Akwaugo – Episode 70

PART 70

My mother wasn’t happy Samuel attended to my daughter and me himself. Their only duty was to care for the baby and feed her when I am resting. She began to complain. This was not the way I raised. I was to take care of my husband and not the other way around. She harassed me so much about it. My mother-in-law told her not to interfere in our marriage and accept us the way we were. She was so uncomfortable with the arrangement that she couldn’t back down.

Due to her harassment, I went into the kitchen to cook for Samuel before he came back. I made his favourite soup which was bitter leaf soup. I used stockfish, dried fish and ogiri. The whole house stunk but I didn’t care. I made poundo for him and placed in a warmer. I served my ‘mothers’ food and waited for my husband to come back like a dutiful wife.

Samuel came home and observed the smell in the apartment. I welcomed him and asked if he was hungry. He asked what was going on and I said I just wanted to give him a treat. I went with him to the bedroom and he asked again what was wrong. I told him nothing. He picked Adiaha to clean her, I told him I had already done that. He asked why. I said I wanted to. I asked him to take a bath so he could eat. I told him it was bitter leaf soup. He came to the dining and I served the food. He looked at it and asked why I made new soup when there was soup in the freezer. I told him it was a treat. He asked why I cooked when I was recovering

from having a baby. I told him it was over six weeks; I was fine. He didn’t eat the food. He took yoghurt and went to be with his daughter in the room. My mother was quiet while my mother-in-law said to her, “I told you not to meddle”.

I begged Samuel to eat but he insisted on knowing why I had to go the extra mile. I didn’t want to tell him it was my mother that pushed me. I told him he did so much for me and I felt I should do for him. He didn’t believe me but he accepted. He took the soup alone and left for the room. I was hurt but I understood how he felt. He was in charge of everything and he loved taking care of me. The equation changing suddenly wasn’t funny at all. As he made love to me that night, he asked me again and while I was deep in passion; I confessed to him. He didn’t react that night. He held me as usual. When Adiaha woke up in the night to suckle, he went to pick her up as my mother slept with her in the room while we use a baby monitor to hear her. He fed her from a bottle, cuddled her back to sleep and then came back to bed. When she woke up again, he didn’t wake me up. He did the same. It was towards morning he brought her to me to suckle. I took her back to her bed and my mother was awake.

“What happened you did not breastfeed your baby?”

“Did she wake up earlier? I just breastfed her”

“Your husband bottled fed her. There is a bond when a mother breastfeeds her baby. Your husband is the one having that bond. Aren’t you worried?”

“I had a strong bond with my father even though he didn’t breastfeed me. Allow Samuel to enjoy his newfound love for fatherhood. Allow him to love his daughter. I will never stop him. He loves her and I know both of them are going to be very close. When I have a son, I will be very close to him too that is if Samuel doesn’t steal his love too” I replied her jokingly.

“Samuel is a good guy. No Igbo man will do what Samuel is doing. His mother is even supporting him. If it were some families, they will believe you have charmed him. I know he is just showing you how much he loves you but I still think you should take up some responsibilities at home”

“She isn’t taking up any responsibility. Ediye is a doctor and a hardworking one at that. She carried this pregnancy successfully. She was supposed to be operated upon because she was anaemic but God took up her blood level in time for delivery. I am not willing to take chances. Even before she got pregnant, I do most of the work because her job is very stressful and I close in time. She was bringing in more money than I was before we started the food business and I supported her by taking care of the home. She doesn’t disrespect me because I do that. She is my woman and the mother of my child. I want to take care of her. I don’t want the supposed traditional way of how marriage works. She is very smart and when she is not stressed she comes up with brilliant ideas I can work with. Why won’t I cook and clean when she can use that time to bring ideas that will bring in money? Allow me to take care of my wife and child the way I know how”

“Akwaugo nwam, God has given you a good husband. He has settled you for all your past troubles. Who am I to stop you from building such an enviable family? I apologise to you for not following your rules here, I promise to obey them. Your mother is a saint. She had only you and brought you up so responsibly. She will enjoy the reward of her all labour concerning. Samuel, thank you for loving our Ada. I never believed I would travel abroad but both of you brought me here. Now Obinna and Ikenna are considering relocating. They said Samuel suggested it. He has given them a connection for them to come here too. I was shocked when they told me. I keep wondering why God loves me so much”

I wasn’t aware of Obinna and Ikenna’s plan to relocate to Canada, I was just hearing it for the first time. Samuel was keeping things away from me. When we got back to the room, he told me he convinced them to relocate as there were better opportunities here than in Nigeria. He has also asked Amanze to consider Chiamaka and the kids relocating too. He went further to ask Alex to come over too. I was happy. I couldn’t be happier. Samuel treated my siblings like his. I felt good. Ikenna called him last born which he didn’t find funny. Now with Adiaha, he was no more the last born.

