How I Was Raped at 7, A Tragedy That Has Never Left My Memory.

On this faithful day, I had gone to school and had lectures, after school, I decided to visit miss Julie; the same woman who has been taking care of me, helping with my school work and showing me motherly love. Miss Julie helped me with my assignments and sent me home early. When I got home, I decided to take a nap, while I was taking my nap, my aunt a nusre by profession woke me up and asked me to go buy some medicine for her from a nearby pharmacy.

On getting to the pharmacy, I bought the medicines like I was told to as any child sent on an errand, my best friends from school were there and they happened to be the children of the pharmacist, they practically lived there. I played with my friends and I must have lost track of the time because I was away for some time and my aunt was waiting for me. When my aunt came looking for me, I was playing withy friends, she was quite furious because she beat me 'black and blue', took the medicines from me, and dragged me home pulling my ears. When we got home I was rescued by my grandmother. This is how we were living.

One day I went to the pharmacy to visit my friends, when I got there, their dad (the pharmacist) stated giving me gifts, he was giving me things like biscuit, sweets and chocolate. I really love these things as a child of less than 7 years old, to us kids, it was another white man's food. The pharmacist was actually using these gifts to lure me to his place and leading me to my doom. On another day, I decided to visit my playmates(the children of the pharmacist), and while we were all playing, their father called me and asked me to come inside the store so I could get some sweets, chewing gum and chocolate. While I was eating the sweets and saying thank you, he suddenly dragged me into a little room where he examines his patients, there he gradually playfully removed my panty, then he said to me " I will do something to you, you should not tell your grandmother or anybody else, if you tell them; you are a bad girl and they are going to beat you, okay?" I was very confused but before I could even understand what he was saying, this man began to put his finger inside my genital, as he began doing so, one of his children ran into the room and he suddenly stopped. I was ask to go home, I immediately ran out because what he did to me was very unpleasant and very painful, I never went back there. After that incident I was so scared to go near his house or his shop. Whenever I was sent on an errand to buy medicine or provision from his shop being the closet store to our house, I would not want to go, I would rather go very far.

Some months had passed and I had turned 7 years old, I was in grade 2, I was even in the same sports team with one of the daughters of the pharmacist. I had new friends who were really bad influences in my life as a child. These my new friends did a lot of crazy things, the four of us can go into a shop and while buying things, the others would be stealing stuff like biscuits, sweets, chocolate and candies, which was hidden in their under wears.

On many occasions, we would just get into a shop, we would distract the owner or the sales person in the shop so that we could shoplift things that was shared amongst us after school. We would laugh at what we did because to us, we were just catching fun. Some of the friends I had then even steal money from their parents, and this money would be used during break time so that everyone would have a good time.

We had several events in school, and one that was really significant during this time was our 'School Inter-house Sports'. After my team celebrated first position in the whole school, I and my friends decided to play around, we went to the pharmacist' store and picked a lot of things, we paid for some and the others we stole. We had no idea that the pharmacist and his wife were watching what we were doing, we just paid for the things we could pay for and left the store.

Few days later, my aunt had a patient who could not afford to pay the hospital bills to deliver her baby, she came to our house and had her baby there. I was given a list of things to buy at the hour the woman was giving birth to her baby. When I got to the pharmacy, I gave the pharmacist the list of things I was sent to buy, he just grabbed my wrist and said "Yes! I have caught you, you think I did not see what you and your friends were stealing?". I was so surprised, I tried to deny it, but the guilt was on my face. He packed up everything my aunt needed, dragged my hair and pulled me into the room where he examines his patients, before I realized what he wanted to do, he had my mouth covered and I was raped at the age of 7, I was deflowered, crying bitterly.

When my aunt waited and waited, she decided to come looking for me. When she got there, I was crying inside the room, the man came out and my aunt asked him if I had been to his pharmacy, and he said "no". My aunt bought the things she initially sent me to buy and before she left, he told her that I had been a very bad girl. As soon as my aunt left he told me that if I tell anyone what happened, theybare going to beat me because I am a very very bad girl.

I went home not even walking well and I had blood stains on my dress. When I got home, no one noticed me, no body wanted to know what happened to me. My aunt who was a little vigilant saw the way I was walking, she even saw the blood, but instead of her to act like my mother, she gave me more beating and she sent me to buy her things even with my condition, she did not care that I was bleeding, she did not want to know.

I tried to squat, but I couldn't, the pain was too much, I tried to pee but I couldn't, it was just too much. After a while my grandmother discovered that something was wrong. She sat me down , together with my aunt Julie, then I was able to confide in aunt Julie and told her everything.

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