All About My Bruises

CHAPTER ONE

The Present

She hated him so much that it hurt her whenever she remembered him. She could not afford to have any more hate against him in her. Her hate was at its highest capacity. She did not know if it was right to hate somebody like that but she couldn't help the way she hated Sam, her ex-husband. One would wonder why she married him if she hated him that much. Well, she really did not know why she married him if she looked back now.

Adaeze was a very busy woman. Bathing her son Franklin was the only time she could think about her life without interruption, and she had a lot of things to think about in her life. Frank was two years old now. He was the centre of her once demolished universe. Adaeze knew that her life was a comedy of errors. She had to say that then she was a willing participant in what Sam did to her but that did not justify the things that Sam did to her and would do again if given the chance. She was sure of one thing though: Sam will never get that chance. No man ever will.

"Mama, look at my beards," Franklin said showing her the soapy foam that he put on his chin. He was sitting in the bathtub. He was very healthy and handsome. Her main joy about Franklin was that he did not resemble his father. He has a small nose like her and big brown eyes that were filled with mischief. He was also chubby with the cutest dimple that she has ever seen on a baby. She was prejudiced but well, she was allowed to be that. She would not have liked it had he looked like his father. It would have been a daily reminder of how selfish and stupid she was. But she would have loved him no matter who he looked like. He was hers and that was all that counted. Her joy!

"My love, your beard is very handsome. You look very pretty," she said as she gave him a kiss. He laughed as he always did when she kissed him. "Now give me love." He kissed her and then smiled. He started howling with laughter. "Why are you laughing at me? Don't I look pretty like you?"

"Mama, you are pretty but you have foam on your nose and you look like a chicken." He giggled.

It happened that in the process of the kiss, he transferred some of his beards to his mother. He started laughing again. He kicked water about the tub. She started tickling him. He fell inside the tub laughing his head off. He was a happy boy. She was glad that he did not get to know his father.

At that moment she was filled with love for him that she felt like she would choke from it. She just wanted him to know, even if he didn't understand her well. She needed him to know.

"Franklin, you know that mummy loves you a lot right?"

"Mama loves Franklin, Franklin loves mama." He started laughing like he solved the world's most difficult puzzle. She poured water on his curly hair and rinsed him from his soapy bed. He squealed as she touched him. He tickled easily. She did not mind that he poured water on her. She was wearing her house robe and she did not care if it got wet. And the bathroom was tiled so it was easy to mop. That was the fun of the whole bath - to get wet.

As it always did, her mind went to the time she was staying with Sam, to the time they first met, to the time he imprisoned her, and to the time she was a sex slave for him. Looking at her son, she could not find it in her heart to regret those times but she still did not like Sam any better for that. Her mind journeyed back to the time she was in secondary school. She had met Sam through his sister, Tracy. They were in senior secondary school two when Sam came back from America. He had finished his studies in America and resolved to stay in Nigeria with his family. He decided to visit his sister that day.

She could see everything like it happened yesterday but it was actually so many years ago. She was sixteen when she first met Sam. He was the perfect gentleman and she was the perfect stupid girl who wanted the easy way out. Well, she got it but at a high price, a very high price. It all started nine years ago, nine educative years ago.

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Ten years ago

"Is anybody going to visit you this time Adaeze?" Ogechi asked.

I wanted to pretend that I did not hear her but I knew that would not stop Oge from asking me a second time. She was always concerned about me. I do not get many visitors in school. I got down from the bunk. I was mounting the top-up bunk while Ogechi took the down bunk. I was wearing my checkered house wear that had a baby design on it. Oge was from Nsukka while I was from Ezeagu. She was the best friend I had in school. Maybe it was because both of us were scholarship students. God knew that my parents could not afford the school fees for OUR LADY OF NOBLE BIRTH secondary school. It was a school for the rich, by the rich and with the rich, but I was not rich. It was located along 33 Beer Company before Capuchin junction in Onitsha. It was one of the best schools in the East and I was proud to be going to school there.

"That is not right. I do not have anybody to see me. I do not really mind. They are all busy. And besides, I told you my school is pretty far from where my people stay."

I got down from the bed that I have been sleeping on since the visiting hours started. That was how I passed my time. Oge on the other hand would not let me rest at all.

I have gotten used to staying without visits from my people. I only heard from them when there was someone coming to Onitsha from my village. We were not poor. We were just at the end of the second class family. My mum was a teacher while my father was a very comfortable farmer. I have two sisters that attend Fatima secondary school in our village.

Oge on the other hand was at the head of the second class family. Even with the money they have, I knew that her family could not afford the school's fees for her. She was also on a scholarship like me. That was why we were best of friends or so I would like to think.

Oge stood up from her bed and looked at me like I have lost it. She liked to turn this kind of thing into a federal case. It would not be the first time that I have told her that my people could not be visiting me all the time. I was sure she would ask me about it next month's visiting day.

Oge was a very beautiful girl. She was tall and shapely and she did not even try to hide the fact that she was beautiful. I could say that she was vain about her looks but that was not the case. As much as Oge loved flaunting her body at anybody who would care to look, she was also a very intelligent girl which was why she got the scholarship in the first place. She was ebony black. She also has very nice hair. She has a straight nose and a very wide smile that one could kill for. When I first saw her, I thought that she could be called African Barbie.

