"Lake baby."
Alake did not respond. She was not in the mood for any pet name. Certainly not the one that reminded of the period they met. Of when the handsome-in-a-beautiful-way kobo-kobo guy from the company across the road could not pronounce her ofe-nmamu name.
He'd looked at her name tag and gone,
"A-lake?"
Rather than get angry at the infraction, she'd burst out laughing.
In the days that followed, he learned to call her name right. Yet, he reverted to Lake whenever he wanted to make her smile.
Which was often.
She wiped her eyes.
"Lake? Alake!"
"Here B."
As he walked in, her resolve not to alarm him walked out.
He was a good man and did not deserve the hand life dealt him.
They'd come a long way in the two decades and a year they'd been together.
They had crossed tribal divides and parental objections to marry. Since then, they'd overcome many obstacles and made significant progress. The one dark cloud on their horizon was not having an issue.
She'd suggested adopting. He refused.
"If God will not give is our own, so be it."
He was more a Christian than his funky looks portrayed. His trust in God was so resolute she had difficulty expressing some not-so-faith-borne thoughts around him.
However, he would hear this one.
If she could not hear him children, which the last expert they visited reaffirmed, then he would have them some other way.
She knew what it meant in his culture for an opara not to have a son to perpetuate the lineage.
"B, I have gotten you a wife."
His look of incredulity was epic.
She forged on anyway.
"I am not leaving. She'll just be like Bilhah was for Rachel."
For a long time, while time stood still, he stared at her. Then, without a word, he turned and walked out.
She was still in that position, thirty minutes later, when her phone rang.
He'd been involved in an accident.
The person at the other end was still talking when she passed out.
She came to, in a hospital, with a shout. She was screaming non-stop, calling for her B. When hospital staff were able to hold her down, she received a jab of the needle to put her under.
The next time she awoke, she was in a straitjacket. She started wailing afresh. Another jab followed.
It was a week before they eased off on the sedatives.
When she opened drowsy eyes, a nurse pointed to the right. Her eyes moved of their own volition.
Her husband was propped up in bed, watching her, one leg in a cast.
"You are alive?" She asked with a sob.
"Yes Lake. And we are pregnant."
"We are..??"
She went under again.
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