THE CHAT ROOM : PART 11 – 20
PART 17
By Temi Akintade
Frank kept to his word. I began to live opposite the school because the school authorities didn’t permit a pregnant woman to live in the hostel.
Frank didn’t only pay my school fees, he also paid my antenatal bills and began to give me money to get my baby things in my right month.
He enrolled me to learn baking and how to make snacks with one of our church members. The woman usually called mama Judith became very close to me.
She became the mother I never had. She began to give me tips on how to be a good mother and how not to repeat the same mistakes my mother made.
On one of those occasions whereby I had to help in making some fried donuts and baked chin-chin for a church program, she asked me a heart-stopping question.
“Why is Frank always around you?”
“He likes to help me that’s why.” I shrugged and continued but the question kept burning thoroughly heart.
“This is more than help. Who helps a young single and beautiful, pregnant lady?” She put one donut dough into a pan of boiling oil.
Somehow her statement seemed to freeze my hands. That’s true. Frank has been extra kind to her and helpful.
He must want more than a friendly relationship maybe he was waiting for the right moment to express his feelings to her. “So what do you think I should do?”
“Be attentive and alert to him. Show him the green light! Very green oo!” She grinned.
I grinned too. I wouldn’t mind showing Frank my green light especially after I put to bed because I was told that after the first child, I would retain the weight that I have gained in the right places such as my butt and my hips.
I couldn’t wait to get into a skinny gown and wait for the right moment when he would pop the ‘will you marry me’ question just like a lady during the testimony session on Sunday had said.
That night, as I laid on my soft bed, I began to imagine that Frank would get married to me, and how that he would love my child.
The smile on my face slid off the moment a biting pain stung my back. “Aargh!” I cried. I tried to stand but I couldn’t. My eyes turned wet with tears.
Just then, I felt sleek wetness in my underside. Could it be the baby? Or why did I urinate on the bed? Or could it be that- “ah! My water just broke?” But I was just in my eighth month!
I snatched my phone from the bed and dialed Frank’s line. My throat burned and my back pain intensified.
It was as if I had a million needles injected into my back. Frank finally picked on the third ring. He sounded drowsy.
“Quick come! The baby is coming!” I ended the call and began to dial Mama Judith’s number.
Just then the pain intensified again and I felt like going to the toilet. “Arhhh! Tayo wherever you are, it will not be well with you!”
THE CHAT ROOM : PART 11 – 20
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