"How can you say that you are used to it? I cannot get used to not seeing my parents for a whole term. It really is not fair. But since you say that you do not mind, let's go out and look at people that have visitors and find out which ones are brothers and which ones are you-know-what. I wouldn't want that witchy matron to find us here and ask us to sweep the visiting hall for those pampered papas' leftover."

By you-know-what, she meant the boyfriends that also came to visit their girlfriends in schools. The girls always said they were their brothers but we knew better. She walked about as she said this.

Oge could not be accused of keeping her mouth shut for anything that she thought should be said. She was a very outspoken person. She would tell you the truth and if you did not like it, you could go and hug transformer or do whatever it was that angry person did. She was a tall and slim girl. She had very large birthmarks on her cheeks that made her look like a village queen, a very beautiful village queen. She did nothing to maintain her figure. She was born thin and shapely and she took advantage of it in the most interesting way. She ate a lot and that was putting it mildly.

Oge did not try to hide the fact that she hated the new hostel matron assigned to us. The woman was also worthy of her hatred. She was a thirty-five-year-old spinster and she believed that being a very sad spinster has given her leave to make the entire girl in Mary-Jude hostel miserable. She was in for a surprise. As much as Oge hated the woman, the hate did not go unrewarded. Miss Ozoibe looked for any legitimate and illegitimate reason to punish Oge and Oge tried as such to spit on her and to escape her. She did not succeed most of the time.

Thinking back to what she said, I laughed. That was typical Oge. She was always looking for where it was happening. Her family always came very early so she was free to look at others. I liked her a lot and I loved keeping her company because she was funny and smart. We were both in art class, the stupid people's class or so the school believes. What they did not know was that some people are there because they want to be, not because they did not know chemistry or physics. Oge and I were one of those people. We were always at the top of the class. "Okay, let us go but we have to be back soon. I have to finish my assignment before tomorrow. I plan to read away the whole of tomorrow so we must be back soon."

The hostel was not very spacious so she and I have to turn around to locate what we needed for the walk. She pivoted in one direction and got one leg of her slippers from under her bed. She looked deeper into the little space below the bed trying to see if the other half of the set was there but she did not see it. That was a ritual. She turned to my bed and there it was just at the entrance of the dark under-bed. It was the place that students put most of the things they have like buckets, boxes, shoes and such. For that reason, there was never any space in anybody's bed.

"Okay, ma. I do not know why you so much like reading. You are turning into a little Harry Potter." She stood up and wore her sandals. We were not allowed to leave the dorm without sandals or with slippers but then, Oge could never be accused of being an upstanding student. Nope. She was not.

"Harry Potter does not read a lot. It is his best friend that does." Oge derived joy from confusing characters when talking.

I wore my own sandals and we both set out to the visiting hall. We do not have to fear being asked to go and call anybody because we were in the senior class. Had we been juniors, the seniors would have asked us to go and get a student or something like that. In the end, we would have achieved nothing except being passed around like ping pong.

We chatted as we went on. She was telling me one of her many jokes as always. Oge was a born comedian. She liked telling jokes a lot. I used to think that life was a very big joke for her. She sure acted like she did not care if the world caught fire.

As we walked, I looked at the compound of the place I call my school. It was very beautiful and elegant. Just the way the rich liked it. We were walking from the hostel to the Great Hall where the visit took place. The road was tarred. There were big trees all along the road that bent to create a long canopy and shadow for those walking on the road. The shadow was very thick that when it rains heavily, it would be long before a person gets drenched under the tree umbrella. It was very beautiful. I liked to take a long walk there when I felt depressed. It helped to clear my mind when it needed clearing.

"Listen to this one. You are going to love it," Oge declared as she started telling one of her many jokes. "Akpos and Musa were caught in a northern country sharing a smuggled barrel of beer. They were arrested and taken to the sheikh palace for questioning and judgment. Akpos lied and said that it was Musa that smuggled it and forced him to drink. Initially, they were given a death sentence but as it was a national holiday, the sheikh said that they should be released after some lashes of a whip. As they were preparing for their whipping, the king said, "It is my first wife's birthday today and she has asked me to grant you two wishes before your whipping but you must not wish not to be whipped." Akpos thought for a second and said, "Please, tie two pillows to my back before you flog me and my second wish is that you flog me only twenty." This was done. When they asked Musa, he thought and said, "I want you to flog me a hundred strokes with the biggest and strongest cane in this kingdom." The king was surprised by this wish so he asked him what his second wish was. He simply said, "Tie Akpos to my back."

I doubled over laughing. I laughed so hard there were tears in my eyes. I threw up my head and laughed so much that I hurt my ribs. "Ogechi, you are too......," the rest of my word got stuck as I saw a group of men standing beside a very fancy car chatting. But they were not chatting now. They were looking, more like staring at me, like I have two heads. I could understand why, judging, by the way, I was laughing.

"What? Do I have two or more heads? What are you looking at?" I asked them.

