My Dear Agatha, I Did It For Love

It’s a boy, but sadly, it’s stillbirth. Johnny is furious. He feels like strangling somebody. Why should this happen to him all the time? Who are those against his having a child? Six times! His wife has lost pregnancies before full term. Now a pregnancy nursed to full term for him has produced a ‘still’ result!

Johnny screams at the doctor: “Ben, what happened? How can our child die? What did we do wrong? OMG…” He stops suddenly.

Agatha has been watching him closely. He has been behaving in a strange manner.

“Oh no! What have I done? I have given myself away. My wife is no fool. She must be putting two and two together. I have ruined myself…” Johnny sits down. They have been standing in the doctor’s office.

Agatha continues to stare at her husband. “If he feels this bad, how will the father of the baby feel? Or…am I missing something?”

Dr. Ben observes them silently. He feels so sad that the baby died. They did everything right to ensure a safe delivery. Some things that one can’t explain happen at times. This case is just one of such.

He grew up in the same neighbourhood with Agatha and Moyo. His first stolen kiss had been with Agatha when they were in secondary school. It was during the holiday. Everyone had been home for the long vacation. Then, his childhood lust was transferred to Moyo. It took him years before he could get Moyo to look his way. They were in the second year in the university then. She was an efiko -the studious type. Years later, they met again and he realised that he still loved her. His father was Johnny’s father’s personal physician until the latter died years ago. They had been great friends and so had their children.

Ben had been working in the UK until two years ago when he returned to take charge of his father’s hospital. His father had retired from active practice last year. He had thrown himself into the job, sparing no time for social life. His girlfriend left him shortly before he returned to Nigeria because she said she would not leave the UK.

He returns to the present. He realises that his friend’s marriage is threatened. Moyo, scared that she was going to die during labour as punishment for sleeping with her bosom friend’s husband, had ‘confessed’ to him when his senior colleague, Dr. Akin left the labour room momentarily.

He really had never stopped loving Moyo. They had met again during Agatha’s last pregnancy.

Enough of the past, how will he help his friend now? Agatha is definitely having ideas now. Johnny has suddenly aged.

Ben clears his throat. “I feel pained that we lost our baby. We had planned…”

Johnny and Agatha sit up.

“We…our baby? Ben, what is going on here?” Agatha asks.

Staring fixedly at Johnny, Ben replies, “Yes…our baby. Moyo and I!” Agatha jumps up and sits down almost immediately. “I don’t understand. You mean you’ve been going out with Moyo and I didn’t know about it? But Johnny, you also said ‘we…our child.’ Am I losing my mind?”

Johnny is not listening to anybody right now. In his heart, he knows that Ben just saved his marriage. “Ben, over and over again has been sticking out his neck for me!”

Dr. Ben leaves his chair and paces around the office. He is not a good liar. He doesn’t know what else to say. “Agatha, you are not going mad. I think Johnny is just overreacting. You won’t blame him,” he says.

Agatha looks at Ben with ‘new eyes’. “Ben, I know you and Moyo had childhood fling in those days but she never mentioned you for years. Gawd! Moyo will cry for making it look like she slept with a ghost and got pregnant,” she says and smiles.

Johnny takes a deep breath and exhales loudly. He raises his eyes and meet Ben’s. Slowly, he stands and kicks back the chair, takes a step towards Ben and engages him in a bear hug. “Thank you bro. I’m looking forward to the day I’ll repay you. You are just too good,” he whispers to Ben and releases him.

“While you guys try and relax a bit here, l’ll dash into the ward and check on a patient,” Dr. Ben says and leaves.

Moyo is sitting up in bed in a private ward. She is calm. She recalls what has happened in the past nine months and shivers. “After everything, the baby died. If he had lived, what would I be doing now? Dancing? Calling family and friends to come and celebrate with me? Hmmmmmmm…so I have buried a child? This is a grief I should share with my bestie, Agatha, but unfortunately, we’ll grieve in different ways. I think it’s best the baby died. That’s the punishment for Johnny and I. I’m sorry Agatha. I really am.”

She is glad she is alive. She had thought she would die. BEN! That dashing young boy of yesterday has aged into a handsome man. At the point that she needed someone to confide in, he was there -attentive and reassuring. He had told her that he still loved her. “Is that possible?”

Talk of the angel and he appears.

“Moyo, how are you? Listen, I need to tell you something. I told Johnny and Agatha I was responsible for your pregnancy. I needed to save their marriage…”

Moyo is stunned.

“You what? OMG!” She stares at Ben and suddenly, the import of what he said sinks in. For a long time, she has been feeling like she’s been bearing a burden akin to Christian’s in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. All of a sudden, she feels light, the burden lifted. Tears run down her cheeks and he moves closer and embraces her. He allows her cry on his shoulders.

“Thank you Ben. I’m short of words to express my appreciation. Thank you. You’re God sent…”

Ben kisses her cheeks, tasting tears. “I’ll do anything for you Moyo. The day you walked into my office with Agatha about a year ago, I realised I had really not got over my feelings for you. I loved you Moyo…I still do. Let’s forget your dalliance with Johnny…”

Moyo relaxes. The tears have ceased. She pulls away from Ben and scrutinises his face. She sees only love and concern. She raises her face and opens her mouth to say something but he smothers her with kisses.

That very moment, Johnny and Agatha walk in. Agatha coughs discreetly and they pull apart. “Hope we are not disturbing anything? Babe, so you could hide this from me? I never believed that Ben could make you keep something away from me. But I’m happy that you found love and joy,” Agatha says and moves towards her friend.

Moyo looks at her friend’s face, she sees love. Agatha still loves her. She spreads her hands and they hug.

“I’m sorry babe. I did whatever I did for love. Please forgive me,” Moyo tells her friend. Of course, the two men in the room understand what she means but Agatha does not. “Forgive you? Can I ever get annoyed with you?” Agatha replies her.

“I think we should leave the girls to gist…” Ben begins and the two friends giggle.

“The men should go and gossip then,” Agatha says and they all laugh. The men walk out of the room.

“Bros, I really can’t understand why you did what you did in there. Why did you get me off the hook?” Johnny and Ben are in the latter’s office.

“Johnny, you may have forgotten but I don’t forget good deeds by others. Any time I see you, I remember that day, years ago, when ‘Sammy the bully’ nearly got me killed. The day a car rammed into me when I dashed across the road to get my football from him. I would have died if you ran away like others. You didn’t. You got adults to take me to the hospital. I’ll always look out for you,” Ben replies him, adding, “I want Moyo, I want her as my wife. I realised I love her so much… something to do with the first cut being the deepest.”

They stare at each other, extend their right hands and shake, embrace and laugh the way only friends do.

By Juliet Bumah

(chibumah@yahoo.com)