CHAPTER FOUR

Bringing Mr. and Mrs. Aku to accept any monetary reward concerning the adoption of their grand child was more difficult to handle than making them accept its adoption.  All the subtle arguments Dr. Zaki used during the discussion that followed whipped up the elements of suspicion rather than the required results.  Twice, the doctor subtly threatened to wash his hands off all the help he was trying to render to save the Aku family from some looming social problems concerning Nelly's future.  He reminded them again and again, the great trust and confidence they have had on him for more than the past thirteen years he had been their family doctor, even when he was yet working at the UNTH.  He said it was not fair if they would now begin to look at him with such uncertainty in their eyes, just because he was trying to make them understand the need for them to accept some money over the adoption.

'The fact is that the couple we are dealing with have been my clients for so many years, just like your family,' Dr. Zaki said to Mr. and Mrs. Aku.  'We are dealing with a family that is so rich that the amount of money they are willing to give you here is simply a token to them, a mere chicken feed.  Yet, they are very humble, friendly people.  It is not as if they are trying to buy the baby as you may already be implying in your words.  It is only that they feel that such exchange of gift would legitimize the whole discussion according to their own ways of looking at the matter.

'Also, I want you to understand the fact that I was the one who arranged for the adoption of their first two children, a boy and a girl both of who are presently in the secondary school.  I am not supposed to tell you about all these facts although it does not matter since they have given me the authority to discuss on their behalf concerning this issue.'

'Now,' Mr. Aku returned, 'will you also give us the privilege of knowing the persons you are talking about?’

'Well, Mr. Aku, if we are going to get into that, I can not tell you right away.  But let us make progress.'

'Alright,' Mr. Aku said, 'once again, give us some time to think over the whole thing.'

'I will give you some time, no doubt.  But mind you, time is not on our side.  To find a very good family for this type of thing is not very easy as you may well know.  Although I am not suggesting you are begging the issue, things are best done at the right and most appropriate time for them.  Their patience may be running out, giving how many days and how many times we have had to meet to discuss on this issue of money.

'Never mind,' Mr. Aku replied, 'we may not waste much time in giving you a reply this time.  But just allow us to get back home.'

'Yes, doctor,' his wife added, 'just give us a little time to get back to you.  You know this is a very sensitive issue and we would not like to take a step that would bring us unnecessary regrets.  Yet, we must thank you for all your efforts.  But, please, how soon are you discharging Nelly?'

'Well, by the time I hear from you, we will work things out in that direction.'

Mr. and Mrs. Aku returned home in their old Land Rover.  On their way home, they discussed the different aspects of the whole issue, especially what Nelly might think or say if she later learnt they had collected money on the adoption without telling her.  Obviously, they thought she was most likely to accuse them of having sold her child or something very close to that.  Yet, they were thoroughly convinced that seeking her opinion might derail the whole exercise as they were particularly conscious of some of the future social implications if Nelly were to keep the baby.  At the end, therefore, without telling any of their children, especially Chuka, they decided to take the final decisions all to themselves.  Hence, the following day, Mr. Aku went alone to tell Dr. Zaki they would accept the money in question, but only after the child was born.

'No,' the doctor said.  'We cannot wait for when the baby would be born.'

'Why?' Mr. Aku asked.  'I will not like to involve myself in anything that would put me and my family into one type of crisis or the other.  Supposing we accept the money now and then something goes wrong somewhere along the line?'

'Nothing would go wrong,' the doctor retorted.  'And there will not be any crisis after all.  Everything will certainly work out fine.  We have no reason to expect otherwise.'

Mr. Aku looked him in the face.

'Sure everything will go as planned?' he asked

'Sure, there will be no mistakes.'

'Then, let it be as you say.'

Dr. Zaki stretched his hand.  And seizing Mr. Aku's hand, they shook vigourously.

'I will need your account number for the remittance,' he said.

'Well, well, well.  Let me see if my teller is in the Land Rover outside.'  Mr. Aku returned.  'That is the only place I can get that right now.'

He soon left the office and after a little while returned without anything in that direction.

'Sorry, I removed the teller,' he said, most apologetically.  'I will send that across.'

'Why not save that in your handset?' the doctor asked.  'That will make it easier to carry around.'

'Oh yes you are correct.  And I think I have it in my handset,' he just remembered, bringing out his handset.

He opened the appropriate window and soon began to stroll down to get the number.  And when he did, with a piece of paper, he wrote it down, handed it over to the doctor, shook hands with him again and then was set to leave.

'Doctor, you have been so wonderful to my family,' he said as they shook hands.  'God will bless you.'

