She has a daughter, so whenever I visited her, I asked about the daughter, and she told me the girl was sleeping. She’s only five—very beautiful—but according to my girlfriend, the girl’s father didn’t accept responsibility, so she has been the only one taking care of the girl.

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Sometimes I would buy her toys and sweets. I would get to her place, and the girl would be sleeping in a bed somewhere in the room. One day, I asked why the girl was always sleeping, and she said, “That’s how she is ooo. Immediately she bathes and eats, the next thing is sleeping.”

I’ve been around kids, so I know how light their sleep can be, especially in the afternoons. But this kid had a special depth to the way she slept. Every noise would go unnoticed by her, and she would lie in one position for the entire time I was around. It didn’t look normal, especially the fact that she was asleep anytime I was around.

I investigated one evening when my girlfriend was in the bath. I checked if she was breathing. Taking my ear close to her nose brought me close to the scent of her breath. She smelled of alcohol. I said in my head, “I knew it! This is the issue.”

So when my girlfriend came out, I asked her to tell me the truth. “What have you been giving this child?” She mentioned sleeping tablets because, according to her, she didn’t want the girl to come between us. I challenged her, and she went inside and came out with the container of sleeping tablets. She said, “See, this is it. I can’t lie.”

I asked, “So she took tablets, and her breath smells like she took akpeteshie?”

She started fidgeting. She said it wasn’t the case. I was so disappointed I wished there was someone I could report her to. She said she did it with good intentions because, previously, men had left her because the girl kept interrupting her while they were around. “I wanted us to be stable first,” she told me.

I felt like crying. A five-year-old girl is drinking because her mother wants to keep a relationship? In my mind, the relationship was over, but I didn’t want to put the girl at risk. While she asked that I not take it the wrong way, I was looking for a way to help the girl escape the abuse.

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I’ve been able to meet my girlfriend’s mother. In a phone conversation, I told her everything. The woman cried on the phone. I asked if she could help. All she said was, “I’ll see what I can do. Thank you.”

I think I’ve done my best. We no longer have a relationship, but once in a while, I pass by to ask how the girl is doing. I buy things for her when I can. When she needs money, I don’t send her the world, but I try. No child should go through this just because the mother wants to save her relationship.

—Benewaa

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