To get rid of me, my brother in law started walking around naked

My parents died when we were very young so my oldest sister had to grow up fast. She got a small job and became our provider. Her job didn’t pay much but she spent it all to feed, clothe and pay our school fees. In turn, we constantly promised that we would never forget her generosity, and it was this promise that put me in a very awkward position for a long time.

We were desperate for help so my sister married young. As nice and generous as she was, she married a horrible man. He was mean and did everything in his power to isolate my sister from us. My sister would not budge and this caused many problems in her marriage – he barely gave her any money, even for house-keeping, and would hit her at the slightest provocation. He was hostile anytime we came around and after a while, we stopped going to her house. However, knowing the emotional and psychological trauma my sister was going through, we agreed that someone had to suffer her husband and hang around her – the chosen one was me. So, I moved to my sister’s house and stuck it out there despite his constant harassment,  hostility and even slapping me around sometimes ….I stayed no matter what he did.

When my brother in law saw that his efforts to push me out were not working, he took up another strategy. I came out of my room one day to find him along the corridor, wearing only his white underpants. I was startled. Quickly, I turned back into the room and stayed in until I heard him leave. This happened over a few weeks and anytime I ran into him, or he ran into me, I would simply stay in the room until he left the area.

When this didn’t make me leave (even though I wanted to but my sister would cry and plead with me to stay and help her keep her sanity), he changed strategy. One morning, I was on my way to the toilet when he came out ….stark naked.  I was speechless and just stood there, trying to control my eye movements and wishing for a potion that could erase memory. I wanted to believe it was a mistake but he took his time, dangling his penis around as he sashayed very slowly past me. I wanted to die.

I told my big sister and she began to cry.  She cried often and it felt terrible to have another thing for her to cry about. Quietly, she asked me what we were going to do about this new development and I told her that maybe I needed to leave. She begged me to reconsider and said she would talk to her husband. Very late that night, I was in the kitchen and he came in again – with just a very small towel around his waist. Like was the norm, I quickly wiped her hands and was about to walk past when he ‘dropped’ the towel and exposed himself.  That night, we agreed that we had no choice but to get me out of there. The next day, I left my sister’s house. My sister is still going through so much but we comfort her as best as we can …from afar.