akpan ranted and raved while Oleng just used her hands to cover her ears and wept loudly.

“I don’t mind the fact that you had s€×,” she continued “Because you kids of nowadays are very experimental but for you to be so stupid to get yourself pregnant is what’s driving me mad. What are the uses of contraceptives?”

After she said that, something snapped in,side Oleng. She suddenly stopped crying and got up from the bed to face her mother.

“How could I have known about contraceptives?” she yelled, “Did you for once tell me about them? The day I came to you to explain, adolescence, puberty and pregnancy to me, didn’t you send me out of your room with the excuse that you were tired and some other time? But you never found time for me. You were either in Dubai today or China tomorrow. Even when you were at home, you didn’t give a d–n about me. And now you stand there blaming me for everything and calling me stupid.

Eric taught me everything I know today. It was his mum who told me about menstruation. She bought me my first pad. And maybe I got pregnant on purpose because you told me sometime ago that if I got pregnant, I’d go and live with them and I know for sure that life there will be better than this hell, where I’d get attention no matter how little than here where I’m not noticed.” she spat out angrily.

For an answer to her outburst, her mum gave her a sound slap. She fell on the bed and held her cheek. “How dare you talk to me like that? I’m still your mother!”

“No!” Oleng yelled, “You’re not my mother. You’re a stranger. I hate you!” she yelled and ran out of the room. She ran out of the house also.

Linda walked slowly to the living room and collapsed on a chair. Thoughts flooded her. She sighed when she remembered sixteen years ago in Calabar.

She had been head over heels in love with Umoh then. They had planned on getting married. The day Umoh gave her an engagement ring was her happiest. Everything had been going smoothly until that fateful night. She and her boss, Efiok had gone for a business night party. The alcohol had been very strong and before she knew what was happening, she found herself in bed with him the following morning. He had apologized profusely for what had been a drunken one night stand.
She had wanted to resign her job as his secretary but she had needed the money for her wedding so she had stayed but their relationsh¡p became strained because of that night.

She was almost suicidal when she discovered a month later that she was pregnant. She couldn’t pass off the child as Umoh’s which she would have done not to lose him but she and Umoh had never gone to bed together. They had been waiting for their wedding night and now her boss had ruined it. She went for a D and C but almost lost her life in the process yet they had not removed the baby because doing so would cost her her womb. She kept everything to herself until Umoh discovered she was pregnant. She tried explaining things to him but he wouldn’t listen. He called off the engagement. She wept herself almost to death.

It was her younger sister whom she had confided in, who had gone to tell her boss that she was pregnant. He was sorry Umoh had broken up with her and wanted to marry her but she refused. He had continued pleading and with her sister’s intervention, they had gone to get married in the registry. Efiok had wanted a white wedding but she would hear nothing of it. Efiok had been a perfect husband. Even though they had not planned the pregnancy or marriage, he fell into the role of husband and expectant father very well while she was always moody at losing Umoh.

As fate would have it, he died in a plane crash on his way to Port Harcourt to return back to Calabar the same day. When the news had been broken to her, she had gone into forced labor and had given birth to Oleng a month before she was due. She hadn’t br-astfed her baby. Her sister, Vien who had been nursing a baby then had been the one to br-astfeed and wean Oleng because she, Linda had been very sick after the birth, for over a month.
Vien had been the one to give Oleng her name.

Unfulfilled Promises
season 1
Episode 35

She had decided to change location then to forget everything and she had chosen Port Harcourt It was when Oleng was two years old that she had gone to bring her to live with her in Port Harcourt To worsen matters when she had met two other men who wanted to marry her, they had des**ted her when they discovered she had a child So Oleng was indirectly responsible for her loneliness though she had not killed her father who would have been a companion to her It had caused her great pain when she went to Calabar once and saw Umoh with his wife and kids,What she had lost because of Oleng made her more bitter That had brought a greater gap between them because she couldn’t forgive Oleng however childish it seemed for taking her happiness away even though it wasn’t her fault, All these made her cold, bitter and authoritative It made her swear off men because they were all bastards!
As her heart turned colder, she knew the saying was true that if a female got pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth to a female child, the girl would follow her foot steps She had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and now Oleng had done the same at an even younger age.
Hell no! She wasn’t going to allow history repeat itself She had been secretly molding Oleng to become like her She had withdrawn emotion from her because emotion didn’t get one anywhere in this world She had left her alone for her to endure hærd times and become mature without motherly love To help her cope in this wicked world yet she had disappointed her by getting pregnant for that bastard! Such foolishness she couldn’t fathom Had Oleng ever seen her with a man? Why hadn’t she taken cue from her? Couldn’t she have used a contraceptive? It made her very angry She knew what she was going to do She sat there just staring into space until late evening when Oleng came back.
Oleng ignored her mother and went to her room She had made up her mind to tell Ricky At least to get away from this house before her mother poisoned her She had no idea if Ricky’s mum would accept her but she had to try Anything was better than staying here where she knew surely her mum would make her life a living hell.
Eric was offline but she still typed the message She told him she was sorry but she was pregnant and needed help She asked if she should go to his mother She pleaded with him to reply and she was sorry for shutting him out all this while She waited and waited but he didn’t come online She slept off still waiting.
She woke up the following morning yet Eric had not replied She became sort of scared.Her mum didn’t go out, much to her annoyance She went to the kitchen to get herself breakfast thanking God that her morning sickness had gone down She ignored her mum.
By afternoon, Eric had still not replied. She became worried She picked up her phone and sent him a message to call her as soon as he got the message She waited and waited, yet nothing.
What’s going on? She wondered.

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Zinny and Marvy were amazed when Oleng‘s mum opened the front door when they came to visit her after school.
“Yes?” she asked harshly, “What are you pr-stitutes doing here?”
They glanced at each other in wide-eyed amazement but she continued, “Isn’t the fact that you have ruined her life enough?”
“Ma, we don’t know what you’re talking about.” Marvy managed to say.
“Oh! You want to tell me you don’t know she’s pregnant? You want to tell me you all haven’t been sleeping around but are wiser.Why didn’t you tell her what you normally do to avoid pregnancy? Or is it that you girls have done so many abortions you want her to join your club?” she lashed at the bamboozled girls.
“Now before I lose my temper, you harlots better get out of my compound.” she furiously told them.
“Let’s go, Zinny.” Marvy told her friend who stood looking at Mrs. Akpan in anger.
“No Marvy,” she shook her friend off “She’s going to tell me when she saw us standing on the streets looking for men and if it is her hospital that we did the many abortions.”
“Zinny, please let’s go.” Marvy tried dragging her but she stood rigid.
“Oh! So you want to know?” Mrs. Akpan smiled bitterly.
“You’re only looking for who to blame when the person to blame is you Have you ever been there for your daughter? Have you ever discussed s€× with her before? Is it not a mother’s place to teach her daughter the dangers of premarital s€×? Now you’re blaming us We did our best.I think it’s God that is punishing you for your wickedness but it’s a pity He’s using poor Oleng as a pawn.” she continued yelling as Marvy dragged her towards the gate where the gateman stood staring.

To be continued