Hola………..this week I’ve decided to try something different from my usual. This is a fiction titled PUSHED. Read comment and enjoy
PUSHED
AISHA’S SIDE OF THE STORY
I’m Aisha Ibrahim, a thirty seven years old mother with two teenage daughter; Adrian 18 and Sapphire, 17. I’m sure you are wondering how a woman my age managed to have two teenage daughters. Well, I married at eighteen due to my exotic looks, elegance, beauty and charm. Thanks to my father’s gene. I was the envy of the neighborhood. My father always made mouth to his customers at his wood workshop that I was his jewel. Soon I started getting tired of it
I got married to Abdul Ibrahim, a man I had no feelings for. My father was helping him with the carpentry work at his new mansionette and mom always sent me to the site to give my father food. That way I gave him enough opportunity to look at me as much as he wanted to and he sure did. One day he walked up to me and said with his cocky smile and disgusting accent that he was going to marry me. I simply laughed saying in my mind that he was a clown and was just joking but I killed that assumption when I found myself in the sitting room having the discussion with my parents
“Ibrahim, father you want me to marry uncle Ibrahim”
“What is so strange about it, all your mate here in Kano are married. Ibrahim is a good choice if he takes his eyes away from you, you would end up with a cattle rarer or trader”
“I just finished my WAEC. Mother don’t you see the problem here”
“Aisha your father is right” she said calmly “we need the money to take care of your younger ones and with him you can complete your university education. He promised us that”
I put up no further argument since I knew the kind of man my father was. Besides, I was a timid child and was greatly scared of him so I just accepted my faith. It was true, all my mates were married
We got married and immediately, I moved into his life. For the first time I smelt luxury, it felt good and pleasant so that calmed my nerves. I lived with him and his sick wife, Mrs. Amina. She had terminal cancer and sadly no child. She was one of the sweetest people I met, knowing I was there against my wish and I was just a kid. She took me as her own; raising me, teaching me, despite the fact that I slept on her matrimonial bed. My saddest day was when she died. I knew she was going too eventually but it hurt more realizing she wasn’t there again. I felt hurt, lonely and helpless.
A year later I gave birth to my first child, Adrian Suliat Ibrahim. And less than five months later, I got pregnant for my second daughter, Sapphire Kadijat Ibrahim. I hid their English names from their father knowing he was a traditionalist. They are my world but confusingly not Ibrahim’s. He wanted sons despite the fact that these were his first seeds. He told me if I could give him two sons, I would go to school. Now there was a condition. It turned into a mission for me to make more kids sons to be precise, unfortunately my body wasn’t ready to carry more kids so he married another wife, Tessilimat. She was simply a demon, an agent of the devil. She tried everything to make my stay hell and to add to that she was much older than me. She punished my kids unnecessarily claiming that they were spoilt and it got worse when she gave birth to twin sons for Ibrahim and worst when she attempted to poison my daughters. So one morning by three, I woke up and made up my mind that enough was enough and ran away.
With just a school leaving certificate, I couldn’t get a job that could conveniently take care of I and my kids, provide shelter for us and send them to school so I worked three jobs in a day and promised myself that my kids would never attend a public school. We lived in a one room apartment at Ejigbo, Lagos and things were no rainbow and roses for all of us. Adrian was barely six at that time but she took care of her sister and the house while I was at work
Twelve years passed, things didn’t change. I still lived in the same street, doing the same job and leaving in the same house. Adrian had been offered admission to study medicine at University of Lagos. It was an amazing news for all of us but I knew while my two children were jumping there was a problem, I couldn’t fund her education. A part of me told me to contact her father but another part told me to be strong and look for other options so I took the second part and went to look for a new job. This time, I headed to Victoria Island, Obalende, Yaba and any place you could think of in Lagos
“I’m sorry madam but we have no place for you with this kind of level of education”
“It’s just the job of a receptionist. I have the qualities, I’m tall, pretty, I’m obviously not fat and my English is fluent’
She shook her head and gave me a sad look. I stood up to go but turned back and sat down
“I’ve been to seven places ma and I have been rejected seven times. This is my eighth please. My daughter has just been offered admission to read medicine and I need this money to fund her education. Please help me’
She looked at me and sighed
“I would help you.”
She tore a paper and wrote something down
“call this number. Her name is Von. She can help you”
I stood up and left thanking her. I went to the first business centre I saw and called her. She sounded nice and polite. She directed me to a restaurant which wasn’t far from where I was and told me to give her thirty minutes. So I did. I sat and waited for her and not up to thirty minutes later she arrived
“You are exactly how she described you” she said sitting down
She was a tall light lady. She was dressed in all the expensive labels and even smelt expensive. Von was everything I wanted to be.
“Excuse me” I said confusingly.
“Lara the lady you met at the office….she told me a tall beautiful lady needed a job”
“oh!” I said. “Aisha” I said blushing
“Well I’m not that pretty anymore” I continued
"Von” she replied
We looked at me from my eyes to my bust. I felt uncomfortable. She smiled like she saw something she liked which made me more uncomfortable
“You have kids?” she asked signaling to the waitress
“Yes” I answered
“Good so I’m sure you’ll understand everything I’m about to say. Raising your own kids, you want them to have the best; best clothes, shoes, education, upbringing. You would never want anything like money hinder you from giving them what you want to”
I nodded in agreement
“Two glass of wine please” she said diverting her attention to the waiter then back to me
“I have three sons. My husband died when the third one was born and it was hell till I found my way to an elite bar here in Lagos. This bar is filled with the most important people you want to meet, and is extremely discrete so we watch the people we employ. So let me just point out that you there’s an open space”
I looked up to the heavens in thanksgiving
“You don’t have to sleep with anybody if you don’t want to. But with your looks and physique there’s a space for you as a stripper”
I shot back in surprise. She sighed and showed no reaction
“you’ll wear a mask, we like to protect the identity of our workers. And the pay is a hundred thousand for a good night and fifty for a normal one. You can be tipped heavily. If you receive that for ten nights, your life is a testimony and your daughter would go to school”
I sank into thoughts, wow this was a job with a hefty pay but not the kind of life I wanted to live for so many reasons. It was a terrible example for my daughter and something I would be ashamed off. But I would live with regrets if I refused this opportunity and let Adrian stay at home. I just sat there thinking she sighed and wrote the address to me.
“Think about it and if you accept, call me when you are at this area. Nothing later than nine o’ clock” and with that she dropped two thousand naira on the table handed me the paper and left. I looked at the bill; it was just seven hundred for two glasses of wine. I rolled my eyes and stole the waiters tip. With that I stood up and left.
I didn’t have to think of it. It was seven in the evening so I decided to wait at the bus stop till it was quarter to eight, I had no transport to waste to or fro. The time ran quickly and once it was thirty minutes past eight, I took a bus there. I did as she instructed, I called her. She didn’t seem surprised to receive my call. Sooner or later she was there to pick me up……………………
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