Episode 13
TOO HARD TO LET GO
I didn’t see Deborah when I got home. Another neighbor told me she has been taken to the hospital.
“I think, the city hospital”. She said.
I drove out again.
She was on drip, and lying unconscious on the bed. The woman that called me earlier was sitting by her bedside.
“She had bleeding”. She said.
“She wasn’t brought here on time, so she miscarried the pregnancy”. The doctor announced, when I went to see him in the office.
I wept.
When she learnt of the miscarriage, Deborah almost killed herself.
For days, she didn’t get off the bed, she was like a widow, mourning her dead husband. I had to stay by her side most of the times.
Lucy didn’t relent. She texted me almost every day, pleading with me to come and see her. I kept deleting her messages. But one Saturday morning, I decided to go meet her.
She sent her address.
When I got to the house, she brought out a plastic chair, and placed it in the verandah for me. I think it’s a one bedroom apartment.
“I will be with you shortly”. She said.
I sat down, and waited. From the cry of the baby emanating from within, I guessed she bathing her.
I waited for almost an hour, before an elderly woman came out from the room, put on her slippers, and left… she must have been the one bathing the baby.
Lucy took another fifteen minutes, before coming out to see me.
“Sorry, I had to attend to the baby. She apologized before sitting on a woman bench, she brought out.
..Firstly I want to thank you for saving us in the hos….”. She began, but I interrupted.
“I don’t have all the time. Say whatever you want to say, and let me leave”. I said, impatiently.
” Okay. Do you remember that my ex?”. She asked, but I was too angry to reply. She had to repeat the question.
“I don’t remember anybody, and I don’t want to remember. Just tell me why you called me out here, and let me leave”. I replied, angrily.
“Okay. You know that guy that bought me that phone then?….” She was saying, before I interrupted again.
“Oh, it’s now your ex?, no longer ‘just a friend?”.I asked, mockingly.
She nodded
“I lied. He is my ex”. She replied.
I was filled with anger. Lucy didn’t even start today to deceive me.
*I had seen her with a new phone,one time she came to visit me. I was curious because I knew she cannot afford such brand of phone, considering her income. She told me, it was an uncle that gifted her. I insisted on knowing the particular uncle because she has always told me of how she was so unlucky with extended family. That was when she told me that it was from a friend who just returned from the States.
“But he is like an uncle to me”. She had said then.
*
“So what?, did you call me here to talk about your past?”.I asked.
She shook her head.
“Not really. You know you asked me to return the phone to him”.
“Yes?”. I muttered.
“I returned it. But the day I did, he forced himself on me”. She said.
“Like, he r£ped you?”. I asked, and she nodded.
I clapped three times.
“You’re good in what you do”. I mocked her.
“Douglas, you have to believe me. Why I broke up with that guy was because of drugs… he’s an addict. So when I went to his house that evening, he was high, so he pulled….”. She was explaining.
“You really know how to make up stories. Just listen to yourself. He didn’t r@pe you the day he gave you the phone. He had to wait for you to return it. What are you even saying?”. I said.
“You know I won’t call you out here to lie”. She insisted.
“So what you’re saying now is that the guy is the father of the baby?”. I asked.
“That is what I don’t know”. She replied.
“That means someone else is involved?”. I asked, getting angrier.
“Yes”. She nodded.
“Another ex?”. I asked.
“No”. She shook her head.
“So who is it this time?”.I asked.
“You”. She replied.
Typing 14….
