The clouds was distraught, thick dark swirls stretched across the sky, nature shared thoughts with a desolate man. The November sun bereft of its normal harshness and glow was clothed with thick dark clouds. The gloomy clouds were a replica of Emeka’s thoughts, people were staring; it definitely was not trite for a young man to have a baby straddling his back just outside the operating room.
Emeka could almost hear people’s thoughts as they walked past him, he was not particularly concerned about the stares; hurt weighed on him. Some things were not meant to be and also cannot be reversed, if Emeka had inkling, he would not have been where he was. He would never have deemed it possible, not even think of it.
The baby shouldn’t have weighed him down but it did. It weighed him down like his thoughts. When the child was handed over to him, he felt ethereal, like heaven had spun a charm and gifted him; the next piece of information broke him. He felt like his heart was ripped into two, the woman he longed to live with and call his own had disappeared into thin air after giving birth to his baby. He could still remember his friends warning him not to get involved with the-one-everyone-knows-as-a-bitch.
Emeka had loved her so much that he expected better from her; this definitely was not the better he expected. He had been careless; he suddenly wished the night he had so much regarded would be erased. The night that had brought him pleasure came with a price; it was one thing to impregnate a lady-one he had promised to take in; it was another thing to be saddled with the responsibility of raising a child on his own.
Emeka decided he would head home; he dusted his clothes, picked up the child and walked to the bus stop. The walk was life-threatening; he almost got hit by a car. Emeka couldn’t stop thinking, even as he flagged a cab down. Emeka had not even graduated, didn’t have an apartment of his own, he lived with his two friends in a two rooms apartment; he could not brush the feeling that Rachael had a reason to go. “Where you dey go?” the cab driver quipped impatiently, he was almost done for the day, all he wanted to do was to go rest. Emeka gesticulated while describing, the description earned him a nod from the cab driver.
The drive was quiet, Emeka noticed the cab driver glancing from his child to him. He trusted his mother to know she would take the child; his mother hated mistakes but believed in taking responsibility, dropping the child elsewhere would be a slap to his mother’s training. Emeka knew he shouldn’t be worried but he was worried that he had no job and was not ready be a father; he was worried about his friends’ view about the whole issue. The cab driver honked incessantly to gain Emeka’s attention, he waved frantically at his face as he was on the front-seat, still; Emeka didn’t bat an eye.
The cab driver decided he had his fill of the young man’s behavior; he tapped him till he jolted back to reality. Emeka rubbed at his eyes and glanced at the cab driver who had a murderous look on his face. “We don reach since!” the driver sucked his teeth in anger and stretched his hand for the money.
His mouth hung open when he kept searching his pockets for minutes, the cab driver was sure he had picked up a mad man when he retrieved money from the pocket he had been scouring. The cab driver snatched the money out of Emeka’s hand, releasing a string of curses. Emeka didn’t retort because he knew he deserved it, or maybe the presence of the baby made him a better man. Emeka had always been quick to anger; something about the day made him a lamb.
He walked the shameful walk home, kicking debris and trudging with his ego ripped. He watched his daughter cling to him as she slept, fondness slipping into his heart. He felt a certain warmness wrapping around his heart, he smiled at his daughter with love in his heart.
His friends were receptive when he got home, something he had not expected them to be, they all watched as he lay his bed without a word, Emeka knew they all understood, he prayed they would not ask any questions; he was fatigued, he needed rest, his daughter also. Allan was extroverted of the trio, he had tried forming words but he couldn’t, when he found his voice, he spoke up.
“Guy!” Allan defied his friend’s attempt to make him shut up and continue to talk through the hands pressed against his mouth. Emeka ignored them as he laid his daughter and himself on the bed, nothing else mattered; not the glare he got from Allan, not the muffled sounds Allan made; he didn’t even go for his morning jog, the child was all that mattered…
