I was through with my high school final examinations, and while I was waiting for my results, I decided to leave the village for the city. I desperately needed a change of environment then, as my grandmother wouldn't give me some space to mingle with my friends, attend youth events, etc. I love meeting new people and learning from them if possible, and I thus desire to change my environment for a while. Fortunately for me, one of my uncles, a man so close to my dad, traveled to the village then and was in need of someone to stay with them for a while while the wife undertook a course for her master's program. Without much thought about it, as that was what I had wanted, I left with him the next day. The wife is such a humble, lovely, and respectful being. I felt at home with her; she was so open to me on a lot of things about her marriage. I saw how my uncle was treating her harshly, and infidelity was part of it. Most times, he doesn't hide his infidelities, and his actions always make the wife unhappy.
Mr. Joseph (my uncle) is a well-known businessman in the town, with many servants assisting him with the business. He is very rich but gets easily influenced negatively by his wealth. He felt he could get any woman of his choice outside of marriage and live life with his money. This act of his wasn't comfortable with the wife, but at the same time, she didn't want to leave her marriage because of her little kids. Several times, she pleaded with the husband to change, but he never cared a bit and would beat her up if she refused to go to bed with him. They had five kids then, and their first son was already in secondary school.
One day, my uncle felt so sick that there were big rashes all over his body. so much fever and other symptoms were showing up. He was rushed to the hospital for a diagnosis. The doctor requested different types of lab tests, including one for HIV/AIDS. The result came out, and lo and behold, he was HIV positive! The wife cried out! She already knows that she won't escape the same infection. She feinted at some point. I couldn't help but give her emotional support to the best of my ability when she regained consciousness. The next day, she ran the same test, and the result was positive.
It was at this time that my uncle realized his mistakes; his act of infidelity didn't only affect him but the wife as well. They did test their last child, and luckily for her, she was negative. HIV and AIDS are infections that can be managed with the help of antiretroviral drugs, but they are permanent, meaning that one has to be extremely careful when living with people with the infection. They have kept the result hidden from the children since then. It's been over 15 years now; they are fine as long as they take the drugs judiciously, but on several occasions, I have advised them to let the secret out to the children now that they are all grown. One of the children just graduated from the university as a medical doctor. Now this is the main reason I kept calling my uncle and the wife to let out this secret to the kids. Living with them all these years has been so risky because they might not have been careful enough to prevent themselves from getting the infection because they aren't aware that their parents are HIV positive.
This family secret kept lingering until recently, when one of their children, who is now a medical doctor, somehow found the results of his father's HIV/AIDS test conducted years ago. He questioned the dad, but he lacked the words to express himself, as did the mom. The five siblings are already aware of this secret, and none of them are taking it lightly with their parents. They have all conducted HIV and AIDS laboratory tests; fortunately, they all turned out to be negative. However, this one secret has been tearing apart the bond they once had as a family.
This is my entry to the inkwell creative nonfiction prompt with the theme "secret"
Please note, the images used here are as designed by me using canva app
