Must Read: Forever And Always

Episode 6 years ago

Must Read: Forever And Always

******
Adetola Williams.

“Mommy, he is gone. I have lost him!” Twin tears rolled down my cheeks as it did not just dawn on me that I wouldn’t be able to walk again but also that the only man I loved left the clinic hours ago and was yet to return.

“Wipe your tears dear. This is just early hours of your birthday. Please, don’t cry” my mom said,her fingers caressing my cheeks.She was trying so hard not to cry, she wanted to be strong for me but deep down in my heart, I knew she was bleeding.

“Happy.. Happy.. Birthday my girl”
“Mom. Did you just wish me a happy birthday? Where is the happiness in this birthday? Just tell me” I sobbed harder, soaking her blouse with my tears. I looked up to see my mom’s face, she had eye bags underneath her eyes. It was obvious she had been crying all night.

“Relax baby, you will walk again. In the name of Jesus, you will walk again” “How did it all happen?” She asked,her eyes glossy with tears.

I squinted my eyes as I tried remembering all that happened. “She called me. She said she wanted to give me my birthday present so I left the bank to the slated spot she had asked me to meet her. Then I waited for minutes and I didn’t see her. I was about calling her when a car hit me hard from the back and all I can remember is darkness blurring my vision” I tearfully explained as what happened the previous night replayed in my mind. “Mitch right?” She asked, using the back of her palms to wipe away her tears.

I nodded affirmatively and sobbed harder and harder till there was no strength left for me.

“Adetola, and he warned you but you didn’t listen. I, your mother also warned you about this girl. For her to have murdered her childhood friend in cold blood because of a man. Why on earth would you have thought she was not going to hurt you over this same man?” she said, cradling me closer to her chest.

“I thought she already moved on, I thought she already changed. I thought she….” I ran out of words and continued sobbing as if I was in a mantra.

She rubbed my back with her hand and released the tears that had clouded her eyes.

“But he told me he would never leave me, he told me he would love me forever and always, why did he leave now?Why?” I asked, closing my eyes as pangs of pain whirled inside me, making me go numb for a moment.

“Maybe he thinks he is too young to bear the burden of his girlfriend being on a wheel.. On a wheelchair” she stuttered out as she found it hard to pronounce ‘wheelchair’.

“Stop making excuses for him mom!” My voice thundered. “You were not there when he was making vows to me” I huffed.

My heart thumped inside my chest. My breathing jumped wildly. It just jumped and jumped and jumped.

“Tola, you are just twenty-six and you are going to be using a wheel chair for the rest of your life! I absentmindedly uttered. The thoughts of me as young and vibrant as I was, using a wheelchair bugged my brains. My lips shivered as I mentally pictured how bitter my life would be right from this day onward.