Chapter 1:

It was the wee hours of the day; your mother had cried out in agony, she was in
labor. I ran at my fastest to get the nurses to be with her, I had literally
forgotten there was a bell I could press to call them, I was moving in excitement
and anxiety. Your mother was stretchered into the delivery room and I had to wait
outside, your brother was with your grandma at the reception only waiting for my
good news. Three long hours had gone by, nothing had happened, at this point I was
scared, I really didn’t know what was happening anymore, I had managed to lift my
head high one more time knowing it wouldn’t go that way again and then the nurse
came out and told me my miracle had arrived. I couldn’t stop dancing when the nurse
told me “your beautiful baby girl is alive and well sir” and my wife I asked him of
course “she’s as strong as an ox” sir. It was the seventh or eight time my father
would tell me that story and every time it feels like there was a different story
to it. I was born in Vancouver, Canada although I am originally from Osun State in
Nigeria, Never have I been to Nigeria and I pray it stays that way.
Alhaji and Ahlaja Suleiman had just gotten home from the airport as they went to
drop off my grandma who had to return to Nigeria. “Semiat” my parents called, they
couldn’t have planned to both call me the same time, I could hear my mother saying
“jinx” on my father as they both chuckled and await my arrival, sixteen years of
being married and old obviously these two still act like kids, sometimes it’s
really gross. Did you know your father and I met outside a local market in
Nigeria, I was doing my NYSC then. I intended to take a stroll back home that
evening. I was on earplugs so I couldn’t hear anyone say anything literally, when
suddenly a ball hit me at the back of my head and just as I was about to fall, well
your father caught me but didn’t catch the red oil I had held in my hand and lucky
for your father he was wearing a very nice white t-shirt. To cut the long story
short, your father insisted I washed his shirt as a manner of me saying thank you,
thirteen years later look at us now she said to me as I came down the stairs. She
placed a kiss on my fathers lip and I couldn’t help but sigh please stop.
My brother Hammed now turned Hammid, showed up giving me a kiss and prostrating
before daddy and mum. Although we had never been to the country, we sure was
brought up by proper Nigerian parents.
My father only married my mother, who bore him two children, Hammed and I. We knew
all along that my father had about six to seven different kids from about three
other women but they all gave birth to male children and my father desperately
wanting a daughter married my mum since I was born. My father and I were very close
but for whatever his reasons were I never got to know any of my brothers or his
other wives, “they were all scattered around the world you see, when the time is
right, all of you would meet and it would be for good” he said.
Hammed and I, got ready for school and left. We were picked up by my boyfriend and
Hammed’s friend, Justin. Justin was the cool geek, dude was fine and he was white
too. He and Hammed never stop talking about going pro and becoming future NBA
stars. I wasn’t the most popular girl in school, no I was the third hottest overall
and hottest black girl and to top it up I was dating the schools basketball
captain. Do not get a wrong idea of me, I am a very decent girl with exposure, I
like being the life of the party but some parties definitely leaves me as the most
talked about in school for a week at least, it wasn’t always a bad thing until the
edits make me cry, only Justin and my father had a way of consoling me.
School day was almost over and when the bell rang the school year ended too. Summer
was upon us and I had promised myself I was going to have the sweetest summer,
flirting with college kids, showing off my boyfriend and most importantly the
summer parties. The school bell rang at three with Mr Watson saying “have a
wonderful summer kids”. Oh hell yes I was going to have a wonderful summer, I was
busy checking out my dream summer vacay options for bae and I when I looked up and
saw Tatiana trying to kiss my boyfriend, you should know by now that I am indeed a
black woman and I don’t play with my man. I walked to Tatiana and whispered in her
ears “if you do not want me to fuck up your fine face and pretty dentitions, get
away from my man.” She looked at me hissed and walked away, that was pretty easy I
thought in my head, I was going to kiss Justin when Tatiana emptied a cup of cold
juice all over my face, it resulted in a brawl and the school security had to be
the one to separate us. Alhaja was called up to my school and in no time had
arrived, after having a talk with the principal for a couple minutes she stepped
out looked at me and said “you’re going to Nigeria!”

