In the morning, the heavens opened and it began to rain. Bella grabbed her umbrella to get to school, as she walked out of the hostel the first
Too late to cry , That evening after Ruby had gone home, Jumbo sat under an umbrella tree in a recreation garden. The moment of truth came to him. It dawned on him that he took a senseless way to get Ruby "Is it worth it?" He regretfully asked himself. With the present circumstance, he was nailed to Ruby as long as he lived, the thought of it spent chills down his spleen. Ruby also got home devastated,
she wondered what demon could have led her to accept Jumbo's diabolical ideas.
She imagined how she was able to lick Jumbo's blood without thinking and found herself involved in such mortal terrifying adventure. Sleep cleared from her eyes and she suddenly began to weep silently to prevent her father from hearing her, because if he did, what would she say to him? That she has entered into a blood covenant with someone? Sure, that would instantly kill her father.
Later early in the morning she drifted into a troubled sleep. In a dream an ugly old woman kept chasing here with a cutlass but yet she couldn't find safety with anyone. The sky above her head was red as blood, as she kept running. She stumbled against a stone and kept tumbling down the hill until she got to the plane and there the ugly old woman was waiting for her as she looked up and beheld her face. She shouted frightfully. As the woman raised the cutlass against her, Ruby you prefer ruin to peaceful life. You went against my wish, you deserve to die," the old woman screamed, raising the cutlass higher to slice her throat and Ruby shouted violently in her sleep and later jumped out of the bed still shouting, she began to run out of the house.
"Ruby, what is the matter?" her father called from his room, but he could still hear Ruby shouting, "No! No!! No!!!" Her father dashed out of the room and came after her as she continued running. "Wait, wait, Ruby" her father called after her, but the picture she could see was the image of the ugly woman with cutlass. People who saw her running like a mad person, held her. Then gradually she realized it was a nightmare, "Oh, no it was a mere nightmare but this one was terrible," she murmured. Her father took her home and she related her experience in the dream to him. "Well it is just a dream, it is nothing," her father assured her. But within her she knew it was something beyond what the father thought it was and her worry mounted.
Ruby started seeing Jumbo often. She was always visiting him but Jumbo never made any attempt to visit her family and this really got her worried and troubled her each time. She would complain over the matter, because within her she thought if he loved her and cared for her, he would endeavor to get close to her family especially her father, his potential father in-law.
However, she found herself loving Jumbo each passing day. In fact, her whole life revolved around him and he was the prince of her life. But her worry was all about Jumbo's change of attitude towards her since she gave herself to him, he no longer looked at her with passion the way he used to do, neither did he treat her with the same tenderness she knew him with when he started coming to her.
Some days later, she woke up feeling very sick, all over her body ached. She had a kind of feverish condition she could not explain and suddenly a sensation ran through her stomach to her mouth and she emptied her bowel on the floor before she could make it to the toilet. " what is wrong with me," she thought to herself, then suddenly a dawn of realization began to come to her. She had not seen her menstrual circle for almost two months. "Oh, God, how could she have forgotten? How could she be so careless with herself, in meeting Jumbo without using contraceptive pills?" Suddenly, she began to cry silently, knowing the implication of what had happened and how her father would react if the news got to him that she had done even the worst, "To get pregnant out of wedlock."
However, to confirm her fear, she visited a doctor for examination and the result confirmed that she was pregnant. Ruby took the result of the test to Jumbo, but he gave his ultimate acceptance. He gave her his consent to keep the pregnancy, within him he thought of how to get rid of Ruby out of his life. Should he deny the pregnancy or should he put poison for her to drink and die, he pondered at the thought seriously. After a while, he brightened up with a new idea and promised Ruby that he would come to see her father concerning her condition and marriage arrangement. The answer livened Ruby's heart believing he would keep to his promise.
Ruby's health condition made it difficult for her to be regular at work, but the help of Bambi, she was excused from her irregularities because of her condition. The news of Ruby's pregnancy broke her father's heart. Everyday, he would mourn ceaselessly at his misfortune of having an evil child who refused to bring joy to him except sorrow, sadness and fear.
However, his little consolation was that Ruby said Jumbo would come to see him for the necessary formalities. Notwithstanding, he still expected Ruby to have at least shown some sense of moral decorum not to have gotten herself in such a mess. However, he looked forward to visiting his kinsmen to inform them about the traditional marriage.
Several weeks passed by, there was no news of Jumbo, Appiah became worried and apprehensive because he knew about the implication of the shame Ruby's situation would bring to him before his kinsmen if eventually no man took up the responsibility of becoming the father of Ruby's baby.
Then one day, he advised Ruby to go and find out why nobody had heard from Jumbo. Ruby got to Jumbo's house to meet the place deserted, there seemed not to be any form of live there. However, she knocked without an answer, after a long time, a door cracked opened on the other side and a young man appeared from the door, "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"I am looking for Jumbo," she answered.
"He is no more here," he replied casually.
"What do mean?" Ruby asked in a confused tone and goose pimples grew all over her body.
"I mean he has moved out. In fact, he packed out three weeks ago, everybody in the building woke up to notice his room vacant. I think he left in a hurry, I wonder what was pursuing him.
The news sent a wave of suffocating sensation through Ruby and she slumped rolling over the ground. "Jumbo has kicked me! Jumbo has killed me! What will I do with my condition," she shouted. The loud wailing and shouting drew Jumbo's neighbors out of their rooms and they gathered around her watching but they could do nothing for her except shaking their heads helplessly.
Moral lessons:
1. Always live a moral and principled life.
2. Learn from your past mistakes and don't allow them to repeat in your life.
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