INTRO
“Hello baby girl” Without waiting for a reply or the lull that exists in conversation, my mom continued on the phone “We’ve finally gotten a house help to help us look after the house since you are now in the university” That was one month after I got admitted into the university. I am the last child of my parents, and now I’m in the university, the house is usually empty when Mom and Dad go to work.
FIRST SEMESTER BREAK
I got to meet Samantha for the first time during my first semester break. She’s moderately tall and chocolate in complexion. She has big eyes which are slightly red. Her face was pinched as if she was seriously stressed out, but she had a coy smile on her face that bespeaks vulnerability. She’s simply beautiful. She walked up to me, gave me a side Hug and took my bag from me immediately I alighted from the car.
” She’s sixteen and very hard-working” mom whispered in my ears.
“I guess” I replied. “So where is she from?” I asked.
“She’s a niece to mummy Koko, the woman I usually get fresh tomatoes from in the market. She asked of you when she noticed you no longer come with me to the market. So I told her you are now in the university. She was sensitive to know I’d need a housekeeper and offered to bring her niece to me” Mom explained.
“Okay. Who are her real parents?” I asked.
“Hey I didn’t have time to ask that, and besides is it even necessary? Her guardian is mummy Koko and that’s all I have known about her” Mom replied nonchalantly.
“Have you talked to her personally to know more about her?” I asked curiously.
“I haven’t have that time. You know I’m a very busy woman. Now stop asking me questions. You’ve gotten one month to know her better since you are very much interested in her” She said. I could sense she was getting angry with my questions.
“Wasn’t she interested in her?” I wondered in my mind. But from the expression on my face, mom could tell there were more I wanted to say which I didn’t.
“All I want is someone to take care of my home when I’m away” she said and walked briskly into the house, leaving me behind..
SIGNS OF SELF INJURY
Mom was right about Samantha. She was a very hard working girl, she does all the work in the house very early in the morning that Mom doesn’t have to do anything before going to work. She was docile too, never complained.
I soon got to notice some weird things about her. She doesn’t put the pot down from the cooker with the towers, she always stir food with spoons without insulating handles. “Doesn’t it burns her skin” I wondered.
“Samantha, you can use the towers in the rack to put pots down. Also use the spoons with wooden or plastic handles. They prevent you from being burnt” I told her one day.
“I know about that aunty. The plastic and wood are insulators to prevent the conduction of heat from the utensils to my skin” she replied. I wasn’t expecting such reply from her. She’s indeed intelligent.
“You knew all these, then why don’t you use them then?”
“I feel good not using them” she replied. That sounds absurd to me but I simply let her be.
Well, that isn’t all about Samantha. She uses the rag instead of the mop, she washes the sheets even when they aren’t dirty. In all, she seems to love stress. Some times she overeats, while other times she seems to starve herself.
But what’s most creepy about her is that she is unpredictable and quite impulsive. I tried to study her, but she doesn’t have a routine. I tried to befriend her,but she alienated herself from me.
She keeps a pocket knife, and always have razor and other sharp objects on her bedside table. She has scars all over her body which makes me remember the story of slave trade each time I see them.
She loves to wear clothes with long sleeves, even when it’s hot. I believe she’s trying to hide her scars, but I was so much of a stalker that I knew about them without her knowledge. She’s diligent yet cold. She soliloquize too. She was a mystery to me and I was quite scarred of her.
SAMANTHA’S STORY
I was in my room one afternoon studying when I heard gurgles coming from the kitchen sink. The gurgles continue for about 5mins.
“What could be happening in the kitchen? Perhaps Samantha didn’t remember to turn off the tap” I thought to myself.
So I decided to check things out myself. On getting to the kitchen, I found Samantha washing her arms with water from the sink. She was bleeding profusely. She had a cut on the ventral side of her lower left arm.
“Samantha. What happened” I asked confused.
“Aunty help me” she said weakly and fell to the group..
Three hours later, Samantha was stable. ” Aunty I’m sorry I have to get you involved in this. Please don’t bother yourself about me. I’m cursed and I’d never be anything good”
“Tell me about you. I always wanted to know who you are, where you are from, your parents and siblings. I’m interested in knowing everything about you” I told her.
“I don’t like to talk about myself. There’s nothing good about me to talk about. she replied.
“Samantha, I’m interested in your story. Just take me as a sister this time around and share with me” I said.
She gave me a scruntized look searching the expression on my face and narrated.