The doctor nodded accent with an earnest smile while Mr. Aku left his office and so was in his Land Rover, leaving Solace Hospital.  In less than twenty-four hours, Dr. Zaki called Mr. Aku and told him the sum of Three point five million naira was already transferred into his account.  Indeed, Mr. Aku was happy but with some mixed feelings.  And when he eventually told his wife about the transfer already concluded, instead of shouting for joy, her heart was heavy.  As a matter of fact, both of them felt so heavy hearted about the money that they began to wonder if they had not made a mistake.  For the first time as a couple, they experienced the fact that it is really not money that gives one real joy and happiness but the inward satisfaction of having brought some joy, upliftment and upbuilding to one's friends, one's environment and one's fellow men through one's genuine activities.  In all, however, they tried not to think about the money or even what to do with it at the moment, although they had many problems they could sort out with such money presently.

After remitting that money in Mr. Aku's account, Dr. Zaki knew his attention must now turn to Chief Mrs. Lucas and her husband concerning the imaginary pregnancy and all that must follow it.  Although something deep within told him this section might involve outright deceit if not fraud, he knew he had already crossed the rubicorn and so it was useless contemplating the possibilities of a withdrawal.  So, he invited Chief Mrs. Lucas for a discussion on the next stage of the way forward.

'The time has come for the next stage towards achieving our objective,' he said to her.  'We must now make your husband to believe you are pregnant.'

'Already, I am working towards that.'

'How?'

'I am already faking weakness and malaria..

'You must know my husband is a very intelligent man.  So, the situation needs a lot of special effects to avoid doubts in his mind.  And things must be followed very, very systematically so that when eventually I come for a test, he will not doubt the results.'

The doctor was nodding his head as the woman spoke.

'But there is another aspect so important that we must not take it for granted.  I am a woman.  And I know that the girl in question, you said her name is?'

'Nelly.'

'That's right, Nelly . . .  Her condition must be under your direct control.  To achieve our objective, I suggest she must be isolated from too many people this time around until the baby is born, especially her own people.  I am going to give you enough money to hire a place within the farthest outskirts of the town or even outside Enugu.  It will not take more than forty-eight hours to furnish the place to the teeth, preferably a duplex that is fairly isolated where however she must be made as comfortable as she could be.  While there, her people will see her only periodically.  And whenever they visit, they must not be allowed to stay around her for too long.

'You will have to arrange for a very strong security for the place to guarantee her safety in an earthly sense while we leave the rest to Providence.  I do not want any person who knows me or my husband to serve there.  The security must be made up of elderly men, if possible.  Only grown-up girls will have direct access to that house to avoid a situation where she could fall in love afresh with any man, young or old that may lead to spoiling our plans.  That would stall the possibilities of elopement which you know could easily run down our plans, halfway.

'Already, we have discussed so much about how to tackle the aspects that affect me personally and those that affect my husband and my children.  Since I am not going to be very much around, so much lies in your hands.  But rest assured that I will always make sure money is not a problem to you in this matter.'

Their discussions lasted for a long while over many issues that surrounded the entire aspiration.  Arrangements for the house must be made immediately.  Dr. Zaki must take time to explain things to the young girl and her parents.  They must be made to see the isolation as being important to the total achievement of her social security tomorrow.  They must be made to understand the fact that it was better if people did not know she was even pregnant throughout.  After the birth of the baby, the doctor was to assist her in every way he could to stay away from the eyes of those who knew her too well until she was completely returned to her former self if possible.  The discussions concluded, Chief Mrs. Lucas left the doctor's office and returned home to continue with her serious plans.

On the day Nelly was to be discharged, Dr. Zaki invited Mr. and Mrs. Aku to his office together with their daughter.

'I thank the Most High you are alive today while we are talking about the future,' he said, looking Nelly in the face.  'Indeed, only one with a deep sense of understanding will appreciate the depth from which your life was recovered, not by me or my nurses, but by the one all wise people worship.  There is need for a thanksgiving.  Yet, while we express our gratitude to God for His magnanimity in giving you back your life after all hopes had almost been lost, we must do whatever lies within our power to make sure that, for a brilliant girl like you, your future is totally secured.

'So,' the doctor continued, 'I plead with you and your dad and mum to see whatever decision I take about this matter as being inevitable if all thing must work out fine, if we must play out those parts that are so important because the present circumstances demand they should be so.  Today, I am officially discharging you as perfectly alright.  Already, I have signed your bill and if for any reason you have any complaints to lay about how any person has treated you in this hospital during these past two weeks, by all means do not fail to let the authorities know.  If possible, come to me directly.

