MY DAUGHTER EMMA by ULASI JOSHUA IKECHUKWU (best summer books txt) 📖

her away from me.

ANITA: Did you say that Emma has a father?

NINA: She had a father, but he died last week in the hospital, Ms. Anita.

Ms. Anita stood on her feet and screamed.
ANITA: That’s it!

Nina looks with surprise.
NINA: What?

ANITA: That’s it! Dr. Kate adopted Emma so that she could claim ownership of Mr. King’s property.

NINA: Did you know Mr. King, Ms. Anita?

ANITA: Yes. I was in the hospital when Emma wanted a phone. In fact, it was my phone that she used to call the doctor. But that’s not all, Mr. King was our driver back then in Africa. Well known to myself and Dr. Kate.

NINA: You knew each other well, then.

ANITA: Yes.

NINA: That means Dr. Kate knew Mr. King very well.

ANITA: Yes she did.

NINA: Why then did she pretend that she never knew him?

ANITA: It’s a long story my dear. I’ll break the news for you. Let’s take a walk around the garden.


SCENE 4: INT. IN THE GARDEN. MORNING.
Both women talk as they walked round the school garden. The sound of birds in the garden
ANITA: I had worked for Caregivers International for four years as a research fellow before Dr. Kate was employed as a young intern. I led the microbiology research department, while she assisted the doctors. She was a promising young woman, and was quite kind and gentle. No wonder why she was loved by everyone.

NINA: If Dr. Kate was once nice and gentle, then something must have brought about her the sudden change of attitude.

ANITA: I think her change of attitude was anything but sudden. At Caregivers International, Dr. Kate loved kids, rendered selfless services and enjoyed working with everyone, until we started to notice her gradual change of attitude shortly after she was married to a doctor whom she assisted.

NINA: I knew Dr. Kate was married to a banker, not a doctor.

ANITA: You’re right in saying that she was married to a banker. But that was three years after her marriage with the young doctor was broken up. It wasn’t her fault though, and she was so unlucky to lose the good-looking and lovely gentleman of his life.

NINA: If the break-up wasn’t her fault, I guess it’s the lovely gentleman’s fault then.

ANITA: No one can really blame any of the couple, since it was all an accident.

NINA: An accident?

ANITA: Yes an accident. At Caregivers, our mission was to help people in developing countries overcome certain diseases that were curable. Here in Britain, you rarely hear of people die of Malaria or Yellow fever. But in Africa and other developing countries, many innocent people die of diseases that could otherwise have been prevented or even cured.

NINA: Dr. Kate told me about how she was sent to Africa to help people cope with the Nebola outbreak. Mr. King also mentioned that to me shortly before his death. Were you also in that mission to Africa?

ANITA: I led the team of twenty doctors and a few researchers in that mission. But that was our last mission to Africa. That was also the beginning of the end of Caregivers; the Nebola struggle tore us all apart.

NINA: Was the outbreak too difficult for your team to contain?

ANITA: Apart from the struggle to keep the epidemic at bay, there was also another struggle within and between ourselves too, raging within our hearts and minds. A struggle that made us understand the stuff with which we were made of; a struggle that really tore us apart.

NINA: Did it really become an epidemic?

ANITA: Yes. When we have such an outbreak of disease which spreads through other regions within such a short period, it is always called an epidemic. If the spread continues unchecked, it may really turn out to be a pandemic.

NINA: Although I’m a good nurse, but I have to confess to you that I’m getting confused with these outbreak-epidemic-pandemic terms.

ANITA: These terms are somewhat novel but not altogether so confusing. It’s like having a workshop during your training as a nurse. When more topics are discussed, and the audience gets larger, then it becomes a seminar. With more and more audience, and more advanced topics in the programme, it may be called a conference.

NINA: I understood the analogy. But back to your mission in Africa, what did you say caused the accident that wrecked Dr. Kate’s marriage?

ANITA: As there were no drugs for the deadly Nebola, we developed new drugs that helped us contain the epidemic. The drugs worked perfectly and pharmaceutical companies were trilled by our success. We had succeeded in saving many lives in Africa. But little did we realize the sort of danger into which we had put our own lives.

NINA: Did the drugs fail?


ANITA: No, the drugs are a miracle even till today. But back in Africa, the making of the drugs required more water than we originally anticipated. We had carried extra cans of drinking water because we knew that the situation in that area was far from friendly. When we exhausted all our cans of drinking water, we had to put up with burning thirst for two days; all flights to that area were cancelled due to weather, so the two hundred liters of water which we ordered for had to come by sea. It was the rainy season, and there were streams, rivers and potholes filled with water. But the water was polluted. We had waited till the third day, when we were informed that the captain did not remember to load our orders into the ship, and that it would take another eight days for the next ship to reach Africa.

