Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Outside the wind blew noisily. It could have been the harmattan approaching. The zinc that was on top of the wooden cage for the fowls could be heard flapping it's free sides. Mark had bought three fowls to groom before Christmas. The zinc was on top of the wooden cage with big stones on it to prevent it from flying away. It was kept there when the rain was frequent to shelter the Fowls from getting soaked.

The little garden Kamsi used to water was now a dry land of little signs of Vegetables. The saint leaves were all dry and gone, the same with curry leaves and the red pepper. She looked at them with remorse knowing that if she had faithfully watered them, they would have managed to live.

She moved to the cage of fowls . She opened a small door and let in their bowl of feed and bowl of water. All of them were cocks so they could fight for their male egos from time to time. It was better than having a hen with them. Cocks knew how to be ruthless. Their mating never looked consensual; it always looked like a rape with the hen struggling beneath and the cock struggling to position on top of her.

After seeing the fowls, she went up to bathe. She planned to eat at work so the other housemate could take care of himself. On her calendar, hung on the wall in her room she circled the date under the month of November. It was her fourth month of pregnancy.

As she dressed for work, there was a knock on her door then Mark entered the room . He was fully dressed for work in a navy blue suede jacket, a sky blue shirt and black trousers. His head that he loved to shave within a space of just two days looked like it shone more under the light where he stood in her room.

She turned away. "Good morning."

She was wearing just her black leggings and a white bra looking for the ankle length butterfly gown she wanted to wear. It was a lycra material that never needed ironing.

"Did you feed the fowls? " Mark asked after he took his time, enjoying the silence in the room.

" Yes, I did," she replied, still pushing the clothes in the wardrobe to search.

"Okay. I asked Timothy to be doing that but he keeps forgetting," he replied.

She had seen Mark most mornings and nights going to feed the fowls. It could only be a relief to him that she did it. She shrugged anyway.

She found the nude dress she had been searching for and donned it. It covered the leggings she wore and stopped at her ankle. It also had a loose fitting, it was her major reason for looking for it.

" I am going to work. Are you done? I can drop you off," Mark offered.

Without having the strength to respond to him, she just shook her head.

"I'll be downstairs," he said. He waited, maybe for a response.

She stuffed her previous test results into her big black handbag then wore flat slippers. She did not want to wear a shoe and her gown even covered her feet, she had to hold it up as she walked. It was Friday and anything could pass.

She walked downstairs to meet Mark in the garage with his bonnet open.

" I'm going to work, " she announced.

He closed the bonnet and cleaned his hands on a towel rag.

" Kamsi, " he called, halting her steps to reach the gate.

" Wait, let me drop you at work."

She could go to work by bike like she had been doing but that meant going to stand at the junction waiting for a bike which she could also do. She was also curious; what would happen in the car - Will they talk like husband and wife? Will he apologise? So she turned and walked back to enter his car.

" Is there anything you need?" He asked as he drove out of the gate.

"No," she replied, using her palm to cup her jaw while she leaned closer to the window. He hated it - People leaning on the car window but he said nothing. He just engaged in the practice of looking at her briefly, back on the road then at her again.

" I will be done on time today. Should I come and pick you?" he asked.

"No. My day is uncertain," she replied,staring out of the window.

He adjusted on his seat as that statement piqued his interest.

"What are you doing today? " He asked.

She sat up and let out a sigh. Every word she spoke to him was draining more strength than normal.

" I plan on going for my antenatal check up in between work. I don't know when I would be done," She replied.

"Oh, it does not take time na. It's the general hospital you are going to right?"

"I don't know," she replied now looking out the window again.

"You should go there. It's closer and their services are better," he said.

He drove into the headquarters and stopped outside her office. Before she got down he searched in his trouser and gave her some money.

" For the bills and whatever else," he said, handing her the money.

" Thank you," she said and hopped down with the money.

She stuffed the money into her hand bag as she hurried towards the office where she would sign in. Mark hooted and waved at her before he drove off. Even as she signed her name and her time of arrival, a smile graced her lips. She had missed him, she had missed not talking to him, not disturbing him, causing him to frown or smile. She had missed all of that.

She just sat on the bench in her office greeting whoever came in and watching activities that went on - The baseless gossip and the loud prayer of Mrs Ihediora, who was one of the religious women in the office. Someone from outside would even think that they had turned their office into a prayer house. She stayed there till noon then she got up and left quietly without saying a word to anyone.

From the headquarters, she could actually walk to the General hospital. It was indeed closer than Okechukwu's hospital. She walked down the tarred road leading to the hospital, pinching a part of her gown around her thighs to hold it up.

In the hospital, she paid for her card and joined the group of people waiting in the reception. She had to wait ofcourse, she knew no one there. She bought pure water from a woman hawking outside then went back to the bench she had been sitting on. Someone else had taken up her space and there was no space on the other wooden benches in the hall. She leaned on the wall clutching her bag waiting for someone to stand up so she could sit because her turn was a long time in coming. The hall was filled with older people, a few young people. She was the only pregnant woman.

Someone stood up from a bench and as she hurried to take the space, a young boy sat down.

" Allow her to sit. Can't you see her condition?" an older woman scolded the boy.

"No, I'm fine," Kamsi protested. She was not handicapped, she was just pregnant.

The boy stood, though reluctantly and Kamsi asked him to sit back. He gladly sat back on the space while the older woman eyed him up and down.

A fair slim nurse approached Kamsi. "Come. There's a nurse to attend to you," she said.

Kamsi followed her down the hallway , freed from the everlasting woes of waiting for her name to be called. The young nurse led her into an office. There was a dark woman sitted there. She was a huge woman. Immediately Kamsi entered, she stood up and threw something in the waste bin close to the door.