'Although, I am discharging you, however, having certified you fit to go home with both yourself and the baby in a reasonable state of safety, you may not return to your father's house immediately.  You are not however under compulsion to do as I say.  Yet, in doing whatever we do about the present situation, we must consider, not your immediate comfort but your permanent comfort.  I am not talking about physical comfort, you know.  For the people we are dealing with, as I have told you, are very comfortable people.  And they have no intention of denying you your comfort either.  I am only considering comfort at the mental level.

'By their design, approved by my understanding of the whole situation, they have furnished a duplex within the outskirts of the city precisely some kilometers away from here, where you will live until the baby is born . . . '

'Nelly, try and comfort yourself,' her mother said.  'You must try to understand.'  Then, in very low voice she said, 'can you imagine what the neighbours and the entire friends of the family would say if this matter is not properly handled?  I know the doctor means well.  Most importantly, we can afford to trust him in all the steps he is now taking.'

At the end of going round and round, however, Dr. Zaki told them the place was not just in the outskirt but a little farther away at a small town of Agbani.  He suggested there was no need for Nelly to return home first before the movement but said it was better in his own opinion, to transfer the young girl directly from the hospital to the place.  Aware of the fact that he must carry the couple along with him in all those aspects that could jeopardize their trust and confidence, he, immediately suggested that four of them would make the move together so that from the word go, they would be properly acquainted with where their daughter was supposed to be.  For he knew that this was a highly literate couple and so deserved to be treated as such, notwithstanding the fact that he had committed them financially.  It was therefore agreed that the movement would be later that day, towards evening while presently Mr. and Mrs. Aku had to do their own part to formalize their daughter's discharge from the hospital by signing the necessary documents and paying their hospital bills.

Dr. Zaki had before this time, acquired a duplex within the little town of Agbani, the headquarter of Nkanu Local Government Area.  There, he was planning to set up a cottage hospital with emphasis on providing sound gynecological services to the people of the surrounding communities.  Built like a modern estate, the house sat in a well cultivated environment of about four plots of land walled right round with a firm iron gate at the front and a security house.  Indeed, he hoped to develop the empty plots around the main house into a standard sub-urban hospital with at least one resident surgeon gynecologist.  Already, he had a gardener to dress the place and keep out a wild atmosphere by planting flowers and ornamental trees, and by making low hedges in a simple type of landscaping that was gradually turning the place into a piece of paradise.  So, after considering other possibilities, he thought that using the house for solving the present problem was in all a much better option.  Hence, instead of going to hire a new place that might be strange to him and his clients at the same time, he thought his own property was most likely to inspire more confidence in the Aku family as well as reassure Mrs. Lucas that everything would be constantly under control, especially while she would be away.

At about five thirty that evening, however, Dr. Zaki, personally driving in one of his private cars, a black Isuzu Jeep, brought Nelly and her parents into the new place.  And when the gate was opened by the security man, a man in his early sixties, they drove right into the compound as the gate once again closed behind them.  When they all alighted from the vehicle now parked beside the house, the doctor said to his hosts:

'Welcome to a would be annex of Solace Hospital.  This place is my property.  And I have had to rush to clean up the place, repaint and furnish the house, just for the purpose of our coming.'

Mr. and Mrs. Aku were amazed as their mind became a bit more relaxed.

'Come on in,' the doctor said as he led them into the central door, opened by a nurse in uniform.  'This is one of the most trusted nurses I have in Solace Hospital,' Dr. Zaki said, introducing them to a fine looking lady who stood aside to let them in.  'I have made arrangements for everything Nelly would need while here, except her dresses.

'But for the psychology of having a nurse around always to attend to her,' the doctor continued, 'I would have asked Edna to be coming to work in mufti.  I want Nelly to feel totally at home here.  For being totally relaxed, free from unnecessary anxieties is one of the best ways of sustaining a healthy pregnancy.'

As he took the couple and their daughter around the house before going to show her her bedroom, they were thoroughly amazed at the level of furnishing involved in the whole sections of the house.  The kitchen had the most modern gadgets and state of the art utensils.  Each of the bedrooms had its own toilet and bath, furnished with beautiful tiles and the most elegant washbasins, sinks and bath thubs.  The blinds and curtains were of most exquisite designs with the most royal appearances.  The place was indeed meant to represent what a modern home should be.  By the living room, there was a study that housed a small library well stocked with both classical and modern literature series, almost surging with books.  Penguin classics, African Writers Series, Fontana Series, Pace setter Series and several other titles found in the world of modern literature, were within reach.

