I
made my way through the throng hovering outside the Maternity Ward. It was not
unusual to see crowds of women hovering at the Maternity Ward as some family members and
friends just cannot wait until the baby went home. In this day and age everybody wanted to be the first one to post the baby's picture on Facebook and Instagram. Inside the ward four ladies surrounded the bed of the young miss who had such a hard time giving
birth earlier today. They were trying to console her as she cried in an agonizing manner. She screamed, “He’s dead and he has
not seen the baby!” One of the women turned
to me and said that the father of the baby was killed in a shootout with the
police. When the young miss hollered, “Rajah! Rajah!” I put two and two
together. The father of her baby was Rajah Williams, the same Rajah Williams
that the news reporter said was killed in a shootout with the police and the
same Rajah Williams that Sergeant Francis said he was taking to the police station. I
sighed. The young miss was getting hysterical so I asked the ladies to leave the
ward while I tried to calm her down. I checked her blood pressure and
thankfully it was normal. She begged to see her baby. I told her she would have to promise me that
there would be no more screaming and hollering on the ward before I would allow her to see her baby. She promised me she
would be quiet so I asked to nurse to go and get the baby. When the baby was
given to her she held it tightly as she sobbed quietly. Poor thing, I said to myself, I am sure she was not expecting that kind of news today. I would have loved to stay with her for a while longer and comfort her but I had to leave her
because there were other women in the Delivery Room who were ready to have
their babies. On my way from the ward I saw an even larger crowd outside. They
were holding up signs that had the words “We want justice for Rajah!” on them. One of
the protesters was saying that the young man had not done anything and he was
innocent. Another said that the police took Rajah to the hospital after killing
him in cold blood. I said nothing as I passed them and went about my business.
They would not have believed me anyway seeing that their beloved Rajah was a god!
Luckily for me the other babies I had to deliver did not take too much time and effort. The two mothers were ‘seasoned child bearers’, one was having her
fifth child and the other was having her ninth child. The mother having her
ninth child said she wanted to have her tubes tied and asked if it could be done
without her husband’s knowledge. All her children were two years apart in age
and she was tired, she said, of being pregnant. Her husband was a Farm Worker
who worked in Canada for eight months out of the year and every time he came home
he got her pregnant. I laughed and told her that her husband had to give his
consent for the Doctor to perform the tubal ligation. She laughingly said that
she was going to let her brother sign the form because knowing her husband he
would not give his consent. The other mother, who was having her fifth girl,
said that she couldn’t stop getting pregnant until she had a boy because her husband wanted a
son to carry on his name. I asked her what if her next child is another girl?
She shrugged her shoulders and said that she would just have to get pregnant
again. I shook my head in disbelief as I left the Delivery Room, these women
were something else!
After updating the information on all the patients and making
sure that all the documentations for the registration of the babies were in
order, I changed from my scrubs and went outside to meet Ricky who was waiting
patiently for me in the car park. I could hardly wait to tell him about the
events of the day. I got into the car and before I could begin Ricky asked me if I heard that Rajah was dead. I told
him that I heard about it on the news and then I told him about Rajah’s baby’s
mother. What was scary, I said to Ricky, was that based on Rajah’s reported
time of death, it was that same time we thought we were going to lose either
the mother or the baby! “Yeah!” exclaimed Ricky, “It seems as if he had to die
for that baby to live!” he continued. I thought about that on the rest of the
journey home. It was too much of a coincidence. When we turn onto the street
where I lived, I saw Reverend Julian’s vehicle parked at my gate. I was happy to see that he had decided to
come by the house so we could have a discussion on what to do about Cassie and her children. Yes! I was going to get rid of these migrants once and for all!
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