True to God, I don’t want my father to go to jail.
But he has been doing some bad things to me for some time now. So I decided to report him to my grandmother, Iya onisu. That’s what we call my grandma; because she used to sell yam a long time ago when my father was growing up. So everybody calls her Iya onisu even though she no longer sells yam.
Everything started when my mother left my father. I was still in JS1 then. My mother and father were always fighting. If they don’t fight before they sleep their body will not come down.
Our house is just one room and one parlour. The room was where my mother and father sleep and me and my twin younger brothers sleep in the parlour on a foam that we fold and put under my parents’ bed every morning.
I used to feel sad every time mother and father are fighting. My mother was always crying and saying she will leave my father. I was always afraid whenever she said things like that because I was always thinking; if she leaves my father who will take care of me and my brothers? So I always prayed that father will not do something that will make my mother leave.
But one day, everything scattered.
When I told my JS1 English teacher she said “it was inevitable.” I did not know the meaning of inevitable but I knew she was right.
My mother packed her things inside three Ghana must go bags and said shege to my father. We cried and begged her to carry us with her but she said she will come and visit. She said our father was a mad man, and that he will kill her one day if she did not leave.
After our mother left, I started to see the madness that mother talked about in my father. I was now the one taking care of my twin brothers and those boys are rascals even though they are just 6 years.
When I come back from school, I will try to make food for them the way I used to see my mother make it. Apart from that, Iya Onisu sends us soup every week. So we were not really hungry.
One day, father came home and kicked me awake, asking for his food. I did not remain any food for him, so I had to get up to make him eba.
When he finished eating, I packed the plates and put them in the kitchen so that I will wash them in the morning because I was very sleepy. When I wanted to lie down on the foam, father said I should come and sleep in the bedroom as I was now a big girl.
I was happy because true true, the foam is too small for me and my twin brothers and they will be kicking me as they are sleeping as if they are playing football. So, I quickly picked my cover cloth and followed him to the big bed.
Had I known, I will not have followed him.
Father did not let me sleep. He was touching me in different places and asking me if boys have touched me there. I was very afraid and told him no. I’m only 13 years old. I have never been touched by boys like that.
“Has any boy touched you here?” He asked me as he was touching my breasts up and down.
“No sir,” I said and by now my voice was shaking and my legs too.
The following night, I quickly went to sleep on the foam but father said “no, no, you will now be sleeping in the bedroom.”
I wanted to cry as I picked up my cover cloth and that night again, he touched me everywhere. I was very afraid, so very afraid I pissed on the bed that night.
But instead of beating me father did not even shout, he just turned the foam and said I should continue to sleep.
That was when I said, who can I report to? Iya Onisu. When I told her, Iya Onisu cried and then she dragged me to our house to fight with my father. Ahh, that day they quarrelled well well and I know my father would have beaten her if not that she is his mother.
After that day, father did not ask me to come to the bedroom again and I was very happy. I was so happy the foam on the ground was now like new Dunlop bed.
But one day, he started again. This time, I could not tell Iya Onisu because I did not want her to come and fight with father. So, I told that my JS1 English teacher.
She shouted and then she cried and hugged me as if she wanted to break my ribs. After she had cleaned her eyes and her nose, she took me to the principal and the principal asked me to tell him the story again. When I finished, they put me inside the principal’s car and carry me to the police station and when we reached the police station they asked me to tell them the story again.
True to God, I don’t want my father to go to jail.
