CHOICES

“its a boy” the doctor said

“are u sure?” Kike asked excitedly, she was beginning to feel out of breath from being on her back for so long on the ultrasound bed but she didn’t mind. She had waited so long for this moment

“yes I’m sure. Its a boy”

Oh thank God, Kike whispered silently

She got off the table and proceeded to go and wait for her scan print out

***

Dayo looked as his wife’s pregnant belly, it seemed to be protruding more and more these days. 

 Soon, the house would fill with the cry of a new born child, 2 or 3 of Kike’s family members, including her mother would come to help after the child was born.

It was going to be a full house. 

Currently, they had two live in helps who helped with their girls and Kike’s cousin who was serving in the state and needed a place to stay for the period of her service year. 

Kike stopped having time for him since her cousin, Feyisayo, came around. 

He could tell how close they were, they were always tucked in Feyi's room laughing hysterically at all times of the day. 

It was either that or she was sleeping, shopping for the baby, getting her hair done, going for spa treatments or buried in her phone.

 He probably wouldn’t get the time to be intimate with her again until she was getting ready to try for another boy (if this baby turned out to be a girl) which he was seriously thinking of sabotaging by getting a secret vasectomy. 

Enough was enough.

Kike was on a rampage to get a baby boy. It had started after they'd had their second daughter. 

It was now an obsession that was getting out of hand. 

She had tons of books and downloaded apps on her phone that were about gender selection.

Just before she'd gotten pregnant with this baby, she had asked for the latest iphone simply because the internal memory on her blackberry had been exhausted from all her downloaded apps. When he'd told her to get a memory card instead, she hadn’t spoken to him for a week. And when he gave in and bought the iphone, she had complained about the colour.

She was on that phone now, pinging away, most likely with one of her friends with whom she shared the same obsession for gender selection.

He sighed

How had they come this far? He asked himself

He couldn’t remember.

When Kike had first started the talk about having a boy, he had thought that once they had their third and final child, which was the magic number they had agreed on before getting married and who happened to be a lovely precocious little girl by the way, he had thought she would get over it. But it had gradually gotten worse.  

Now she was pregnant again.

 ***

“Kikelomo, omo Olaonipekun aya Owoteju” Kike praised herself as she stood half naked in front of the bathroom mirror and rubbed her pregnant belly. 

The baby kicked, she giggled in excitement “ooh baby mummy loves you too”

She was so excited she could burst

It had been confirmed. Whoop whoop! She hailed herself. 

After 11 years, 3 miscarriages and 5 girls, she was finally going to have a boy!

The family felt so incomplete without a boy. Her girls were cute. Yeah, sure, but a boy was better.  

Growing up with 3 brothers, she knew what she was talking about. 

Her mother had told her only strong men gave birth to boys. Oh yes, her father was a very strong man. He was strict. A perfect disciplinarian. He wasn’t scared to beat the daylights out of you if you misbehaved or "if you deserved it" like he always said.

He was a very strong man indeed.

Dayo was nothing but a weakling! Tah! 5 girls! Imagine that!. All his mates were having boys but he was busy shooting out girls at her. Mstcheew 

Thank God for Mildred who had taken her to meet that Baba before she'd gotten pregnant.

She would probably be having another girl now. Mstcheew. Who’s to say it wouldn’t be? After all, that was what Dayo was only able to do. Give her girls. Rubbish!

She smiled at herself in the mirror and did a little victory dance. She was going to have a boy!. She would get him his personal nanny, Judith and Dorcas could handle the girls. Nobody was to make him cry for any reason. She would spoil him rotten, give him whatever he wanted. She would be the best mother ever. Oh yes. She just couldn’t wait!

***

“what do you mean by that!” Kike yelled at Dayo as he got ready to go for his morning jog the next morning.

“you heard me right Kike” Dayo said calmly as he tied his running shoes, ignoring the decibel of Kike's voice. He was so used to it, he barely noticed “I’m not buying you another car. There is nothing wrong with the car you are using now”

“how can you say that! I’m about to have a baby, in case you haven’t noticed” she pointed at her belly “Am I not supposed to have something to mark this milestone in our lives?”

“what milestone do you need another car for? If I’d bought a car for every baby we had, this compound would be filled with cars.”

Dayo was getting frustrated, his wife was being unreasonable again.
She had come at him that morning as soon as he got out of bed asking for a new car. 

