DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
EPISODE 7
Officials of the Federal Safety Commission who saw when the accident happened rushed to the scene of the accident and rushed Shana to the hospital. When they saw that there was no injury and that she may have passed out from shock, they tried to revive her and when they got to the hospital she was put on bed rest and with drip for she was very weak. The doctor on duty called her husband after Shana called out the number of her husband. He was just about to go out for his lunch break when his phone began to ring. It was an unknown number, thinking it was a customer calling, he ignored. When the caller persisted, he picked the call.
Femi: “Hello, who is this?”
Caller: “Is this Mr Femi Johnson?”
Femi: “Yes, how may I help you?”
Caller: “Your wife was involved in accident this morning. Your attention is needed at New Life hospital”.
Femi: “What! My wife? What happened to her? I hope she is fine? Hello? Hello? Can I speak with her?”
The caller had already dropped the call and he was confused not knowing what to do. He decided against going for the lunch and decided to drive to the hospital to see his wife. When he got to the hospital, he was led to the private ward where his wife was already awake.
Femi: “Sweetheart, gosh that caller scared me. I thought something terrible had happened to you. How are you?”
Shana tried to sit up but Femi helped her to lie back. “Don’t bother getting up”, he got up and sat beside her on the bed and took her hands in his own. “How did it happen?”
Shana: “I don’t know, Ifemi. All I know is that I was driving and then a car ran into me, all I heard was a crash, I got scared and closed my eyes. When I opened it, I saw myself here on this hospital bed”.
Femi: “Sorry, I have told you to be more careful anytime you are driving. Where were you going to that early in the morning?”’
Shana appeared dumb for a while and then she regained her senses. “I was coming to the hospital for the pregnancy test we spoke about yesterday. Oh my God, my baby. Did I lose my baby? What happened to my baby?”
Femi: “Calm down, nobody said anything happened to your baby”.
Shana began to scream and kick and the nurses on duty ran in to her.
Nurse: “What is it, madam? Oga, what did you do to our patient?”
Femi: “I don’t know. We were just talking and suddenly she got hysterical asking about her pregnancy”.
Nurse: “Calm down, madam. We didn’t want to tell you about the pregnancy until your condition is more stable and until your husband comes around”.
Shana: “I am stable already; I couldn’t have been more stable. And here is my husband, so tell me what I need to know”.
Nurse: “Sir, are you her husband?” she asked Femi.
Femi: “Yes, ma’am. I am”.
Nurse: Okay. Excuse me, I will be back in a few minutes. She returned carrying a folder with the name ‘Shana Johnson’ boldly written on it. “When your wife was brought in, we carried some series of test on her and we discovered that she is 9 weeks pregnant. However, we noticed that your wife has unstable blood pressure and that is why she passed out of shock this morning. This can be dangerous for the baby, and so we advise that you take good care of her and avoid anything that will trigger her blood pressure.
Shana heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the doctor confirm that she was pregnant. Femi too was glad and he couldn’t hide his excitement. He grabbed his wife on the bed and hugged her. “It has been confirmed, sweetheart. We are going to have our own baby!” he was grinning from ear to ear.
Shana insisted that they discharge her that day but the doctor refused saying he was going to observe her blood pressure for 48 hours.
Two days later, during lunch hours, Femi came around to the hospital to take his wife home after she called him on phone to inform him that she had been discharged. From the hospital, they drove to the VIO’s office where the car she had the accident with was parked. When Shana saw the damage on the car, she began to weep for she had a soft spur for the car being the gift Femi had bought for her a day after their wedding.
Femi: “Why are you crying, sweetheart?”
Shana: “Look at my car, Ifemi. It is such a wreck now. I had hoped that I will drive my child around in this car someday”.
Femi: “Wipe your tears, my dear. It’s just a car, what if you were the one who was injured? Would you be here crying over a smashed car? Listen, you are carrying my child, the first fruit of my loins and I can’t watch you cry. Tomorrow is Saturday, work free day. We are going to the car dealer, pick any car of your choice and it is yours”.
Shana: “You want to buy another car for me? In this period of recession?”
Femi: “Recession is just a word where there is a will. Remember that your hubby is a bank manager?” he teased her.
Shana: “Like any car I want?”
Femi: “Yes, I will buy you any car that you want, again and again and again”, he hugged her. Somewhere, a young single VIO officer was watching them and praying for God to give her a man like Femi who loved his wife so much.
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Femi called his parents and broke the good news of his wife’s pregnancy to them. His father was more than glad because he was beginning to get worried over his daughter in law’s childlessness.
Shana on the other hand called her mother and she spent hours on phone talking to them on phone.
Shana: “Mum, there is a little problem however”.
Mrs Banjo: “What problem, is it with you or with the pregnancy?”
Shana: “It is with me. I was involved in a minor accident recently but I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to scare you. During my stay at the hospital, the doctor diagnosed that I have an unstable blood pressure, like I have high blood pressure and that may affect the pregnancy if I am not careful”.
Mrs Banjo: “High blood pressure? You never had that before you got married. How old are you that you will have high blood pressure? Have you been thinking? Is there anything that I need to know?”
Shana knew that the cause of her high blood pressure was linked to Femi’s infidelity and his keeping late nights but she didn’t want to tell her parents because she knew that his attitude could cause problems for the two families. She was determined to keep whatever she was going through in her home to herself alone. As a woman, she would build the home of her dream alone without the help of her extended family.
“Are you there?” her mother’s voice came through the receiver.
Shana: “Yes, mum. I am fine. I don’t know why my blood is fluctuating. Probably because it took me so long to conceive”.
Mrs Banjo: “I have told you not to worry about that. God gives children anytime he wishes. Why do you have to bother yourself when Femi doesn’t even care about that? That gentle man loves you more than life and he is faithful to you so why should you allow the delay in your conceiving affect your blood pressure? Anyway, thank God you are pregnant now, please take care of yourself before I come”.
Shana: “Okay, mum. Love you, bye”.
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Since the hospital confirmed that his wife was carrying his child, Femi had returned to the faithful husband that he was before he began to seek solace in the arms of other women. He had been avoiding Licia like a plague and wouldn’t even pick her calls. That day, she paid him a surprise visit in his office.
Femi: “What can I do for you, Licia? This is a bank and I don’t entertain unofficial guests”.
Licia: “Unofficial guests? Is that what you call your real deal now? Femi for more than a month now you have been avoiding me. You won’t visit me and you won’t pick my calls. What did I do wrong?”
Femi: “Listen, you didn’t do anything wrong okay? I am just tired of this extra marital affairs thing. I am concentrating on making my wife happy”.
Licia: “You must be kidding me, Femi”.
Femi: “I am not, the earlier you get used to this status quo, the better. In fact, get yourself your own husband, it will do you good”.
Licia: “You are not serious, Femi. In fact, you are just kidding. You think you can use me and dump me just like that? Like seriously? Do I look like a woman that will allow a man slip through her thighs just like that? After using me to satisfy your desires you now want to go back to your wife? Where was your wife when I was working hard on my bed to satisfy your huge sexual appetite? Femi, you will come back begging, I promise you that”.
Femi: “You are beginning to constitute yourself a nuisance in this premises. Get out before I ask the security guy to throw you out”.
Licia: “I will go but mark my words, you will come back begging”.
Femi: “We shall see to that, get out!”
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WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 8
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