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"The 14th Aare" (a Short Story) - Literature - Nairaland

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"The 14th Aare" (a Short Story) by moscomoet: 12:49pm On Jun 14, 2013
“I am Abiku, calling for the first

And the repeated time”

-Wole Soyinka, “Abiku”

Aduke was in labour…again

There wasn’t the usual hustle and urgency associated with a household where the wife was in labour; the midwife was nowhere to be found. Aduke’s blood curling screams drew no sympathy or attention even from the passers-by who could obviously hear her.

In this little town, time was measured by Aduke’s pregnancies; one man could say to another “don’t you remember the village dance? It was at the time of Aduke’s fourth pregnancy!”; this misfortune had come to define Aduke’s life.

She had been through this painful process twenty two times before; Aduke’s quest to give her husband a child had made her a slave to the delivery bed. She had seen one child after the other die in her arms, the dreaded “abiku”; the village babalawo had given up on her, and countless sacrifices had been offered to coerce the children to stay, to no avail.

This was her lot in life, to be tormented and tortured by the lifeless bodies of her infant children; nine months of every year spent carrying death.

She could have been re-named “Death” for she was an empty shell; the village had run out of sympathy for her; many thought her possessed of an evil spirit.

Fortunately, her husband stuck by her and refused to take a second wife; although Olusegun was weary, he would never admit it. Fate continually mocked his dreams of having six healthy sons and with his advancing years and no help at the farm, he was bound to break his poor back if he didn’t get help soon.

With all this in mind, Aduke muffled her screams and pushed slowly; she was an expert of sorts on childbirth, after twenty-two tries, she might as well have learnt a thing or two. In a little while, the child had eased out on to the palm leaves she had laid on, she picked up the little bundle and felt a tiny flutter of joy as he filled his lungs and let out a tiny cry, his little organ confirmed his gender.

She quickly calmed her excited heart; her abiku was back once again to tease her, to make her feel the fleeting joy of motherhood. Nevertheless, she put the child to her breast and fed him.

She was tired but Olusegun wasn’t going to have excuses; he loved his bowl of pounded yam and he expected it every night without fail. After working hard all day, he might as well be guaranteed this little comfort from his “cursed” wife.

Cooing her new-born to sleep, she set mind to preparing her husband’s dinner.

Olusegun came back home later than usual and made a mental note to himself to be easy on his old body, he felt the fatigue from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet; he idly remembered Aduke was pregnant, like that held any hope. He had run out of hope, he had long succumbed to the reality that rocking a child in her arms wasn’t Aduke’s lot in life.

She had prepared his dinner and had already fetched his bathwater; if only she could have a child, she would have been the perfect wife.

Read the full story here http://nomadicmosco./2013/06/13/the-14th-aare-1/
Re: "The 14th Aare" (a Short Story) by luvmijeje(f): 10:10pm On Jun 14, 2013
Op,well done and what a beautiful story so far.
But I'm trying to imagine Aduke given birth without any assistance, also imagining how she gave birth 23 times and trying to picture how she manage to go into the kitchen few minutes after giving birth.
Op, pls do help me out. Did she have supernatural power?
Re: "The 14th Aare" (a Short Story) by moscomoet: 11:59am On Jun 15, 2013
well, its partly a true life story set in the Old Oyo Empire; back then, women were more resilient and child bearing could go hand in hand with pounding yam.... wink

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