I had always believed that God lives right in our midst. There is no pretence about that. Of course, no further explanations could be given to the deep rooted peace I felt whenever I found my feet travelling this particular street. I called it "Indlela yokuthula"; a Zulu phrase I had learnt while in South Africa to mean "The Way of Peace". I would wake on awkward mornings and stroll through it for an exercise, the return trip was always accompanied with peaceful thoughts. You could rob me without any weapon...simply because I lacked the courage to trade that peace for anything. God, obviously, had an apartment on this road and did do some exercises every morning. Today was a typical December morning on Indlela yokuthula; yet, it seemed God had taken a trip to the next street. This notwithstanding, He always shows up on time.
The dry harmattan wind trespassed all bounds. Like a reckless trabadour, it dragged with it, anything that cared to follow, voluntarily or otherwise; dust particles, brown leaflets from nearby trees struggled to stick on mothers; tree stems that had abandoned them and, even little children who seemed to be unperturbed by the freezing morning wind. I strolled along, humming G. F. Handel's "The Heavens Are Telling...", loudly greeting the farmers that hurried to their farmlands amidst the unkind temperature and wind. Just then, I greeted one; and, like John, her foetus kicked at the sound of my " aunty amesiere o". She was "fully loaded". Intuitively, I hit the end of the road, took a quick turn and followed her.
She was not only loaded biologically, but physically. The basin on her head indicated that this one was one hell of a workaholic. In a python-like fashion, she trod along. It occurred to me that her steps seemed numbered and laboured. My heart skipped several beats as she came to a standstill. I flipped a quick look ahead of her, there was no physical hitch. No gutters to cross. No road blocks mounted. I starred hard again, nothing had gone wrong...none that I could notice. I got stuck in this frenzy until I realised her fingers were tingling. Her bid to communicate something to me was obvious. I hurried closer and beheld a sight!
A stream of blood mixed with water hurried downwards between her legs. Until now, I had completely failed to notice how shapely they were. They shock as she struggled in vain to keep the load on her head. Before I could muster the courage to grab the filled basin, it had begun its journey from her head. Her hands had failed as they vibrated from the force of an incoming truck. Confused as to what to catch, the basin landed with a thud, spraying its numerous contents on the sand ahead. Then, she followed! Her "water had just broken".
A quick look around confirmed my fears; I was the only living thing on this road. This was not the major problem, there were two other basic issues. The first was that it seemed the road would remain lonely for a longer while. The second? The last time I ever sat beside a Biology textbook was 15 years ago, while I laboured to survive WAEC. Every other thing I ever knew about the human body was just due to my consanguinity with a doctor for an elder brother; who, like his professional colleagues, took a lot of humanly abnormal things for granted.
The harmattan wind seemed to have stopped and stared helplessly too. The swaying leaves stood at akimbo, smiling at my ignorance. My Michael Kors time piece screamed its tick tock into the very depths of my soul, reminding me of the essence of time in the presence of blood. Yet, this blood would not just stop coming. In fact, the indlela lokuthola lost its peaceful flavour. All that came to reality now was that a lawyer was about to practice traditional midwifery. This was not fun. I breathed in deeply...and ignorantly began.
She had already laid on the sand, legs apart. Her fall had caused a little injury to the side of her head. Then, I realised that a lot of blood had been lost already. White eyes, pale skin...the blood slowed down! Her heart skipped some beats...then...stopped completely! Just then, I realised she had fallen badly and hit her head on a small stone hidden the thick folds of sand. Her temperature quickly reduced and her eyelids struggled to stay open...in vain. In minutes, she had found peace.
Shocked, my gaze tilted upwards and the last I saw was an image of a blue sky and the sound of gushing wind. Then, the DARKNESS CAME!
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