Their greatest fears just confirmed and that has always been loosing their first child to the crazy attractions of life which happened to be a tradition in Africa. There's a saying in Africa that the first daughter getting pregnant is not a sin and this saying seems to be taking a due course in the life of Africans, Gloria is experiencing the tragedies of a lackadaisical lifestyle, She started from stealing from her parents and upgraded to stealing from her school friends and teachers purse then it aggravated till the extent of buying flashy things and products to upgrade her body so that she'll have men cluster around her, she continued this till that faithful day when that breast enlargement cream was found in her bag, the disappointment in the faces of her parents when they got to her school the next day and confirmed that the cream belonged to her and that she went and bought it with her close circle, they were so embarrassed because they only agreed to follow her to her school with the convincing reason she gave that a one of her notorious classmates might have planted it in her bag. Mr Simeon found it so hard to refrain himself from committing murder and his wife though emotionally downtrodden helped her husband get hold of himself promising him that they'll address the situation when they get home.
The principal flogged the pupils involved in this outrageous adventure mercilessly and even threatened to expel them but with the intervention of the teachers begging him to take pity on their parents who already painstakingly paid their tuition that term, he reconsidered his decision and instead suspended them for a week. The principal also got some law enforcement agents and arrested the merchant who sold the teenagers a cream strictly ruled out as 18+ only, he tried to defend himself but sincerely he had nothing to say but implicate himself more by saying that their mates has been patronizing him for long in the shop so he's used to it.
Later that day when Gloria went home she got the beating of her life from both parents coupled with the one she received in school, that was she worst of all days for her, her mouth was swollen and looked like that of a shrew rat but that was only the beginning of Gloria's escapades. Gloria during her suspension started moving about with boys in the hood and those in the site where she will normally go and work, once some of them came to look for her at home and in the sight of her parents at home, they'll feign that they're not looking for this particular girl but another Gloria in that street, meanwhile their was no one going by that name in the whole town except her. And when she get confronted about this, she'll swear with everything that makes her human and insist that she was still a virgin even in her thoughts and that she never knew the person in question. Until a day came when she stole her parents money again and this time when she was confronted, she ran to umunnya, the town where their stone site was located and passed the night with some guy, who she's been seen with couple of times before, the guy was a notorious weed chain smoker, and Mr Simeon who had been at loggerheads with this guy who always come to collect a second commission from him after he might have paid to the manager hates this guy passionately well not well enough till he got the idea that he might be his soon to be son in-law because his daughter passed the night at his place. She argued that the guy did nothing to her when she arrived Wrekin of an indescribable smell, her mother asked her that her redeemer in the days of sojourn couldn't even get her a bucket of water to bath with? Her parents let that one slide with the saying that 'its not the day that a child accidentally disposes palm oil that he gets beaten but the day he intensionally disposes the crude palm oil'. They forgave her then and because she came back on a Saturday, they sent her to an errand in the market place and Trin opted in to escort her, as they approached the market, they witnessed some state anti robbery squad team arresting a suspect but this particular suspect was unique, it was a mad man in his late twenties, he ran around as quick as he could and made some insanity driven gestures, the team weren't threatened by the mad mans bizarre attitude and violence, they approached him with full force and he bit one of them in the shoulder who quickly left him alone, he also tore his rag looking clothe and got completely naked, he ran to the market's junction with one of the officers in pursuit, he jumped on the officer's head and used his hair as butt wipe, the officer dropped to the floor as the mad man beat him up and made away with his trouser and shorts, the officer was completely naked now as he resumed pursuit of the mad man, the audience were astounded as to which of the two men was the crazy one, the teams leader later double crossed the mad man with a log and he landed face first to the ground, he bellowed in pain and grunted but the officers were beyond sympathy, they tied him to a tree and started flogging him, by the end of the day, he was able to know his name and spell it, that of the chief officer and his offence. He was clarified to have been responsible for causing terror to one communal man, he often attacks the mam with a stone and destroys the glass in his car and as the chief officer stated those offences, he ensured that he got the message by spanking him hard with a cat 'o nine tails whip! Only then did Trin and Gloria realise that they've wasted enough time and rushed on to complete their errand as they laughed and chatted about the hilarious incident. On getting home that day they were queried by both parents who warned them about the dangers of staying around and watching a violent bunch.