'I don't want you to be sad or anxious for any reason,' Dr. Zaki said, turning to Nelly.  'If there is anything Edna cannot handle, I mean your personal domestic needs, feel free to call me on phone.  I will not want you to disturb your family at all during this period.  I will also make sure I make out time personally to come around as regularly as I can.  Edna is going to be living here with you for now.  So, she has the services of a grown-up maid who would join you from my house early tomorrow morning.'Mind you, avoid discussing the past with just any body you may be privileged to meet around here.  This time calls for caution and restraint.  No doubt, your parents or even brothers could come around to see you.  But if it is possible, I would prefer a situation where everything is regulated in such a way that you maintain a reasonable degree of privacy especially from non-members of your immediate family.  Here you have a television and a video set, both here in your room and at the living room.  There is also a radio set here, as you can see on the counter by the bed, that can get you connected to any part of the world.  The television is connected to a DSTV network which gives you the privilege of watching the world live, through several news channels.  Many other stations can give you all types of entertainments, documentaries and many more.  With the music station on the satellite channel, you have music round the clock.  Edna will show you how to manipulate the whole thing for maximum benefits if perhaps you are not effectively on in that direction.  You can see that your parents and I would want you to be happy and above all, to be stronger by the time this experience would be over.

'You will not need to come to the hospital for your routine checks.  That is why I have a staff nurse here who also has a vast experience in looking after pregnant women, especially newcomers in child bearing.  Also, as I said, I will always come around, not only as a domestic visitor but also on routine medical check-ups.'

At the time her parents left with the doctor, having been reassured that her mum was going to bring some of her dresses the next day, Nelly sat on the gorgeous bed in her private room, ruminating over so many things.  Was that all a dream or something close to being realistic, concrete and material in essence?  She thought to herself.  After a while however, she decided to leave behind the happenings of recent days and weeks to see if she could be happy within her new environment.  Whoever thought, just a month before, that the issue concerning her relationship with Dom would now be dangling so dangerously and so miserably on a single cubweb?  Was it possible for her to ever find happiness again without Dom standing at akimbo like a crafty phantom at the doorstep of her aspirations?  As she thought about so many related issues, trying to blame herself here and there for her present, painful experiences, she lay down on the bed and slept off.  In a short while, Edna came close and discovering the door was ajar, peeped in to accost her with greetings.  When she discovered the young lady was asleep, she quietly withdrew to allow her have some rest.  Nelly slept on until it was dark.  And by the time she woke up, she discovered light shining into her room from the large central living room.  Then, rising up, she switched on the light in her room as the beautiful draperies flowing down the windows brightened up to reveal the beautiful designs they were made of.  After a while, she left the room and entered into the living room where Edna was sitting down, watching a programme over the television.

'This is a very beautiful place,' Nelly said to the nurse who asked her to sit down and make herself comfortable.

'Yes, I think so too.  Doc has a very high degree of taste.  In fact, I think he is a perfectionist.'

'You are right.  And he is also very, very kind.'

'Is he?' the nurse asked.

'Of course, yes.  Or am I wrong in my assumptions?'

'No, I don't think you are wrong.  Of course, an employer is scarcely appreciated so deeply that way by his employees as everyone would always want to improve on the buoyancy of his or her purse.  Yet, I think he is a very good master; maybe not ungenerous to people around him but a very good businessman.  I respect him for one thing.  He is never sentimental and so cannot fail to be objective at any time.'

'Do you mean he is calculative or that sort of thing?'

'No, no not at all.  He is not calculative in an intellectual sense but he is a very careful person.  He can be kind when he wishes to be.  But no one who knows him will take him for granted because, what one person does to offend him may be completely ignored by him when it comes from another.  That's what I mean by saying he is an objective person.  Now, how are you getting on?'

'Well, fine,' Nelly replied, looking tired and under severe pressure.  'I hope I will find some peace of mind here.'

'I learnt your husband just traveled abroad, eh?'

'Well, well yes,' Nelly stammered.  'He just traveled abroad,' still wondering what and how much the nurse knew.

'You will be joining him after the birth of your baby?'

'Well, who knows what tomorrow holds.  Yes, if it is possible.'

'Why not?  He must be a very rich guy who can afford such services provided here.'

Nelly did not quite understand where she was heading to with that discussion and so quickly changed the topic.

'Have you been in Dr. Zaki's employment for quite long?'

'Well, at least for five years.'

'That's some time.'

'Somehow, yes.  But it is not so long judging how quickly time seems to fly by.  It is all like yesterday.  Mind you, your food is on the dining table.

'Thank you,' Nelly returned, rising to go to table.  'Why not join me or have you eaten?

'Well, thank you.  I will eat later.'

As Nelly sat at table to eat, she looked round the whole place, filled with admiration.  The beautiful chandeliers shining forth from the ceiling above, the elegant decorations that adorned the living and the dining rooms and the noiseless split-unit air conditioners that made the whole place cool and full of natural well being, all blended into an atmosphere of peace and serenity.  As she ate her dinner, her thoughts strayed again and again as she seemed to forget her meal momentarily, eating and stopping from time to time.