Double Ache- from the Archives final

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.

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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?”