Chapter 2:

Two weeks had gone by after the incident at school and it felt like my mum has
forgotten about me going to Nigeria for the summer. I had just gotten off of the
phone with Justin, he was taking me on a date, I rushed down the stairs to ask
permission from my mother when I overheard her telling my father on the other end
of the phone that we would be in Nigeria by the coming week. She allowed me go on
my date with Justin and it was the beginning of a summer to remember.
I met up with Justin on what would be my last weekend of summer in Canada, I didn’t
tell him about it, I wasn’t going to ruin his mood and all the lovely things he had
planned for the weekend. I want to go into details of how the weekend went but you
can tell it was fun until a couple hours before I returned back home. I told Justin
we needed to talk, he sat like a baby waiting for food from his momma beside me. It
took about ten minutes to explain all that happened to Justin and how I was
confined to spending summer in Nigeria, Justin thought to tell his parents so he
could go with me but I told him I couldn’t allow him since it was the first time I
was meeting with my family and I wouldn’t want them thinking I was being raised
like a spoiled brat born overseas. All was well between Justin and I as we settled
and decided to keep in touch as we’d meet up immediately after summer was done. An
hour before we left for home I had wanted to see the sweet sights of the Stanley
Park Seawall, Justin was definitely a romantic one, “I like this place” I said to
myself whilst taking a couple of selfies and making cute videos of myself for him
to see when he misses me. I was on my way back to meet Justin and get to the car
when Justin got a text from his friend it read “dude was she really a Virgin? Damn
I bet she was tight and juicy too”
Justin had cleared his earlier messages so I didn’t know who or what they were
talking about. “Justin broke my hymen just a night before and his friend knows
about it?” I wondered to myself. He would never do that to me I had myself thinking
only that way so I replied the text asking who he was talking about and the next
image he sent left me gasping for breath for a bit. It was a picture of me naked,
my boobs were only covered with emoji and my cute sleepy bunny face. I was
heartbroken, I managed to walk up to Justin to confront him and all he could do was
mumble, “get in the fucking car and drive me to my parents house now” I said to him
still holding his phone in my hands panting like a woman who was being chased by a
raging bull. I was literally behaving like a mad black woman that I was at that
point banging everything and punching Justin every chance I got and every single
time I would yell “If you drive us off the road, I would kill you in the
afterlife.” Justin finally gained courage and yelled “Would you just stop hitting
me for Christ sakes, I am trying to drive here”, exactly men always hide behind
something to avoid the truth. The Twitter rant #MENARESCUM became the only words I
could mumble for the remaining of the journey. We arrived at my house, I was still
crying like a confused woman who had lost her child during labor. Justin tapped me
back to reality and I heard him say “it wasn’t like that, I’m sorry”. I got down
from Justin’s car, picked up my box at the boot, threw his phone back at him and
told him you know what; “ I replied, yeah I fucking did.” I wrote and I quote “hell
yeah man, she was and she was worth it.” I was going to turn my back at Justin, go
in when I summoned the courage to look at him dead in the eye with my teary eye. I
brought myself to order after a couple of sniffs and all I remember saying was
“it’s over babe” “I just can’t do this” I can’t... I ran indoor with tears running
uncontrollably down my cheeks this time around. I got my AirPods and all I wanted
to listen to was “Everything works out in the end” by Kodaline. At the start of the
tune, I got myself up to pack up my bags. It was time to experience summertime in
dear old Nigeria. The more the song played in my ears the more I cried but I wasn’t
going to stop the song, I reached for my drawer I had a box of chocolate and some
scotch, I just might pack with happiness after all I’m still alive. Thirty minutes
later I found myself twerking and dancing like my survival depended on it. I have
seen the happiest people become a total mess because of a bad breakup and even tho
my breakup wasn’t as bad some others, I still wasn’t going to let that happen to
me. I was lying lazily on the bed after successfully arranging and packing two
boxes for an entire summer in my motherland, scrolling through my pictures when I
bumped into a meme of Justin, I burst into laughter and said slowly to myself as I
dozed off “I love you stupid, better have a good explanation.”
