Previous Episodes

Life went on well two weeks after the sex tape episode that it seemed it never happened. Kayode was discharged two days after my meeting with Linda and since then I’ve not heard or set my eyes on him. He probably regretted the whole thing just like I did. What we went through just wasn’t worth the twenty or thirty minute’s sexual pleasure we had enclosed in his hospital room. I hope I never set eyes on him which would just bring in the reminder of the whole drama. As for Dr. Miles I tried hard so our path wouldn’t cross and so far I’ve been successful probably because he was avoiding me too. That dude was so crazy but not as crazy as one of the doctor I knew while I was a nurse in training. This sick doctor had slept with a patient while she was in bed dosed with enough drug to put a horse out. She came to me in tears. She wasn’t sure so she couldn’t report to the proper authority. She woke up with her pants not exactly on her buttocks and her cloths in disarray. She remembered being mounted by someone but didn’t have the strength to fight him cause she was sedated. She told me she didn’t see the person’s face but she suspected the doctor. He was the one who treated her while looking at her lustfully. As a man I know it will take enough will power not to stare at her hungrily. She has this massive backside and breast. She wasn’t pretty but God blessed her in other places. It was no reason for a man to sleep with a woman when she wasn’t conscious. That was rape, rape in its lowest form.

Nothing exciting happened all week. Just the normal patients coming in with the usual ailment. Nothing to write home about. I was just about closing for the day when a young girl was rushed in by an elderly lady I later found out to be her mum. She was bleeding terribly and was in great pains. We rushed her into intensive care. Doctor James was on duty so he took care of her while we assisted him. She was in so much pain, crying and clutching hard at her tummy. I thought she was going to die. Dr. James found out the problem after examining her. He discovered someone had conducted D&C on her but didn’t do it well. The doctor had left some part of the baby in her and that was what was causing her so much agony. The mother was devastated on hearing the real reason why her daughter was in so much pain. Dr. James ascertained the pregnancy to have been about five months. He had to extract the pieces out of her one by one before washing her womb. He brought out tiny bones that he said was once part of the baby’s skull and wrist. It was horrible looking at it. The girl’s mum threw up right there. When we were through the girl was exhausted. The mum didn’t wait for her to wake up fully before giving her a piece of her mind. It’s a very crazy sick world I was working in. I thought about quitting my job there and then. I was actually sick to my stomach. I wasn’t sure I would be able to eat that night. The doctor put her on drip admitting her for the night to recuperate. I couldn’t wait to leave the hospital so happy my off day was starting tomorrow which was a weekend. I was lucky to get a cab home at that time of the night. When I got home I threw my bag at a corner, took of my shoes, jumped on my bed without taking off my cloths. My bed felt like heaven as I drifted off to dream land. Sleep had never felt so sweet.

I woke up to people quarreling outside. I looked out my window, the sun was out already. The voices outside sounded familiar so I rushed out my door to find out what was going on. Mama Bomboy was crying while the neighbors gathered round consoling her. What was the problem I wondered? I looked for someone close by to explain to me what was going on. The landlord’s first daughter was the first person I sighted close to me. She told me mama Bomboy had caught her husband with another woman in their home and instead of the man to show some remorse he had boldly told her he was tired of her and wanted her out of the house. He said she was too fat and ugly. Wow!!! Was it that he didn’t know that before he married her? Men!!! They never cease to amaze one. When everyone had gotten tired of consoling her, the crowd around her reduced. I went over to her to give my own words of consolation when she begged me if she could stay in my place for today. She had no relative in Lagos. All her relatives lived in the east. It was too late to travel. I told her I don’t mind after all she was a really nice woman. We went into the house together and there she continued to lament to me. Not that she was ugly, childbirth had taken a toll on her. Like most married women she didn’t pay much attention to herself so she got fat and aged a bit. I felt sorry for her. I gave her the best advice I felt I could in the form of a story.

“Mrs. Ufuoma cried like she had never cried before. Even when she lost her mum she didn’t cry as much as she was doing now. Her husband had just told her he had developed a mild aversion towards her. Mrs. Ufuoma had principles and pride so she wasn’t prepared to stay where she wasn’t loved. After crying nonstop for hours she stood up, went to the wardrobe, transferred her cloths on the hanger into her opened luggage. After sixteen years of marriage so this was how it will all end? She was just 35 years of age. She got married when she was 19. She was always of the notion that the only thing that’ would separate her from her husband was death. Death in their old age that was what she had thought but now here she was about to move back to her parents’ house.

She wondered if she should take the kids or not. Should she take them with the hope that when he misses the kids he’ll come looking for them or leave them with an excuse to come back to the house now and then. She decided on the later. When she was done she dragged her luggage to the sitting room where her husband sat. She looked at him wondering where the man she had married had gone to. This was not her husband. The husband she had married won’t let her walk out the door. The man who promised to love her for better and for worst. The man she was so in love with that at 19 she went against her parents, her family, gave up all her dreams to marry this man she love more than life itself. Not that her parents disliked Alex her husband, they had nothing against him apart from the fact that he was taking their little girl from them at an early age. Like every parents hers wanted her to go to school, to make something out of her life before tying the knot. She wanted to be a medical doctor. She was the best student in biology and chemistry. Everyone had such high hope on her and they were quite shocked when she chose love over her dreams and ambition. Alex was 24 at the time. They had this neighbor close to them. The Briggs. She never knew they had a son who was studying law abroad and have not been home since he left for the states until they invited her family over for his welcome back party. She went with her parents to celebrate the return of the Briggs only son and heir.

She didn’t notice him at first cause she was busy admiring their garden and pool. She had slipped away to their backyard to escape all the elders that had gathered at the sitting room chatting nonstop about things like stock exchange, business, the economy, loads and loads of adult boring talks. She had regretted why she came. Her mum was always dragging her to such functions. She had thought she would see her age mates here but as usual she was the only young person at the party. She guessed she was the only teenager that could not stand up to her mum, placing her foot down refusing to tag along like a child. She sat down at the edge of the pool, dipped her hands inside, felt the cool water embracing her hands as she swept her it up and down causing a small wave to ripple at the spot. She had always wanted a pool but her parents never bought the idea. They felt comfortable in their six bedroom duplex and small garden. She was so busy she didn’t notice she wasn’t alone no more. She felt a presence and when she turned her back to detect the source there he was by the door looking at her.

He was so cute in his shirt well tucked in his ironed and probably starched trouser down to his well-polished shoes with his tie. He had his arms crossed, leaning on the wall just watching her. She remembered how she had blushed. He was looking so fresh. In her head she made a note to tell parents that she wanted to study abroad too. All the people she knew that came back from that place always looked fresh and sweet. They came back looking like half caste. Ufuoma knew immediately that she was in love. This must be love at first sight. And that was how their romance started. Before she turned 18 she missed her period. With fear and tears flowing from her eyes she told him the news. She was glad when he didn’t deny the pregnancy and was ecstatic when he got down on his knee and proposed to her. She never thought he would ask her to marry him. She had watched movies where the guys either deny the girl’s pregnancy or ask her to get rid of it. In Movies she had seen where love suddenly turned to hate. So one can understand how she felt when he said he was so happy she was having his baby and proposed at the same time. She couldn’t face her parents alone so she went with the Briggs who at first didn’t approve of what the son had done but didn’t scold him too much because they were so happy to have a grandchild, after they weren’t able to have other children after they had Alex. They were glad they were about to be grandparents. Her parents were disappointed at her. They had expected more from her but since she was pregnant they couldn’t do anything about it. And that was how she became Mrs. Ufuoma Briggs at 19.