Efe sat in the chair that the doctor indicated. He was tired of these predictable visits. He was tired of taking folic acid every day hurt. In fact, he knew the doctor would question him and not tell him that the last time he took the folic acid tablet was the last time he saw her a month ago. The routine of vitamin C tablets was not so bad, since he took half of them the first days of the month and gave the other half to his only brother in exchange for favors. She would do the dishes when it was her turn or sweep the part of the house that he should just to get some of her orange-flavored tablets.
‘How are you today, Efe Omatseyi?’ The doctor broke into his reverie.
Why did she have to yell his name as if confirming a fact when she saw him there monthly or even more frequently whenever he had a crisis and needed to be admitted? Ah well, she wasn’t the one he was mad at. He was angry at his parents who treated him like an egg this time and acted like they couldn’t wait to get rid of him the next. He had heard them arguing the night before. His mother wants to have another child because she doesn’t know how long “Efe would survive this disease.” His father was of the opinion that they might have another sick child if they tried again.
‘I’m fine mom.’ He responded hastily as she looked at him wondering why he hadn’t said a word since he entered. Of course, her father wouldn’t want another child from his mother. She had seen the man hanging around a fair-skinned pretty lady when they both traveled to Enugu. They had gone there to see an herbalist (traditional medicine healer) who was supposed to give them a “wonderful” concoction that would cleanse their system and change their genotype. Her father frequently talked to her on the phone when he felt no one was close enough to hear him. ‘Amaka baby, I’ll be there to see you again before you know it!’ she was probably already pregnant. Though that was none of his business. After all, she probably wouldn’t be around much longer.
‘Take Efe, go and do your Packed Cell Volume in the lab. When the result is ready, you would come so we can discuss it. Do you have any complaints?
‘Not me.’ She said this as he headed for the door. Honestly, he was tired of everything. He had forgotten to ask her where his water bottle was. She insisted that she carry water with him everywhere so that she could drink frequently. She was supposed to prove this by showing her bottle every time she came here. She was definitely going to ask him when he got back, right before her long speech. Kai, this doctor liked to advise Africa.
He greeted the lab scientist as he sat down for the blood investigation. The lab scientist was a man in his forties who never smiled. He didn’t mind that because the truth was there was absolutely nothing to smile about. However, he wanted the man to be accessible so that he begged him to send a result that was higher than the actual value of the cell volume of his pack. He knew it would be lower than his steady state value today, since he hadn’t been eating regularly, taking his routine medications, and had felt dizzy for the past few days. Ah well, he knew that he couldn’t stop the whole cycle that was going to happen next. He had even packed a suitcase when he came over. The blood test result would be low; he would be admitted and given blood. He would be the subject of a reprimand from the overzealous doctor who would go one step further to advise his parents on things they already know but no longer care to do, having concluded he would be leaving soon.
He left the lab and sat in the waiting room. There was a pretty girl sitting near him. She seemed very healthy; he wondered what she was doing in the hospital. The girl glanced at him briefly, then turned and focused on the movie she was showing on the television. He felt that she must have noticed her yellow eyes or the shape of her head. She was a constant victim of emotional bullying at school. Her classmates never laid a finger on her, but the shape of her head and her limp were a constant topic of discussion between them. One would think they would have gotten used to it by now. Still, they found a way to remind her that she had sickle cell anemia every day. School was another place he was tired of. He would have greatly enjoyed the many days he spent away from school if he had not spent those periods in the hospital. Either he had excruciating abdominal or bone pain that had even made him pass out on two occasions or he was being treated for malaria. He was treated for a bone infection once. He had so many blood transfusions that he stopped counting when he was 10 years old. He read on the Internet that he was at risk of getting a blood-borne infection from that amount of blood transfusion.
He dreaded entering that office again. When would it all end? The pretty girl from the waiting room turned to him and smiled. He realized that although he had expected her to smile at him, he couldn’t bring himself to smile.
…
‘Ella, I love your relationship with this great guy. They both make me want to love. Kai, sweet love, oh! Idehen said this, dragging Ella to sit with him. He was about to get into a serious discussion and he didn’t want her to be distracted.
She sat up flushed. ‘Brothers leave me alone jo. I know you won’t stop teasing me again.
Idehen went on to tell her how she wanted to get into a serious relationship because she wanted to get married within the next two years. He wanted her to associate him with one of her beautiful and well-educated friends. He had good manners and was sure that he must have good friends since birds of the same plumage get together.
‘The only thing is you have to make sure his genotype is AA.’
‘Ah ah, Idehen, you want me to start asking my friends about their genotype. Nah wah for you oh. Won’t that make them disinterest immediately?’
He explained that since his genotype was AS, he had to marry a lady with an AA genotype. This was to ensure that her children had the AA or AS genotype. If he married a lady whose genotype was also AS, they had a chance of having one or more children with the SS genotype.
Do you remember my friend Kenny? He has two children with the SS genotype, that is, they have sickle cell anemia. He is always in the hospital for one or two of his children. Do you want me to borrow money to treat my children? Abeg asks them sharp sharp. There is no time to make mistakes.
‘I thought they said one in four children would have sickle cell, how come both of Kenny’s children have it?’
‘Nooooooo. If both parents have the AS genotype, then for every child they have, there is a 25% chance that that child will have the SS genotype.’
‘Brothers, you do not become doctors!’
‘Forget! You have to learn from other people’s experiences, oh.
‘Shadow, how far? Has Olu done the genotype test now?
Shade looked up from the novel he was reading. ‘Ejo, fi mi le oh! Let me. Haha. You keep talking and talking about this genotype.’
I won’t let you be. I hate to say I told you, but that’s how your last relationship ended. I respect Segun a lot for ending things. This genotype risk is simply not worth it.’ Tola continued chopping vegetables on a cutting board while she talked to Shade. She had a stern look on her face.
‘Ma’am, I hate-to-say-I-told-you, but you just said it.’
‘I’ll say oh. You know you know how to love very well. I won’t give you my shoulder to cry on this time. So you’d better tell him to check his genotype early on. She had stopped cutting the vegetables and was swinging the knife as she said this.
‘WELL WELL! Can I read now?
‘Nope. This is serious. If you don’t look into it now, you may end up hurting yourself again later, or worse, marrying the risk of having children with sickle cell anemia.’
Shade closed his novel after making a dog’s ear out of the page he was reading. He stood up close to Tola and started talking very fast as if he couldn’t wait for all the words to come out.
‘What if I tell you that I already love Olu and he loves me? We have decided that we do not care about the genotype. So even if her genotype ends up being AS, we’ll get married. Our love will conquer all the challenges we may face in the future. After all, we may not even have a child with the SS’ genotype.
Tola had already stopped cutting the vegetables. She deliberately dropped the knife as if she wanted to avoid using it.
‘Uh-huh, say something. Why do you look angry? That’s why I didn’t want to tell you anything right now. She sat in the chair next to his close friend and immediately regretted doing so when Tola stood up and started ranting.
Of course, it’s about the two of you and the great love you share. It’s about how you would deal with whatever comes your way. What about that child you could have? The one who would have multiple visits to the hospital where they stick him with needles, who would suffer great pain? Both of them are not the ones who would have to take pain medication, like many. He had to pause and take deep breaths to calm down.
Tola wondered if she should bother telling her that her brother was that boy she was talking about. She had seen him suffer a lot. Was she so wrong about trying to prevent another child from going through similar problems? He was now married with two children, but she knows how stressful things were for him when she was younger. She was just trying to prevent other children from going through the same ordeal.