"Good day, ma," Kamsi greeted,obviously baffled by her height.

" Please sit down," The nurse replied. Her voice was rich,thick, deep, almost masculine.

She went through the files on her table before fully facing Kamsi.

"This is your first time here," she remarked.

"Yes. I was going to a friend's hospital before."

"Are you eating at all?" She asked.

Kamsi nodded, playing with the hand of her hand bag.

" We're not going to waste time. There are lots of people waiting outside. I'm going to write you a list of tests to run then you would come back next week," The nurse said and began writing on a sheet of paper.

Kamsi brought out her test results from her hand bag and placed it on the table.

" I came with my previous test results," she said.

" Those things you people collect from those quack private laboratories," The nurse said, still writing on the piece of paper.

Kamsi found herself walking towards their laboratory based on directions. There were two women and a man sitting there. She was asked to sit after she gave them the piece of paper. The man drew her blood with a syringe then gave her a specimen container for her to urinate.

She followed his instructions and got to the toilet. The floor of the toilet was wet with marks of sandy soles of footwear on it. The place reeked of urine smell like people used the floor and not the toilet which had lots of tissue stuffed into it. She locked the door and used a bucket which contained little water to flush the toilet then she got to business. Her eyes moved to the dust bin which was an iron bucket. There were lots of pieces of paper inside it with black nylons tied. She did not want to imagine what was inside those nylons but she knew.

She came out and submitted the sample to them. She could still perceive the smell of the place around her. It was as if the smell clung to her skin and her dress. She so desperately wanted to ask someone if they could perceive the foul stench around her also or was it just her nose that had refused to unregister the smell?

She was certain of just one thing - she was never going back there again.

As she approached the headquarters, she could see a crowd gathered around the gate close to the gutter. She walked faster to where people were gathered.

" Tufiakwa. This person is cursed naa," Someone said.

" e no go better for am," Someone else spat out.

Everyone had their hands folded,lips turned down and heads shaking in disapproval. She pushed and pushed through till she was in front of the gutter looking at two babies that were lying inside the gutter lifeless . Their umbilical cords swayed side to side in the little water in the gutter. She had not been expecting that. Her whole bones stilled and she stiffly walked away from the crowd, wrapping her hands around herself not minding if her gown swept the ground.

............................................................

Mark was in the sitting room when she returned. She collapsed on the long sofa staring into space.

"Welcome," he said to her.

She barely nodded and touched her tummy briefly. She could not still wrap her head around how anyone would dispose of babies that came from her. She remembered how those babies lay in that gutter,naked. They could have died from the cold or hunger but they were just there, two little lives denied the right to live, to dream even before they could learn to breathe.

Mark knelt in front of her and wiped a tear she did not even know strolled down. She had long forgotten about the smell from the public toilet else she would have gone up to shower first.

"What's wrong?" he asked, running a finger down her face.

" You won't believe what I saw today," she said like someone in a trance.

She narrated all she saw to him while he listened quietly holding her hand in his .

"They are in a better place now," he said, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

She nodded. Pain truly had a gravity and also a magnet. It pulled her to the ground and replayed all painful memories in her head and she no longer shivered from what she had seen earlier but all that she had been through.

She allowed her husband to hold her hand as he led her into his room. With the carefulness and patience of a lover, he stripped her of each piece of clothing she had on till she was bare then he led her into the bathtub. She was just silent like an obedient child. She lowered herself into the bathtub and began to sponge herself.

Mark was still standing at the door ,watching her with his arms folded across his chest.

" Do you want to sponge my back?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.

He took the sponge without saying a word and began to sponge her.

He wrapped his navy blue towel around her before carrying her out of the bathtub.

"You will need to get some sleep," he said as he lowered her to the bed.

He brought out one of his big polos he knew she loved to wear and he loved seeing it on her. He sat on the bed to help her put it on but on a second thought, he lowered his face to hers seeking her lips. She obliged him, parting her lips and granting him access for his tongue to dance with hers. He ran the tip of his tongue on her lips, tickling her.

He got off the bed and hurriedly pulled down his trousers then got rid of the towel that was still wrapped around her. He joined her back in bed, settling in between her thighs. His mouth found its way to her full breast and he sucked,nibbled, bit before going back to her lips. His tongue ran all over her upper lip, traced a line down her stomach and arms. He looked at her eyes for a brief second but failed to see all the hurt and sadness in those eyes.

He slowly turned her to the side and lay behind her as he thrust into her wetness, slowly at first to announce his presence then his pace increased. Kamsi held the sheet tighter as each thrust forced in emotions that she was supposed to forget with the heat of love making. Hurt, pain took over her whole being. She could not help imagining him inside another woman, ramming into her just like he was doing then.

His hands were everywhere all at once. The same way it could have been on another body, moulding, caressing, owning. She cried.

The man sharing her insides irritated her. It no longer felt the same ,the longer he stayed, the more tears brewed until they were pouring down the sheets without control. Mark noticed not the silence or the sniffing but the pleasure . He continued to pound inside her, his finger tracing the straight line at her back then he used a hand to pull her waist closer to him.

Kamsi struggled to get him to stop. It was not lovemaking. Him being inside her was torture, it was torturing her whole being. Mark would not stop. He could not stop. He held her hand, pinned to the bed and turned her till she was lying in a prone position and he thrusted faster into her from behind. It resembled a situation of a cock on a hen if not that she had stopped to struggle.

His lips descended on her left ear and his tongue ran on the ear and then chewed. It was not an irritating act to her until that day. She just lay there looking at the white wall, losing consciousness of all happening around her. Her eyes, red from shed and unshed tears.