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“The trousers just won’t fit” Fatima complained to her mother and with a reassuring smile, her mother replied; “It comes with pregnancy, alongside mood swings and constant feelings of uselessness and anger towards one’s self but you must not despair even at those low moments of yours” “Okay mama” Fatima replied.
Before pregnancy, Fatima had been a very beautiful coke bottle shaped young lady and she had been the envy of her pairs even from an early age because of her flawless skin, it shone in the skin like it had been polished with a brush and a jar of oil. Each time she walked down the road to get something for her mother from the local market or was her way to church for prayers, men almost tripped from staring at her for unnecessarily long periods and most times she had to wear long big clothes and cover herself with a shawl yet now here she stood bloated due to pregnancy.
By the time she got to the University, she knew the power she wielded with her body and like the proper girl she was she did nothing to flaunt it using it sparingly only when she needed it to curry certain favours. She caught the eyes of many suitors but like every beautiful woman before her, she gave them the cold shoulder until he came along.
Klaus was not like any of the men who had come before; his eyes had a way of causing a damned wetness in all her hidden crevices, he was not handsome like the other men who had crossed her part before; he was hot. He was like a combination of vanilla, dark chocolate and strawberry flavours and nut toppings in a cone of ice-cream, she did not wait for him to come for her instead she chased him like the wind on the sails of a boat, ready at any time to be by his side.
Their wedding was done at the beach on a Friday night, a strange occurrence that made many tongues to wag. Many people thought that she would be barren because of her act, because she and her partner flaunted their love before the eyes of the river goddesses while some said she would not have a happy home because she had done her wedding right under the nose of her spirit husband but to their surprise and chagrin she became pregnant a year after their marriage.
It begun with nausea and morning fever, making her to take several visits to the bathroom, next came the strange eating habits. For no reason she would wake up at odd hours crying for no reason and craving disgusting mixtures like rice and ice-cream, peppered custard and the rest and so she had made this call to mama today for reassurance even as Klaus kept late nights, she needed reassurance on her beauty and her essence as a woman.
The late nights started when on the night when she had had craved a mixture of cakes and melon soup at midnight, Klaus felt so much anger as he stood up from the bed; “Who craves chocolate cake and melon soup by midnight?”, “Well I’m pregnant and I can’t control what the baby wants and the time he wants it”. Klaus pulled up his trouser to his waist and donned on a shirt and walked out of the room; remembering that he had forgotten his wallet he rushed back to get it from the light stand. When he got to the room he saw her sleeping peacefully without a worry in the world and it filled him with an unexplainable anger, “How could she sleep like she had sent her slave on an errand? Like she did not have a care in the world”, she didn’t know about this and wondered what caused his sudden change of attitude towards her pregnancy.
“Where were you all through the labour?” Mama screamed at Klaus when he came back home, he reeked of alcohol and the scent of a woman thighs and had a sick smile on his lips as he staggered into his room. Mama was short of words at his nerve, and his nonchalance towards his wife and child like he did not know of their existence, “Won’t you at least check on your wife and child” She asked him, looking at her like she had spewed venom he said; “What do you care hag?” staggering into the bathroom to begin his regular bout of vomiting