MuNa √ (COMPLETED)

#6 - ORIGINAL BABY 🤒

The silence that met Muna's dad's announcement was so loud that Muna almost went deaf.
Kesi had been asked if he knew who she was and he had tried to beat around the bush and deny but probably came to his senses after a few minutes and said the truth.
Maybe it was because he realized that his mom had met her before.
His mom had even talked to them about using contraceptives after she came home early one day and found them cuddled up on one of the sitting room couches. Little did she know that it was already medicine after death cos what had happened had happened.
Muna wouldn't have been shocked though if his mom had helped him deny her because she was currently looking at her like dirt under her shoes.

"Hmm. We have heard you." Kesi's father stated, after an hour which was probably five minutes in reality. His voice was surprisingly soft and Muna imagined how he used it to order his workers in his cocaine factory during loading. He looked like an older version of his son. Tall, dark and handsome, yada, yada. "How far gone is she?"

"Four and half months" Muna's father answered.

Muna felt Mr Kabuoh's eyes looking her up from head to toe as soon as the words left her father's mouth. "So what's the plan?"
Question of the day.
"Because my son is traveling to the UK in two months time and he is not getting married at his age!"

"my daughter is also supposed to go to the university in September." Muna's father retorted, glaring angrily at Kesi's father. Muna kept her head down and refused to look at any of the people in the room.

"Let us calm down, Mr Nnadi. That's why I'm asking what your plan is. I will support you. I'll give you money. Any amount you need."

"Money?" Muna's dad asked incredulously. "For what?"

"Anything you need," Mr Kabuoh responded, scratching his beard. "Abortion..."

"Over my dead body." Muna's dad yelled. "My daughter is not having an abortion!!!"

"Chima, you didn't let me finish. I was just throwing out suggestions since it looks like you don't have any plans. There could be adoption too," Mr Kabuoh responded.

"Can I say something?" It was Muna's stepmother. This was the first time she was speaking since the initial greetings.
"What if she keeps the baby and we help her take of it?"

"Hmmmm. As bright as that idea is, I'm not willing to take care of a child again o. I can't even wait for Ikesinachi to go. Now a baby, I cannot o." Kesi's mother said, adjusting herself on the couch.

"Neither of us here was looking for this. I also thought I was done with taking care of children too but now that this situation has come up..."

"this situation wouldn't have come up if you trained your daughter well and taught her how to close her legs," Mrs Kabuoh interrupted
Muna felt her eyes flood with fresh tears.
"The same goes to your son. If you had trained him well, we wouldn't be here. After all, Muna didn't get herself pregnant." Mrs Nnadi shouted back.
"Please let's not turn this into a shouting match. I suggest that you go home, talk and decide then let us know what you decided. Any good decision would be supported by us." Mr Kabuoh said, bringing the meeting to a close.

***          ****           *****

That family is trash! You see the kind of people you're associating yourself with? Have you ever seen me and that man together or my wife and his wife together for any reason whatsoever?" Muna's father shouted at her as he drove them home. His wife sat in the front passenger seat while Muna sat at the back.
"Imagine what came out of his mouth! Abortion! I felt like slapping the stupidity out of him. That other one was saying she doesn't want to take care of any child."

"Like we're borrowing a child to keep with her or even begging to take care of Chisom for us. As if it's not her own grand child." his wife stated, shaking her head.

"You see what you have brought upon yourself. See the kind of insult you're receiving. I have it in mind to send you out to go and stay with them or wherever."

"Daddy, I'm sorry," Muna cried from the backseat. Her shoulders shook as sobs racked her body.

"You're sorry. Please tell me what problem 'I am sorry' solves. I am so ashamed of you. I am so ashamed that I'm ashamed of myself. I never you would ever disappoint me like this.
You of all people, I thought you had more sense."

"Chima, it's okay. Calm down. All these harsh words would also not solve the problem." Muna's stepmother pleaded. "Let's reach home and then we can come to a decision."

"Fine. I've heard you"

***            ****        *****

The sounds of lowered voices reached Muna as she crossed her parent's room to the toilet. It was midnight and she had woken up to urinate after crying herself to sleep at night. She hadn't even had dinner, her formerly large appetite was now nonexistent.
Her stepmother had brought her food to her room and she had tried eating but it hadn't gone anywhere. She hid the food in her room so that her stepmother wouldn't know. She wondered why her stepmother was being so nice and good to her.
She wasn't acting the way mothers and aunties did in Nigerian movies towards their pregnant daughters and nieces.
Muna put her ear to her parents door as she came back from the toilet.

"Where did I go wrong, Roselyn?" she heard her father ask with a broken voice. "What didn't I do right? Please you have been with me tell me. Why is she choosing to repay me this way? How would I look my friends and family in the eye and tell them that my 16 year old daughter is pregnant."

"How do you think I'm feeling, Chima?" her stepmother responded. "This is the worst thing she could have done to herself. And for five months! Five months, Chima and I didn't even notice any of the signs or symptoms. I feel like a failure as a mother and guardian."

What should we do? What should happen now?"

"I think the best option is for her to give birth to the child and after she does, we give it up for adoption."

"Adoption? Why would we do that?" her father whisper-shouted. "Why can't we take care of it."

"Muna is 16. No 16 year old is old enough to be a mother. I've thought about this a lot and Muna should be going to school come September. She's already five months gone now by then she would have given birth or is close to."

"It would serve her right if she doesn't go. Let that boy go to school abroad while she's here breastfeeding and taking care of a child." her dad replied. "Moreover her schooling can be delayed for a year."

"Well we have to ask her what she wants to..."

"Ask her what? Ask her what?" this time her dad's voice came out loud. "She's lucky I haven't sent her packing."

Muna was already shuddering at the thought of raising a child even as she stood outside the door. The thought scared and horrified her. She couldn't.
Even more grown up children scared her not to talk of a new born baby that she would never be able to escape from.
She had helped her neighbour, Aunty Anna babysit her new born baby early in the year and just the few hours spent with the baby had strengthened her resolved to not have a child until she was two years into her marriage which was in ten years time.
She couldn't imagine being a mother at sixteen, the stress, sacrifice, panic... She didn't even know if she would come out of the delivery room alive.
Women twice her age even with the help of their mother and mother in law and other relatives were still over stressed.
God, the baby wasn't out yet and it was already destroying her life, she thought as she creeped back to her room. She had heard enough.

Minutes later, she couldn't sleep as she lay down on her bed. She placed her hand on her belly. She could feel a roundness at the lower part of her belly. She didn't know what to do, her life had turned around in just 24 hours. She wished again that she could put her hand into her vagina and drag the baby out. She thought of Kesi and Amara's suggestion of abortion.
She couldn't imagine the stress, shame, pain that would come with carrying the baby full term. Even if she gave it up for adoption, what would be the point of going through all the stress, getting fat, getting swollen legs, feeling labour pains, probably dying while giving birth if she was still going to give it to someone else.