Fiction: Death At Sunrise

Jeff Attaway photo

By

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Sunrise in Lagos is the beginning of a new adventure for its occupants and residents, the start of a new day in Lagos marks the beginning of another struggle to achieve certain goals for the day, another opportunity to work and sort out the challenge of the previous day.

It began at 6.00 am, Tuesday morning. Olu peeped through his window watching the fleet of cars across the roadway, preparing and adjusting his tie on the collar of his shirt as he heard Shade groan, “Olu !!! the baby, please take me to the hospital, I need help,” Shade uttered loudly, screaming and wailing profusely.

Shade yelled, the pain was unbearable, the baby kicking profusely. Olu ran anxiously searching for his car keys while he abscond his tasks and preparations for the day assisting Shade to the teaching hospital at Idi Araba suburb of Lagos. Shade was wheeled off by the nurses to the intensive care department for urgent medical attention; they were unstable placing Shade on drips, a life support machine and medication prior to the arrival of the doctor.

Olu was perplexed, he was anxious regarding the critical condition of his wife, observing the movement of the medical staff, disregarding the attention of the patients at reception. The operating room was set, the scissors, scalpel and gloves were neatly arranged by the nurses, anticipating the arrival of the doctor to commence the labor and delivery procedure.

Shade was groaning on the hospital bed, screaming aloud when the doctor instructed her to push for her baby to come out of the womb. “Doctor, I am in pain, it’s unbearable, I cannot cope with this any longer,” Shade yelled and screamed when the doctor instructed her to push again. Olu could not sit down; he was unstable and anxious when nobody attended to him at reception over Shade’s condition in the theatre.

“Shade, your baby’s head is out, all we need is a little push and we have a complete baby out of your womb,” the doctor muttered. “Now push!” the doctor instructed to complete the delivery procedure. A boy came out of Shade’s womb, the doctor separated the chord attaching the baby to the womb and placed the baby on a separate bed beside his mother.

Olu approach the doctor to know the condition of his wife. “Congratulations, she has just delivered a bouncing baby boy,” the doctor announced to Olu informing him of the required items for the baby. Olu was happy, joyful, excited and delighted to hear the good news. He drove out of the hospital to inform his family, friends and colleagues of Shade’s safe delivery. Olu drove at an abnormal speed, colliding with a tanker that led to a ghastly accident across the highway.

Olu was assisted by a passersby across the way and was stretched into an ambulance to the hospital for intensive care and treatment. Shade was worried and anxious over the news of Olu’s accident. He was bleeding profusely, an oxygen mask fixed on his nose along with the life support and drip tube of the teaching hospital.

The doctor pressed Olu’s chest to recuperate him back to life in the evening. A few hours after Shade’s delivery Olu was pronounced dead after failed attempts to revive him. Olu’s body was transferred to the morgue for preservation before burial.

Shade was devastated, sad and confused over the demise of her husband. She was thrown into a depression over the care and responsibility of looking after her son without a father. A new reality was evident when Olu’s mother and brothers threw her out of the house. “I have known you to be a witch, you killed my son now you want to inherit all he worked for, getaway! You are possessed and I don’t want to see you here anymore,” Olu’s mother uttered.

A new struggle for Shade and her new born baby Tayo, a new beginning on the platform of misery and defeat. “How can I take care of this child?”was now the concern, having to accept the challenge of being a widow, nursing a single child in spite of poverty and homelessness following Olu’s death.

Ogunniyi Abayomi

Ogunniyi Abayomi was born July 11, 1991 in the city of Lagos, where he resides. A poet and essayist whose works have been published in various journals.