PART 10

“MY FATHER’S FARMLAND”

©?Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Sukki suddenly realized he had been outsmarted by Torture and Axe when
one of the other boys told him he had seen them boarding a bus…
“ Axe, Torture blood go flow…” Sukki said as he beat his chest. His intention
was to visit their parents’ house and spill some blood. As he made a turn
towards Torture’s house, he began to hear sporadic gunshots, which had
more effect than his ‘toy gun’…
“ Soldiers…Soldiers” Some of Sukki’s boys ran towards him informing him,
that someone must have called the soldiers from the nearby barracks.
Sukki knew soldiers were more brutal than police officers. Instinct told him
this was the time to bow and run from the stage…He rushed into his father’s
power chamber.
“ Father, the soldiers are coming… It was Torture and Axe that took the
money…I need to get out of here fast…” Sukki said to his father in his mother
tongue…
“ You are right… You need to get out of here right now!” His father replied
Sukki’s father gave him a charm that could make him disappear and in few
seconds, he was out of there…
Ola laid on the bed thinking about her virginity, thinking about how she had
dreamt of her future husband being the first to ever make love to her… Her
father had shown She and Ope their mother’s pant that had her virginity
blood on it…He had told them proudly he was the first and only man their
mother ever slept with before she died and that was why he couldn’t bring
himself to marrying someone else after their mother’s demise.
Ola felt more pain as she thought of how unfortunately she had lost her own
virginity not on her volition, but by rape. She felt guilty for a belief she had
once had about girls who were r@ped.

She used to be of the opinion that any girl that was raped, asked for it based
on her interaction with the opposite sex or probably her way of dressing, but
now she knew better. She concluded in her pain that Anyone who had ever
been raped whether by chance or by facilitating it was a VICTIM.
Tears flowed down her face as she tried to gain enough strength to pull
herself together. She knew she needed a bath, because knowing who Ope
was, Ope was going to be at her place any moment.
“Sukki ending my call abruptly must have raised suspicion in Ope, and I don’t
want Ope and Oba seeing me this way! I can’t afford to have them unhappy,
it will affect their academics, “Ola get up!” Ola encouraged herself
However, Ola’s Body was not responding to her motivational talk, also her
emotions were betraying her…
“ God! Why?” Ola finally screamed out in her heart as she had tried so hard
not to blame God or say anything against God since Sukki left
And like a flash, Ola remembered her Father’s words…
“ I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” Baba
Jenriayegbe had told his children during one of his Bible study time with
them…

“ These words were spoken by Paul the Apostle and it has been my life
motto… Oba, Ope, Ola never give up on your dreams until you achieve it.
Some flops might come along the way, some unplanned casualties may come
to scare you or discourage you from your dreams, you must go past it and
leave that experience in the past…
Say this after me loud and clear…MY PAST IS IN MY PAST, I PRESS
FORWARD TOWARDS MY FUTURE BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE MY
GREATNESS LIES.”
The trio had repeated after their father…
“ Now listen, what does it mean to press?”
“ To exert pressure” Oba had replied
“ To strain” Ope had said…
“ To push” Ola had said
“Good, So whenever you face challenges along the journey of life, you must
rise up, because you have not achieved your goal. At that point, you may be
weak but you have to push, you have to strain yourself, you have to exert
pressure on yourself to move to your desired future…”
“Where is the Bible verse, Father?” Oba the bookworm had asked
“ Philippians 3: 13-14”
Ola remembered that day so clearly as she laid on the bed… At that moment,
She knew she had not gotten the answer to why God allowed the rape but she
had gotten what she needed to do…She stretched her hand to pick up her
Bible and opened to that portion of the Bible…She was using the New Living
translation, her version read.
“ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one
thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead”
Her tears flowed as she understood what God was trying to tell her…
“ Ola, you haven’t achieved your vision of becoming wealthy to help lives,
therefore forget what has just happened, it is your past, though a recent past,
but you need to press forward.”
With those words dropping into her heart, Ola put in all her strength and
rose from the bed. Her tears had no break, it flowed ceaselessly.
Her legs were wobbly, so she laid on the floor and dragged herself to her
toilet.

Her strawberry soap suddenly looked like evil, so she took her detergent and
took her bath with that instead, sitting on the floor…
Towards Evening, Oba and Ope were able to get out of the school. Micheal
had visited Ope at her hostel earlier during the chaos. and handed over
N150,000 to her. He told Ope, she should give it to Ola as a gift to invest in
whatever business she wanted to go into. Ope was elated but also afraid as
she had not heard from Ola.
Ola’s Landlady who was an elderly woman had paid her a visit, apologizing
for not coming to her rescue when she was being robbed…
“ My heart and prayers were with you, but I couldn’t do anything as I was
scared that ruthless boy could shoot me.” She had said apologetically.
She had called a carpenter to fix Ola’s door…
Ope and Oba got to Ola’s place, and on reaching her, Ola had composed
herself but there was a problem…
Ola couldn’t speak again…

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