It was eight in the morning when I felt a kiss on my forehead, it was my brother,
he opened up the curtains and I could barely see nothing. “Bad night?” He asked,
“yeah, real bad one bro” I said almost crying again. Hammed was my big baby, I
could always run to him and cry on him always. Somehow he had escaped the Nigeria
trap and he was going to spend his summer in the states to search for colleges,
“cheer up teddy bear” “get up or I’d tell mum I caught you drinking and you
shouldn’t be drinking that” he dragged the bottle of scotch from me and showed me
the way to the bathroom. “Better be down in ten, your flight leaves in an hour”.
We got to the airport almost missing our flight, I wish we really did miss that
flight. I ended up hurrying my mum, with adrenaline bursting excitement in me I was
finally going to go home and have the famous Nigeria jollof. Mums own wasn’t
Nigerian any longer I mean it just didn’t have the taste like it had been described
on Twitter.
Flying a first class would not have turned out to be a bad idea after all. I mean
how we exactly was I to survive a twelve hour forty minutes flight and if I were to
be honest it was my first time flying too, although I was well taken care off, I
had to do something to guide me through the way I wasn’t going to sit there and
sleep and listen to songs on the first generation iPod she had when my dad had met
her to avoid doing that I moved closer to my mum who had her attention on her iPad
busy with Facebook. “Mum” I called her attention, “tell me where exactly are we
going in Nigeria” it took a quick glance of my face for my mother to answer “We
would stay at your cousins for two weeks, she said she would like to show you
around”. My mother was definitely done talking and I was now going to spend the
next eleven hours thinking “who is the cousin” “would I like her” “would she be a
good friend” all of these questions kept flying around my head till my hungover
self finally closed my eyes to sleep.
Chapter 3:

Five hours after, I managed to open my eyes and we were barely half way through our
journey, I felt nauseated so I ran to use the bathroom. Five minutes of trying not
to puke my intestines I finally regained control, I managed to wash up my face and
had my teeth brushed. Dragged myself back to my sit to finally stuff my stomach
with something. My loud munching or so I thought woke my mum for her already long
nap from the looks of it, I was stuffed and wanted nothing but sleep. I looked over
to my mother with the puppy face which she fell for and asked me to come lay on
laps, yes I did have an amazing body but I was still a baby to my mother. Laying on
my mothers lap has never felt comforting like it felt that minute, it felt like she
could see my heart bleed and even tho I was not ready to talk about it she gently
took away the thoughts with the way she ran her fingers through my hair. “Mom” I
looked at her as I called her, “which cousin am I meeting?” “The only one that
matters” was my mother’s initial answer before I was literally told the entire life
of “Jane” the cousin I was going meet soon enough.
Jane has been described as the outgoing one, the fact that she was an extrovert and
a teen explorer made her the real talk of the family. My mother’s constant words
were “Jane is a good girl but she can be very corrupt too. Be careful.” Like every
other parent would tell their child, I wish I was going to put that in mind, I was
already thinking about having the girl conversations with my cousin and I had hopes
of finally having someone to share my Justin problem with.
Not so many negative things was said about Jane tho, my mother who clearly studies
all of my friends before she lets me be friends with any of them, I’m sure must
have taken more than enough time to study Jane and decide if we could talk or not.
Dad had gone to Abuja according to mum and he forgot to leave the house key behind,
which is why we would be arriving at my cousins just two houses away from my our
apartment, apparently we lived in the same estate.