Trin on the other hand continued to excel in her academics though she barely had time to read, she spent most of her holiday in the farm which Mrs Simeon bought, the site or watching movies which she believed taught her more than anything! She specially loved Japanese manga, Korean and Chinese ancient seasonal films and Hollywood action movies, technological, futuristic, mind twisting fantasy and horror movies maybe the horrors are the reason she's always in shape. Trin unlike most kids believe that things will happen at their own time except knowledge, she has the mindset that no knowledge to her is early that she's always in control. But she dislikes flashy lifestyle because she believes that its not yet her time to be in the spotlight though she knows that not all who are in the spotlight deserves the fame but she won't dream of standing on any stage to give the world trash. Most at times when the Trin was at her senior secondary class three, she was always at a private lesson centre, her best friend sarah had to travel miles from school most at times to get her back to school for endorsements for the upcoming certificate examination and Gloria on the other hand was staying in the boarding house as per her school's examination class requirements, in there she continued to do some petty stealing though she promised Trin before going to school that she'll turn a new leaf and make everyone in her family proud, Trin believed her wholeheartedly. Mr and Mrs Simeon paid heavily for their two wards in an examination class but Gloria's tuition took one third of the amount, they got in for the exams, Trin had never failed any examination even when she was yet to know herself and she thought to herself that this was definitely not the time she breaks that record, Gloria was using cash to sort out all loose ends and finally they were done with the exams and that was when there family deemed it fit to move back to Onitsha as their perilous times had passed. Mr Simeon again went for the negotiations and legal right over the house and before two days they were done with the process. He came back and carried their properties on a truck and took it to the destination, Sarah bade bye to her bosom friend with tears in her eyes as Mr Simeon locked the gate and took his family on his bike to the location. They drove past many big cities on the way, the industrialization on the suburbs there was second to none in the eastern parts but Trin and her siblings started having a second thought when their bike never stopped at any of the big cities and headed into the wastelands. this part was mosquito infested, and for heavens sake Trin sighted a pig for the very first time in her life, many of them at that, swimming in the dirt, eating filth and poking their mouths around. She saw a group of pigs around and to her weirdest imagination they were eating one of their own. she shut her eyes at the disgusting barbaric act and opened them only when Mr Simeon honked at the naked kids playing with motorcycle tyres in the road, their were pot holes and gallops everywhere, Everywhere had heaps of waste and green swamps covered in floating Sam was all over the place, the buildings were unkept and dilapidated. the worst ghetto in the east, that's where they've come to live because of their budget and the name of the place was "okpoko". they drove on and stopped at a hall and at the back side of the hall that has a pathway to the front laid their new home, Trin was shaking all over from the long distance they just covered, the unsmooth journey and the realization of living in the worst ghetto of all second only to " ajegunle" in Lagos Nigerian. only on that moment did she regret not only why she was born into the family she was in but why she was a Nigerian or African, but she never regretted having those ties to her beloved family, she loved them with her all though she don't understand their thinking process at times and that's countering her afore thought she thought.
when they were going inside the house she heard a fat woman who lived close to the gate tell her folks something in their native dialect but Trin was able to ascertain what it was, the woman was complaining why the owner of the house who have until then being allowing only his home folks to live in his compound to allow these people in and she said that with a mockery jest, Trin knew from that moment that it was not going to be a smooth ride in the compound either. they started cleaning up the house and after about four hours they were done and they settled in. It didn't take long for the people in the compound to start liking the new tenants especially Trin who particularly loved kids the most of all forms of creation. She tells them interesting, funny and educative stories that their parents in their homes at night often eavesdropped to these stories and enjoyed them, the parents got kaima registered in her junior secondary class one in a school in front of their compound and destiny and Brian registered in primary five and three respectively. When the west African examination council results came out, trin passed in flying colors but Gloria had some problems with her result, she failed two courses. Trin looked for a job with her high school cert because their was no hope for attending a higher institution for her and Gloria remained at home for the moment. Mrs Simeon had forgiven her husband and opened up the drink shop but this time it wasn't thriving much and Gloria was managing it most of the time, she embezzled the funds handed over to her by her mother to use and stack up the place with drinks, she even liquidated the profits and flirted with men in the shop. Before long Gloria had eloped with some guy to Abia state of Nigeria and she later came back and when Mr Simeon confronted her with a Cane, she responded by getting a bottle out of the crater of drinks and breaking it into pieces on her father's head while her father oozed off blood stressing that she was beyond the age of canning. She was twenty two years of age at the time. She later started to vomit and get fatigued often and when Mrs Simeon confronted her about it, she said she was only sick and will be fine, she said she's gone for a laboratory test and the physician said that it was an infection she got from the toilet and she's been treating it. One day when trin came back from the fuel station where she was working as a sales personnel, she heard her worst news that Gloria had been pregnant the whole while, that her mother dragged her to the hospital and confirmed it. Trin heartbroken as she remembered the promises her traitorous sister made her confronted her about it and she shouted at her talking balderdash like she was old enough to have an intercourse with whomever she deems fit and get pregnant as she wanted and nobody was going to do anything about it, trin landed a slap on her and a fight ensued, it wasn't much of a fight but a beaten because trin was so angry that she beat her frail sister up like a kid, Gloria grabbed the axe they use to split firewood at the back of the door to use it on her sister but trin retrieved it on the blade as if it was some toy, trin has a monstrous rage and she tries to keep it in check often but this time it got unleashed, after dealing with her sister to the point that Gloria couldn't stand up she left her to Mrs Simeon who couldn't beat Gloria standing up so she sits on her and pounds her with some soft punches that were obviously her best, trin walked out of the house to clear her mind. Gloria after recovering got flared up that she smuggled out her bags and left home to reside with her boyfriend who later accepted responsibility.
Trin got cleared from the hospital the next day as she was out of thoughts and went home with her parents happily, she was now eager to listen and adhere to all the rules of the pandemic even when the locals did not because it taught her that its better to be safe than sorry.