The price to pay
By Hilda Abban
Cape Coast (Central
Region) 25 October 2002 - Anita looked dejected about her, and settled her eyes
unseeingly, on the glass sitting on top of her dresser and which she had filled
to the brim with Coca-Cola laced with DDT.
For the past week, she
had been pondering about the fate that had befallen her, and of which she felt
too ashamed to tell anyone, not even Rita her best friend, She had decided to
end her life, because it would be difficult for Steven her boyfriend, or anyone
to understand that in order to realize her life's dream, she had just one
night, succumbed to that sort of life to enable her earn money to pay her
examination fees, and had ended up contracting the deadly disease.
She shifted her eyes
from the glass and fixed them again unseeingly on the ceiling, wishing that
what had happened that night could be totally erased and that she would no
longer face a sentence of certainty and untimely death?
She had gotten the
money alright and paid the fees and had passed the examination which would
enable her to pursue a degree course in business administration at the
University, She had even been granted a full scholarship.
However, she kept
asking herself of what good that would be to her now that she had at most, only
three of five years more to live, depending on how long it took the disease to
ravage her body.
What she found strange
was that the guy she had picked up, looked respectable in every way and from
their conversation she gathered that he occupied a very high public office, He
had even taken her to a very push hotel and no one could link anything foul to
his manners and appearance; let alone the deadly HIV/AIDs.
But the frequent bouts
of fever and the onset of rashes on her body some months later, compelling her
doctor to ask her to go for an AIDs test, and the results, had proved to her
that AIDS was indeed no respect of persons.
It suddenly struck her
that this could have been the reason why the man had been so generous. Although
she had not mentioned her charge because she was a novice and had no intention
of repeating her act, the man had showered ˘700,000 on her just for that night.
She had been understandably thrilled, and had rushed to pay the exams fee of
˘500,000 the next day, leaving her with ˘200,000 part of which she had used to
buy some items for her home to support her widowed mother, who had actually
refrained from asking her where she had spent the night or gotten the money.
Anita was suddenly
jostled back to the present by a knock on her door and she opened it to find
her youngest sibling and quickly showed her the away. She then focused her
thoughts on Steve, who loved her with all his heart, but could not offer any
financial assistance because he was living on the fringes of poverty. It was
good that the two of them had decided not have sex until they got married, and
she was glad that she would have at least no questions to answer in that area.
She sighed heavily and
deciding that taking her life was the only dignified way out, she pulled open
her desk drawer and took out two envelopes, one each addressed to Steven and
Rita and placed them on top of the desk. She had written another note, one
which she hoped whoever found her body, would obey her wish to make its
contents public, to warn other girls who for economic reasons, would resort to doing
what she had done.
Having decided at
last, and seemingly at peace, with shaky hands and her whole body trembling,
Anita lifted the glass to her lips and grimacing, poured its contents down her
throat, she fell down writhing in pain and foaming at the mouth and that was
how her youngest sibling found her when she once again ventured into her room
and screamed for their mother.
Unfortunately, Anita
died when she was being conveyed to the hospital, but the note she had left
behind and its content, were imprinted on the minds of many young girls in the
town. The lesson, “AIDS IS REAL; ABSTAIN FROM CASUAL SEX.”
GRi…/
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