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Judith Gwaza uring her school days, she had enjoyed rapt attention from the whole school because of her stunning good looks. She was beautiful, almost regal but there was something about her which people did not understand. Instead of going for walks in the township, every lunch hour found Adeline poring over her books. She would close the shop where she worked as a storekeeper and retreat to her bedroom which was in the backyard. During the evening, the routine was the same. She would help her son David with his homework, read and sleep late but surprisingly, she was up at the peep of dawn to prepare her son for school. In the township, she was known as that beautiful single mom who has kept the paternity of her son a closely guarded secret. She had no friends in the neighborhood and had put a barricade around her love life. Busybodies tried to dig into her private life to no avail. Society expected ladies of her standing to be leading rich full lives with hordes of friends. Who would not want to identify oneself with such celestial beauty? One sunny day, she was sitting in the shop veranda reading a novel. She looked quite absorbed in her pastime that she never realised that her son had arrived from school. Her train of thoughts only jerked back to reality when David handed her a letter from school. “Good afternoon mom. Guess what, I have been chosen as the head boy of the school. l am excited but at the same time I am not sure whether l will be able to carry out the responsibility. I am kind of apprehensive.”
With her sparkling eyes brimming with tears of joy, Adeline looked at her son. He was a sturdy young boy whose dress and person was neat. He stood tall and broad shouldered. He had an imposing look that made him tower over his classmates. Instead of congratulating her son, Adeline’s eyes became distant as if she had retreated somewhere inside herself. She drifted into a familiar sea of thoughts. It was a moment of quiet reflection. The daunting question in her mind was, “Who is the father of my son? People think that l decided to keep it under wraps and yet l am equally confused.” Her ordeal had started fifteen years ago when she was doing Form Three at Chibi High school. She belonged to the debating club and there was a debating competition at Gokomere High School. Adeline was chosen to lead the debating team to Gokomere where a number of schools were converging to debate on hot topics of the day. Adeline was thrilled when Adonis, her childhood sweetheart was also chosen to be part of the debating team. Tragedy struck after an exciting day at Gokomere High School. They were involved in a horrific accident that claimed the lives of fifteen students, among them Adonis. The ten survivors were taken to Masvingo General Hospital. What Adeline could only remember was the big bang that followed bleak darkness. She woke up two days later with a bandaged head. She had to stay for a full month in hospital. As if living a pretty hard life was not enough for Adeline, fate had another shocker specially reserved for her. Two
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months after the horrific accident, she was devastated when the doctor she had visited for a routine checkup told her that she was pregnant. “Is this another Joseph and Mary incident? But in my case l never had an encounter with angel Gabriel. This should be a bogus doctor whose fake practicing certificate should d be whisked away before he causes more February 2013
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