I got a call two months into my maternity leave. I was begged to report at work immediately as there was a situation on the ground. I came to the hospital. I met with the Medical Director, he explained what happened. There was a young girl in the facility called Amie who hadn’t spoken since she got to the hospital many years back when she was a young teen. She was mute and destructive. She started

talking to me when I took an interest in her case. She whispered things to me and asked me to keep it a secret. I did just that. She refused to tell me anything more.

They said she had been asking after me and became destructive so they had to sedate her. They called me because she was upset I hadn’t come to see her for so long and even attempted suicide. She was discovered and constrained. She was there in the room calling out my name. The Medical Director asked that I should be invited to speak with her.

I went to see her and she was a pitiable sight. I asked for the restraint to be removed although they advised against it. Immediately she was free, she ran into my arms and cried. I took her to her room, gave her a bath, fed her and then we stayed in her bed while she told me what her problem was. She began to talk to me when I got pregnant. I now realized why. I recorded what she said.

“My parents left for America leaving me at home with my grandmother. She was nice to me only when my parents sent money. Once there was no money, she would starve me and call me names. She made me work as a maid in the homes of some rich families for her to get money. I never understood why she was so mean to me. All I knew or heard her say was my mother was a dreamer and made my father dream big when he should have stayed back and taken care of his responsibilities. She stood by the phone each time my parents called to monitor what I was saying to them. Because I was hated at home, I hungered to be loved. I fell in love with the son of the owner of the house I cleaned. He was good to me. He showed me compassion and was kind to me. He gave me things I had only seen but never touched or tasted. Gradually, he began to seduce me. I shared with him all my problems and he helped solve them. He couldn’t take me away from my grandmother but he made sure I had food to eat, warm clothes, snacks, little pieces of jewellery and so much more. I was always neat and tidy whenever I was going to his house. He made sure I had a good soap to bath, a nice smelling shampoo for my hair and deodorant. My grandmother noticed the change. I was thirteen then. She asked me questions but I had grown some wings now and I didn’t answer her. Whenever he bought me takeouts when he was bringing me home, everyone had some of it and so my grandmother kept observing. Leo travelled overseas for about a month and there wasn’t anything coming in any more. My grandmother started her ill-treatment until he returned. She then advised me to get pregnant for him so I could live with him. We hadn’t done it yet. I was ready to do anything to escape

my grandmother. So, I made up my mind that when he asks, I would agree. When he eventually graduated from kissing me to touching me, I didn’t pull away; I let him have his way. It was not so bad after all. He was happy and told me so. He told me he loved me and wanted to be with me. Eventually, our encounters made me pregnant. I was barely fourteen then and didn’t know what was happening to me. My grandmother observed my weight gain and said nothing. I wondered why I was getting fat. Leo observed too and asked I see a doctor. My grandmother refused. It was when I was seven months gone and my tummy was fully out I knew what was wrong with me. I went to see Leo let him know. He was upset I waited until when it was obvious before I knew what was wrong with me. My grandmother seized the opportunity. She came to Leo’s family with me to announce their son’s deeds. She told them I was just fourteen and a minor while Leo was twenty-one. Leo denied me. He claimed he had never been with me. I was beyond shocked. How could he do this to me? My grandmother said she was going to the police and when the baby was born, a DNA will prove Leo was the father. Do you know what his parents did? They shipped him abroad, paid my grandmother and a large amount of money and told her to get rid of it. She maltreated me for two months before I had the child. I gave birth to the child in the house, I never went to a hospital. I was sick after having my daughter. My grandmother came with a couple one day and they took my baby away. She told me she had sold the baby as we needed the money to take care of me. I refused. I wanted my baby back but she made fun of me and called me a shameless whore. I attacked her. I beat her up. I used metal on her face. I collected the money the people paid her and left home. The police looked for me for days I hid the money. She could never have it. When she couldn’t lie to my parents anymore about my inability to answer their call, she told them I had run off with a boy. Luckily, I turned myself in before my parents arrived. She didn’t allow them to interrogate me but instead took me home. She asked for the money and I told her I had squandered it doing drugs. She was so angry that she slapped me. I ran away from her and had away in a barn for months with animals. I was found and given to my parents. They came down to help me. I was ashamed. All I wanted was to get my child back. I want my baby. I haven’t spoken since then. You have a baby you love, right? I loved my baby too. I want her back. That’s all I want”

I listened with tears in my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I heard. She had a child at fourteen and the child was taken away from her. She suffered from maltreatment, convinced to get pregnant and the baby sold. I sent a message to the Medical

Director to send for her parents. She had been in this facility for eight years. She was sedated again to sleep when her parents came around.