NINA: That’s a painful experience.

ANITA: It was very painful to realize that we had waited three days for water that wasn’t coming. I think that was what made everyone to follow their instinct. We had no water purifiers, because there was no need for any. So we all drank the water from the closest stream, and hoped it’ll be okay.

NINA: You said the streams and rivers were polluted. One could scarcely imagine what followed.

ANITA: The polluted water washed away all that was left in our stomach. It sent a burning sensation at once through the esophagus. The worms that were left in the guys’ bellies must have gathered for a mass funeral. But for the ladies, this means no b-a-b-i-e-s.

NINA: (Responds in surprise) this explains why Dr. Kate could not have a baby.

ANITA: Not just Dr. Kate. The water killed all the babies in our wombs. It made us barren forever.

NINA: Emma told me that the woman who provided her phone in the hospital had to call her daughter for the password. If you’re that woman, then it means you have a daughter. Or was she adopted?

ANITA: Come into the office nurse, there’s another side of the story which you need to hear, and I don’t want the birds to carry them off to Dr. Kate.


SCENE 5: INT. THE HEADTEACHER’S OFFICE. MORNING

NINA: So Dr. Kate’s husband got a divorce because she couldn’t give him a child?

ANITA: Yes the polluted water made it difficult for any of us to have children. Except those women who had a strong faith that nothing in this world could lock them up in a life of misery and despair.

NINA: I’ve heard of women breaking the glass ceiling, but never in this world did I hear about women pulling down natural laws with that powerful thing that is called Faith. Are you saying that these women later had children despite having drunk from the polluted streams? How many were those women?

ANITA: Two, but one died nine years ago in Africa. The other one still lives in this country.

NINA: I’d like to see her someday. I’d like to talk to her to find out what gave her such courage. Where is she now?

ANITA: Right here, talking with you.

NINA: Don’t tell me you are the one Ms. Anita. How did it happen? Who was the other woman?

ANITA: She was an African woman who assisted us in the mission. She cared much about her people so she volunteered to assist us. She became a very close friend and was also pregnant at that time, but lost her husband a few weeks later to an accident. As for how I had the babies, I just believed I could, and then I did.

NINA: But Dr. Kate wasn’t so lucky, and lost her marriage.

ANITA: Not just her marriage, but her temper and kindness. Everyone in the team, including my husband was surprised that I became pregnant a few weeks after our ugly experience. Some, including Dr. Kate rumored that I would lose the baby after a few weeks, but they became more jealous when ultrasound results confirmed that I was due to have twins in a few days.

NINA: Did you have a safe delivery?

ANITA: Yes. A boy and a girl. They looked so beautiful. But I lost them two days after they were born. They would be Emma’s age if they had lived.
Anita sobs bitterly as Nina hands her a handkerchief.

NINA: Maybe the polluted water was so powerful for your faith to overcome.

ANITA: Not really. It was a different sort of pollution. It’s in the people. It’s in their culture. It’s their life.

NINA: I don’t understand.

ANITA: It’s complicated.

NINA: But explain it a little, perhaps I’ll understand.

ANITA: Okay. Have you heard of the name Mary Slassor?

NINA: Yes. I was once told she stopped the killing of twins in Africa. Did you see her in Africa?

ANITA: No she left before we arrived. But the people still did it in secret.

NINA: The killing of twins?

ANITA: Yes.

NINA: (In a louder voice) Did they kill your twin babies?

ANITA: (Waits a few seconds and then answers slowly while sobbing) Yes! They killed my boy and my girl. They killed the twins! I had told the African woman who attended to us to help me secure the babies while I went to South Africa to call a white woman who would pretend to be the mother of one of the children. That way we could safely take the twins home without raising any suspicions that twin babies have been born. The villagers hated twins. They thought twins were sent by evil gods.

NINA: You should have asked Dr. Kate to pose as a mother of one of the twins.

ANITA: No, Dr. Kate was well known to the villagers. They knew she wasn’t pregnant. Besides, she became jealous after she realized she couldn’t have babies. The other women in the team also became jealous, except the black woman who was also pregnant. So I had to trust her to look after the twins while I went to South Africa.

NINA: The black woman must have been so kind to you. I’m sure you missed her.

ANITA: Yes she was really kind. I heard she heard also had twins two days after I left. But the babies could not be found; someone must have hidden them in other to punish the poor widow. I also heard that she was hacked to death by an angry mob in her own village. But by then I had returned to Europe. It is a pity she had to suffer all these.

NINA: Mr. King told me about a woman who was killed in a similar way in his presence. He said it was Emma’s mother, and that he had run away with her twin babies.

ANITA: Mr. King knew all that had happened. He understood the language of the villagers. He knew when to run and when to get close. Maybe he hid the twins so