One month passed after that day. All these happened within 3 months after my new birth. Favour had gotten over Mercy’s incident. With what happened to Mercy, she was more committed to helping me with the Young ones, especially since she had quit her job. She had insisted I played the video for the children, which I was not comfortable with. She told me it was to save them. What made her win me hands down was when she asked… “What if Mercy had seen a video like this, would she be in Saudi Arabia now?” She asked me and I knew the obvious answer “No, she would have been here with us… Chuks, let me save these ones …” She had said conclusively. The teens and youths were seriously affected by the video. Some felt pity, others understood that there was nothing on the outside world. Kenneth was hit badly especially the part where Mercy had said she lost her virginity. Kenneth had his head bowed and he sobbed for over 30 minutes crying without raising his head. Everyone tried getting him to raise his head but all to no avail. After crying for 30 minutes, he stood up and went home. I told Favour, I didn’t like what she had made us do. Favour told me, she did that for two reasons. First, if Kenneth really loves her daughter and it’s not some infatuation he will marry her regardless. Secondly, she wanted the ladies to see how important virginity was to men, especially for those who had not been defiled. Life continued, Mercy tried to speak to us on video call every day. She was a part of us, though online. Kenneth could not bring himself to speaking to her. Whenever she was online, he would step aside. On one occasion, Mercy Specifically asked for Kenneth, but Kenneth refused speaking to her. We had moved to the structure, about 20 of the teens who were the homeless ones, stayed with us. Mrs. Coldwealth became our matron as she got aids, donations for us. Parents of other teens who came on daily basis brought in food stuffs for the ones in the house. Things turned around. The teens became on fire for God. Parents were happy about their wards. New teens and youths joined every day. We nicknamed the structure “LIGHTHOUSE” Tunde had decided to go learn Fashion Designing. We had volunteer teachers who came to teach some of the teenagers who wanted to still continue their education. They helped them prepare for the Senior Secondary Certificate Exams. The teens’ preparation for Light up Lagos was in top gear until I received a shocking news. GLORIA WAS PREGNANT… Favour was the one who noticed at first. Gloria was not her usual playful self, so Favour had taken for a pregnancy test. It turned out positive. She was 2 months pregnant at 12 years old. “Uncle Chuks, I only did it once ooo, it was a mistake, I didn’t burn my bridge. It was just once…” She kept lamenting. From her story, she had mistaken fallen into sin with someone she refused to mention his name. When her father got to know about it he was enraged. He was ready to kill Gloria… “Is this how you will pay me back for taking care of you and your younger ones after your useless mother left me? You are just like your mother, a useless dog is what you are.” her father had said. Since Gloria and her siblings were leaving in the “Lighthouse” with us, there was little her father could do, but there was a problem: she was not opening up on who got her pregnant…or could it be…? To be continued…
