They said moans could be heard from the living room on the Sunday morning she died.
It was a child playing on the compound who first heard her.

Soon, many ears gathered. And eyes too, as they thronged the living room. There, Adzo, on the carpet floor, leaning against a sofa, her face and posture twisted in mortal pain.

“Where is your mom?“
“Oh why are you crying?“
“She is bleeding!”

Too much talk, but there was too much pain in Adzo’s ears to hear whatever nonsense they were sneezing.

In no time, a pair of feet run to the chapel about three kilometers away, to interrupt a woman absorbed in worship.

Soon, four feet were racing back home, oblivious to the male feet following some distance behind, alarmed.

Adzo’s father did not know what was happening, but something told him it was no joking matter.

At home, mourning had begun for the girl that was alive a few minutes ago. As the tenants contemplated how to break the news to her parents, there they were, parents of the deceased.

They were not kids. They knew something terrible had happened. But how did it happen?

Later they will all converge to piece together their tales into something sensible, for nothing that had happened so far made any sense to anyone.

But the bigger picture when the pieces were put together was scary, truth that those close to the girl that was no more refused to believe.

They said she attempted an abortion. And her mom, whom she was so close to, couldn’t sniff it, didn’t see it coming. Because every month, Adzo complained of severe tummy upset during her period. Her mother assumed it was her menstrual pains as usual.

They left her alone at home and went to church, not knowing she was getting ready to go to where all prayers ended. Maybe she didn’t know she could end up there.

But now it was too late.

But rumors, even the dead are not exempt from them. They said she had a fiancé abroad and this lover was returning home. Wrong timing. She was pregnant, not for him.

She was always with her mom, a sweet innocent girl, very beautiful. When and how could she have become pregnant when it seemed  everyday they were at church praying, very dedicated to church activities?

Her father was an elder in the church, though many tenants doubted the genuineness of his faith because of how he related with them, always finding faults where there was none.

They all expressed their condolences to the parents, but secretly the father of the deceased knew his enemies were happy, and they were many. Because of his attitude towards them.

If truly she died while attempting an abortion, who gave her the drugs?

As for finding the man who impregnated her, there was no doubt he will never be found.