Chapter 4 Lost Gem

The smell of blood lingered strongly in the air and to my utmost displeasure, the aroma was intoxicatingly sweet and it made me build up an appetite suddenly.

We had to wait patiently for our turn. I fingered the hem of my dress with intensity trying to distract myself from the lacy smell of sweet rust and salt that played around my nostrils.

"Why didn't you tell me before now?." I heard Auntie say, I couldn't tell if she was just trying to start up a conversation due to how long we had to wait or if she was indeed bothered, which was the last thing I wanted to make her go through.

I sighed softly before replying to her, "I didn't want you to get worried." she patted my shoulder with her feeble hands and gave a reassuring smile. She was about to say something when we were intruded

upon hearing the doctor's baritone voice that shook the walls of the building.

"You can both come in now." he motioned his large hand towards his door. I got up first and helped her to her feet although she said we treated her as though she was extremely old and dying. But indeed she was old but dying? I wasn't too sure.

We sat in opposite directions facing the doctor, "Good day ladies." The doctor's voice rang loudly, and I began to wonder if he never spoke in a low tone. I didn't want my test results echoing through all four corners of his office.

"Hello," Antie replied to him, managing to put on a smile, while I just moved my head up and down in response.

"The test results are ready and I will provide you with them, but before I proceed, I want to admonish you to relinquish whatever might agitate you. I don't want any of you to overthink this and put your mental health at risk." The doctor sounded like a prophet that could see through the souls of members of his congregation.

Distinctly, worry and anxiety were written all over my face, I hid my trembling hands under my sweatshirt so that neither the doctor nor Auntie would notice it. Streams of thought flowed through my subconscious as I wondered what the results of the test could be. Uneasiness crept inside of me as I fidgeted with my zipper.

The doctor brought out the results from under the gigantic table and stretched them toward me. I drew cold hands from my shirt and reached for the paper. Aunt Veke looked on in anticipation.

My eyes were fixated on the file with a bewildering glare, everywhere suddenly heightened into silence or maybe I lapsed into a deep state of numbness and had become completely unresponsive to my surroundings. My breathing rolled down to a halt and I could feel my pulse building up to a length.

Aunt Veke looked over my shoulder and read the printed words aloud, she swallowed hard as she couldn't finish the sentence. She clasped one arm around me and made me rest on her bosom. The scent of vicar and tears filled my nostrils. I sniffed and regained my position trying hard not to break down before the stranger that just confirmed my insecurities.

"She'll have to undergo hysterectomy: which is a surgery to completely remove her womb so that the virus doesn't spread to other vital organs, we'll have to start the surgical procedure immediately because the virus has eaten deep into her womb and is spreading rapidly." The husky doctor said, breaking the long silence.

He anticipated our response in vain.

Aunt Veke stood up first and helped me to my feet, I stood up, staggering backward as I hadn't fully recovered from the shock, she held me from falling using the table as support. The doctor attempted to help but seeing that Aunt Veke had it under control, he sat down back slowly.

"C'mon sweetie, let's go home now." She pushed the chair behind her with her back legs. Detecting that I did not attempt to move, she cupped both my cheeks, "Don't let it get you,u sweetie, you'll get through the surgery you'll be A-okay." she said, taking me in her arms and hugging me so tight I thought she squeezed all my fears out.

We drove back home in silence, each of us with our different thoughts occupying our heads. Aunt Veke wasn't trying to stir up a conversation and I was grateful for that, or maybe she knew I was much too preoccupied with my thoughts.

She drove leisurely through the woods not wanting to bump the car into any of the palm trees.

"Ivy?...Ivy!." I turned my head around solemnly without lifting my eyes to the direction the voice came from. "What does the result say?" Gehal called out, still holding onto the car door. I shifted my gaze from the file to her face. I hadn't taken the hours we drove by into consideration so technically I lost track of time and had no idea when we got home or when Auntie alighted from the car leaving me alone.

"I don't...it..." I didn't know how to explain to her that my hopes and dreams of having children were razed down, my seed will never bear fruit, and the seed won't even be there to yield anything in a matter of days. I couldn't bear the thought that I had lost an item that was precious to me. In two weeks my womb would have been terminated surgically.

"Let her be Gehal, she's not in the right frame of mind." Aunt Veke interceded on my behalf. "Much of the news for a teenager." she continued, scoffing bitterly. She came up to me and brushed the hair from my face with the back of her fingers. "Don't let it get to you."

"It hasn't," I replied her

"It has, you weren't paying attention to me when I opened the door for you and asked you to come down.". So she hadn't left alone, I had let the news get to me.

"I want you both inside in an instant, I won't accommodate any depressed child in my house." with that she walked away briskly.

"She's not being insensitive, she's just saying what's best. You shouldn't dismiss your happiness just because of some stupid diagnosis, there's always a way out."

"Have you seen the results?" I shouted, half in tears, handing her the file I'd been clutching onto forever. She looked from the item in my hand to my face before collecting it. Her eyes swept through the paper as it enlarged at every sentence it met with.

"I don't believe this, how did...."

"Yes, I'm dying and it's happening quickly," I said with no trace of emotion in my voice

"Everything is going to be fi...."

"Oh please! Spare me the sermon." I cut her off rudely, I had already been pitied enough for one day. I hopped down from the car, took the paper from her, and walked away briskly leaving her standing in the open space alone with her jaw hanging in grief and disbelief.

"Ivy?...Ivy wait up, I was only trying to make you feel better and share in your pain." she called out as soon as she got her momentum back together.