LAURA

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

“Abdul but how did I end up in the hospital” she asked him after they prayed subhi together.
They are both sitting on the bed with her back against his chest and both their hands wrapped around her stomach
He told her she fainted and Ummi called him before they then rushed her hear to the hospital and the doctor told them she was pregnant.

After some minutes she decided to tell him about the dream she had before waking up.
“You know I had a dream before waking up that I met Dr Auwal’s wife at Ummi’s place and she turned out to be my late mother and the dream felt so real. Can you imagine how stupid the dream was” she told him.

He kept quiet because he did not know how to tell her she was not dreaming about meeting Dr Auwal’s wife.

“Abdul are you even listing to me” she looked up to his face.
The expression she saw made her know she was not dreaming. She actually met Dr Auwal’s wife.
All her dream now made sense. It was no dream but all what happened yesterday.

How is it possible that her mother is the Hajiya Zainab she saw yesterday. There is no way her mother will not be able to recognize her and that woman, did not seem to know her at all.
But she could swear that woman is her mother.
There is only one way to find out by meeting the woman.

And that is how they ended up on their way to Dr Auwals house as early as 7am with Abba and Ummi on their way to meet them there too after Abdulrahim called them.
Laura did not wait to be discharged from the hospital and Abdulrahim had no choice but to follow her when she threatened to take a taxi and leave him behind.

Everyone one in the sitting room kept quit and listened to Laura’s story of how she lost her mother.
“…………………….. the man never came back so we all assumed he might have left her corpse in the hospital somewhere and was scared of what the people in the village will do to him if he comes back.
But even I saw so much blood, her blood on the road I swear. No one would have been able to survive after losing that much blood” she concluded.

Dr Auwal was the first to speak. “Laura if I may ask do you know Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital in Jigawa.” He asked her. It seems Laura is truly his wife’s daughter.

She nodded.

He then asked her again “Is it very far from your village”.

She shook her head negative. “I have never been there but people from our village go there so guess it’s not far”.

Dr Auwal looked at his wife who had been crying ever since Laura came in and started calling her Ummah. And her cry intensified after she told them how everyone thought her mother died

She knew what he wanted to ask her and she gave him a nod.

“I think Laura you are right she is your mother.”

He went ahead to tell them how he met Zainab when she was a patient in the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist hospital.

He was a consultant doctor in a Specialist Hospital in Jigawa state then. He always goes there every month for a week.

One day he was he was going on a ward round when he overheard two nurses talking about the woman who have been in coma for five months now.
How the man that brought her dumped her in the hospital and never came back.
Her hospital bills were been paid by a politician who came to the hospital and paid some patient bills.
The money he gave ended about a week ago and the hospital wants to remove her from the life support system since no one is paying.

He got curious about the woman that he had to ask one of the nurse about the woman’s room the next day.
He felt the need to help woman after seeing her. He paid for her her life support system to continue until she wakes up.
Before he returned to Abuja

Few weeks later he told his wife about the woman. His wife asked to come see the woman even though she was in coma.
So the next month when he was coming back his late wife insisted she wants to come meet the woman.

Surprisingly when he got to the hospital and asked the doctor incharge of the woman’s case about any progress he told him she woke up few hours ago and she was very agitated and confused that they he had to inject her into sleep but she will be up soon.

The doctor went ahead and said he did some scan on her brain after she woke up and he notice he had amnesia which may have been caused due to the long period of time she was in coma.

That means she may have forgotten some things about her past but he can only say how much it is after she wakes up.

It seems the amnesia is more severe than they thought.
She could not even remember her name or where she is from.

His late wife tried to convince him into taking the woman with them and give her a new identity.
He disagreed at first but eventually agreed to her. Because he felt he could not live the poor woman alone.

His wife gave the woman the name zainab.
She also manage to convince her husband into allowing the woman to follow them back to Abuja after she was been discharged.
Where she lived with them and late his wife enrolled her into an adult education class.
His late wife runs an NGO for IDPs so she was always traveling around Nigeria.
Zainab was the one always at home with the boys his sons. Aliyu and Usman who were in SS1 and Jss 2 respectively.

One year later his wife was diagnosed with stage two lung cancer. And she eventually passed away two years later.
It broke him and his children when she passed away.
But zainab was there to keep them grounded. She eventually became the mother figure in the house without even noticing.
Eventually he fell in love with her and asked to marry her with his son’s permission which she agreed.
She use to have flash back of her old memory which she lost but none of it ever made sense.
Even to him as a doctor it felt strange for her not to have regained her memory for that long period of time except for some flash she got from time to time.

Abdulrahim hugged and consoled his crying wife. He felt her pain even though he does not know how it feels to loose ones parent and years later to find out they are not dead.
Hajiya zainab stood up after hearing Laura is her daughter. Even though she does not remember her she felt the strong pull to wipe her tears and assure her everything is going to be ok.
And that is what she is going to do.
“Can I sit here please” Hajiya Zainab asked Abdulrahim who was sitting beside Laura.

Abdul stood up and she sat beside Laura. He found an empty seat in the sitting room and sat down.

Hajiya Zainab held Laura’s hand. “It is true you are my daughter we even have similar hands” she smiled and wiped her tears.
“I am sorry I don’t remember you my daughter, I am sorry I missed so many things in your life,
I am sorry I did not remember I had daughter out there in the world. I would have looked for you the moment I woke up.
I want you to forgive me for being a bad mother who cannot even remember her daughter.
I promise I will try to remember everything from before if you will forgive me. Please Laura forgive your Ummah.
You call me Ummah right?”
She asked Laura, and she nodded.

Both mother and daughter hugged each other crying for the time they both lost. One crying for a mother she found again after thinking she have lost her years ago.
While the other crying for a daughter she had but cannot even remember her or the life they spent together in the past.