Millipede Chasing - Part 4

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 FOUR

Now she had asked for the attendance of a doctor and was vehemently denied by the shrewd and vindictive nurse at the hospital’s emergency ward.

“Aargh!Aargh!Aargh!” Chibukem moaned, falling from the chair. She was lying on the ground with both hands clutching her pelvis, as if to stop the baby from coming out. She stared at the door, desperately wishing the doctor would appear and rush her to the delivery room. Another patient in the waiting room saw this. He shouted at the nurse, “Don’t be so wicked! Help the woman! It is your job!” He approached Chibukem to console her when he heard the nurse shouting, “Shut up! Are you going to pay for her hospital fees?”

“This woman is going to die,” the male patient replied. Then he looked at Chibukem and patted her back gently. “Madam, it will be okay,” he said soothingly.

The next moment Chibukem’s water broke, wetting the floor where her helper sat. Chibukem saw it and swallowed hard with great concern for what was going to happen to her. Her throat was dry and as she looked at the mess on the floor she felt her pelvis. “The baby is coming!” she shouted, “Aargh!Aargh!”

“Madam, you will pay. You will pay. We don’t deliver free, this is a private clinic,” the nurse sneered at her, pulling at one of her ears to make her statement.

“Yes, help her up!” said the male patient angrily.

“You are wicked! God punish you!” the other patients in the room shouted at the nurse. The noise of all the shouting and Chibukem’s labour screams got the doctor’s attention. He rushed from his office and was not pleased with what he saw. He would much rather deliver her baby than have this woman die in his hospital.

“Quick! Quick! Help me carry the lady to the delivery room,” he asked the nurse. But the male patient quickly carried the woman, following the doctor while the nurse followed behind. Yet she did not appear to be the least bit ashamed of herself.

******

Where the procession of church goers were chasing the thief, the weather had grown steadily worse, the breeze playing around the air. The wind had become unfriendly, blowing people’s hats away. It even a whipped a lady’s wig off, prompting her to chase her wig rather than the thief. Women with children had wisely stopped chasing as their children were complaining about the rising cold. The old people also gave up the chase as their bones started failing them. The rest of the strong ones kept chasing him, keeping their promise to finish the chase. Emenanjo kept running, trying to catch his breath, running to nowhere in particular. He just kept running, because he realised that running was be the only thing keeping him alive.

******

“Where is the patient?” asked the doctor.

“She went to the toilet, apparently,” said the nurse.

“How long ago?” the doctor asked. He was worried, looking at the baby crying in the cot.

“It’s been quite a while,” the nurse said, now looking concerned. “Let me go see if she is alright,” she said and rushed out of the prenatal room.

The baby cried louder and louder. With concern for the child’s welfare the doctor looked at him and he wished the baby’s mother could come and feed him. It made him angry when mothers neglected the care of their babies.

“Doctor! Doctor! She has run away!” the nurse shouted, rushing into the prenatal room.

“What? What is this? This woman is wicked!” he shouted and stamped his feet. Then he noticed that the nurse was holding a piece of paper. He asked her what it was.

“I saw it in the toilet, “she said. “The woman had written the name of her baby on it,” the nurse replied.

“Give me that.” The doctor took it from her hand and read the jagged lettering on the paper. “EMENANJO”, he pronounced. He looked up at the nurse and asked, “What does that mean?”