by Hazel Mills
Chapter 21
Nikki
Shannon is about to give birth to a baby! Mama was right thinking that Shannon was in trouble. Why wouldn’t she come to us with something so serious? Not keeping up with my little sister was a big mistake. How could I have been so selfish?
Ahmad and I rushed to the hospital to see what was going on with my sister. During the ride, neither one of us said a single word to the other. I had so many thoughts racing through my mind about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours; I felt the beginning of a migraine coming over the horizon.
Ahmad is too quiet. I know he must be angry with me for behaving like such a child when it came to making love. Ahmad is my husband. That’s what married people do. Why am I tripping over something that should be a no brainer? My behavior was unacceptable. Now, what should have been the most special night of my life has been made even more tragic by this emergency. Ahmad has to be pissed.
My heart ached knowing that I had ruined our wedding night for Ahmad. He’d been so patient with me. For whatever reason, I allowed my mind to keep retreating to the darkness of my past and my body followed.
“Ahmad, are you okay?” I asked, rubbing his tight thigh. His eyes remained on the road.
“Yeah, baby. I’m fine.”
He’s so angry, he can’t even look at me. “I’m sorry about what happened earlier.” He didn’t respond.
“Ahmad. Baby, did you hear what I said?” He still didn’t respond.
“Ahmad!”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“What’s on your mind? You seem a million miles away.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Nothing is really on my mind. I’m just concentrating on getting us to the hospital.”
You’re lying. You are angry with me but you don’t want to admit it. You’re afraid to hurt my feelings.
“Are you angry with me about what didn’t happen tonight?”
“No, Nikki. I told you that I understand what you’re going through.”
“I heard what you said but you still seem upset.”
“I promise you that I am not upset about that. Like I said, we are on our way to the hospital in the middle of the night. I just want to get you to your sister. I know how worried you are about her. That’s all.”
Okay. If that’s your story, I’m not going to press the issue. But we will talk about this later.
When we arrived at the hospital, Ahmad dropped me off at the emergency entrance while he went to find a place to park the car. As soon as I walked through the sliding doors, I felt my heart pounding in my chest.
“Excuse me, can you tell me where Shannon Evans is?” I asked the person sitting behind the desk. “She came in tonight in labor.”
“Nikki,” Sabrina called from the hall before the receptionist could answer my inquiry.
“Where is she?”
“Follow me.”
Lord, please let everything be okay.
“Sabrina, what is going on?” I asked as we rushed down the long corridor.
“Somebody dropped her off in the ambulance bay. Her water had broken and she was in active labor.”
“I still can’t believe Shannon is pregnant and nobody knew about it. How crazy is that?”
“Girl, I know what you mean. Where’s Ahmad?”
“He’s outside looking for a parking space.”
“Shannon is in here,” Sabrina said, pointing to a room at the end of the hall. “You go on in and I’ll wait for Ahmad in the lobby and let him know where you are.”
“Push! Push!” I heard a woman yell from behind a curtain when I opened the door.
“I’m pushing!”
I recognized my sister’s agony-laced voice.
Oh my, God! She’s having the baby right now! This can’t be happening.
I pulled open the curtain and rushed to Shannon’s side. For the first time in a long time, she actually looked happy to see me. She reached for my hand with desperation in her eyes. I realized that now was not the time for us to get into the when’s and why’s of what was happening. My little sister needed my strength to help her through this.
“Okay, Shannon. Come on and push as hard as you can,” I instructed.
She leaned forward, grabbed her ankles, and did as she was told.
Oh my, God! I can see the baby’s head.
“You’re doing great, young lady,” the nurse said. “We’re almost there. All we need is just one more big one.”
I placed my hand on Shannon’s back as she leaned forward again. This time, her push was accompanied by a gut-wrenching scream.
The baby is out. I’ve just witnessed a new life coming into the world.
“It’s a girl,” the nurse announced, cutting the cord.
“Shannon, you did it,” I said, wiping the sweat from my sister’s forehead. It was hard for me to believe what had just happened.
“Nikki, how did you know I was here?”
“Sabrina called me.”
After weighing the baby and cleaning her up a bit, the nurse brought the baby over and placed her in Shannon’s arms.
“Five pounds and three ounces,” the nurse said.
“Oh, Shannon, look at her. She’s beautiful.”
Shannon just looked at the baby without saying a word and without any emotion.
“Is the baby okay,” I asked the nurse.
“Everything looks fine. But the doctor will further exam her in the nursery,” she answered, looking at Shannon and waiting
for a reaction. There was none. “Someone will be by shortly to get you admitted and take you to a room on our Labor and Delivery floor,” she continued.
I couldn’t understand how Shannon could be so quiet. She had just experienced the most incredible miracle in the world.
“Knock, Knock,” Sabrina said, poking in her head.
“Come on in,” I answered, never breaking my stare at Shannon, who was looking in the opposite direction.
“I just saw them take the baby upstairs to the nursery. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine.”
Sabrina looked at Shannon then looked questioningly at me. I shrugged my shoulders. Just then, another nurse came in to take Shannon upstairs.
“I’ll be up in a minute,” I comforted as the nurse pushed Shannon’s gurney out of the room.
“What’s up with her?” Sabrina asked.
“Girl, I don’t know. She hasn’t said much of anything to me.
Where’s Ahmad?”
“He is safe and sound in the waiting room.”
Okay. Let him know that I am on my way upstairs and I’ll see him in a few minutes. I want to make sure Shannon and the baby are okay.”