Several hours later, the captain had announced to the passengers to kindly fasten
their seatbelt as he welcomed us to Muritala Mohammed Airport, Lagos State,
Nigeria. It’s been a really long flight and I really wanted some food and some good
after flight sleep. I was waiting at the baggage claim when I felt a soft poke on
my back. “Hi” I managed to say with the “who are you” kind of look, she looked at
me from head to toe and said “I thought you’d be taller” I was starting to get
uncomfortable thinking who could this be when she brought me out of my misery
saying “hi Semiat, it’s Jane.” The only thing I swear I remember doing was just
hugging her, for long I’ve wanted to meet someone else in the family. Jane and I
waited at the baggage claim for about another twenty minutes before our baggage’s
arrived, we haven’t stopped talking since we met and we formed a good bond almost
immediately. After picking up our baggage, Jane and I headed out to the car driving
us home, it was Jane’s mom driving I recognized her face from a picture back at our
apartment, I knelt before her and greeted her, she really didn’t think I was going
to greet her like that. In my head, I thought she was probably waiting for all the
“Hi Aunty” kind of greeting, I’m sure if I greeted her that way, my mum would have
had enough to say considering she reminded me we were no longer in Canada, in her
words “if you mess up, you would get spanked.”
Jane and I really couldn’t stop talking it felt like we had known each other for
the entirety of my years on earth. Traffic had the gist longer than it should be
and trust me when I say “traffic ain’t got nothing on me” I wasn’t feeling the
traffic since I already read about it before stepping my feet here. Jane made me
tell her about my boyfriend Justin or should I say my ex well till I returned back
to Canada. After I had thoroughly explained all of everything about Justin to Jane,
she promised me a summer that wouldn’t make think about Justin.
Finally, we arrived at Lekki phase 1, the estate we resided in was well lit and had
beautiful houses all around, everyone was inside their gates definitely minding
their business I thought to myself. It was late and to get a good view of the
neighborhood would have to wait till the next day. I was soon ushered into my room
by the smooth talkative which happened to be the nickname I gave Jane after a
couple hours with her. I escaped from Jane for thirty minutes to have my bath and
all through my shower period, Jane was unpacking my bags and arranging my things in
the wardrobe. I got out of shower wrapped in the bath robes, Jane had already
stretched my pajamas, it was cute of her to do that so I changed into them and made
my way back to the living room. The aroma led the way and I followed suit, walking
like I owned the apartment I made my way to the kitchen and it was an all girls
affair in the kitchen, I waved shyly to Jane as I approached her to stand right
beside her, “what’s cooking?” I asked Jane, “oh sweetie, you’re about to have a
taste of a Nigerian Jollof made with love” she giggled as she replied.
Table was set, I was salivating uncontrollably, I have never felt so hungry just
perceiving the aroma of food. As soon as every dish was served, I dug my fork right
into the plate to start feasting, I couldn’t say a word till I was done eating. “It
was as delicious as the aroma. Thank you ma” I said to my aunt has Jane and I
cleared the dishes. A late night gist with Jane after meal wasn’t a bad idea, she
literally told me about parties and concerts she’s been to and boys too, hell yeah
the gist was never complete if one boy hasn’t been called a scum, I firmly standby
the #MenAreScum. It was almost three in the morning when Jane and I called it a
night, she was heading out of the room and I asked her where she was going “to my
room” Jane answered, “hey, how about you sleep next to me, I do enjoy your
company.” Jane eventually agrees and sleeps next to me and from that night what we
had formed was an unbelievable sister bond.
I was super excited to get outta bed the next morning. I hurriedly grabbed a shower
and say my good mornings to the family to ask Jane what the plan for the day was,
“to the mall, we could watch a movie.” In little or no time, Jane had made me look
like a model with a perfectly blended makeup on my glowing brown skin and selected
the Denim jeans to match, for a second I so wanted to kiss Jane for making me look
this hot so I pecked her instead, I did notice her trying to touch me last night.
Jane had put on almost matching pairs with me and we looked a little bit like twin
sisters, we ordered an Uber to convey us down to the mall. The Uber arrived and
turns out the driver was smoking hot, he literally had the cute pink lips and
beards that were well trimmed, hair well combed and a sent that turned me on in an
instant and to top it all off man had a killer smile.
