The Woman Abused…

Once upon a time, it hits you. That moment—like they say—when lightning strikes. You wake up to a revelation, a new part of yourself staring back at you. Suddenly, you see what your mind had worked so hard to hide. That one elusive truth, the missing piece you couldn’t quite grasp.

For so long, I’d searched, trying to find what my heart desired most—a deeper connection with myself. And just as it struck me, I found it. I saw it in the stars that swirled around my pain…

She cleared her throat, rudely pulling me out of my reverie. “What did you see?” she asked softly. Suddenly self-conscious, I avoided her expectant gaze and shrugged.

As usual, I’d left Dr. Awosika hanging on my last word, “stars.” I swallowed hard and took a shaky sip of water.

She stood up from her chair, walking over to the window, stroking the rich red drapery as she peered out over the Manhattan skyline.

“It looks like a storm is coming. Brace yourself.”
“A storm,” I echoed. For as long as I could remember, every day of my thirty-three years had involved one storm or another. In fact, I had grown to love them.

“Yes, a storm,” she repeated, pulling the drapery aside to reveal thick, gray clouds swirling with anger, mocking us with their ominous dance. We both stared in silence.

“So, are you going to…” she trailed off as I began shaking my head.

“You know I can’t,” I muttered, Andrew’s face flashing before my eyes. “No, it’s something I have to bear. After all, it’s what my culture expects.”

“What culture?” she pressed.

I nodded. “I’m African,” I said simply. “Women don’t walk away from their marriages. You bear it, stoically.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, “but you’re an African in America. That’s different.”

“But I’m also Nigerian,” I shot back, shrugging. “I guess that’s where we see things differently.”

We both fell into a tense silence, each trapped in our own conflicting perspectives. I didn’t need anyone to tell me the session was over, and frankly, I didn’t care. As if on cue, thunder cracked the air, splitting the silence wide open. I retreated into myself once more.

To be continued…