I knew I was rude but I could not help it. They were making me very uneasy. Being rude to visitors was unacceptable in my school but hey; give a dog a bad name. I did not like the look I was getting from any of them, including Tracy.

Our school was such that you find trees and shades wherever you go. They were standing in one of those shades now. They all looked handsome. It was apparent that they came to visit Tracy, the former labour prefect. Tracy was one of the very mean seniors in the school.

"We were just watching you laugh your head off," said senior Tracy.

Tracy was her name but as she was in a class ahead of us, we dared not mention her name without an emphatic 'senior' added to it. It was like her title. Tracy was a very pompous girl. She was rumoured to be very wicked when she had a post in SS2. She won Miss OUR LADY. She also won Miss Shape and she was presently sneering at me like I was a very sore sight.

The men grinned like she said the most intelligent thing in the world. I did not like the sight they presented. They were not in the visiting hall and that was against the rules of the school. They were just along the path that led to the girls' hostels and they did not even care. Tracy liked to stare at the school authority in the face and challenge them to do their worst. She knew that they would not expel her because her father was one of the main members of the PTA meeting and the school's main source of funds. He even built a hostel for the girls. That was why they gave Tracy a whole room for herself.

"If that is the case, look all you want," I added.

I was angry and I knew Oge was too. She did not like public insults any more than I did. I started going my way. I did not want anything to do with the likes of Tracy. She was a very mean person. I have given up the act of being polite to the outgoing seniors. They were not worth the trouble.

I was determined not to look back no matter what. Oge was also marching with me. I knew we looked quite funny with our noses all the way in the air like aristocrats in our checkered daywear.

"Excuse me? I am sorry about my sister. She acts that way sometimes," said a very handsome young man who was standing with Tracy. He was the most handsome of the four men that were there, but that did not mean I could just start talking to him. I learnt from my mother that it was not good to talk to a stranger and he was a stranger, a very handsome stranger. I knew I was going to disobey my mother.

Tracy made sure that everybody in school knew that her brother has come back from America and that he was one of the richest men in Nigeria now. They said Samson was now the dream husband of all the girls in our school. I did not have that kind of dream. In fact, I try not to dream and just do what I was sent to school to do, read.

"And what should I call you?" I asked the man before me.

The young man before me was the type that my mum had told me to stay away from. They were trouble personified.

"I am sorry I did not introduce myself earlier. My name is Samson but I am not the strongest man," he said with a smile.

I smiled because I was supposed to. I did not know that the rich have a sense of humour even if it was poor and very biblical. He seemed friendly. The man cracked a joke after all. I decided to crack my own joke. I might not be Oge but I sure knew how to say something funny.

"If you are Samson, then I am Delilah."

He laughed. He must be a churchy man, I thought.

"When I saw you laughing, I knew you had a very healthy sense of humour. Why don't you join us for snacks? We were just about to eat in the car."

I sure was tempted to join them to say the truth. But I knew I could not for two things: I didn't want to look cheap, and because I came out with my roommate, Oge. To leave her and join another group would be very rude and besides, I didn't even know these people. "Why would I want to do that? I did not come out here to join you. And besides, I do not know you guys." I sure went for the main point.

I was suddenly conscious of my daywear. My pink checkered gown made me look like a baby but I was sixteen. Other seniors made their gown short and sexy but I did not have the money to waste on such a thing. Besides, I was not in the school to show off my figure. I was there to maintain my scholarship. If I mess it up, I would be thrown out before I could say, Ben Johnson. I stuffed the doubt at the far back of my mind and faced him again. I did not like the way he was looking at me.

"Are you worried that we might kidnap you? I admit that I am tempted to. You looked so beautiful when you laughed that I asked myself who this pretty girl was," he complimented.

I thanked my God that blacks did not turn all pink and red when they blush for I was blushing furiously. I was determined not to turn into a simpering female just because he paid me a compliment.

"Wow, don't we have a sweet tongue! You sure know how to chat up a girl, Samson the weak. Anyway, I will be on my way as I was. Nice meeting you by the way." I did not want him to see that what he said pleased me.

"The pleasure is all mine. And I will like to have that pleasure again if you let me; I will like to visit you again." He bowed to me as he said it. He looked elegant in his blue jean and white T-shirt.

Samson was not hard in appearance. In fact, he was pleasing. He has very sexy brown eyes and lips that were ready to smile and cute in a manly way. He was also very tall. I knew I was tall but I could only reach his mouth.

"I do not think that will be a good idea. I don't really like visitors. Oge, let's go please." I then took my leave. "See you later then".

"That is a promise to you and I intend to keep it," Sam shouted after me.

The rest of the day was good but in the eye of my heart, I was seeing Samson. He was so very handsome and rich and he was interested in me. How did I luck out? It was obvious that he was interested in me. That was the question I asked myself all day. I went to bed earlier than I planned.

Sam was a really nice guy even though I could see from the way he was acting that he was very aware of himself. I knew he was a big deal and unfortunately, he knew that too. That did not distract me from his charms. What girl would refuse a guy like Sam? He was exactly the type of guy that girls in my hostel talk about all the time. A handsome, rich and tall guy and he liked me. What more could I ask for?