I thought it was the thing Rosco and I did last night that was making me nauseous because it was different from other nights. He pounded me longer than usual, and even though it was rough, I still loved it and wish he could come on like that every night.

Then I remembered that the Indomie the aboki made for me two nights earlier made me stool all through yesterday. “So this aboki wants to poison me abi, I’d make sure I scatter his kiosk when he opens for business”, I said to myself.

I needed to take something to calm the rumbling in my stomach as well as the dizziness so I decided to wait for Iya moria the neighborhood agbo seller to come around so I would buy agbo jedi from her, because I assumed that the problem was jedi-jedi.

By this time, the front of my house was crowded; the soft drink seller had completely taken off her clothes revealing her perfectly shaped breasts and buttocks. I didn’t want to be bothered before, but now, I felt it was my business.

How can they call me mad? I’m not like her; I would never walk around naked- that would mean giving these foolish people another reason to wag their dirty tongues. Since my uncle died and I started living here, Rosco is the only person that has seen my nakedness.

I had seen enough things today to last me through the year and as I stood to go and urinate behind my house, I noticed Iya moria setting up her agbo stand.

As soon as I was done, I went to her and asked to buy agbo jedi. Her eyes lingered on me as she assessed me from head to toe; I thought she was beginning to see me differently from the public, until she exclaimed “e ti loyun“. It had barely sunk in when she started shouting “were yii ti loyun, were yii ti loyun” meaning this mad woman is pregnant, this mad woman is pregnant. I took off and started running to avoid the embarrassment of being stared at. On getting to an isolated corner on the next street, I stopped to think about what Iya moria said, and then I remembered these were the same symptoms I experienced when I had my first child.

All my sexcapades with Rosco immediately came to my head. He would call me to sleep with him without using protection and had been releasing his semen inside me, now I think I am pregnant with his child, but how did she even know? If I tell him this, he’ll deny it and he’ll definitely deny me as well. I don’t want to lose him because he is the only person man enough to pleasure me.

Should I run away from this area and come back after having the child? Or should I stay around and have the baby in shame? This is the reality I have to deal with.