Diana and Kenny had gone to Mama Lucy Hospital for their first antenatal consultation when her phone rang. Stealing a glance at the last three digits of the number made her take a keen look at the number. Yes. She had always known this number…she was not at all mistaken. Not in any way. But how possible could it be? She wondered.
“Hun, you okay? Pick the call please.” Kenny begged.
“It’s… it’s…mom.” She stammered.
“What! Where did she get your number? Have you ever contacted her?” Kenny went on to ask.
“No. I have never. Why is she calling me?”
“I also don’t know. Talk to her.”
“I can’t.”
“You know you are not at the university. She must have found out by now.”
“Oh my, no. she is going to kill me.”
“No she won’t. It is just a phone call. Talk to her. She is your ma’am. Look, for how long will you keep hiding from her?” At this moment, the call had ended. But in a short while, it was ringing yet once again. Diana felt she had no courage to talk to her. How had she found out anyway? Did she know the whole story? How was she going to explain it to her mom?
“Pick, love.” Kenny encouraged.
“What will I tell her?”
“Tell her the truth. She will not look for you. Didn’t you tell me she does not love you? Yeah, she will not mind. Talk to her.”
With her hands shaking and her whole body filled with goose pimples, Diana picked. She had decided not to say a word, but just listen to what her mother had to say. If at all she had found out she was pregnant, well and good. She had no explanation to that. She knew she had messed up, but had no choice.
“Diana.” Her mom called from the other end. She opened her lips to respond, but closed them again. Kenny wrapped his right hand around her shoulder and made a warm caress, as if to tell her to cheer up, and talk.
“Diana, are you there?” her mom called, yet once again.
“Yes, mom.”
“Where are you?” she was as calm as possible, something that quickly made Diana suspect that her mother was green about almost everything. She expected, if at all she knew, to shout at her, and hurl insults upon her head, but the level at which she was calm surprised Diana.
“Diana?”
“Mom.”
“Please come back home. Where are you?” she sensed her mother’s voice breaking, sad, and in deep sorrow.
“I’m safe mom and I’m okay wherever I am. Don’t worry about me.”
“But why? Why leave school?”
“I’m sorry mom. I had to.”
“Where are you? What do you eat? Where do you sleep?”
“I’m okay mom. Very fine.”
“Diana! Please come back home.”
“Sorry mom, but I can’t. The time is not now!”
Diana, too, tried to be as soft as she could to her mom. At this time, her heart had stopped racing. All her fear was gone.
“Why not? But-where-are-you?” this time, the breaks in her mother’s voice created an atmosphere of deep sadness to her. Was she crying? Was she crying?”
“I’m pregnant mom.” Diana finally said, pausing, to hear what her mother would say.
“Pregnant! You?”
“Yes mom.”
“Oh my God!”
“But no worries mom. Am okay. The baby daddy is taking care of me.”
“Oh my! Diana? What are you doing to me?”
“I’m sorry mom.”
Also read: Mother’s love, Lidsay’s view
“Please come back home. We shall take care of the pregnancy. Don’t stay with a man who has not even married you. Please don’t.”
“I can’t come back home mom. Mom I’m happy, free and fine.”
“But why?”
“I was green about it all…I was just trying out life I had missed as I grew up and then, I got this…sorry I was worried that when you find out, you would kill me. that’s why I did everything without your knowledge. I’m so sorry mom.”
“Is it a lecturer responsible?”
“No, mom. But don’t worry. When time comes for me to get home, I will. But it’s not now.”
“No…no…please just return home.”
“Sorry mom. I can’t.” she heard her mother’s sobs, but she had nothing much to do about it. On the other side, she felt a heavy burden weighed down from her head…she couldn’t understand the sudden change in her mother’s attitude. Was she trying to trick her? and upon reaching home, wouldn’t she really beat her black and blue?
“I’m beyond that age. I’m a woman now!” Diana thought to herself. The call ended. She breathed out a sigh of relief.
“You okay hun?”
“Yes…yes am okay.” At this moment, tears welled up in her eyes. She didn’t understand, but she let them fall free. Kenny held her in his arms, hoping that at the end of the day, all would be well.
“Everything’s gonna be okay love.. Take heart.” He said, and yes, Diana hoped and prayed, silently, that all would be okay…with her mom specifically.
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