Crushed - Season 1 - Episode 21

Episode 4 years ago

Crushed - Season 1 - Episode 21

‘I did it for your good’ Mama said, tears running down her face
I would have gone to hold her shoulders and asked her to please stop breaking my point but at that very point, an outburst of emotion was just welcomed.

What did you do?
Mama should just please talk!
And louder please!
The Holy Spirit never mentioned anything like this in whatever way to me at all since about seventeen years that I had given birth that Jean wasn’t my son
How possible could that be?
“Bola, could you travel down memory lane to the time when you were pregnant? Can you remember at all?” Mama asked and I nodded in the affirmative
I sure remembered!

How would I forget something like that in a jiffy?

Impossible!
I spent about six months in the intensive care unit of the hospital because the pregnancy was not just easy at all.
I had waited long for about 7 years before eventually getting pregnant but immediately I got pregnant, severe life-threatening illnesses followed!

In most cases I was in a comma with different tubes attached to almost all parts of my body
Sometimes, I would actually wake up with a start until after a few minutes of excitement; I would relapse into unconsciousness again!
On one occasion, I woke up to see Seyi beside me holding my hands firmly, tears strolling down his face

“Bola, can you see me? Are you awake?” he asked excitedly as he saw me stir
I nodded slowly and he came close, held my face close and kissed me firmly
“What exactly is wrong with me?” I asked almost immediately
He rubbed my forehead with a weak smile etched on his face, tears still strolling down his face

“Mama refused to disclose it to me. She said that you would be fine” he said and I nodded
Mama had an international repute of being a standard Gynecologist and mid-wife
Despite being in her late 70s at that time, she was still allowed to practice since it was her hospital

“I miss you love! Please never should you relapse into unconsciousness. Mama complained that it is dangerous to the brain of the baby.” He said and I could only nod
He dug his hand in a big brown envelope and brought out a CT scan result
“My love, we would be having a baby girl!” he smiled happily, pecking me from my forehead to my tummy with care.
I smiled

Seyi had always dreamt of having a baby girl as his first child. Since courtship, he had lamented that it was not to nice leaving amongst five boys with no girl while I lamented that I grew up amongst 7 girls and I needed a boy.

We had laughed over it then that we would see who the winner would be
“You have won?” I asked, smiling, the pain from inside held me tightly again and I pulled on Seyi’s arms in serious pains
“Bola, wait now. Bola, please…Oh Jesus! Doctor!” he called out loudly, shivering with fears

He didn’t want to just interfere in my case since the most experienced mama was involved. He had just always been a fearful doctor!

…and I didn’t know what happened afterwards
“Since you can remember, you can relate to the fact that the first scan said you would have a baby girl right?” Mama asked and I sat inside a cushion, my knees hitting each other
Seyi looked so worn out.

His mouth was just suspended as we both watched out where this was actually going to lead to.

“Mama, I asked you then when after the second trimester, you said that scan was reading something else but you said it was normal! That it does happen” Seyi burst out, tears rushing into his eyes.

Mama placed her hands on her head
“Yes it actually does happen. But it didn’t happen in your case. I lied” Mama blurted out and my bladder practically opened an di had to rush into the loo to ease myself before joining the duo

“Mama, you lied? How? I don’t understand Mama. Talk in clear terms please” Seyi said, his voice shaking vehemently and I could only nod like agama lizard in agreement with him
I was practically going crazy!- like virtually!
“Bola had cancer of the womb since the inception of the pregnancy” Mama broke the news and my eyes shone in utter shock!
“What!” my husband screamed as he slapped his laps in shock too
“Cancer?” I asked and started crying as if my death day had actually been declared
Mama wiped her face

“I actually did a biopsy and the laboratory helped to confirm that it was cancer. Yet the baby was growing- surprisingly! I found it weird but I knew it was just too dangerous for the baby. The constant coma and fatigue made my fear worse. That was why I placed her under close observation and I disallowed you from attending to her personally. I just didn’t want her to lose the pregnancy she struggled to get because there might not be hope for another” Mama continued and I could only pull at my skirt in desperation and despair.

“So, mama, what did you do? Did you actually perform an hysterectomy on Bola? Did you?” Seyi asked, his voice raised
Mama started sobbing
“I had to save her life. Keep her through the nine months itself was a risk but I just believed that I could manage it till then and it was so” Mama said and I still wasn’t getting it at all
What exactly was hyste-whatever it was they both said now?

“What’s the meaning of that?” I asked naively and Seyi looked into my face, his anger had gone. He was looking at me with pity

“Hysterectomy is the process of removing the womb and the tubes in a woman’s body” he explained and my eyes shone so brightly that I felt the heat deep in my skull
“So, I don’t actually have a womb? And I was trusting God that I would have another child? Oh God!” I started crying
Mama faced me, holding her wobbling knees with her feeble hands
“Bola, what could I have done? Exactly what my daughter? I needed to save the baby and save you too” she explained tearfully
“So, where is the baby? Who is Jean then?” Seyi asked, somewhat agitated
Exactly!

That was the exact point where I was going!
I needed a very strong explanation to believe this story at all!

Mama coughed so loudly that it shook her whole frail body and I was forced to move near her and hold her shoulders
I left her when she had got back to normalcy
“A young girl actually worked into my hospital and I realized that you were in the same trimester. She had her scan done and I could see her baby was doing fine in her. But she was so dejected and was planning on aborting the pregnancy because according to her, her pastor had impregnated her and he didn’t want to accept responsibility” she continued and I shook my head as Mama’s pace was just too slow for me
“And?” I asked so she could be faster
She looked into my face bleakly, her face forming into a pitiable curve

“I am sorry Bola…you…” she was saying when her grandson cut in
“Mama, continue” he said firmly and I pitied Mama at that instant.

I didn’t think she had ever had to be questioned like that all her life

“I begged her not to. I admitted her and started taking care of you both. I knew that since your daughter did not have a nice stay in the womb, a lot of damage would have been done to its internal organs and I was afraid that your only seed would be handicapped. So immediately the Bola’s labor started, I quickly induced the lady to labor too and I switched the babies” she explained and my head seemed empty at that point

“Jesus!” Seyi exclaimed as he b@nged the window panes so hard
“Unbelievable!” I exclaimed too, slapping my thighs to be sure that it was reality
“So, where is the lady?” Seyi asked and I nodded again
“I actually asked her for the pastor who impregnated her and she said it was an elder. I ensured she delivered the baby to the Pastor’s doorstep before I paid her to go far away”

“So, who is this pastor?” I asked so emphatically

The havoc these pastors are wrecking these days were actually becoming too unbearable for me

“It’s your elder. The one that pastors your church” Mama dropped the bomb and I slumped to the ground
The realization dawned on me so greatly!
Mercy?