#Truths_of_the_heart
57
Lwipa looked at his results for umpteenth time. There was surely an error somewhere. LJ sle-pt peacefully in front of him. It was his third day in hospital. He was moved to the highcost ward from the acute ward. Tomaida had gone home to freshen up. Lwipa had not disclosed the results of the sickling test to anyone. How could he? That would mean LJ was not his child. But that was impossible. When LJ was born he bore a striking resemblance to Lwipa. Every single person who saw him said so. Cathy went further to produce Lwipa’s baby pictures. LJ looked exactly as him as an infant. There was definitely an error in the result. His sample could have easily been misplaced or they could have used Amelia’s sample twice?
Lwipa decided to use a different hospital to get the test done. When Tomaida returned, he told her he nee-ded to attend to some work at the office. Instead, he went to two more hospitals to have the test repeated, and still the result remained the same. Lwipa had no trace of the sickle cell gene. Not even a smidgen. It was then that for his peace of mind, Lwipa decided to perform a DNA test on LJ. Lwipa arranged with the doctor to have a sample drawn for the DNA test. Lwipa took the sample to Nkanza Labs. The results would be re-ady in two weeks. The two weeks wait ended up being the longest two weeks of his life. He tried ha-rd to act normal around Tomaida, ha-rd as it was. Once he had the result he would know how to act.
Two weeks later the results were in confirming Lwipa’s worst fear, LJ was not his biological son. la-id back in his chair at the office, Lwipa closed his eyes as if that would erase the words he had just re-ad. The results were written in bold as if to fully emphasize to him. A full minute went by before he opened his eyes to re-ad the piece of paper again, turning it around in his hand. Lwipa’s heart sank at the realization that LJ was not his. He loved the boy to his very core. His sadness soon transitioned into rage. How could Tomaida take him for such a fool. Lwipa ban-ged his hand on the table so ha-rd that he cut himself. Not minding his bleeding hand, Lwipa picked up his car keys and walked out his office. He didnt bother give his secretary a reason for hi leaving early.
Tomaida sat watching tv when Lwipa arrived. He switched it off instantly, causing Tomaida to gr0@nout in irritation.
“Hey, I was watching that!” She complained
“Where is LJ?”
“On Bana Joe’s back, why?”
Lwipa stood squarely in front of the tv. “Who is LJ’s father?”
For a second Tomaida was taken aback. She recovered quic-kly from the shock of the question that anyone would have missed it. “St©p asking silly questions Lwipa. Now plea-se move I watch my show.”
Lwipa threw the results at her face. Tomaida picked up the paper and re-ad throu-gh. Her eyes wi-de-ned the more she re-ad. “What nons-en-se is this?”
“I will ask you again. WHO IS LJ’S FATHER?”
“You know that it’s you.”
“Do I? And why does the DNA say otherwise? ”
Tomaida stood up from her seat to face him head on. “How dare you make such accusations at me! I will not accept whatever this is…”
“How stupid do you think I am? You really thought i would never find out?” Lwipa gr@bb£d Tomaida’s hand and squee-zed it. “Where is his father damnit?”
Tomaida laughter out, much to Lwipa’s annoyance. “So, squee-zing my hand is meant to scare me? I’m not a weakling like your dumb Wezi was.”
Tomaida felt a sting across her face. Lwipa had sl@pped her ha-rd ma-king her tumble backwards. “Are you mad? Who do you take me for?” Tomaida got back her footing and threw herself at Lwipa scratching his face and n£¢k.
On hearing the commotion, Bana Joe run to the livingroom. She watched helplessly as Lwipa and Tomaida wrestled each other. With LJ slee-ping on her back, she feared going close to the fighting couple.
“Uncle? Aunty?” Bana Joe keep shouting over their voices. Neither Lwipa nor Tomaida seemed to realize her pres£nce.
“I’m going to teach you a lesson!” Lwipa shouted.
“You try!” Tomaida responded, using her long nails as a weapon to inflict as much pain as she could. “You call yourself a man? Huh? You think yourself so highly when cant even satisfy a woman. Let alone make her pregnant!”
Lwipa managed to push her off him, s£nding her crashing to one of the walls. “How dare you! Stupid who-re.”
“Says the man who constantly cheated on his poor helpless wife. The poor woman thought she couldn’t conceive yet you were the one shooting blanks.” Tomaida stood steady, re-ady to pounce on him again.
“St©p lying you bit-ch. You think….”
“I dont think, I know! We had S-x together for a whole year without using c0nd0ms and nothing! So I decided to get creative. After all, your greatest de-sire was to have a child, right? Well there you go!” Tomaida pointed at Bana Joe.
“You tried to pas-s off another man’s child as mine so you can enjoy my wealth. Now that you have been caught, you’re ma-king stupid accusations.” Lwipa paced the floor. “Take your bastard and leave my house now!”
Tomaida shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere! You married me, now you have to deal with it! You will not intimid@t£ me!”
Lwipa gr@bb£d her hand in an attempt to pu-ll her out of the house but Tomaida scratched his face with her free hand. “You dont scare me Lwipa!”
“I dont want you and you bastard…”
“You can leave if you want too but LJ and I are going nowhere.” Tomaida run and stood behind a couch. “Bana Joe take LJ to the be-droom and lock the door! NOW!”