He stood to face her and began as he ticked off on his fingers 

“I bought u an X-5 for your fortieth birthday, that was less than 2 years ago, last year October, you travelled to Europe because you wanted to shop for baby clothes and didn’t want to buy them online, I paid for that. You took your cousin along, someone who, by the way, was supposed to be going to work and going for her weekly community service like NYSC requires because you DID NOT want to go alone, I paid for that too. I just renewed our house rent this January, every month, I pay peter, your driver, Stephen, the gateman, Judith and dorcas. I give you money for home keep. I give you a monthly allowance despite the fact that you have a tailoring shop that generates good income. I have to pay school fees, the electricity bill, water bill. I service your car and mine. I fuel your car and mine. Kike, I pay for your hair and a host of other things that just pop up spontaneously! ” he threw his hands in the air “we need to start being prudent Kike, another baby is coming. More expenses”

“are u saying my son is going to be a burden to you?” Kike said with narrowed eyes

“no i didn’t say-“

“that my child will live a meagre lifestyle just because you are being stingy? So those things I bought for him were too much? Is it wrong to want your children to have the best things in life ehn dayo!”

“am I a burden to you?” Kike stormed

He ignored her question and sat down again, because truthfully, she was beginning to burden him with her demands 

“be reasonable Kike. What you are asking is-"

“what am I asking that is too much?” she threw her hands in the air “so I want a car, big deal, you can afford it cant you?”

“its not about if I can afford it or not” Dayo replied “ its about whether it is necessary or not and the way I see it, it is not necessary. There are more important things in life and if you don’t see that, that's your problem”

“now you you telling me that I’m stupid abi?!” she thundered, “emi Kikelomo. Ha! I have been ridiculed.  Just look at yourself. Your mates are there buying two to three cars at once. I am asking you for just one small thing. You are yelling about one stupid car that you bought 2 years ago. You call that a car? God forbid. May I not suffer in my life”

Dayo merely looked at her unmoving

“I was on my own o, when you came to meet me that day.” She continued

Dayo looked at his wristwatch, he knew where this was going

“I was on my own Dayo” she repeated “when you came to meet me that day. Later on you begged me to marry you. You begged. You told me you would always provide for my needs and now look at you. Weak!. You are nothing but a week man. W-E-A-K, weak! Ordinary boy child, you cannot give” she clapped her hands “ shior! After finding solution to my problem, in fact, your problem! After running helter skelter, just to make this our family complete, one little thing, you cannot buy”

“that enough!” Dayo stood from where he was seated. 

She simply laughed in his face

“what will you do?” she asked hands on hips “are you going to beat me?” she laughed again “you can't even discipline your children when they do something wrong, look at how you spoilt Dolapo. When I was her age, I was washing my clothes”

Dolapo was their first child, she was 9 years old

“any little thing she will start crying my daddy my daddy like a little emere” Kike sneered “you are now standing up to me Dayo. Mstcheew. To do what?”

“I don’t have time for this.” he turned away only to be blocked by her protruding belly. It was surprising to Dayo how fast she moved whenever she was having one of her moods. Normally, he couldn't get her to move fast enough whenever she was pregnant. 

“you’re not going anywhere!” she declared “we are going to finish this discussion”

“its stopped being a discussion when you started yelling. Move” his patience was wearing thin and he was beginning to get angry

Kike could see Dayo trying very hard to hold onto his anger. 

No matter how hard she pushed, he had never in 11 years, yelled at her or hit her. He preferred to leave the house, sometimes for hours on end. But then again, she had never stood in his way before and looking at him now, she could tell he really hated it and was beginning to get furious with her. 

She needed to change her game plan, and fast. She thought. An angry man was not a pliable man. Even if he may be a weakling. She needed to tweak the right buttons to get what she wanted.

“oya pele.” She pleaded “I was only playing with you nau. Please don’t leave me like this”

Dayo studied his wife. Her gracefully aging face that he loved so much was pressed against his chest. A downward pout on her lips. Her change in mood didn’t surprise him at all. This had been something he'd had to deal with since her gender selection obsession began. She also said the most hurtful things which he sometimes found difficult to forget

“I have to go”

“I said I’m sorry nau” she squeezed him tighter “I didn’t mean what I said, I swear. I was just so frustrated”

“It’s okay” dayo unwrapped her hands “I've heard you. We’ll talk when I get back”

“Really?” she gave a wide smile

“Yes.” Dayo forced a smile of his own

...to be continued
















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 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.