A Court Of Fowls: Episode 39
Jamila survives the horrendous road accident but learns she has lost the baby she was carrying.
Michael Conrad Wood continues his gripping story set in the turbulent world of East Africa.
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Test of Strength (continued)
Jamila lay in that coma for two long weeks. I found myself a
room at the Fanya Mkutano29 Guest House in Voi and visited her
bedside twice a day. The doctors waited three days to tell me that we
had lost the baby. It was another girl, they said. A cocktail of
methotrexate and mifepristone had been administered to expel the
dead embryo while Jamila remained comatose.
Finally my girl regained consciousness. The doctors had not yet
told her about the baby. I came in one morning to find her quietly
weeping. I cradled her against my chest and wept with her.
The first
thing she said was that someone had stolen the gold necklace I had
given her.
‘Don’t worry yourself about that my darling. We’ll soon get you
another one.’
She couldn’t believe the evidence of her own eyes that one of her
legs had all but gone. I couldn’t console her – not at first anyway, nor
could I dispel the selfish pity I felt for myself now faced with her
long recovery. I knew that she was going to need a lot of therapy
over the months ahead, the sort that was becoming more commonplace
to get amputees mobile again. I determined that I’d give her
my undivided love and attention to help bring back some semblance
of her former chirpy self.
For obvious reasons I had to cancel Jamila’s birthday party. Shani
charged me a cancellation fee on Les Wanyika. ‘Business is business,’
she had said. I reacted angrily, perhaps unjustifiably but said I would
have nothing more to do with her. She didn’t care. A woman like that
wouldn’t, I supposed.