“Afternoon ladies, to the mall? He asked, at this point I was going to cum on my
pants if I keep looking at this fine creature, so I plugged in my AirPods and allow
Jane do all the talking. We drove away shortly after and I couldn’t stop looking at
him, he caught me and gave me a smile, I flirted back immediately. It took a bit
more to finally engage me in a conversation, “I would love to invite you to a
party” he said; “yeah, what kind?” I asked, “it’s a masked party tho, happening
next week. I kinda happen to know the guy who’s making the event happen so I got
VIP passes, y’all maybe wanna come?” I looked at Jane and she just said “ok, we
coming”. Jane and I burst into laughter and he had that really cute smile on him.
We arrived at the mall not too long after and he handed us the tickets as soon as
we were about to alight, “maybe I’d see you around beautiful”. I managed to say bye
but I sure knew I definitely wanted to see him again.
Whilst making our way into the mall there was so much teeth kissing and whistling
either to get Jane’s attention or mine, we kept smiling and checking out the cute
boys too but I couldn’t get the Uber driver outta my head. Jane and I made our way
to the movie stand and as we were about to get tickets, I heard this really cute
soft baritone voice behind me saying “I was about to see the same movie, do you
mind if I join you?” I turned around to see who it was and my oh my, his smile and
his fragrance swept all of my senses away. I smiled back at him and asked him to
accompany me. Kelvin gotten the tickets and led me into the cinema hall. Kelvin
wasn’t going to pay much attention to the movie as he kept staring at me and at
this time Jane couldn’t stop smiling and whispered in my ears to talk to me. I
wouldn’t oblige to him tho as I waited till the end of the movie before saying
anything to him. “You look beautiful” he said as we made our way out of the theater
hall, “thank you” I said with a smile. Kelvin noticed I wasn’t going to say much to
him, he tried again and asked if Jane and I would love to go get lunch and that I
couldn’t say no to. Kelvin and I got to talk a little bit better over lunch and he
really made me laugh, Jane took a liking to him as well as he made sure we were
comfortable enough even tho he had his eyes set on me. Just as we were about to
leave for home, he asked if he could invite us to a party, “what party, we only
just got invited to one?” This time with a really cute smile he looked at me and
said “it’s a themed party. A masked party”. Jane and I had this quick gaze at each
other, was this fates way of saying I’d meet the Uber driver again I kept thinking
to myself. “I’m actually hosting the party and I think you should come, the both of
you.”
An hour after of several talks and deliberations we agreed to go to the party as
Kelvin’s guests rather than the Uber driver. We were trying to order an Uber back
home and I so prayed we found his ride, sadly we didn’t, we were about to drive off
when Jane asked if I had Kelvin’s number, “isn’t he supposed to ask me?” I
questioned Jane, been Jane, she stopped the driver, opened the door and called out
his name only to say “aren’t you going to ask for her number?” Kelvin walked
straight down apologized saying “I got too carried away I almost forgot to ask” he
handed over his phone and I gave him my number and this time we finally drove off.

Chapter 4
Two days after, Kelvin had been constantly keeping up with me saying he was
counting down until the day he gets to see me again, I did want to actually be in
his arms I guess, I still remember them looking fit and firm and I did think about
him just grabbing me in those arms of his.
The party day drew nearer, Jane and I were still stuck in the middle trying to
figure out if we had to go or not. “I think we should go, it could turn out to be
fun” I said with a rather smiley face, “you sure would love to go Kelvin invited
you” Jane said, we both laughed for a bit and we came to the ultimate decision to
go to the party, all along every inch of me wasn’t willing to go, I’m not the type
not to be at a turn-up but I wasn’t feeling this, every inch of me wasn’t either
but Jane was a pure vibe, a true life of the party, I definitely want to spend this
girl time with her and I sure do want to see Kelvin smile at me again... random
thought “that boy’s smile is drop dead gorgeous and gets me yunno”!
