CHAPTER THREE

                                                     THE SADDEST DAY

The news about my mother's pregnancy got Daddy hyperactive. He has been all smiles and someworth mouthy, always talking about his fantasies with his baby: how beautiful he imagined it would look and boasted about how great and endearing a father he'd be to his children. He would keep talking and talking that it got Mum cracking up at some point. She'd hold her stomach out of pain because she had laughed so hard that she'd beg him to stop to avoid hurting the baby, and after a while, he'd start suddenly again like someone out there pressed his remote-control button. He can be that fay and full of fun.

It was always charming to see Mum's face lit up each time she talked about him. She mentioned how he'd not allow her to do anything he supposed was stressful, just to protect her and their coming child. He catered for her and provided all she wanted.

After each session of discussion about my mother's love life experience with my father, I always daydreamed about my marriage. I would retire suddenly to bed and pretend to be asleep just to avoid disturbance while I picture myself in Mum's shoes. Many a time, she had caught me in the middle of my fantasies, smiling and chortling. To her, I was in a deep sleep; for me, I was with a lover like my father in my imaginary world. I do that a lot when circumstances around me appear overbearing, and I felt wool-gathering would help me not to lose my cool.

On the day of my birth, Daddy had taken Mum to the hospital because she started having frequent contractions. After dropping her off, he headed back to bring some items he left at home while in a hurry to get her to the hospital on time. On driving, he developed some change of mixed feelings he couldn't explain. He was excited, confused, happy, afraid, and sad all at the same time. The feelings were strong and clashing that he couldn't trace the source. At first, he felt that the reflections about the old-time friend he bashed into at the hospital, was responsible - She was aunt Adhira's very close friend, and Daddy's crush many years back. It was quite a surprise to meet her at the hospital after several years of separation. He waved aside the reflections and switched over to Mummy and the unborn child, and hoped that they were all doing fine despite the strange feelings, then made a silent prayer for them as he tried as much as he could to stay calm though he was deeply disturbed.

Driving about a few distances away from the hospital, he perceived something terrible was about to happen when he got lightheaded and had a fuzzy vision. The major thing he told the doctor he remembered was that he saw himself trying to dodge from ramming into a young man on his bike because he lost his eye-steering coordination. He attempted hooting to caution the man, but couldn't get a grip of the horn. The succeeding thing he realised was that he crashed off the lane, cracking the underside of the automobile before flipping over to the other side of the road.

An observer at the accident scene brought Daddy to the hospital, almost breathing his last. Some doctors and nurses on duty rushed him to the Accident and Emergency unit for immediate treatment. According to the medical team, the dizziness resulted from severe dehydration and prolonged standing position while in the hospital with Mum; his clammy skin confirmed these premises.

After several examinations, the presumptive explanation of what Mum understood caused the accident was that my father blacked out while driving because he doesn't have much fluid in his system and had been on his feet for so long. The report summarised that Daddy had orthostatic hypotension caused by a quick drop in his blood pressure, which handled the unanticipated loss of control that led to the accident while on his way back home.

Meanwhile, Mummy was still battling with prolonged labour in another ward. The doctors had reserved her for a cesarean operation and had been holding on for Daddy's return to sign the papers before taking her to the theatre for an operation. Having waited for too long, my mother's condition had worsened with excruciating pain and the unsettled baby in her womb. She felt helpless and derelict.

Going down this memory lane can actuate negative energies. I could only imagine the pain when she shared what she went through giving birth to me. A tear dropped and fleetly, I wiped it off so she wouldn't notice it and break down too; she was that emotional! I dislike seeing her in an unhappy state, and this story was already changing the atmosphere in a bad way.

I thought about what would flip the mood to the positive side but couldn't think of any except talking about Daddy and the mention of his name would take her back to the accident and emergency unit. Notwithstanding, I was eager to know what went down with him, and more especially, his facial expressions when he saw the baby the first time. I really wanted to see my mother beam with smiles again when talking about how entrancing he was on seeing his long-awaited child. So, I cheered up and asked about Daddy's level of excitement when he saw his baby after he got stabilised. But she ignored me and continued with her part of the story instead. Her strange attitude embarrassed me; I sat still and listened, anyway.

After several hours of waiting for my father's return, which was worrisome because the hospital was just twenty minutes’ drive from home, the team operated on Mum in an emergency. The operation took longer than usual and got everyone hinky because Mum went into a coma. The medical team started running around, seeing how they could save her and the baby. Daddy, who had sustained minor physical injuries, later got stabilised; or so they thought, as he asked after his wife and the baby. On hearing accidentally that his wife was in a coma, he had an attack and relapsed.

Both husband and wife went into a coma, and the following attempt was to save the baby's life.

After a while, Mum returned from her comatose state, and by her side lay the baby for warmth. She was glad to see Daddy's carbon copy in her little girl child. She enquired about Daddy's whereabouts, but no one could tell her anything reasonable, which got her uneasy. The only thing she kept hearing was she needed to rest, as Daddy was fine.

A few hours thereafter, when the atmosphere was no more tensed up, the news about Daddy's death broke out! This was the saddest day of her life, and I suppose mine too because all high hopes crashed here. We cried uncontrollably as she spoke about it until there were no fresh tears to shed. The tears became our night meal, and we went straight to bed losing all appetite for food.