. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
Maria Kobina was the first daughter of her parents. She was loved by her parents who did everything to keep her happy by giving her all she demanded. Her parents relied on her to lead other children in the family with good examples to follow.
Maria was sent to school because her parents believed in education. After the completion of her primary education, they sent her to a boarding school. Her parents used to visit her in the school always. They took proper care of her by providing everything she needed so that Maria could face her studies seriously.
In school, Maria had a friend called Julie who came from a very poor family. Julie lacked so many things. Though Julie was an indigent student, she was satisfied with what her parents could provide for her. In the first three years of Maria's stay in school, Julie was her only intimate friend while others were just mere classmates.
When Maria got promoted to SS2, her attitude and outlook changed. She started going to parties with some wayward girls who were her classmates. At one of the parties, she met Festus and they became lovers. Unknown to Maria, Festus was a houseboy to a rich man who entrusted him with all his belongings, including his fleet of cars. Festus always claimed that he was the only son of the rich man and because he always visited Maria in one flashy car or the other, Maria got infatuated with him.
One day, Maria informed Julie, her friend, whom she had almost neglected, about her love affair with Festus. Julie warned her friend against mistaking superficial love for a genuine one. Maria failed to listen to Julie's advice and before long she got pregnant for Festus. When-she told Festus that she was pregnant, it was too late and the pregnancy could not be aborted. Maria kept her pregnancy in secrecy and none of her friends and teachers could detect that she was pregnant because she always tucked out her blouse to conceal the pregnancy.
When the pregnancy was about five months old and both the students and teachers became aware, Maria went to see Festus in his master's house. "Let us run away to my parent's home and we will be there until you are delivered of the baby Festus suggested. Maria wondered whether the rich man's house was not the home that Festus was talking about. Do you mean that I should come and stay here in your father's house in the same town where my parents and mates will find me out?" Maria asked in confusion "In my parents home in a village in Cross River State", Festus replied. It was after Festus' reply that Maria now realised that she had been deceived to believe that Festus was the son of the rich man. She wept bitterly and regretted that she had not looked before leaping.