SCHOOL FATHER\n\nThen, like a sudden unusual relief from starvation, the desperate sensual urge and warmth went from Atere, and he lay in the darkness, moving back and forth over the struggling body of Peju; deaf to her pleas and blind to her tears.\n\nWhen Atere was through, he first lay down on his back watching his latest victim wallow in anguish after the just concluded violent contest for pleasure and pain. He then stood up, switched on the bulb and walked like the real MVP\u00A0into the bathroom.\n\nAt the sound of the water from the bathroom, Peju pulled up her panties and got into her Jeans. She looked at the frame on the wall: the handsome face was familiar but stern; one hand was uplifted and its thumb pointed straight up into the air as though it were saying \"kudos\" to her. The frame showed his face looking straight at her unblinkingly as she looked at it, until she got so deep in horrific thoughts of what just happened and had to take her eyes away. She was exhausted, but knew she had to summon her tired legs to take her away from that room.\n\nShe left, barely able to bear the semen, the sweat, the smell, and the blood that was already clotting halfway her thighs.\n\nYears after the incident, she could still feel the semen dripping from her mouth, through her hips, his sweat lubricating her all over. She's tickled always as trauma glitters like gold all over her face. She could still see her nails ripped, broken and bleeding from clawing at the rug to escape; to shove him away. Oh! She still checks herself for the blood that had run down her legs from the rips. The violence screams in her eyes. Every man who went across seems monstrous, every hand looks like it was clawing towards her tender breasts. Every pair of eyes looks ravenous, attempting to feast on her.\n\nShe could taste his tongue over hers, vividly. She could still feel his wet, coarse tongue sweeping off her life from her neck. She could still feel her body rocking back and forth in the stirrings of his manhood. Something still penetrates her. The pain is excruciating, real, unforgiving. She's woken in hot sweats by nightmares of a monster every night.\n\nEvery man has become a rapist. She tries wearing a smile as an overcoat when needed.\n\nShe hated that night, and the child that was birth from it. Admittedly, motherhood wasn't a switch that she expected so soon as she was too ashamed to admit it. Like every other mother does, she felt no intense joy after birth. It took awhile for her to understand her new role.\n\n\u00A0Peju was my mother and she had always feel a disconnect with me. My upbringing was never her task until the day Kola sent me a text on my mother's phone, ending with \"School daddy loves you.\"\n\nShe sat me down, told me of these travails; of her agonies as a one night victim of rape, by her once adored \"school father\".