The Reward

Esther walked home not sure how to feel. She was only nineteen and about to be a mother. Biologically, she was ready but not in other aspects. She went to Tenge’s house to inform him of the baby they would be having.

“The doctor said I’m pregnant.” She said in Tenge’s one room apartment. Tenge was stunned. His entire life flashed in front of him. He knew he could barely take care of himself; he wondered how was he going to take care of a child as well.

He said “I don’t think we should keep the child. I can imagine how you feel. The thing is, you and I are still kids; how are we going to raise a kid? I don’t think we are ready. I barely have a job, and how would this little room contain three of us? I don’t want my child to see what I saw as a child. I want my child and the mother to have a good life. Please understand with me.”

Esther responded: “I knew this is what you’d say. A typical guy! I should have known you were just like other men who say anything to sleep with a woman. Now that I’m pregnant, you want to run away. You want me to take away a life; are you God? You’re saying you don’t have a good job; so where did you get all that money from to impress me? You don’t have a good job; so why did you do what men who have real jobs do?”

He responded “Now you’re insulting me because of my current situation. Just give me some…”

She didn’t let him finish, she interrupted: “O boy, you get mind dey tell me about abortion! I won’t let you tell me what to do with my body. You can leave bro. Remember I told you my mum raised me without any man. And you said you hate your father because he left when your mum was pregnant. Remember saying you’ll never be like your father? But now you’re doing the same thing your father did. Is this the reward for loving a man?”

There was silence in the room. Tenge remembered his late mother’s words “Every child deserves a father and a mother.”