” I remembered that night when Dad and Mom were fighting, how he pushed her and she fell, hitting her stomach on the ground. Mom was about 7 to 8 months pregnant. I was only 9 then. I was scared. I screamed. I thought mom’s tummy was going to burst open. Dad didn’t care. He slapped her as she managed to her feet. I can’t remember what the fuss was all about, but I know Dad and Mom fought a lot. Mom was brutally handled. She was all I have got. She sobs all the time and I sobbed with her” Samantha said.
I didn’t know what to say. But I could feel hot tears running down my cheeks. The tears flowed towards my mouth, touching my lips, that they gradually parted, causing me to tastes salt. Samantha looked at my face, said nothing and continued.
“Mom didn’t make it when she eventually gave birth to my younger brother. She died that morning. I remembered how she was wrapped in white shroud and taken away to be buried in the cemetery. I had to stop school to take care of the baby. Little me. What did I know about taking care of a newborn baby?” She stopped, then continued.
“I saw the expression on nurse Nancy’s face when Dad and I left the hospital with Jerome wrapped in-between my arms. Tears were gathering at the corners of her eyes. I thought I saw a tear dropped, but the memories are quite vague now, because my mind was so occupied with how I was going to take care of Jerome. Perhaps, Nurse Nancy would console herself with the belief that a family member would come over to assist in taking care of the baby, Or maybe so I thought.
But no one came. Dad’s mom had passed away two years earlier. Dad had a sister who lived in the city, but she’s a nursing mother too, and a trader who couldn’t afford to leave her business which was her only source of livelihood. I don’t know anything about mom. If she ever had a family or not”
“Mummy Emi, a next door neighbor took it upon herself to care for Jerome. I was indeed grateful to her. But Jerome wasn’t destine to stay alive. Two weeks after his birth, he was dead one morning. The shawl which mummy Emi had used to wrapped him that night has mistakenly blocked his nostrils. So Jerome suffocated to death.
The day Jerome died was the day I had my first cut. I felt guilty that i used the kitchen knife to run a deep wound on my left upper arm. In a way, it felt better, like I was paying for his death”
Samantha stopped. She pulled off the sweater she wore to show me the cut. It was a scar which run down vertically from just below her shoulder to her elbow.
I was so shattered from the inside to see a sixteen years old girl who had such experience.
Samantha continued.
“And ever since that day, I cut myself each time the guilt engulf me. Dad was so frustrated and bittered that he vexed it all on me.
Mummy Emi advised dad to send me away. Dad only sister in the city, mummy Koko came to take me to live with her. That was how I got to start living in this city.
Life was hard in the city. Mummy Koko who was trying to make ends meet complained about having to feed an extra mouth all the time. Although, dad who has taken to farming in the village send staple food to us some times. Koko, my cousin, who was one year older than me called me a witch for killing Jerome. Living with mummy Koko was hell. And each time I cut, I feel better. I work very hard too, because I found happiness in suffering my mortal body”
Samantha ended her story. I had nothing at the moment to say to her, so I simply left her room to mine.
WHY TEENAGERS CUT THEMSELVES
After listening to Samantha’s story I was disturbed. I began to think of ways to help her. I did tons of research. I surfed the internet looking for anything I can about teenagers who cut.
I soon find out that most teenagers cut in order to cope with emotional pains, intense anger and frustration. Samantha has in deed gone through a lot of emotional pains and frustration. She feels guilty too about Jerome’s death. But then, I knew cutting herself wasn’t the solution. Samantha has to stop cutting. But I didn’t know how to help her stop. She’s a stubborn girl.
CONSEQUENCES OF SELF INJURY
The thought of helping Samantha to willingly stop cutting herself remained stagnant in my mind for about two days, until I eventually had a brainwave on what to do.
Samantha was convinced that cutting herself was the solution to her pains and guilt because she feels better each time she cuts.The Idea I had was that I need to let her know the consequences of cutting. I need to be closer to her to get her listening to me.
I decided to start doing the chores with Samantha. I wake up early to catch up with her. We made breakfast together, did cleaning, laundry and all the chores. In the course of the work, we talked about a lot of things. I tell her about the gist in school, and she tells me about hers too. We soon become close friends.
One day, I noticed that Samantha had a fresh cut in her left thigh. She’s still cutting. I decided it was time to throw the question at her.
“Why do you cut”
“It makes me feel better” she replied swiftly.
“Don’t know you think there are consequences of cutting?” I asked almost immediately.
