Ophelia felt
humiliated. She felt used and dirty. She braced herself and took a cab home.
Her mom was still in her study. She could tell from the light coming from the
half-closed door. She quickly went into her room and put on her dressing gown.
She then went to see her mother. Without looking at he daughter, her mother
mumbled her replies. When she was out the door, Ophelia let out a sigh of
relief. She went back to her room and picked up her telephone. She dialed
Ellen’s number, who picked up on the third ring.
“Ellen, you
were right about Tom,” she said slowly into the receiver. “He raped me.”
On the other
end, Ellen was dumbfounded. She was rendered speechless and said, “Ophelia, you
can count on me,” and with that, they dropped the call.
The next day,
Ellen went to see Ophelia at her house. Her mother was watching an early soapie
and quickly signaled for Ellen to go straight to Ophelia’s room.
“Pheely!”
Ellen said as she entered Ophelia’s room.
She was on
her bed, hunched, cupping her chin in her hands and her knees drawn up, staring
at nothing. When she saw Ellen, she started crying. Ellen hugged her and let
her cry as much as she wanted. After an hour, she told her the story.
“I feel used
and betrayed Ellen. I feel bereft of my other self,” she said at the end of the
story.
“Pheely, you
have to tell someone…like your mother and… the police.”
“No, Ellen.
Magnates are never prosecuted. It will be a waste of time. I have to go on as
if nothing happened…as for mom, I will tell her in due time. Not now.”
“I will
support you all the way, ok!” Ellen said to her. They hugged again. Ophelia then
went to her bathroom and cleaned up. Clad in jeans and a t-shirt, she donned
her feet with sneakers, her favorite, from her uncle.
“And now?”
asked Ellen as she watched Pheely.
“You know
what? Let’s go for a walk,” she said.
******************************************************************************
After hard
work and sleepless nights, the girls graduated from high school. They went on
to study veterinary medicine and became renowned veterinarians. They enjoyed
their careers and had loads of fun travelling around the country and abroad.
They enjoyed the gross details of their jobs of handling snakes and lions. At
one instant, they had to handle an elephant.
A great
thinker once said, the inward eye is the bliss of solitude. To Ophelia, it was
not. She had a dark secret, darker than the word itself. Her mother did not
know it. Only Ellen knew it and it haunted her. After her rape, she had fallen
pregnant and she had had no choice but to terminate the pregnancy. She never
told anyone except for Ellen who never breathed a word to a living soul. Ellen,
after sometime, married a real gentleman.
Ophelia was
in courtship with a man of noble character, of her own age. He loved her and
she too loved him, but her secret was haunting her. She pondered it day and
night and one day she decided to tell her mom. Her mother told her to keep
going and never allow her past to destroy her future. After telling her mother,
she still sought a way to tell Gregory, her fiancé to be.
One afternoon amid such thoughts, her mobile
phone rang. It was Gregory inviting her to dinner that evening. She said yes
and prepared to go when the hour arrived. He picked her up from her place and
took her to a Chinese restaurant.
“Pheely, a
Chinese meal will do us good today,” he chuckled as they ordered.
Ophelia was
in her own world but did her best to be good company. After the meal, they went
to the beach and right there and then, Gregory produced ring box from one of
his pockets and went on his knee.
“Ophelia
Alison Mackenzie, will you marry me?”
Her heart
flew into her mouth. She had to tell him then or never.
“On one
condition, Gregory Smith,” she said as lightly as she could.
“Ok,” he
replied. “Let’s hear it.”
“First,
let’s go over to those rocks and sit down,” she said and they walked over to
the rocks. Without looking at him, she started her tale.
“Greg, I
have a secret that I have kept from you because I could not bring myself to
tell it to you yet. But now, I have to let you know. I was raped when I was
seventeen and in my final year in high school. I could not bring myself to tell
my mom about it. All I wanted was to complete my studies and be what I dreamt
of always. I did not want to have a child who would grow up without a father or
to bear a child of rape. I knew that back then I could not provide for the baby
and give it a lifestyle it deserved. So I went to hospital and had it
terminated…but now, I am barren. I can no more have kids.”
Without a
hint of self-pity or remorse, she finished her story. She felt greatly relieved
of her burden. Silence prevailed around them and finally Gregory said to her in
a cold tone.
“I won’t
marry you anymore because you will just keep secrets from me. We have dated for
three years but you never told me. You disgust me, Ophelia.”
Having said
that, he walked to his car and drove away.
Ophelia did
not beg him to forgive her. She did not scream or run. She just took a cab
home, and then cried.
Seventeen
years ago she had to take a cab home again after a man had let her down. That memory
made her shudder as she reached for her telephone again to call Ellen.
“Ellen, my
life was going on well with Greg. Tonight, he proposed and walked away from me
when I told him everything. I thought life would go on but now I know life
doesn’t always go on,” Ophelia said into the receiver.
“Pheely,
life always goes on with or without us. Be positive, my friend. If he is not
your soul mate, he will never come back to you but if he is, he will. Don’t
fret, my dear. Continue living,” Ellen replied from the other end.
“You know what?
I am leaving the country tomorrow. I will call you when I settle down. I love
you and I will never forget you,” Ophelia said matter-of-factly.
“Please take
care of yourself. You deserve a break from this jinx,” Ellen said to her.
When she
hung up, Ophelia spent the rest of the night packing a few articles to take
with her. In the early morning, she booked a plane ticket for an afternoon
flight to Australia. She went to work, requested emergency leave and went back
home. She went into the house and called a cab. The cab came and she loaded her
bags into the boot. She had forgotten her ticket so she dashed back into the
house.
Upon return,
she saw Gregory’s car parked next to the cab and he was talking to the cab
driver. When he looked up, he saw Ophelia and met her half way.
“Where on
earth are you going?” he asked her.
“I am going
abroad. I have to get a new breath of air,” she replied brushing him aside to
continue on her way back to the cab.
Gregory just
held her and without saying anything, he took her ticket and reduced it to
pieces.
“What the
heck did you do? Well then, mister, I have a flight to catch and a new ticket
to procure. Let me go,” she said.
“You are
going nowhere. You are staying right here with me,” he said to her. “Sir, could
you please bring those bags in the boot?” he asked the cab driver. The cab
driver obediently unloaded the luggage and brought it to the house. Gregory
settled the fair and tipped him generously, and the cab left. He then started
kissing Ophelia and said to her with absolute sincerity: “Ophelia, I love you
so much and I can’t let you go. You are a rare breed and a special woman. I am
sorry for what I did to you yester night. I love you not for what you are but
for who you are.”
“I thought I disgust
you,” she retorted.
“You don’t.
So, please, will you marry me?” he asked.
“Of course I
will,” she replied and bit his ear.
They carried
her bags back into the house.
“And Pheely,
about the kids, we can adopt,” Gregory said as he took her into his arms and
hugged her.
Smiling, Ophelia said, “I have a phone call to
make. May I please make one?”