The weekend had creeped in like a thief in the night, “Ahh fuck I thought we had
more days to go, I wasn’t ready to see Kel.” Still lost in the thought of not been
ready to see Kel, I got a call, it was surprising because I didn’t give anyone but
Kelvin my number, I answered faintly “Hello” when I heard the other voice on the
end of the phone “Hey beautiful, I was hoping I’d hear your voice again” “who’s
this?” I asked smiling “ahh it’s the Uber guy, ain’t that the nickname you gave
me?” Oh my G, “I certainly wasn’t waiting on your call” (hell nah I’ve been longing
to hear his voice.) “I should have called sooner, just been busy.. driving” I burst
out laughing, tell you what I was on the phone with the Uber guy for over an hour,
he was certainly the type to make you laugh till you pee oh and he was a sweet
talker too, man knows how to woo a lady no doubt. He had call to ask me to the
party again and this time I sure wasn’t saying no, I was thinking about partying
all night long with him and honestly every inch of me keeps saying “stay home”.
It was around eight on a Saturday evening when I got the call from the Uber driver,
he was coming to pick us up by 9 since the party starts at 10. Kelvin got stuck at
the event center and couldn’t come pick us up so we’d drive with him then. He was
extremely precise and got here the time he said he’d arrive, Jane and I hopped in
with a smile on our faces as we were surely now in a mood to party. Man literally
had a tie waiting to be burnt in his car, I wanted to have a good time and why not
build the fun to the party huh, in no time at all I had the tie lit and the first
drag really sent shivers down my spine and my laugher increased “let’s party
bitches”, Jane was stunned at first but damn my cousin is a dragon yo, we were all
high as hell and that made the ride to the center fun and enjoyable.
I walked in, saw the lights, heard the loud bang of the bass in the speaker and I
could only scream “let’s party”. I thought I was going to be looking like a fool at
the end but it turns out a whole lot of people wanted to party as the croud went
crazy, yelling. I was trying to settle in and get myself a mask, when I heard
kelvin’s voice “life of the party” he said with an adorable smile, I chuckled back
in return and gave him a hug, he wore my mask on my face and said “try not to get
drunk, I’d catch up with you shortly, welcome to the party love.” Four hours later
and I was totally wasted, I was high as a kite, I did pills and kissed Mary Jane a
lot, almost dozing off of a chair when I perceived this sweet fragrance and heard a
voice that sounded exactly like Kelvin’s, “time to go to the bedroom now” he said,
I chuckled and said “awww he’s being a daddy”.
I was laid in bed and could still hear Kelvin’s voice saying “Check on her cousin,
get her to a room”. I smiled and went to sleep, I could tell I was deep into the
sleep, an hour or two must have gone by when I first felt his gentle hands stoking
through my hair, I felt him kiss me and move his hands all around my body, I could
hear the change in his breath but I was way too wasted to move. He pulled off my
shorts and my panties spread my legs, he penetrated me and I thought to push him
off but I couldn’t really fight him off, the next thing I know I was completely
knocked me out.
I woke up the next morning at about ten with Jane laying right next to me, I was
having a massive headache, I couldn’t walk properly and I couldn’t remember
anything from the previous night. “The princess is awake, did you have fun?” Jane
asked with a smile on her face, “I really can’t remember anything” I answered Jane
laughing, Jane managed to pull me out of bed and I still felt numb from the pills,
we got a driver and headed home. I literally slept through the rest of the day, as
I could barely move freely and was in slight pains.
A week would go by in a flash and weirdly I wasn’t still feeling any better, the
pains had skyrocketed and I was in total discomfort and at this point it was clear
I needed drugs and medical help. Mum gave me some of her pain relief meds and I
felt better. I was still settling in trying to move around when mum said we was
returning back to Canada that night some emergency had popped up and she had to be
somewhere in the morning. Jane has packed my bags and helped me into a more comfy
travel clothes. I managed to snuggle Jane as I said my goodbyes to Jane’s mum as I
really didn’t want to go back but I had to, “take care of yourself and keep in
touch” were Jane’s last word as we made our way to the boarding pass.
We landed at Canada at about nine in the morning and I was back to being
uncomfortable, mum needing to attend to an emergency had my brother drive me to
the hospital as she booked a taxi to her location, she wasn’t going to be paying
attention much to the emergency that’s for sure but she needed to go. We got to the
hospital and I was immediately stretchered off to the ER, a young cute doctor had
walked in and tried to make me feel comfortable so he could diagnose me. After a
few minutes of not so encouraging chit chat with the constant show of pain
displayed on my face he finally asked “On a scale of 1-10 ma’am, how’d you describe
your pain?” At that point I could barely speak, so I raised both my hands to answer
him, he tried pressing on both sides of my stomach to know where I was feeling the
pain from, I told him I was feeling the pain from my vagina.
