The womb was supposed to be safe space for princess, until her mother, Felicia, fed toxic nutriment to her through the womb wall. Blackcurrant juice dosed with cocaine, tramadol, rohypnol, cannabis, and codeine; then occasionally, ice (meth), was her mother’s cocktail of choice.
The victuals impacted on the growing foetus the same way a loaded rifle spits bullets to a malnourished child. But her mother couldn’t care.
The four-year-old cut a pitiful image at first sight: her skin hung loosely on her pinched frame. Her light skin pulsed with a tangle of veins, running loosely like red-green welts across her wiry frame. They would seem hazardous to her but for the fact that they fetched food and medicine across her internal organs and nerves where they are sorely needed.
She couldn’t leave the hospital until two weeks after her birth. She was referred to the General Hospital, where she spent another one week. When she was discharged, the doctor warned that she may experience severe tremor from time to time.
At age four, Princess’ trunk is too weak and she wobbles in the gait of a two-year-old. Shrouded in her infirmity, she made a gallant effort to move around. Her mien brightened and a weak smile seeped to her face as the reporter crouched to play with her. Between her smile and her gait, the four-year-old issues her straight-jacketed response to the world with all its breakable toys.
Princess is simply one of several minors marred by the rapture of hallucinogenic substances ingested by their mothers during pregnancy. Her mother, Felicia, reportedly took crack cocaine, gutter juice, colorado, often in combination with other drugs, during pregnancy thus making her (Princess) part of a generation of Nigerian minors unfairly branded by some as “Awon omo science students (children of science students).”
