Ruth Vicissitudes - Episode 16

 

Charles got a call from Cynthia that her water had broken, he hurriedly left the office for home and took her to the hospital. She was having a contraction of five minutes apart, the nurses rolled her to the theatre. Charles stood pacing in the reception while at the same time praying for safe delivery. While he waited for few hours, the nurse approaching him from the theatre indicated it was a safe delivery and could go inside to see the child and his wife . Charles, excited rushed to the theatre, he looked at the child with affection as he took him in his arms, swinging him and brought him closer to his chest, to feel his heart rate. He planted a kiss on Cynthia’s whom together with Charles told one of the nurses to take a picture of them both with the baby. It was a resounding moment for Charles who had always looked forward to the day he will carry his own child in his arm.
A grand naming ceremony was organized a week later, friends and families, well wishers gathered to celebrate the coming of the baby to the world. Foods and drinks were in excess, some who ate to their fill couldn’t walk, others who were intoxicated barely moved a limb. In the process of their celebration, the baby developed a concoction, coughing out blood. It got them worried, they excused themselves from the event, citing that they were going for some routine checkup and they rushed him to hospital immediately, calling on any doctor to help the baby

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. During their diagnosis, they discovered the baby needed some blood transfusion, Charles being that he was the acclaimed father opted to donate and went for further test. When he was told his blood wasn’t compatible with that of the baby, Charles repulsed and questioned the veracity of the results;
“It’s not possible, am the father of the baby. You have to carry the test again”
“Am sorry sir but the samples indicated that the blood group is unmatched. Yours is A+ and he is A-. it was checked and confirmed”
“No, there must be a mix-up somewhere” Charles took a gaze at Cynthia who had been silent all through the confusion. She withdrew her gaze from him and looked elsewhere
“What happened?” he asked her. She was too afraid to talk, where would she start from in explaining that the baby wasn’t his. She never hoped a day like this will come. She told the doctor to take her blood for testing, the doctor later confirmed that hers was a match. She quickly proceeded for donation, the baby needed blood as quickly as possible. Charles kept screaming in the door way that the baby was his, no one would take him away from him. while his noise was causing a nuisance, one of the doctors called for security after Charles refused to heed to their warning of being calm.
“Don’t touch me, do you know who I am. I can have all of you locked up away in one call” he threatened. His threats didn’t move a finger of any of security men, they forced him out of the vicinity.
“No one will take that child away from me, am not going anywhere till she tells me who the father of the child is” he spoke as he entered his car. He didn’t bother to wait , he went to a bar and drank himself to stupor.
Ruth remained in her parent’s home for few more months. Her stomach was protruding because of the baby was four months old. She cried each time she looked at it, and hated to see the sight that always reminded her that the baby would be born a bastard, she always had the notion of giving it up for adoption after giving birth. The other time, she remembers what she had gone through in her marriage to Dolapo and the betrayal of Tonkey towards her. She gets comforted by her mother on those occasions but it was never enough, the effect of the damage was on her, something she wouldn’t recover from easily. One afternoon, as she was going to buy some few things in the market, she stumbled on someone she barely recognized till her name was called out;
“Do you I know you?” she questioned the young man who carried few polyethene bags in his hand.
“So you don’t recognize this voice”
“Sorry, I don’t please. Am sorry” the young man took off his sunglasses revealing his full face. Ruth instantly recognized him and became surprised.
“Ericks, what are you doing here?”
“As you can see in these two bags am holding. So good to see you and you are pregnant, good news”
“Yes I am. Good to see you. You are married already” she noticed a ring in his left hand.
“Oh yes, am beautifully married. How is your husband?”
“He is okay and your wife?”
“Magnificent. So you came with a car or should I wait for you to finish so that I can take you home?”
“No, never mind. I will take my time so I wouldn’t rush”
“No, I will wait. It’s been long we saw each other, let’s do some catch-up after you are done” she reluctantly accepted. It had been really a long time they had seen each other, Ericks had changed so much, he had become more handsome and grown overweight at least, his fat sagging cheeks was a testament to that fact. Just like Ericks said, he waited and Ruth was done with her buying. He took her to a nearby restaurant, he placed an order for both of them.
“So good to see that you remember my favourite”
“It’s not something that I can easily forget. So how are things going on with you?”
“Nothing much has happened since after graduation. Marriage is something I never expected will be so difficult”
“It’s never easy dear. No one ever said it was a paradise. Ever talked to your friends, Tonkey and Maureen?”
“Not so bad. Never heard of Tonkey but Maureen is in the UK with her husband”
“Wow, that is great. I have never tasted this since our last time out together. Strange isn’t it?”
“Well, I think so” she gave a long pause while Ericks did all the talking about his wife, how they met and the joy of having a child with her. Ruth stared at him imagining the beautiful life they must have been living, a marriage of no pain, no sorrow, no vituperations. Why wasn’t her marriage as happy as Ericks? She questioned why she didn’t experience all the beautiful things of marriage in hers.
“This is the picture of my wife” he showed her the image of a beautiful woman posing stored in her phone.
