Written by Mofoluwake Omololu.
The pastor asked why they had decided to confess twenty-four years later, and how it now concerned Anu. What pit was she falling into?
Kola laughed a bit, bitterly, he looked from his wife, who flinched, to the pastor’s wife and then set his gaze on the pastors who waited for his response.
“She cannot have children, something to do with her womb being inhabitable, but, she has been offered the same options we were given. It has come back in the most unlikely place and to the most innocent of us all, that’s why we’re here. We’ve reached our wits end, help us please…”
There was silence for a long stretch as everybody pondered the matter before them.
Eventually the pastor declared a three day prayer and fasting period to seek God’s face on the matter. He told them it was good that they had confessed their sins and asked if they were ready to repent.
They were and they all prayed for a while, then the pastor counselled them to let go of sins of the past and not to blame themselves for what had befallen Anu, that God was aware and would take care of the situation.
They, the pastor and his distraught wife, were able to console them and sent them home with a more relaxed spirit to return the next day so they could commence their praying and fasting together.
They called Anu and Emmanuel on the phone that evening, prayed with and encourage them, making reference to the fact that they had waited a while before having a child too and for them to trust and wait on God.
They were in the pastor’s house bright and early to start the praying, if anything they loved Anu and wanted her to have an easy life.
They prayed, fervently, surrendering all to God and begging Him to hear and answer them.
By the third day they had a word presented to them by the pastor from God, they were to tell Anu what they had done and the circumstances surrounding her birth.
On hearing that Lara fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital.
The doctors pointed out that she had high blood pressure and that it was steadily going up, they administered drugs and medicated her but it was to no effect so she had to remain under strict surveillance in the hospital.
When she had calmed a bit and the reports showed that her blood pressure had come down, she was discharged and sent home.
At home Kola was glad to receive her but told her that they needed to tell Anu the truth quickly if that was what it would take to change her lot.
Lara thought about all the years that had gone by and how she had brought her daughter up only to have to admit to having lived a lie. She knew it was what she had to do but she couldn’t handle it, she was thinking a lot and ended up back in the hospital less than a week after being discharged.
The doctors were skeptical about her case but there was no way they were telling them the root of her misery, not even when a family health doctor was brought in to evaluate her. Time was going by and Kola seemed impatient as he encouraged his wife to get better quickly so they could come to their daughters aid.
When it had been a week and a half, Kola decided to take the bull by the horn and invite Anu to the hospital, because they needed to talk to her. Anu had been coming to the hospital almost every day, though so his special invitation made her agitated.
When she arrived the hospital, her father, Kola, was out so she sat by her sleeping mother. After a while she saw her stir and as she greeted her the agitation go the best of her and she asked what it was they wanted to see her for.
Lara’s sleepy eyes focused as she heard the daughter, she looked at her daughter and saw that she was tense and as she realized what the visit was going to be she sighed out loud and slipped in a coma. The doctors confirmed it a few minutes after.
Kola was a mess, with a now comatose wife and a confused daughter, this had to be the beginning of…the beginning of…. The End
***Editor’s Note: The concluding parts of this story are contained in a soon-to-be released book, The Abomination.