"In Agony, With Child" Episode 2...

Nkechi

 

“Goodness gracious” I said snapping out of the honey sweet memories of my long forgotten childhood which streamed back like a rush of water carried from the ocean to shore by the strong east wind. I was still rubbing my tummy when I snapped back to reality, still looking at my protruded belly when I caught a glimpse of what I was wearing. I realized I was in my ankle length ‘boubou’. I remember putting it on being bored all day as Tony was at work. I tried his phone and he didn’t pick. He sent me a message on bbm 30mins later saying he was in a meeting with some big clients on the multi million Naira deal he was about to land. He had stayed up all night, getting things in place, getting his statistics, his arguments, his speech, his strong points his everything together for the morrow. I wish he wasn’t involved in that deal. I wish the clients would have contacted another company not Tony’s. I wish that Tony was not one of the best Advertising agents around. I know that is a really harsh thing to say, really selfish but which pregnant woman isn’t? All I wanted was my husband to hold me tight and make the pain bearable. To make it all  go away if possible. To make me feel like I wasn’t alone in all this, but wishes were not horses. He had the clients, he ran the best AD agency around and he was staying up all night instead of being with me in bed. I just went to my dressing table and sat. I experimented with colors shades and ranges of make up putting on and removing till I was satisfied. I was the most beautiful expectant mother on the whole planet earth. Tony confirmed it and that’s all that matters so you can as well keep your opinions to yourselves “Asko”. With one last glance at my beautiful puffed and rounded self in my yellow light bulb surrounded mirror, I blew myself a kiss and left for the sitting room upstairs. I looked at the clock it was 9:35pm and Tony was not yet back.  Rubbing my tummy somehow made me thirsty at this moment. I had just finished a glass of juice but I was somehow still thirsty. I slowly got up from the love seat and headed for the kitchen downstairs. I opened the refrigerator and brought out the home made juice Tony had made yesterday. He prided himself of his infamous fruit squash which consisted of pineapples, oranges, grapes, apples and whatever he put inside. All I know is that somehow it ended up tasting good. I placed the jug full of juice on the marbled kitchen table and reached for a glass cup. I slowly poured the juice into the cup without looking, watching TV on the LG refrigerator when I heard a splash on the floor. I had thought that by me not looking I had spilled the juice on the floor but the cup was not yet full and neither had I spilled the juice. I bent a bit to look closely only to have a contraction. That was when I realized
my water had broken…….

To be continued...

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"In Agony, With Child" Episode 1...

NKECHI

I sat uncomfortably on the love seat in the family sitting room which was upstairs at the Opebi four bedroom duplex which I shared with my husband Tony. I flipped through the channels on the TV but couldn’t find anything that impressed me. I could not tell why the evening news which always got me excited as It always gave me something to talk about being a self acclaimed critic of everything, or the fashion network which only made me all the more jealous of the figure of the size zero models strutting they fatless flesh all over the place. Over the last 6months I could not believe how my once model like figure which Shayo had once told me could compete with the models on a Gucci runway at the New York fashion week could turn out to become even worse than Iya  Monsurat, the 120\kg stout lady who runs a buka down the road. If only she could see me right now 9months into my first pregnancy she, would take back what she said. I looked down at my tummy and the smile on my face was one of reminiscence. I could remember how I used to play ‘mummy and daddy’ with Emeka about 22years ago. How I would stuff  my tiny clothes under my tiny top sometimes using my younger brother’s plastic football and use a wrapper to cover and hold it like a pregnant woman like I had seen in the home videos I and my family had watched. I could still remember how my mother would clean the tape and slot it into the VCR. I remember being fascinated with the way it swallowed the cassette with groans like a huge wild cat. “Emeka I think its time ooo. I think its time for you child to come out oo” I would scream holding my waist while Big headed Emeka would run down to help me into his makeshift car made of only a flat wood which lay lifeless on the ground with empty bournvita tins as chairs. He would keep saying “Ozuola Nwunyem. Ndo. Ebezina ozo.” (Its ok my dear wife. Sorry, don’t cry anymore). The car never moved though but to us it did. To us we were on the highway making for the hospital in town. Emeka just knew how to make the engine sound with his mouth “duvvvvwwwweeee, vvvwwweee, vrrrrrrroooooommmm” his hands swerving from left to right as he overtook the cars, commercial motorcyclists popularly called okada, as well as commercial buses. I could still remember my hands wrapped around his waist as he cursed the okada people who got in our way. I felt loved, I felt secure, I felt I was married. Emeka was my hero. I could still remember how he looked over his shoulders with a smile telling me “its going to be a boy”…..

 

To be continued...

 

By Nado.

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