CHAPTER 05

Knowing that Amorita was at home, Simdi rushed home to be with her. When he got home, he went straight to the kitchen to see her. When she saw him, she hugged him and welcomed him happily.

"welcome home, my love." Amorita said to him.

"thank you, are you still cooking?" he asked her.

"yes, but it's almost done. Mommy sent me home to cook late." she said to him apologetically.

"babe, am fainting." he complained.

"my love, go and change your clothes and wait at the dinning room, am serving you your food just now. You won't faint on me today." she said, while laughing at him.

He smiled and pecked her forehead and went to his room to change his clothes. After he changed his clothes, he went to the dining room. He didn't have to wait for long because it didn't take minutes, before Amorita served him food.

"my love, pray and let's eat." she said to him.

He prayed and they began to eat.

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At AMAZ Pharmaceutical Shop, Daphne made her way to the shop to see Elvis. When she told the nurses that she came to see Elvis, they were unwilling to let her see him. Their reason was because she was unkempt and they believed that they could handle her problem, so it would be embarrassing to their boss if they should allow such a person to see him.

When she insisted that only Elvis would attend to her and they might lose their jobs if they prevented her from seeing him and he later found out what they did. After they weighed her words, they decided to take her to Elvis's office.

When she was brought into Elvis's office by a nurse, he didn't recognize her.

"boss, she insisted on seeing you, so instead of causing a scene out there, we decided to bring her to you, sir." the nurse explained.

"that's okay," Elvis said to the nurse and turned to Daphne. "please sit down." he said to Daphne.

Daphne sat down opposite Elvis, while the nurse that brought her remained standing.

"thank you sir." Daphne said to him.

Daphne could see that he didn't recognize her and she was impressed as he was respected by the nurses working for him.

"what can we do for you, miss?" Elvis asked her.

"do you remember me?" she asked him.

"am trying to, but I can't, help me to remember you." he said to her.

"can I have your number?" she asked him.

Elvis frooze when she heard her request. That was the sign he asked Daphne to give him when she wanted him to be her friend.

"Daphne! Are you Daphne?" he asked her to be sure.

"yes, am Daphne." she answered him.

Elvis laughed as he remembered her finally. He then gestured the nurse to leave them alone and she quickly left his office. Then he fully focused on Daphne.

"I remember you now, but you are looking different, you look so unkempt. Why?" he asked her.

"I am dying, please help me." Daphne said to him.

"what is your problem?" he asked her.

"I am pregnant." she said to him.

Elvis was shocked and angry at once. He was shocked that she had the courage to tell him straight up that she was pregnant. He asked her to contact him when she wanted his friendship, not as a pregnant girl.

He was angry that she came as a spoilt goods. He valued her extremely high before, but now, his expectations for her has crumbled.

"you said you are pregnant." he said to her.

"yes."

"have you contacted the person who is responsible for the pregnancy?" he asked her.

"yes, but he ran away from Longvill to Tasmania, after I told him that I am pregnant." she answered him.

"I see, so he just abandoned you to suffer alone." he said to her.

"yes. My father threw me out and banished me from his house. I slept outside in the cold last night." she said.

"I can understand his frustration and anger." he said to her.

"I met the guy's mother and explained my situation to her, she too rejected me. She's even angry with me because her son ran away because of me. My father chased me away with a sickle this morning." she explained further.

"I see, you are really having a hard time" he acknowledged her plight.

"hunger is biting me hard, I have not tasted food since yesterday evening. I was in the bush when I remembered you. That's why I am like this." she begged.

"are you here for an abortion?" he asked her.

"no, am not, I won't abort it. I came to see if you can give me money to buy food and eat. I am so hungry, please help me." she pleaded with him.

"I don't run a charity organization. I don't have anything to give you now. I can't help you." he said to her, without considering her condition.

Daphne was not surprised that Elvis didn't want to help her. She understood his anger, he was not happy with her.

"I understand, but can you buy a small bread for me to eat, please am dying." she pleaded.

"I expected you to come to me when you were still fresh and intact. Now you are demaged goods. You are no longer useful to me. Drop your phone number, when I get something, I will call you."

He couldn't hide his anger and disappointment from her anymore, so he said it all to her. He gave her paper and pen to write down her phone number. She wrote it as he instructed.

She wasn't surprised by the reaction of Elvis to her request. She had already condemned herself. She took the rejection bravely.

"I will call you, you can go now." he ordered her to leave.

"Elvis you don't owe me any favors. You are right about me, I am demaged goods. I really regret coming to you, when I am damaged. You are the only human being I used to know that I thought could have pity on me. Thank you for listening to me." she said that and stood up to leave.

" I will call you when I get something. Goodbye. " he said firmly to her.

Daphne slowly walked out from Elvis's office in shame. But she kept her head up and high. If not the hunger that was attacking her and her strength that was dimishing, she wouldn't even look bent over as she walked away. She was ready to go into that bush and die peacefully.

Everyone she met will have a reason or reasons to turn her down, not mindful of their relationship. She have kept aside her pride and shamelessly gone to individuals she should not have met in her present state. Only one option was left for her to stay alive, that was to beg on the street. And that she vowed not to do, rather she would die peacefully in the bush, away from the world.

As Daphne was going home to her bush under the shade of a tree, she met her mother coming opposite her. She smiled with joy, a savior have appeared at last. With another surge of strength, she kept walking until she came close to her mother and she called her name.

"mommy ."

When Jemima recognize Daphne, her anger flared up against the poor girl.

"don't call me." Jemima shouted her down.

"mommy please, buy me something to eat at once. I am very hungry and I don't have strength anymore." Daphne begged Jemima.

"Daphne did you give me money to keep for you?" Jemima asked her.

Those questions were not entering Daphne's ears. What mattered most was to put food into her mouth and stomach.

"mommy I have not eaten since yesterday evening, mom am fainting." she tried to tell her mother how critical her condition was.

"I don't have any money to give you. What I have here is what your father gave me to buy something for him." Jemima explained her situation to Daphne.

"mommy please give me small, just buy bread for me. You can go back home and get more money, at least you have saved my life now." Daphne persuaded her mother.

" I can't do that. The distance is much, I don't have such a strength." Jemima refused to be persuaded.

" mom what if I die, will that be okay to you? "

" you won't die. " Jemima maintained.

" mommy I am your daughter, I am dying and you are silent, it's not fair to watch me die. "

" I can't help you with money because I don't have it. Am I the one who taught you to open your legs for Eliot? " Jemima taunted her with that question.

Daphne watched her mother in disbelief.

" Are you sure you are my real mother? " Daphne managed to ask Jemima.

" if am not your mother, then go and find her. "

" if you find out that I am dead, don't mourn for me." Daphne said to Jemima.

Jemima just walked away and Daphne quietly walked away too, heading slowly to her home, the bush under the shade of a tree.