Desperate Moves

19

Bad was an understatement. It couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt at that moment. I looked at him and our eyes locked for a brief moment before I turned away. It’s a blessed consolation that the respect is not gone totally. I got up when the tension was getting thick and heaved a sigh of relief. I picked a small black bag off a nail on the wall. He followed suit and we stepped out. Fear gripped at my heart because of the unknown.

The trip to the hospital was short, silent and uneventful. The strong smell of drugs that is part of hospitals wafted to my nose, making my stomach queasy. The receptionist looked up from the desktop that was stationed in front of her when we stepped in. She gave us a small shallow smile. She wore a crisp white shirt on a high waist black pencil skirt.

“Good morning.” She greeted without any enthusiasm.

“Good morning.” We both responded simultaneously.

I allowed Tosin take it up from there.

“We are here to see Dr. Chuks.”

I gave him a confused look. I thought we were just here to carry out a pregnancy test. It never even crossed my mind; I would have bought a pregnancy test strip for the test. It would have saved me money, stress and embarrassment.

“Do you have an appointment?” She interrupted my train of thoughts.

“No we don’t, but we’ve been here before and he was the one that attended to us.”

“Dr. Chuks is very busy right now. You can meet another doctor or you wait for him.”

Tosin turned to look at me briefly, as if asking my opinion. I had nothing to say. The first time I had been brought here, Tosin had said the doctor was nice, which I had supported and he must have felt I will be more comfortable talking to him.

When he saw that I was blank, he turned around and said to the lady, “We’ll wait.”

“Is it both of you that are meeting him?”

“No, just her.” He nodded towards my direction.

“Do you have a card?” she directed her gaze at me.

I had no idea what she was asking. Thank God Tosin was right beside me.

“Yes she does.” He responded, nodding his head.

“What’s your name?” she asked, still directing the question at me.

“Edidiong Ekanem.”

“Any other name?”

“Rufus. The middle name is Rufus.”

She wrote down the name on a sheet she tore from a writing pad before getting up to go to a large shelf that stood behind her. There were three other shelve like that standing side by side. Each compartment was lettered, suggesting that the files were arranged in alphabetical order.

Before getting up from her seat, she directed us to sit on a lounge chair. As we made our way over to sit, I gave Tosin a cold stare and asked “What exactly are we doing? Are we not supposed to just do a test and go?”

“Madam calm down. I think you should see the doctor, in case he has any advice or whatever.” He only addressed me like that if I became impossible to deal with.

“Or whatever? You can be pain in the ass sometimes.” I was clearly pissed; even though I really did not have any reason to be. Meeting the doctor was not a bad idea. My appetite has been very poor and I was not sleeping well. I have also been experiencing itching in my private part, but clearly, that was not something I wanted to let slip. Maybe, just maybe, I could talk to the doctor about it.

“Ah, you are swearing at me.” he had a smirk on his face.

“What!” I creased my forehead. “I didn’t swear.”

“Yes, you did. You said pain in the ass.” The smirk was slowly turning to a grin.

“Fine!” I raised my two hands in mock surrender. “I’m sorry.” I was trying to hide the fact that I was smiling. His vivacious attitude was becoming infectious.

“Sorry for what? I am not a language police.” He was full on grinning.

I was enjoying the waiting period because I was not really ready to face reality yet. Tosin did a good job of distracting me from thinking about what lay ahead. We chatted animatedly about everything and nothing for more than two hours before Dr. Chuks was finally free to attend to me.

As I was called inside, my heart missed a beat. My palms were sweaty and my hands trembled a little. When Tosin noticed my uneasiness, he held my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before adding “You’ll be fine. I know you are a strong woman.”

I nodded my head hesitantly. I didn’t trust myself to be able to say anything. The possibility of being pregnant scared the crap out of me.

“Do you want me to go with you?” he asked sympathetically.

“No. I’ll be fine. I let out a heavy sigh. I would have loved him to go in with me but I couldn’t do that in case I decide to ask the doctor about the itching. I would be too embarrassed to do that in front of him.