“She is very beautiful” she applauded.
“Yes, she is. So tell me about yours” Ruth told him there was nothing to discuss about. Her marriage was normal, sometimes below par.
“I have something to tell you Ruth, something that I didn’t have the opportunity of telling you back when we were in-love. The story I told you about some boys that I had some dealings with back in Kaduna that kidnapped me one night”
“Yes, that ultimately ended ‘us’
“It wasn’t them Ruth. I lied to you because I was threatened by your fiancé”
“What? Dolapo?”
“Yes, he sent his boys to kidnap me” he took a deep breath and began narrating how the vehicle took him to a remote environ blindfolded and in binds. He heard the sound made by the screeching dry leaves on the ground, he realized then that he was in an afforested area. He was taken out of the cab, tied to two poles at different ends. One of the guys called the same boss as he had called when they were in the cab. Few minutes later, the boss surfaced with two other guys beside him;
‘Take off the blinds’, he ordered one of the abductors standing behind Ericks.
‘Oh, look at the lover boy who doesn’t know that every shoe has different sizes’ mocked George.
‘Where am I?’ questioned Ericks who revolved his eyes. The place was tattered, unkept and seemed like an abandoned place that has become a torture zone. Only one chair was seen and Dolapo was sitting on it, nothing else seemed visible except the men present.
‘You are in the line of judgement about to be sent to hell or heaven’
‘Please, don’t hurt me, I beg of you’
‘Do you know who I am?’
‘No please’
‘I bet you don’t and that’s why you are meddling into my affairs. I am Dolapo Mike Akintola, Ruth fiancé and I am warning you to steer clear of her or you wouldn’t like the repercussion’
‘That’s impossible, you can’t have her because I love her and she loves me’
‘Oh, the young man has some guts. What do you know about love? Black stone, teach him a lesson’ a dark skinned complexion guy released two quick fire punches on Ericks face and another in his abdomen region.
‘Ouch!’ he exclaimed coughing out blood and bleeding profusely through the nostrils
‘It’s alright, give the young man some freedom to talk’
‘Let’s see if he wants to defend his passive love’
‘Are you going to back down or not?’
‘Over my dead body, I will not trade my love for her for anything else’
‘Hmm, I love your gallantry. Let’s see where it will take you’ he gesticulated to one of them and the same landed some blows on his head, inflicting more pain and misery upon him. His strength was failing him, he couldn’t take it anymore, the gushing blood littered the cement floor, dropping in tiny drops. He wished death would come and snatch him right there away. Dolapo gesticulated again and the guy stopped raining the blows. He asked Ericks again if he was going to back down, Ericks simply gave a nod. 
Ericks finished narrating, the tale gave Ruth more reason to hate Dolapo than before, she wished she could go to him and strangle to him to death slowly till he begs. He has always ruined her happiness and she didn’t quite know the gravity till now, he was nothing short of a savage, a wild beast.
“Am sorry for not fighting for us, I surrendered like a coward would to my fellow man”
“No, don’t be. He could have killed you and buried your corpse without anyone knowing. You did the right thing, he had all the resources and you didn’t”
“He is your husband now, he is lucky to have you by his side”
“No, he isn’t anymore. We are divorced Ericks”
“What? What happened?”
“It’s a long story that I would tell another time. He is now with Tonkey”
“What? Your roommate. I never knew she could do that to her best friend”
“I never thought either” she checked her time, she had been with Ericks for approximately two hours and she was supposed to be back an hour ago. She excused herself to leave afterwards.
“Can we meet some other time? Like you coming to my home to see my wife and kid”
“I will but I really have to go now” she departed.
While in her desolation, her mother got a call that her husband was involved in a ghastly motor accident, the news threw her into a tantrum. When she told Ruth when she inquired, it compounded more woes on her. why was everything turning from bad to worse? She prayed as they took a cab to Americk Hospital that her father wouldn’t be the latest victim of death. When they reached, they learnt of how critical his tissues and bones had been damaged and demanded immediate treatment and full payment of seven hundred thousand naira.
“Where am I going to get that kind of money? I only have three hundred and fifty, let me make a deposit while I run around for the rest please” she pleaded with the doctor who refused vehemently, stating that full payments must commence before operation. Ruth and her mother couldn’t figure out how they can complete the money, with the latest acrimony existing between them and the Akintolas, there was no way she could seek help from them. They made their way back to the house, racking their head on how to get the remainder. The only person she could think of was Maureen but she had no clue where she was still. Another surfaced in her thoughts, an idea she suggested to her mother;
“We can talk to Aunty Mabel, she might be of help to us”. Aunty Mabel was a well to do independent woman after separating from her husband and ran a very big restaurant in the city suburbs. From time to time, she calls her sister to find out about her welfare and that of her children. Ruth knew her to be very kind and had maximum respect for her, adding to the tales that her mother told her about how helpful she was when she gave birth to her fourth child.