I played the recording for them to listen. They listened in both shock and surprise. They never knew their daughter was ever pregnant let alone giving birth and the baby sold. It was shocking to them. I asked them to investigate, find her child and free her from her nightmare. She wasn’t mad, I believed she was threatened into silence. Why would a grandmother subject a child to such horror? I was happy my daughter had doting and loving grandmothers. My mother and mother-in-law would never treat her badly no matter what.

I had to resume work because of Amie; I was the only one she trusted. I asked her to repeat her story in the presence of her parents. She was reluctant initially then she spoke to them. She spoke in her language. She was Albanian. She had an accent but I didn’t know where she was originally from. Her mother shed tears as she spoke. She gave them names and addresses. She didn’t experience love and care and I felt it was about time she had the experience. I advised she should be released to her parents and they take good care of her. I told them what to do to help her get better. She didn’t belong in a mental institution. Once they can find her child, she will be much better. The search would also do her some good as she also understood she might never find the child.

When the young girls and boys realized I could be trusted, they began to open up to me. There were more severe cases but some people were dumped in the homes for selfish reasons. I requested for a proper audit of the patients. We discovered abnormalities. Some of them were there so their parents could remarry. This was wrong. Interestingly, some of the members of the board were in on it. I was shocked when I was asked to stop the audit of the patients.

I wrote a petition against the institution and requested for a probe. I attached evidence and also told them I feared for my life. They went into action. It was unbelievable the way I was protected while discovering what was happening there. Some of the children were held under duress because they were heirs to fortunes. Some were kidnapped and hidden away at the mental institution for selfish reasons. Some were molested and when they spoke out, they were considered mad and locked away. I was shocked myself. We pumped drugs into sane children who watched terrible things being done to their parents and out of fear decided to

remain mute. It was a surprising investigation and outcome. I was a hero of a sort. I was the confident doctor who went against the management and protected the children.

I was given a medal and called upon to give speeches about Mental health of teenagers. Amie’s family, now very well to do, asked me to go into private practice so Amie can continue to see me until they find her child. He was ready to pay for it but Samuel asked me to go back to school and study Psychology first which I did. By the next year, after my study, I opened my practice because I was well sought after. My popularity brought me fortune alongside fame. Amie’s parents paid for my office as a token of their appreciation. I rejected it they insisted. Samuel told me to take it.

My mother left for Nigeria while my mother-in-law stayed to help with baby Adiaha while I pursued my career. Auntie Nneoma visited us for a month and left too. Mother stayed with Ikenna and family while Obinna and family came home every weekend. We spoke as a family every Sunday.

My mother-in-law was a big blessing to us. She took of my daughter and me with so much love and care. She obeyed Etete’s instruction on how he wanted his family run; we respected his decisions. I did too. We hardly argued or quarrelled. I gave him respect and he accorded me the same. We lived in joy and happiness. My progress was Samuel’s progress. He was proud of me and wasn’t ashamed to brag about my success.

I was bringing in more money than he was. We had a joint account which I put in a portion of my income and he put his in. I paid all the bills through the joint account. We also had an investment account which a portion of our earnings goes to. He matches me with that payment, especially from his catering and yoghurt business. We were growing together. My clients bought our yoghurt from my office because they loved its natural taste. I asked him to study Nutrition so he could help people with their diet. He started before we found out we were pregnant again. Adiaha was a year seven months when we discovered. We were careful (Samuel made sure of that) so how did it happen?

I carried the pregnancy for nine months. I chose to have an elective caesarian session. Age wasn’t on my side and I didn’t want complications. It went very well.

Samuel was with during the delivery and God blessed us with a son. We cried together because that was what we asked for. We had both sexes and we were happy. I had my tubes tied during the surgery so I wouldn’t get pregnant again; we were not taking chances.

Samuel ensured my whole family relocated to Canada. They lived in a different province due to the jobs they got. Mother stayed with them. Alex came with Scholastica and their son. They lived in the big city. We visited them before my son came. She was a happy woman with a great husband.

Our son cemented our happiness. Our Nsikak-Abasi (nothing is impossible with God), Chiebuka (our God is too big), Joshua joined the family bring everyone together under the same roof in Canada. His dedication attracted all our friends and family. He was our last bus stop.

Samuel didn’t treat him differently from Adiaha. He called him Idemette (father’s

look-alike) and took up his responsibilities when I rested. The pregnancy and

delivery weren’t easy but I was grateful for life. Idemette enjoyed his father’s

company that I became very jealous. Both Adiaha and her brother got excited

when their father walked into the house after work. They were not that excited to

see me. Samuel spent quality time with the children. he taught them Efik while he

forced me to teach them Igbo.

AKWAUGO