Chapter 15

Salifya

We all went to Anga’s room. Anga was seated in her bed rubbing her belly.

“I am sorry that he woke you. My contractions have just started.” Anga said. “They are far apart.”

“How bad is the pain?” Ama asked sitting beside Anga.

“Not so bad. Which why you guys should be asleep. Ipy were you crying? What’s wrong sweetie?”

“I had a nightmare.”

“I am sorry.” Anganile said.

“I’m better now.” Ipy forced a smile on her lips.

Ama made us move to the living room so we could watch TV to distract Anganile. Ama told me to go get warm water bottle. “Press it where the pain is.” She instructed me. As the hours soldiered on Anga’s pains got worse and worse. There were screams and many groans.

“You were big, so big,” My mother held out her hands as though she was holding a large ball. I giggled starring at her hands. “So big, they cut me out of my womb, two months earlier than you were supposed to be come out.”

“Is that what will happen with this baby?” I said. My arms were around her waist and my head was resting on her swollen belly. I had come into my parents’ room to kiss the baby goodmorning.

“I don’t think so,” She cast a glance at my father who was seated beside her on the bed. “This baby is not as tall as you and your father.”

My father just smiled continuing to knot his tie. Two months later, Ipy came, tiny and beautiful.

“It will be okay baby,” Chikondano leaned forward to plant a kiss on Anga’s cheek.

“Don’t kiss me,” She snapped. This was the tenth time she had snapped at him in the last few hours.

“How far apart are they now?” Anga asked glancing at Ipy.

“Nine minutes.” Ipy replied.

“We should start preparing to go to the hospital.” Ama said. “Ipy, can you bring the bag your sister packed for the hospital so she can check that everything is in it.” Ipy left the room.

Anga got up. “I need to use the bathroom.” She said feebily. Chikondano accompanied her.

“I would hate to be him.” Ama whispered when he was out of the room.

“Me too.” I chortled.

“At least she isn’t cursing at him though.” Ama laughed.

Ipy returned with the bag. “She is pretty close.” Ipy chuckled.

At the hospital, we waited for a long time for Anga to get properly dilated. Anga was irritable with all of us. We were all tired from being up half the night and the whole morning with her. She had decided a long time ago to go through the process without pain relief of any sort. Ipy and Ama secretly placed bets on how long she would last without asking for pain relief.

“I want to feel the pain and be in the moment completely.” She told us at her baby shower. I was shocked. What was there to feel? What difference did it make having the pain relief?

“You and Chiko should start ranning birth sims.” A cousin of ours suggested.

“Don’t touch me,” Anga snapped at me when I tried to massage her back. But five minutes later she asked me to restart massaging her with castor oil. “Just come out! Why must you torture me like this!” She yelled at her stomach at some point.

Did my mother regret having a normate? Especially with how tall I had ended up being? What was giving birth like for her? I know she delivered Ipy naturally.

Chikondano’s mother came into the delivery room. Me and Ipy started to leave after the nurse told Anga it was time to push.

“Stay both of you.” Anga pleaded. The human body is amazing.

The doctor let the father cut the umblical cord. She was just beautiful: fragile, tiny and beautiful. I wanted to protect her from the dangers of the world. I felt a deep concern for her in my heart. I loved her.

“You did it.” Chikondano said to Anga. Her head was nestled in the large pillow behind her. She looked fatigued. There were tears in both their eyes when the nurse placed the baby in Anga’s arms.

“We have decided to name her Lusubilo, it means faith in kyangonde.” Chikondano said, he was sitting beside Anga on the bed. His right arm was around Anga’s shoulder and his left stroked Lusubilo’s feet.

“When Ama found out you were kidnapped. Her and I prayed everyday for you to return safely and you did. This year has taught us to have Faith in God,” Anga explained.

“It’s a beautiful name,” Ipy said wiping tears out of her eyes. Ama placed her hand on her shoulder, Ipy smiled up at her, Ama returned her smile. She held out her arm and engulfed my shoulder drawing me to her. Her eyes were glistening with tears too.

“It is indeed a beautiful name,” Chikondano’s mother said. “Excuse me I am going to call Chikondano’s brother and Father who are waiting in the corridor.”

Lusubilo was born 14:45 am on 20th of Febuary she shared a birthday with Ipyana. Many relations of ours and Chikondano’s came to see the baby. I felt sorry for Anga she did not get the chance to rest till much later that evening when friends and family stopped coming in.

“She blames herself.” I said. “It’s gnawing at her insides. The baby is there only thing distracting her right now.”

“Pray for her that she moves on. I will too.” Xo said reclining on the couch.

“Thank you.”

“For?” He asked.

“For being there for me. These last couple months have been hard but without you they would have been harder.”

He leaned forward slowly and kissed me gently. “You are welcome,” He smiled cupping my cheek in his palms. He pulled my face towards him and kissed me again.

“I’ve had other dreams like it.” I said.

Shasha sat beside her couch, at my knees. “What happened in the other dreams?” Shasha asked.

I parted her kinks into four sections using a wide tooth comb. “We were on honeymoon in this dream.” I replied as I manipulated the first section into a flat twist.

“Doing what?” She asked mischievously.

“Just lying in a hammock enjoying the beautiful view of Nyika.”

“You have feelings for him?” she turned her head to face me.

“I don’t know.”

Her lips were drawn out into a smirk.

I turned her head the other way so I could continue plaiting her hair. “I love our friendship.”

“You know most great couples started off as friends.”

The last of the handlers I had been training left the conference room we were in. It was just me and Orton.

“So what exactly is the structure of Aka-rebel?” I asked.

He placed his phone on the glass table before us. An image of the structure of Aka-bel was displayed in a hologram form. . “So at the bottom we have the infantries, then the handlers, then the lietunants who are the handler’s handler. Then the commanders and the top we have Aka, Twa and Bantwa our three founders. Those are their aliases of course.” As he spoke, he would point at the image. “As you know we have three divisions in Aka-rebel: fundraising, Intelligence gathering and Tactical. Intel has a similar structure but fundraising has a different one.” Orton explained that everyone but the infantries got paid because they all put in a lot of time. These Aka-rebel guys must have good funding because they were paying me and Xo a lot of money just to do these trainings.

Today, me and Xo were training their spies and analysts from their intel branch. At lunch I pulled Orton aside into an empty corridor.

“I get why you chose Sundiata for this intelligence gathering training but why me?”

His lips extended into a smirk. “You know why.”

I grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist while making him face the wall. “Then you know I can break your arm in one movement.”

“You really don’t remember me?” He replied coolly. He kicked my leg and I let go of his arm involuntarily. He turned to face me. I was already pointing my blaster to his head.

Creator's Note:

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this chapter please let me know through comments and likes.

Who do you think this Aka-rebel operative is?

Is he dangerous?

How will having a baby in the house affect Salifya and Ipyana?

What did you think of the giving birth process?

what do you think of Salifya's dreams?