I went to find my sister and hopefully to get some answers to the many questions surrounding this whole ordeal.
“Shannon, why didn’t you let me know what was going on?” I asked as soon as I walked into the room. Shannon had a semiprivate room but she didn’t yet have a roommate so I sat on the unoccupied bed.
“Like telling you anything would have made a difference,” she snarled back.
“You could have at least told Mama. She’s been worried sick about you. You haven’t called home and every time she’s called you, no one could say where you were. Did you move out of the dorm?”
“Nikki, I haven’t been in school for almost a year. If you really cared anything about me, you’d know that.”
“I do care about you. Whatever gave you the impression that I didn’t? I just didn’t like the things you were doing because they were dangerous.”
“Yeah, right.”
A knock came at the door and an older woman walked in carrying a clipboard.
“Miss Evans, I’m Rose Gaines from the hospital admissions office and I’m here to get some information from you.” Shannon rolled her eyes in my direction.
What the hell is wrong with you?
“What is your full name?” the woman asked.
“Shannon Marie Evans.”
“Your date of birth?”
“October 21, 1971.”
“Occupation?”
“Unemployed.”
You should say student.
“Have you chosen a name for your baby?”
Shannon paused for a minute. Then she smiled and looked at me.
“Nikki, why don’t you name her?”
Me? Why me?
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“How about Aliyah Nicolette,” I responded.
“Aliyah Nicolette. I like that,” Shannon said, nodding at the woman.
“What is the name of the father?” the woman asked.
“Ahmad Jacobs, Jr.”
What the fuck did that bitch just say? Ahmad Jacobs, Jr.?
My head spun around like that little girl in the Exorcist.
“What did you say?”
“I said Ahmad is the father of my baby. Oh what? You didn’t know?” Shannon asked, laughing.
“Didn’t know what?”
“That your man and I used to be fuck buddies.”
“What?”
“That’s all I need for now, Miss Evans,” the woman said as she sensed the growing tension and got the hell out of the room.
“Ahmad and I know each other very well. Just ask him about me. He’ll tell you. He’ll tell you a lot.”
I just stared blankly at Shannon. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
This can’t be happening. Shannon has to be lying. Ahmad doesn’t know her. Why is she doing this?
“How do you know that Ahmad is my man, Shannon?”
“I know because when I went to his apartment to tell him about the baby, I saw your picture there.”
I have to find Ahmad and put an end to this bullshit.
16
“You’re lying. I don’t know why but I know that you’re lying.”
“You think I’m lying? Why don’t you ask Ahmad and see what he says?”
I left Shannon’s room in a daze, not noticing anything or anyone along the path to the waiting room. Shannon’s words had stabbed me in the heart. I felt the temperature of my blood rise three hundred degrees. My vision had become blurred and all I could hear were her cold words muted by loud static.
When I arrived in the waiting room, Ahmad and Sabrina were standing by the coffee machine.
“Hey, baby, how’s everything?” he asked as I approached him.
“Is Shannon okay? Has she told you anything?” Sabrina inquired.
“Oh yeah, she has told me something. Now, I need you to tell me something, Ahmad. Are you the father of Shannon’s baby? Have you been fucking my sister?”
I didn’t care that the waiting room was almost filled to capacity with people. It didn’t matter to me who heard what I said to my husband.
“Huh?” Sabrina said, almost strangling on her coffee.
“Nikki, let me—”
“Let you what, Ahmad?”
“I need to explain.”
“Explain what? There is no need to explain shit. Either it is true or it’s not.”
“Ahmad, please tell her that this is a joke,” Sabrina begged.
“Nikki—”
“Yes or no, Ahmad.”
“Yes, I—”
Before Ahmad could finish his sentence, I grabbed the coffeepot from the machine and cracked him over the head with it. The hot liquid and shards of glass went everywhere.
Ahmad fell to the floor, holding his bleeding head, and groaning like a wounded moose.
“Nikki, wait,” Sabrina yelled as she grabbed my arms from behind just as I was about to stomp Ahmad’s ass into the tiled floor.
The security guard and another nurse rushed over to Ahmad and helped him into an exam room.
“Nikki, what in the hell just happened here?” Sabrina asked.
“Shannon says that Ahmad is the father of her baby and Ahmad just admitted to fucking her. Sabrina, please shake me and tell me that this is all a horrible dream. Wake me from this nightmare, please.”
I began to sob uncontrollably. I lost my equilibrium and went limp in my best friend’s arms.
“I’m so sorry,” Sabrina repeated again and again, as she held me.
“I’ve never felt so betrayed in my life. I put my trust in Ahmad. How could I have been so stupid?”
“There has to be some mistake, Nikki. You know how Shannon is. She could have said that just to hurt you.”
“But Ahmad said—”
“Just because he had sex with her doesn’t mean that he’s the father of the baby. That kid could be anybody’s, Nikki, you know that,” Sabrina explained. She was trying her best to make me feel better but it wasn’t helping at all. It still felt as if someone had ripped my heart out with their bare hands.
How could one day be filled with so much drama? Less than twelve hours ago, Ahmad and I were so happy. We’d just begun our lives together and looked forward to the endless possibilities of the future. We’d made so many plans. Now, everything has fallen apart. What if this is Ahmad’s child? What does that mean for us? Even if the baby is not his, how can I live with him knowing that he has been with my sister?
“I’m going to check on Ahmad and see if I can get to the bottom of this bullshit. Will you be okay while I’m gone?” Sabrina asked.