A couple hours and tests later, another doctor came back in, older this time and
very direct, he honestly made it seem like ok here’s a very big problem and just as
I had thought he went on to say “With the signs and symptoms you’ve been
experiencing, sigh(ok this part was quite hard for him a bit), it shows here you’re
experiencing what we call a Vaginal trauma, which is the injury to the vagina, it’s
either caused by childbirth, sexual abuse or accidental occurrences” the doctor
continued but his voice had faded and I could only look at the doctor and my mum’s
shocked face, it felt like a huge thunder just struck and I was taken aback with
all she was saying, I was snapped out of my thoughts when my mum yelled out my name
“Semiat!!! What happened my dear please talk to me where you abused? Where did it
happen? How did it happen? Who did it?” I told my mum “Ma, this wouldn’t have
happened without me knowing, it must have been an accident.” I knew deep down my
heart it wasn’t an accident, something must have happened that night at that party.
“Did I fight him off?”
“Did he abuse me?”
“Why do I only remember the smell of his fragrance?”
“What happened that night?”
All these questions kept popping in my head and I couldn’t just wrap my head around
it, everything could be answered only by him who wore the fragrance and that was
the biggest question of all;
“Who had the fragrance on?”
“Who laid on me that night?”

Two weeks in, treatments continued with thorough assessments and different
medications. I was starting to feel better and communicating rather clearly.
“It’s going to be a good day today you know” I said to Dr Sarah who had been
attending to me since the first day, she was quite young had a really beautiful
smile and would always come in saying “pretty morning sunshine, we’re going to be
having a visitor today”
Finally, the only visitor I was expecting other than my brother and my parents was
Justin, we talked on the phone and he said he was going to come see me soon, I
smiled at Dr Sarah and said “told you it’s going to be a good day” letting out a
sigh of relief excitedly. A couple minutes later this cheerful lady walked in and I
let out a smile almost immediately she gave me a hug and said “Hi Semiat, I am...”
and I bursted out in laughter, “oh sorry, it’s just the way you pronounced my name
it’s quite funny” we both let out a laugh and got quite accustomed to each other in
little or no time at all. She had asked me to tell her about myself and I did and
my smile reduced for a tiny bit when she said she was a sexual assault nurse and
she would be providing me emotional support while my treatment continued, I said to
her “I don’t think I was assaulted, if I was I would know about it” then she went
on saying “I think you just might have been” there was a long awkward silence in
the room and all the questions I left unanswered and hidden behind closed doors
seemed to find their way into the light and they demanded justice. “Nurse Xena,
this is a joke right?” She looked back at me and said “darling I am so sorry this
happened to you, do you have an idea of how this happened, have you been to any
party recently, do you have a sexual partner, did you visit a friend, did you visit
a stranger?”
The beep of the beeping machines by my bedside got louder and constant and I
couldn’t breathe properly, I couldn’t say anything, it felt like I was been choked
and pressed down hard, I was in a state of shock and again I passed out. Six hours
later, I was awoken by the voice of nurse Xena telling my mum that the result of a
test carried out on me showed I had been given a rape drug with alcohol and drugs
found present in my system, at that point I started crying, now I know for sure
something definitely happened that night and at that party but I still don’t know
what happened or who exactly assaulted me.
Nurse Xena would come on a daily basis to come check up on me and ask what I
remember and every day the answer was still the same thing. It’s been over a month
on the hospital bed, my story had gone around school somehow, that wasn’t a worry
anyways, all I was interested in finding the bearer of the fragrance even if it
meant going back to Nigeria, even if I went back, do I meet up with Kelvin and ask
him first or do I meet up with the Uber guy, at this point I was totally confused
and had literally no answer to everything going on in and around me.