Millipede Chasing - Part 3

MILLIPEDE CHASING

This story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

PART THREE

“Nurse, can you tell the doctor to come see me?” Chibukem asked as she cried out in pain from the baby which was just about ready to pop out.

“You have no money so we can’t admit you, madam,” said the young nurse with a scowl. She glanced down at the poor woman with no sympathy at all. No money from patients meant no salary for her, so she had no reservations about sending the woman in labour away.

“Can’t you see I am in pain?” Chibukem cried out. She was consumed with the waves of agony washing over her abdomen and back, ripping her breath away every now and then.

“That’s not my fault. Don’t complain to me, complain to the man who did this to you,” the nurse barked rudely. “Yes! Where is the man who did this to you?” the nurse asked harshly with a frown which twisted her dark expression into contempt for the whining woman.

Of course she remembered him! She clearly remembered that stupid, spoilt fat goat! Chima was his name, the bastard that got her pregnant. She was a bright and average beauty, a rich girl. Her father, Mr. Frank Ibu, was the owner of Real News Newspaper. As a child she had the privilege of attending the most expensive school, Pretty High School. Never did she have even one boyfriend, unlike her friends, until the day she met Chima. It was love at first sight. Chima was a sweet talker and his charming words were music to her ears. He spoiled her with a big yellow teddy bear, a box of expensive chocolates and a pink flower for Valentine’s Day. The smitten young man would write poems in her honour, describing all the sacrifices he would endure for her. Her favourite was “I would cross the ocean for you”.

Chima was a fat boy, robust and sturdy in body with a dark complexion. He possessed romantic, cat-like eyes which smouldered when he looked at her. One could not blame Chibukem for falling from him. He was her Mr. Right and she was his Miss Right. Both were the other one’s godsend, perfect in match and passionately close. But things took another turn soon enough, after five months of dating.

Suddenly she was three months pregnant. Furious and embarrassed, Chibukem’s parents dragged her to Chima’s home after she had confessed that she had been sexually active with him. All this was such a devastating shock to her parents, who felt utterly betrayed by their daughter.

“Your son got my daughter pregnant,” Mr. Ibu sneered angrily at Chima’s parents. Both he and his wife exchanged disapproving glances with Chima. They hated him so dearly that they wished they could punch him in that idiotic head of his.

Chima hid behind his mother as if he could predict what was about to happen. His father who was the only one seated on the sitting room sofa, excluded from the others who were too livid to sit down, finally spoke. Chima’s dad took a kolanut placed on the table for their guest as part of the Igbo’s tradition. He broke it in half and dipped it in peanut butter.

“Take, my brother,” he offered the half as a sign of respect to Mr Ibu. Mr Ibu accepted it and sat down to eat it. Mr Ibu’s wife was having none of that and she still stubbornly refused to have a seat. After eating the other half of the kolanut, Nduka turned back and looked at his son who was still hiding behind his mother. “Chima, is this your handiwork?” he asked in a high-pitched tone which proved his disillusionment with his son.The young man dropped his head and replied, “Yes! It’s my baby.”

Mrs Ibu immediately clapped her hands loudly together in relief, “Thank God, he didn’t deny he was the father of the baby.” For Chibukem and Chima it made no difference to them that they admitted their parental status, for they knew that both of their parents had something bad in store for them.

The next day, both pairs of parents held a secret meeting without their children present at Chibukem’s home. Chima’s parents offered to pay Mr and Mrs Ibu a large sum of money if they could persuade their daughter to abort the child. Chima’s father said that both children were far too young to be parents. Chibukem overheard this. She felt her heart sink at the awful plan and she could not stop her tears. How could they do such a thing? It was her choice, was it not? Having nowhere to turn, she finally ran away. The poor distraught young woman found shelter with a kind old widow living in a village, who offered to provide her with accommodation in exchange for her cooking and cleaning the house. And there she stayed for the remaining months, right up until she went into labour. With the old woman’s residence too far out in seclusion Chibukem admitted herself to the nearest hospital, which happened to be Ngozi’s Mother & Baby.