“That’s very thoughtful of you” commended her mother who didn’t hesitate to call her. She explained everything happening to her and ended the call with the promise of assisting. They were pleased after the call especially Ruth who was told that Aunty Mabel was coming to see all of them the next day.
Aunty Mabel, after payment suggested to take care of the school fees of the last two siblings of Ruth while Mrs. Eruwahere takes care of the other with the promise that Ruth comes with her to work in her restaurant, Ruth was more than happy with the decision, so as her mother. She thought Ruth needed some time for herself, to do something that will take her mind of the Dolapo and everything. Going far away would be wise for her, she will have a better life for herself and that of the unborn baby. Ruth had trekked for hours every day, searching for one job or the other but was turned down to the fact that she was pregnant. She was always told to come back whenever she gives birth, starting work at her Aunty’s was definitely the right decision, one which she didn’t hesitate. She would be coming home once a while to see how her father was recuperating from the accident. She packed her things and left with her Aunt’s the next morning.
Charles never stopped drinking as he corked open one of the brandy bottles in his bar, emptying some of its content in the glass cup. That was the fourth time he poured into the empty cup, the misery never left him, the effect of the battling news at the hospital demoralized him, broke his spirit to the point that it couldn’t hold up anymore. He had imagined the birth of the baby for months, taking care of him and Cynthia as well as providing as much as he could, only to end up discovering the sweet boy he had carried in his arms, sang a song to him every night while he was dancing in his mother’s body wasn’t his at the end. He took the gulp down his throat and poured another. For two months, he didn’t ask of Cynthia or the baby, he constantly rejected her calls and even deleted her number from his phone while blocking it. He had lived like that for a while, not going anywhere except the bar to get intoxicated, not even the office where everyone was worried what had happened to their boss. His parents visited him once while he was at home and discovered the situation he was at, they felt pity for him when they learnt what happened. All they asked for was for him to forgive and continue with the marriage but he vehemently objected. He wasn’t going to take back someone who had hid something as damaging as the paternity of the baby.
“Cynthia had been in an unbearable pain ever since you left without saying a word to her. She regretted her actions and wants to apologize”
“No, she broke me. I can’t take it back” he told them. After all the advice they offered, he didn’t heed to any and he continued drinking. 
One day, he heard a knock on the door, after several minutes of contemplating of whether to open or not, he ordered the visitor in. Sandra was trailed by a lady in brown gown;
“What is she doing here?” Charles asked after seeing Cynthia.
“Charles, she has come to apologize. She is sorry for what happened, it wasn’t her fault that she was caught up in the affair”
“Oh, so you have come to intercede for her right? You two are birds of the same feather that flock together” Cynthia knelt down beside him
“Am sorry, I can explain everything that happened if you give me a chance to please”
“Explain what? That you lay with a man behind my back and the product of your fling was a baby boy, a child that I thought was mine. You made a ridicule of me at the hospital, I was a laughing stock in the presence of the doctor. Tell me, what do you want to explain?”
“I made a mistake, you know I love you so much. I have never loved anyone the way I love you Charles”
“Shut up, what do you know about love? Love means trust, love means respect, it doesn’t mean betrayal, it doesn’t mean lying” he said and turned his back at her, taking a sip of his brandy.
“You two should get out of my apartment now”
“We wont leave till you listen to the truth, she wants to pour out her heart to you Charles. Please, you have to listen” he turned towards them and asked;
“Who is the father of the child?” Cynthia didn’t give an immediate response.
“Who is the father of the damn child?” he asked again louder.
“Mike Dolapo Akintola” she finally stated.
“What? Dolapo of AK Technologies, your boss” he couldn’t believe his ears. Dolapo was a secondary school mate of his back then, he hated him because he was cocky and took credit for almost everything even if he didn’t do it. He cheated him on a project, leading to his two weeks suspension. He had always been in a competition with him, a vile one, coupled with the fact that his father had some bad dealings with Dolapos in the past. They considered the Akintolas as a family not to be trusted and cheats who did things only to their benefit. Since then, he had developed hatred for him.
“I let you work for him even when I knew he was my enemy and a rival and now, you are carrying his child”
“No, its not what you think, he…”
“Shut up, get out now or I kill you both now” he proceeded to get a knife in the kitchen. When the ladies saw what was happening, they took to their heels.
In the evening, Charles took a walk down a narrow path on the illuminated streets, few meters outside his home, pausing at different junctures to reflect on his recent predicaments, his negligence of not heeding to the advice of his friend Benard seriously into taking further tests on Cynthia. He should have given it a second thought and all the pain that has been inflicted on him would have been avoided, the grand wedding would have been canceled if he had known the truth. He owed Benard an apology, he gritted his teeth when he remembered how he made a fool of himself in his face and how he embarrassed him at the bank. He further reflected on the first day he met Cynthia at an art exhibition, he thought of her as a woman that would make a good companion. She played hard to get like every other courteous and virtuous lady but his persistence earned him few dates later that metamorphosed into a serious relationship. His love and trust blinded him to her faults and shortcomings but the war was not over. He may have lost the battle to Dolapo but he was sure he wouldn’t lose the war.