(…continued…)
She lowered her voice and asked Mabel, “Are you pregnant?”
They were all taken aback by the question. They all kept quiet for a
while, looking from one person to the other. It was Mabel who broke the
silence.
“It cannot be,” Mabel said,
starting to second-guess herself. “I can’t be pregnant.”
“How sure are you?” Cynthia
asked her.
“I am always careful. I can’t
take that risk.”
“Well, you can’t trust these
family planning methods.”
“I took extra precautions.”
Their mother just
sat and looked at the floor. Mabel thought of the possibility of being
pregnant. She remembered few times when Segun had insisted that they do away
with family planning methods and her heart skipped. Cynthia just looked from
Mabel to her mother, trying to figure out what they were thinking.
“I am not pregnant,” Mabel
finally said with mock confidence.
“You will have to see Dr
Obinna tomorrow to find out whether you are pregnant or not.”
“I will go with you also, to
collect my test result,” Cynthia said.
“No,” Mabel insisted, shaking
her head. “I will not see him. It will just go away.”
“You must see him.”
Their mother was
sounding angry.
“It may not be pregnancy,”
Cynthia said trying to douse the tension. “I think it is stress and the
incident that happened today.”
Mabel’s leg was
close to Cynthia so she marched Cynthia.
“What incident?” their mother
asked.
Cynthia looked at
Mabel, giving her signal to tell their mother.
“Why do you always think you
can handle your problems alone?” their mother asked Mabel. “What am I here for
if I can’t help you?”
“Mum it’s not like that,” Mabel
said
“What is it like?”
“You are carrying much
already. I don’t have to heap little issues I can handle on you.”
“What does that mean?”
Mabel kept quiet.
“I don’t need Cynthia to
convince you to tell me what you are going through. I am your mother for crying
out loud. If I had met Segun before you became serious with him, I might have
had a contrary opinion, but you only told me when it looked like you were going
to get married. Why do you hide things from me?”
“Sorry mum,” Mabel said, swallowing
a lump in her throat.
“I am not angry. I just feel
you should bring me closer into whatever is going on in your life.”
“But you suffer blood pressure
issues.”
“Don’t bother about my health.
I am fine. When I have issues, I let you know, don’t I? ”
“You do.”
“Then why all these?”
Their mother got
up to leave the parlour.
“Where are you going?” Mabel
asked her.
“Let me go and prepare
something we will eat this night.”
“I thought you were leaving us
in anger,” Cynthia said and heaved a sigh of relief.
“Why will I do that? A
mother’s anger never gets to the bone.”
“Ok.”
She turned to
leave.
“I saw Segun today,” Mabel
said.
Their mother
stopped in her tracks and came back to them.
“You saw who?” she asked. “Where?
When?”
“Before the dizziness started.”
“How did that happen? He came
to see you or you went to see him?”
“There was no way I would have
gone to see him.”
“Then how did you meet?”
“It was Magi who arranged it.
I was not aware of what she planned.”
“How did that happen?”
Mabel told them
the whole story from when Coker came to see her to their going to meet Margret
and everything that happened there. Mabel left out the part where Kemi sent her
a hate SMS.
“No wonder you wanted to
faint,” their mother said when she was done. “Did they touch you?”
“No.”
“Can you imagine such
nonsense.”
“Kemi even had the guts to
come there,” Cynthia said. “That girl does not have shame o. So what did Segun
do about her?”
“I have told you everything in
details na,” Mabel told her. “You want me to start from the beginning?”
“If possible. I need to hear
it again.”
“I really need to rest.”
“Don’t worry my dear,” her
mother said, holding her shoulder. “You will get over this.”
“Ok mum.”
“Let us just keep our fingers
crossed and watch events unfold. Don’t let it get to you ok.”
“I will try.”
“Let me go and prepare food
for this night. What will you like to eat?”
“I don’t feel like eating
anything.”
“You need to eat something.”
“Maybe something light.”
“I am thinking of yam and
vegetable.”
“We ate yam in the morning.”
“It does not matter. It is
late to cook soup or something else now.”
“Ok.”
“You did not ask me what I want
to eat?” Cynthia said, pretending to be sulking.
They laughed.
“Taata,” Mabel called her.
Their mother got
up and left. At the door, she turned and told Mabel, “We have not canceled the
pregnancy test tomorrow, even though I think it is the incident with Segun and
the others that triggered the stress and make you feel the way you are feeling
now.”
“Ok mum.”
(…to be continued…)
-©2015.Chinedu Isaac
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