My friend Lucy is a mental case today all because I think she was looking for love in the wrong places.
I became friends with Lucy because apart from the fact that we were course mates, we ended up being roommates. That’s also how come I got to know a lot more about her.
So, after a while, she began to stay with friends. Friends who had no parental supervision, friends who well, introduced her to some form of subtle prostitution. That’s the only name I can give it because if a young girl in SS2 sleeps with men for money to pay for Waec and Jamb and also keep body and soul together since there was be no pocket money or provisions…what do you call that?
After secondary school, I told you, she went to school of education, after which one of her man friends advised her she could do better, that she should apply to the university to have a degree. She did and we met there.
Now, Lucy depended on a few other ‘man friends’ to help with tuition. You know we went to a state university and we paid money for virtually everything, bedspace, handouts, of course, food and a girl needs more than that to shine on campus; you know, now! Clothes, shoes…stuff, you know now.
While most of us depended on our parents or guardians for these, Lucy had about two or three different men supplying these.
To be honest, it wasn’t like she was having the time of her life, these men met her needs, so naturally she found a way to juggle them. I won’t be the one to judge her, I haven’t walked 1 kilometre in her shoes, so I won’t judge.
Sometimes, one would stop giving her money because he suspected she was seeing other men; then she would be begging, pleading, promising she would stick to that particular man…I witnessed most of these, you know, she would be on the phone late into the night, while the rest of us were trying to get some sleep after studying.
Well, things began to get really bad when that man didn’t return, and he was the main guy. The next one too just dropped out of her life; so she had no funds for school. Though I tried to help her with food but really, a girl needs more than that; I couldn’t pay for her handouts for instance and most of these handouts were mandatory to pass, at least get a percentage in that course, text books…forget that one!
Well, after that, there was a poster for Miss Uni, you know, beauty pageant; Lucy decided she was going to take part in it, guess why? There was cash among the benefits attached to the first prize. She figured it just might be her ticket to self-sufficiency, there would be no need to hop from bed to bed. At first we all made fun of her, I mean, what was she thinking? That she was such a great beauty?
But after a while, with the right clothes, makeup, I thought she just might win. She wasn’t exactly an exotic beauty but hey, most of the crowned beauty queens are so because the real beauties never come out to compete in the first place.
Long story short, Lucy won the crown but it seems with dire consequences because now, she attracted the big boys, the ones who would do bad things to her if she did not sleep with them; and one more thing, that cash gift was a ruse; even as I speak, several years down the line, she never got the cash gift. The organisers kept promising, they kept postponing, they eventually said the promoter was a 419er…that’s how come Lucy never got the cash, the rest of the other gifts were just kwe-kwe; like makeup kit, one funny looking dress donated by one boutique, useless gifts! And no car, well, they didn’t promise a car in the poster sha.
So you see, Lucy didn’t get the cash she went for, instead she got the attention of lecturers and cult boys who wanted to use her, you know, for the fame of sleeping with a beauty queen I guess. Infact there was a lecturer who told her she would never graduate if she didn’t sleep with him every week! Oh yes!
That semester, Lucy began to miss classes, she missed tests, she would just be lying under her cover cloth in the hostel. At first I was concerned, I would give her my notes, remind her of upcoming tests but she just wasn’t interested in classes anymore. Then I got angry with her, I didn’t understand that she was going through depression. I didn’t understand her need for help. You know, I wasn’t very mature myself.
I left her and she stopped getting out of bed. She would just ask me for food and I would give but when I didn’t have, the other girls in the room would give her. She wasn’t taking her bath, wasn’t keeping clean, you know. Her corner was smelling and that was when we realised she needed help we couldn’t give. We decided to call her siblings because at this time, we knew something was wrong.
Her eldest brother came, they came to take her away. So she lost that semester, it was second semester of our third year.
During the holidays, I went to visit her at her brother’s place. Yes, we had exchanged addresses before then. When I got there, they didn’t at first want me to see her, they said she was not around that she was sick and still receiving treatment because I told them I had been calling her number and it always said switched off. That day, I insisted on being given the hospital address because I was concerned.
Finally, the brother told me I was the only one who had come looking for his sister, that she was not well mentally and he took me to the place where they were treating her.
Hummn. It was at one dingy local mental home; when we got there, I found my friend in shackles!
I swear. She was no longer the beauty queen, no longer the friendly happy girl I knew at school. Her head was shaven, she was gaunt and she was shackled and sat on the floor, just staring into space.
It broke me!
‘She is even getting better.’ Her brother said to me. How could she be getting better, she didn’t even recognise me!
I wasn’t myself afterwards but these were her family members and as far as they were concerned, she was receiving the best treatment.
I tried to speak to a few friends when I got back to school, the following year, to raise funds for Lucy but then again, mental illness isn’t something people want to let you know they have, I had to be careful, I didn’t want her family to take offence. We raised a few thousands and gave to her brother.
Did it help?
Today she has recovered but not fully; she is still slow, you know from the after effect of the medicine they pumped into her system and she didn’t finish school…
And oh she got pregnant and had a baby girl…ask me how a mad woman can be pregnant, I have no answers. Her brother said its because she likes sex, that is why someone used the juju to get her.
I have no response to talks like that, so I just shook my head.
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)