“Na Na. I don’t think so at all. There’s no consequence. I know you are thinking about the pain,but that’s the medicine that heals my pain and reduce the guilt. I’d encourage anyone to cut. Because cutting has been working for me” She said with a smirk on her face.
I was awed and scared. I perceived it would be difficult to advise her to stop. The thought of her encouraging others to cut scared me more.
“Well if cutting is the solution, you would have gotten healed from your guilt long ago. But that isn’t the case, instead you continue to cut and your body is almost entirely covered with scares” I said to her.
Samantha stopped. She stood transfixed and gazed into space. I could perceived the words got to her. So I continued. It was my chance.
“Cutting yourself only gives you temporary relief. And it prevents you from learning better strategies for dealing with hurts. This is the reason why you have been cutting for years without a permanent solution. Just see how scarred your entire body looks” I stopped and gave a sigh. Samantha was speechless, so I continued.
” Cutting is addictive. It has a similar effect as hard drugs in the body to relieve pain. With time, you would get so used to cutting that the slightest hurt will make you injure yourself. And also, it will begin to take more cuttings to get the same relief.
“Samantha do you know that you can give yourself a very serious injury that can lead to infection?” I asked.
Samantha didn’t reply, she nodded in affirmation and showed me her left foot. The middle toe was halved.
“An injury I gave to myself last year led to this” She said in a sober voice.
“Samantha you see what I’m talking about? Self cutting isn’t the solution”.
Samantha didn’t say anything. I looked at her face. Tears were gathering at the corners of her big eyes. She covered her eyes with both hands before the tears could drop and ran to her room.
HOW TO STOP SELF CUTTING.
That evening Samantha came to my room. “Aunty I really want to stop cutting. But I don’t know how to go about it. Can you please help me out?” She said calmly. I was glad to hear that she’s willing to stop.
“Well, the first step to stop cutting is confiding in someone, which you have done already”. I said to her.
“Okay. So what is the next step?” She asked
“The next step includes finding a coping skills and other behavioral and attitudinal changes.
First you will have to prevent yourself from coming too close to sharp objects. So you will have to do away with those blades on your bedside table.
Next time when you feel the urge to cut, you can simply leave the room and go for a walk. You can choose to talk to someone too.
Writing how you feel helps too. You can write a poem or a song.
Also you can get yourself busy with painting or other artistic skills, as these will keep you busy”
I stopped talking, and looked at Samantha’s face. She had a slight smile laced with pleading eyes.
“I love to paint. But I don’t have tools for that” she said.
I smiled and replied. “It’s fine. We will get the painting stuffs tomorrow” This time, she didn’t smile, she grinned and gave me a hug..
THE ULTIMATE WAY TO STOP SELF INJURY AND OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS.
Deep down in my heart, I was convinced that we can’t really do much(if not anything) on our own without God’s help. So I felt I needed to tell that to Samantha too.
“Samantha, do you know that it won’t be easy to stop cutting?”. Well it won’t. But it would be easier if you commit your life and feelings into God’s hands. Explain to him how you feel just the same way you would talk to a person in front of you. Tell him how you want to feel. God is our father he would listen” I said.
“Aunty, are you saying I should talk to God like he’s sitting next to me?” She asked.
“Yes of course. God is everywhere. He’s here right now with us. So you can always talk to God.
You remember what the Bible said in Matthew 11:28 Jesus was telling us to cast out burdens upon him so he can give us rest. In this
case Samantha, you problem is cutting, surrender all to Jesus and he will help you. Also, Philippians 4:6&8. It says we shouldn’t worry about anything but in prayer and a thanking heart, we should make our request known to God. So this is what I want you to do. Make your request to overcome cutting known to God. And then I want you to trust God that he will never disappoint you. Remember What Roman 10:11 says. Is says “The scripture says ‘those that trust in the Lord will never be disappointed'”. I said with assurance.
“Thank you aunty. I’d do exactly as you said” Samantha said and left my room.
I was glad she’s on her way to freedom. I prayed for her and went to sleep.
Samantha improved greatly before the semester break was over. She was gifted in painting. And she became very free with me,that we talked about anything. I finally had a younger sister.
The first semester break came to an end and I went back to school
SECOND SEMESTER BREAK
When I got home for the second semester break, Samantha ran to me and give me a hug. This time it wasn’t a side hug, but a genuine hug. I hugged her too.
She had missed me
I missed her too.
THE END!!
Entertaining Medico-Health Fictions 