DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
EPISODE 10
Femi followed the doctor to his office with his heart pounding furiously. As soon as he closed the door behind him in the doctor’s office, he ran out of patience.
Femi: “I can’t take the suspense anymore, doctor. Tell me what has happened to my wife before I faint and become another patient here”.
Doctor: “You need to seat down and calm down first”.
Femi: “Don’t tell me to sit down and calm down. My wife and unborn child are lying down sick on the hospital bed and you are saying I should calm down, calm down as how?”
The doctor sat down and brought out a file after perusing for few minutes and removing his glasses, he looked into Femi’s eyes.
Doctor: “I am sorry,Mr Femi, there was a miscarriage and your wife lost the pregnancy. We haven’t told her yet because her blood pressure is very high and we do not want anything that will trigger any sort of shock in her”.
Femi was dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that the child they were looking forward to having was no more. He had many questions to ask the doctor but when he opened his mouth to speak, the words refused to form.
Femi: “Doctor, how did the miscarriage happen? I mean what caused it?” he uttered inaudibly.
Doctor: “I didn’t get that, can you say it again?”
Femi: “How did my unborn child die?” he barked causing the doctor to startle on his seat.
The doctor recollected himself and cleared his throat. “You see, we observed that there was pressure on her lower abdomen which led to a weakness in the wall of the uterus….”
While the doctor was talking, Femi lost concentration, all he could think of was the years of barrenness that they had spent together and how that had pushed him into the arms of another woman. The news of her pregnancy had brought him back on track and now he felt like he was beginning to lose that sense of faithfulness all over again.
He needed to get away, far away from her and the miscarriage news, he didn’t even give any thought to Shana who was lying unconscious in the hospital, all he thought of was the pain of his crashed hope of fatherhood. He walked out of the doctor’s office, got into his car and drove away.
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Shana woke up with a start, she had slept for more than ten hours under the influence of the sedatives that she was given. She tried to get up but she felt weak. She felt for her stomach and she noticed that she felt very light. She touched her stomach to feel her baby and she felt that her pregnancy bump was no more. Then her mind went to the events of the previous day and how Femi had carried her over to the hospital and she began to scream. A nurse who was attending to one of the patients in the room close to Shana’s room heard her scream and ran into the room.
Shana: “Where is my baby? I can’t feel my stomach bump, what happened to it?”
Nurse: “You need to calm down, madam. You are working yourself worked up and that is not good for your health”.
Shana: “Don’t tell me what is good or bad for my health. All I am asking for is what happened to my child”.
Nurse: “Madam…”
Shana got violent and began to scream hysterically, pulling out her drip and threatening to harm herself if they didn’t tell her all that she needed to know. This coincided with the arrival of the doctor who came around for his routine check.
Doctor: “I see that my patient is awake and strong today. How do you feel? Any pains anywhere?”
Shana: “Doctor, where is my baby?”
Doctor: “Your baby is fine, madam. Just calm down, getting violent will do you more harm than good”.
Shana: “Don’t tell me that my baby is fine. I can’t feel anything in here”, she touched her stomach.
Doctor: “Madam…”
Shana: “Tell me the truth before I do something that we will both regret”, she threatened with determination clearly written all over her face.
The doctor knew that it was foolishness to take the words of a determined patient for granted. He had seen cases where a patient with the kind of fire she had in her eyes had done the unimaginable by running out to be hit to their death by drivers or even harming themselves with sharp objects. There and then, he decided to tell her the truth, there was no need hiding anything. He had hoped that her husband will find a way of telling her and consoling her thereby saving him the stress of doing that but ever since Femi left the hospital premises more than eight hours ago, he had not returned.
Doctor: “Madam, I am sorry but we tried our best. It’s just that it was a little bit too late when you got here”.
Shana: “What was too late?” all the pain and frustration she felt for years since she was unable to conceive were carried in those words.
Doctor: “It was too late for us to save the baby. You had a miscarriage”.
The words of the doctor hit Shana like a thunderbolt, she felt the ground crumbling under her but to her surprise she kept her calm. The doctor and the nurse were looking intently at her, they expected her to react violently and they were ready to prevent her from hurting herself should she attempt to.
Shana: “Hahahaha, hahahaha, I lost the pregnancy. Hohohoh, hehehe, I knew that this was too good to be true. I am back to my barren status quo, kikiki”, Shana found herself laughing uncontrollably to the amazement of the doctor.
The doctor moved close to her.
Shana: “You want to sedate me because you think I am mad? I am not mad o, I am perfectly okay”, Shana wanted to cry her eyes out but she couldn’t cry, there was a lump in her throat that prevented the tears from forming and she knew that her life could never be the same anymore.
Doctor: “I am sorry, madam. I am sure if you rest well and take your medication as prescribed, you will soon be discharged and you will get pregnant again in no time”.
Shana: “Hahaha, the doctor thinks it is that easy for me to conceive. Listen, it took me more than six years to take in, six agonizing and pain filled years. But it’s okay, I guess not every woman was created to be a mother. No problem! Where is my husband? I haven’t seen him since I woke up”.
Doctor: “Oh, your husband excused himself to go home and pick something. He should be on his way back by now”, the doctor lied. He had been her personal doctor since she had the accident and he knew how much the pregnancy meant to her. He couldn’t bear to hurt her more with details of her husband’s behavior.
Shana caught the doctor trying to look away and she knew that he was lying. She knew that the only thing that kept Femi to her was the pregnancy and now it was no more, she knew more than to expect him to care for her.
Shana: “You don’t have to lie. I know that Femi has abandoned me, I can imagine his reaction after you told him that I lost the pregnancy. Femi who promised on the altar before God and men to stick to me for better for worse, in sickness and in health has abandoned me to bear this cross alone”, the realization that Femi had abandoned her to go back to his mistress broke her heart and she began to cry, a soul reaching cry that brought out tears from the eyes of the nurse who was standing by her side. Shana felt like her world had crumbled. It was painful to lose one’s child in the womb but more painful was the pain of betrayal from a loved one. She took a decision in her heart concerning her marriage and then she went back to the bed shutting out the doctor and the nurse standing beside her from her agonizing world.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 11
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Femi is a fool