His very best investment

‘No, you please come in Bint. We need to talk briefly before we set out.’ Salma replied.‘But we agreed that I need not come in so we can save time. What is it that you can’t discuss while we are in the car?’ I asked.‘Please and please come in Bint. It is very important that […]

‘No, you please come in Bint. We need to talk briefly before we set out.’ Salma replied.
‘But we agreed that I need not come in so we can save time. What is it that you can’t discuss while we are in the car?’ I asked.
‘Please and please come in Bint. It is very important that we have this talk and yes it has to be inside the house. But you will understand everything the moment I explain. Just try to come in, please.’ She begged.
‘Ok, I’ll soon be there in sha Allah.’ I answered, before walking out of my car towards the house. Salma herself opened the front door for me and I stood still, totally surprised by her looks.
‘What is this?’ I queried, ‘You aren’t even dressed for the occasion.
Don’t tell me you’ve decided not to attend the reception but still dragged me here to tell me that.’ I added.
‘No it’s not like that. I mean please have a seat and let me explain.’
She appealed.
‘Ok, it better be a good explanation or I promise you I’ll explode.’ I threatened, jokingly.
‘I assure you it’s a good one.’ She replied, sitting next to me. ‘You see as soon as I ended my call to you, during which I asked you to give me a lift because my car was being serviced, I walked into my husband’s study to dust it up. But the moment I went in his landline phone rang. It hardly ever rings because everyone seeks him on his mobile these days, I sometimes even wonder why he still keeps it. But there it was ringing right before me. I picked it up and said ‘hello’ and a strange male voice suddenly said to me: ‘Assalamu alaikum Hajiya. This is Doctor Daudu, is Alhaji Mande around?’ He asked rather cheerfully.
‘No, he is not around.’ I replied.
‘You sound a bit different Hajiya, are you not feeling well? Well in your condition that is to be expected. But it will be over in two months time, in sha Allah. And the joy of seeing your babies will compensate for any discomfort you might be feeling now. Anyway I’ve been looking for Alhaji on his mobile phone for over two hours but without luck.
I decided to check his business card in case there is another number I could try but only this landline is there. I didn’t even know it’s his home line, I thought it is an office line. Please tell him to call me as soon as he returns home Hajiya.’ He requested.
‘Ok doctor, but is anything wrong, why are you looking for him?’ I asked carefully, not wishing him to realize he was talking to the wrong wife.
‘No, nothing is wrong, at least not with your pregnancy. The problem is with a couple he sent to me who wish to have the same IVF treatment that you had.  Unfortunately, they are not aware of how expensive it is. When I said that your husband spent 1.5 million getting it done they got discouraged and said they couldn’t afford it. I offered them a 20% discount but they still seemed disturbed. It’s the highest I can give because of what the procedure entails. I only offered this discount because they seem desperate to have a child but are worried about the money. Your husband who wasn’t worried about the money and considered it his ‘very best investment’ didn’t have any qualms about paying for your treatment, so I didn’t offer him the discount. But this couple seems to have money issues. I want your husband to talk to them, convince them that it is worthwhile to do that IVF treatment now and not later because time is not on their side.  And they can pay in installments if they want but I do really want to help them.’ Dr Daudu concluded.
‘Ok doctor, I will tell him.’ I promised and hung up. I sat down in the study and couldn’t do a thing for quite some time. I had no idea my husband can spend so much money just to get his second wife to be a mother.’ Salma wondered aloud.
 ‘But that is hardly surprising if she has been around for a while and could not conceive naturally.’ I replied.
‘No Bint you don’t know my husband. We are talking about the man who made sure I never had another child after our third because he was so averse to having more children.  We are talking about a man who took me to two doctors and insisted that he wanted the menstrual period I missed to be brought back because he didn’t want this child. The female doctor looked him in the eye and said. ‘What is in your wife now is a human being not an unfertilized egg. If you ask us to bring back the menses she missed, you are asking us to kill that baby and we don’t do that in this hospital.’  Visibly angry with the doctor, my husband drove out of that second clinic and said we were going to a third to get their opinion. That was the point at which I stamped my foot down and said we were not going for a third opinion. I told him that I agreed with the two doctors that if we want to do birth control, we can start after this baby has been born not now. With that argument I asked him to take me home. And for taking that stand he made sure throughout that pregnancy he had nothing to do with my hospital expenses. I paid all my antenatal and other medical bills until just before childbirth. Knowing that I couldn’t afford the delivery fees, I asked him to take over, after all the child wasn’t mine alone. He grudgingly did.
When four years after I heard that he was getting married I wondered how a man who didn’t want many children can reconcile that with polygamy.  And when she spent eight years without a child I thought it was because he was able to convince her to remain childless. Because we live in different homes, when I ran into her at a family occasion last month and saw her looking pregnant, I just assumed that he had lifted the ban on  child-bearing and decided to let her have at least a child to her name. I had no idea he had spent an arm and a leg to buy her motherhood.’ Salma concluded.
‘Come on don’t exaggerate.’ I cautioned her smiling.
‘But that is true Bint. About ten months ago this man told me he had to sell the only piece of land we have in our hometown because he had to deal with some financial emergency.  I asked whether he was indebted to anyone he told me he wasn’t but that he needed the money desperately.  A month later he came to tell me he had sold the plot at two million naira and used 1.5 million out of it to solve that big problem.
He said he will keep the remaining half a million in the bank for a rainy day. Tempted though I was, I refused to ask what he did with the money because he was obviously not ready to say it. Now, out of the blues a talkative doctor has told me what had been done with that huge sum of money when just a decade ago he was ready to force out our unborn child because he didn’t want children.
I was so weak from this discovery that I couldn’t continue dusting the study any more. I went to my room and prayed Asr but couldn’t start dressing for Professor Sabira’s ministerial reception because I felt so weakened by anger and pain. This is why I decided not to go to the occasion. I won’t fit in a room full of happy women joyfully celebrating the elevation of a friend. I need to be alone with my feelings of betrayal and pain.’ Salma declared.
‘No, you don’t need to be alone with your heartache. Get up and get dressed, we are going to this reception together. Go there and mix with fellow women, it will lift your spirits. In fact just last week, Professor Sabira was agonising over how her husband will receive the news of her appointment and what he might do to scuttle it. Today that is all history. And she did promise to tell me how she won that battle. So accept that you can’t change anything about your co-wife’s pregnancy and how much was spent on it but you can join us to celebrate and forget your husband’ s deception, believe me.’ I urged.