It was now the exam season for me and Grace. She was sitting for her high school final exams as I sat for my grade 8 final exam. We both needed to be reading seriously but the environment was not conducive.
My sister kept a diary, writing about how miserable her life was and even abused Susan with some heavy words. No one knew about the diary until it was discovered. As for me, I had written a letter to my cousin in boarding school, explaining all my misery and frustrations and how we were being mistreated. She had also been responding with letters of her frustrations too with my aunty, since that is where she went when school’s closed.
One day, as Grace was doing her exams, Susan saw her in the estate walking with her friend. Grace had just done a paper in the morning and so she was free in the afternoon. She decided to go to her friend’s place, who was a neighbor and spend her afternoon there. This was the day my sister had just discovered the letter I had written to my cousin through my aunty who found it and she had also found Grace’s diary. Things were not good at all.
Susan patiently waited until I come from school and Grace came from her friend’s place. By now she was writhing in anger and was planning the counter attack. We were finally home and she started out well by asking Grace where she was. Straight up, Grace lied to her face saying she was from school. We were both told to go and change our clothes to our night dresses, since they were very light and see through, so practically we were naked. She did not even wait for us to come out of the room and followed us in. what happened next was like a horror movie. I received most beatings since I was shielding Grace because she hid next to me. We were told to move out to the living room. Her children could not bear the sight and broke out in tears. The house help was told to lock her children in the other room so that they do not distract her. We kept falling; she lifts us and continues the whooping.
You could see she was mad. That whip felt like they were 5 of them. She hit as both continuously until my niece, Jessy came out of the room and tried to stop her. Susan pushed her away, trying to show how mad she was. The house help decides to try and help but to no avail. By now we were on top of our lungs in tears and screaming. She had now taken the dinning chair and was planning to throw it at us, when suddenly the neighbors came to our rescue. If that was not enough, she put the chair down since now the neighbors were shielding us, and reached for the knife. She starts ranting that she has to kill us. The neighbors tried calming her and told her to explain what happened. We already knew since she kept saying it while whipping us. She was getting more upset as they tried to calm her. She had to be held, now that she had a knife.
The neighbors, who were young girls like us, rushed us out of the house to their house and gave us blankets to keep warm. They tried telling us to calm down and stop weeping. It was not easy. They had heard all the prior beatings but this one shocked them. They went back to calm Susan as she kept ranting that she never wanted to see us again.
Remember we were doing our final exams, and so we needed to do some reading. I felt sad for Grace because she had a paper the next day early morning. We were not in a position to read. We just wanted to sleep and forget what had just transpired. Our neighbors fed us and just as we were going to bed, Susan came for us. She allowed us to sleep in her house.
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