I laid down gazing up at the stars. It was a really beautiful night and I reveled in it as the cool breeze blew my short night gown around me. I felt blessed as peace filled my heart. It’s been six months since my parents died and now I’ve accepted it but I still missed them and what could a sixteen year old girl do without her parents? I was grateful for my Uncle Tobi though. He has been here for me since their death and he is the only relative left for me. He is just twenty five though and knows little about parenting.

I come to the verandah late at night every day to watch the stars, escape my sorrows and count my blessings and it was really a pleasant pastime. This Wednesday night, Uncle Tobi was out partying and there was nothing for me to do. I checked the time on the tiny gold wristwatch my dad had bought me when I had clocked seventeen. (It was 10:30pm). That was just a month before that journey that had ended their lives in a plane crash, I thought as my eyes clouded with tears. It’s been a trying six months after. Those two people are no longer there to shield me from life’s hard blows and I’m being faced with the harsh reality called life. Just last week I had accidentally come across a newspaper in school that reviewed the death of a seven year old who had been raped to death by her grandfather! I had felt sick at it and I still couldn’t believe that was possible. How can the world be like that? I’ve always being protected in some way by my parents and I didn’t even realize what was going on in my country, in Nigeria… in the world. It made me sad. I know nothing about history, don’t even talk government, all those things we are taught in schools usually felt like made up stories until I actually came across that newspaper article and I had had a long talk with my uncle and he had made me known that I needed to get out more, to discover more and though I’ve always lived that way, life wasn’t a bed of roses.

Last week, I have decided to let go of my obsession for Korean drama and Indian movies. I had to make a change in the world and I’ve decided to become a legal practitioner. I’ve always wanted to be an artist and I was great at drawing and painting but what did that help anyone with? I want to help little girls get justice, to prevent any form of abuse to children and I would do all my best to stand by that.

I stood up from the foam bed I had lain down on as I heard Uncle Tobi calling my name from the living room downstairs.

“I’m coming,” I replied rushing to meet him. He was drunk and smelled strongly of alcohol.

“Hey darling,” he greeted pecking my right cheek. I accepted Tobi’s drinking because he never let it get out of hand and he always managed to be clearheaded despite the cloudiness he must be experiencing from too much intake. “Sorry, take too much. Couldna help it. Friends made me.” He pleaded and patted my head as I wrinkled my nose in disapproval.

“It’s okay,” I replied as I sat across him in the large living room. “What will you eat?”

“I’m sorry dear. So sorry. I should be the one making sure you ate.”

“No, it’s okay. I took some cereals.”

“Oh darling,” I saw tears flow into his eyes and tried to suppress the one now in mine. I didn’t want a pity party tonight. My mother- Toyin-was Tobi’s elder sister and I knew it hurt him as much as it did me to lose her. They were so close and now that she was gone, he had only me, just as I have only him. Life really isn’t a bed of roses. That fact seemed to be dawning on me more as each day passes.

By Elizabeth Adedokun

From: Nigeria

Instagram: adedokun_elizabeth