Kike welcomed the pain she was feeling.
It meant she would meet her darling son soon. Very soon.
She shifted uncomfortably on the living room couch. She didn’t want to go to the hospital now.
She had already had two episodes of false labour and she had been sent back home, both times, after rushing to the hospital in anticipation.
Her doctor had said her age was weighing in on her and the baby and that she should
try and be more relaxed. Being pregnant at 41 wasn’t an easy feat. It was hard work but she was desperate.
She needed to have a son before menopause hit.
Kike shifted uncomfortably again. Her back felt like it was on fire. She couldn’t find any position that was comfortable. And to think she had done this 5 times before. She hissed.
Strangely enough, she couldn’t remember any of her previous labours being that painful. It had actually gotten easier with each birth but this one felt different.
Of course it was different. She thought. You are going to have a boy nau.
“dorcas!” she called for one of the nannies who came running
“yes madam” she knelt before Kike
Dorcas was short and stout with fat lips, a wide nose and bulging eyes. Kike had specifically chosen her for her attributes. Judith on the other hand was taller, almost taller than Kike herself but with similar attributes.
No good looking nanny was allowed to work in her household. lailai. Ladies of nowadays were not smiling. They would snatch your husband in one look if they could. And hers was for no one except her.
That was why she had taken special care to make sure they wore very ugly uniforms whenever they were around.
“get me juice from the fridge” she said and watched the dwarf-like girl take off towards the kitchen with a speed that looked alien for her stature.
“yes madam”
Kike stared after her forgetting about the pain she was in momentarily, she was fast on her feet. Faster than some people would think capable for someone her height.
Within a minute or two, Dorcas appeared with the drink in a cup in her hands and placed it on the nearby stool
“Anything again ma?” she asked with her hands interlocked in front of her
“n-” Kike gasped and proceeded to wave her away but instead doubled over as another wave of pain hit her square in d back.
“ah, madam” Dorcas was by her side within a second “are you okay?”
“don't touch me!” kike snapped as she struggled to breath. Immediately, she knew. Something didn’t feel right.
“go and get peter now!” she roared and watched the girl scurry away to fetch the driver “Judith!”
The other girl appeared “na me be this ma”
“go and bring me that red box from that room upstairs”
“hurry up!” she barked as the girl proceeded to stroll to get the box. What did she think this was? a fashion show? Mstcheew.
As the girl appeared with the suitcase, Peter came into the living room where Kike was battling with another contraction.
She doubled over as another waved of pain hit her. Everyone in the room crowded around her to give a hand. Kike hated being crowded but at that moment, she could care less.
She gasped and tried to breathe through it. It felt like something was trying to pry her spine away from her body. Her lower belly felt like it would burst from so much pressure.
In her previous pregnancies, she would usually focus on a spot and breathe through the pain but she couldn’t concentrate because when she tried to focus on something, all her eyes could see were spots dancing around so she decided to close her eyes.
The pain in her midsection began to fade away but it soon made her aware of the pounding in her head. Her ears began to ring.
***
Kike woke up to quiet talk around her. A wave of pain hit her as she tried to move. She groaned sharply and someone appeared besides her
“don’t move , try and stay still” she recognized Dayo’s voice
“we are in the hospital Kike, you fainted in the house and Peter brought you here. Thank God I wasn’t too far away myself” he was saying
She blinked repeatedly until his face came into focus.
He smiled at her
“how are you feeling?”
Just then her doctor walked in with another doctor and two nurses. She guessed they were there for Shift Change.
“ah. Good morning Mrs Owoteju” the tall bald man that she had come to trust over the period of her pregnancy said to her
Because she was so certain that the baby would be a boy, she had changed hospitals immediately she’d found out that she was pregnant again, she had wanted the best of care.
“how are you feeling this morning?” he asked
“fine” she said in a voice that she barely recognised as her own
“that’s good” he said and proceeded to tell her that she had undergone an emergency caesarean operation due to the fact that she had lost consciousness during her labour and all efforts to revive her had proven abortive.
The baby had been in distress so it had been expedient that they brought the baby out as soon as possible. There also been complication with the operation that had caused excessive bleeding and they’d had to remove her uterus to save her life.
“where’s my baby? ” she managed, so far as she had her on, the rest didn't matter.
“your baby’s in the NICU”
“can I see him? I need to see my little boy please”
“oh no” the doctor laughed mildly “your baby’s a girl, Mrs Owoteju. Didn’t your husband tell you that?”
“what? no, it’s not possible” she shook her head “that other Doctor that did the scans, he said...he told me...i did the scans, I’m sure he said the baby’s a boy, yes that’s what he said” she was frantic
“which doctor is that?"
“that young man that’s always in the ultrasound room, I can’t remember his name right now”
“oh oh , that boy! I’m so sorry madam, he no longer works here. It was found out that he never actually graduated from medical school. He applied with forged certificates”
he explained
"and aside from that fact, ultrasounds are not always 100% certain, you know that, the only true result is after you put to bed and you see your baby"
"but I did the scan six times!" she shouted as loud as the pain in her mid section would allow "six times!"
"please calm down. even at that, it can be wrong and as I explained before. The doctor who carried out your scans
"how can it be wrong six times? six times, oh my God...six times..." Kike muttered to herself
She looked from her doctor, to Dayo, to the other doctor, to the nurses and back to Dayo, hoping to hear something other than what she was hearing.
No one seemed to think she was being given wrong information.
She had another girl. A girl. Her uterus had been removed. She couldn’t have another child. Her UTERUS had been REMOVED.
The baba that Mildred had taken her to had failed. She had a GIRL CHILD. Was she dreaming? How could she have a girl child after all the concoctions that he had given her to eat and drink?.
She shook her head, it was impossible, no words came forth. Her mind spun. She could never have another child. Never. And the baby’s a GIRL.
Tears formed in her eyes, she gasped for air, she couldn’t breathe, pressure grew in her chest.
Her mind was spinning too fast.
She fainted.
***
She walked calmly into the house.
She seethed with pure hatred for him. He was useless to her. He had ruined her life and she would make him pay.
She went into the kitchen and began to prepare dinner.
“get out” she said to the girl who jumped to her feet as soon as she entered.
She would make him pay dearly.
She had become a shell of herself because of his weakness. She was ruined because of him. She cursed the day she had met him and entertained his advances.
He would definitely pay.
She would destroy him the same way he had destroyed her.
***
As soon as Dayo walked into the house, he could sense that there was something wrong.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
The kids couldn’t be asleep already, he looked at the time, it was barely 8 pm.
His wife, who was usually seated in front of the TV since she’d had their baby 2 months before, was nowhere to be found.
She spent more time in front of the TV than she did attending to their baby, who she had also refused to breastfeed.
Kike’s mother had come for just 2 weeks and had gone back. Feyisayo, her cousin, had also relocated to another state where she was working with a small organization.
The nannies were the ones who mostly cared for the children.
He attributed her withdrawal as a coping mechanism for what she had gone through and he had been patient. He knew she would recover with time.
He walked round the house and went up the stairs. He found them all the room he shared with his wife.
Kike sat on the bed, her head on the bed rest, her eyes closed. The kids were sprawled on the bed.
He went to touch her face gently but paused.
The way they slept sent his heart racing.
He dropped his briefcase and shook them one after the other. They were nothing but bodies sprawled on the bed.
He screamed.
email: bbannesworld@gmail.com
twitter: @bbannesworld
Stories posted on this blog are fiction and a product of the writer's imagination. They do not refer to any person or persons. Similarities to real life characters are purely coincidental.
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