#Truths_of_the_heart
58
The family decided that Tomaida remain in the house, in the hope’s that the two talk over their issue and try to make peace. Furious with the outcome, Lwipa moved out of the main be-droom to the spare. The whole incident had him questioning if at all Tomaida’s claims were true, that he couldn’t father a child. If it was, then how was Peter his son? Did this mean Naomi had accused his falsely? Lwipa decided to see a doctor to confirm his condition if at all he had one.
Sitting opposite the urologist was nerve racking. Lwipa held his cool, trying ha-rd to appear calm even though he sat at the edge of his seat. The doctor seemed to be taking her sweet time to explain her findings. Lwipa’s impatience begun to rise. Why was a woman dealing with male specific health anyway?
“Mr Kalunga..” the doctor started, breaking Lwipa’s train of thought. “The semen an-alysis revealed a negligible amount of sp-erm atozoa.”
“Negligible? ” Lwipa asked, his heart sinking as he said it.
“Yes. Meaning there was little to no sp-erm found in your semen. The normal range for sp-erm count is between 20 million to over 200 million. Your count is less than 0ne hundred.”
“Wow.” Lwipa g@sped. “Does this mean I have never been able to make a girl pregnant?” His felt his heart rate rising.
“Not necessarily. We noticed extensive scarring around the testes and seminal vesicles. This was most likely due to an infection that you had. You mention to have been treated for a S-xual transmitted infection years back. Can you remember what it was?”
Lwipa shook his head. “There was a girl I made pregnant when I was abou 18 years old.”
“How old were you when you were treated for the STI?”
“25 years old. I initially ignored it before going to the clinic for treatment.”
“I see. The del@yin having it treated most likely resulted in the injury and resulting scarring.” The doctor explained. “Its possible the child was yours. But if the child is available and you nee-d to clear your doubts we can perform a DNA test.”
Lwipa thanked the doctor for her help and promised to return once he had fully processed the information. From the hospital, Lwipa drove straight to the bar.
*****************
It was around 20 hours whe Lwipa left the bar. He got into his car and started driving, swerving most of the way. He got out of the car leaving the lights on and the key in the ignition. Lwipa found himself running, maneuvering swiftly straight to the one person he wished to see. Falling on his knees Lwipa let out a loud cry.
“I’m so sorry!” He cried picking up the dirt beneath him. “I’m sorry. It was all my fault. Come back! It will be different this time” Lwipa started digging into the grave with his ba-re hands.
“Eh, iwe. What are you doing?” A de-ep voice called.
“I think it’s a grave digger?” An other responded in the dark.
Lwipa ignored the voices and continued his attempt to dig out his wife. “Wezi! Wake up!”
Two men wearing guards uniforms appeared in front of him. He threw the dirt he dug up at them. “I’m here for my wife. Go away!”
The guards attem-pted to move Lwipa away from the men but he fought them each time running back to Wezi’s grave. “Leave me alone! I nee-d to see my wife!”
The two guards looked at each other in confusion. “What do you mean? See your wife where?”
“I killed her!” Lwipa confessed, as he continued to dig into the grave. “Its my fault she killed herself. Now she has to wake up! Wezi wake up!”
“This man has gone mad” one guard whispered to the other.
“I think he’s just had too much to drink.” The other responded.
The guards attem-pted to pick Lwipa up again, this time using f0rç£ to restrain him. Lwipa fought back but was unable to escape from their grip. He wailed loudly as they led him away from Wezi’s grave.
“She nee-ds me. Ahhh! Wezi! Eh! Take me back! Wezi! Wezi!” Lwipa shouted incoherently.
The guards took him to the security office and called their supervisor. Within half an hour Lwipa was taken to the police station. Seeing the state that he was in, the police man advised that they take him to the hospital instead.
******************
Tomaida rushed to the hospital reception, p@n-ting when she st©pped at the cubicle. It had been two days since Lwipa had left home with no communication. Tomaida had initially thought he was shacked up with some girl trying to li-ck his wounds. It didn’t bother her much because she knew e eventually he would come home. Recieving a call from UTH that morning brou-ght her into panic. Could he have been involved in an accident? Was he dead? All these thoughts run throu-gh her mind as she made her way to the hospital as they did not give me any other detail other than the fact that they had her husband.
“I was called this morning by a nurse from her explaining I had to come for my husband.” Tomaida said out of breath.
“Which ward?” The reception clerk asked without lifting up his head to see to stood in front of him.
Tomaida handed him her phone showing the text message that gave the details s£nt by the nurse. The clerk sighed it irritation as he took the phone from her hand.
“Psychiatry unit. Go up those stairs to the t©p floor. Then turn left. At the end of the corridor turn right.” He handed her back the phone and continued with his work.
“Psychiatry?” Tomaida asked wondering if she had heard right.
The clerk waved her away. Tomaida followed the instructions on how to get to the unit. When she entered the doors a woman a child were seated on a bench. The place was eerily quiet. Taomida walked up to the woman to ask for help.
“Hi. I.. um.. looking for the nurses?”
The woman pointed to a door on the left end of the wall. Tomaida thanked her and walked to the door. She could hear laughter behind the closed door. She tapped on It and waited. The door flew open a few seconds later.
“Yes?”
“Hi. Good morning. I recieved a call from a sister Sakala?”
“Ok. Wait on the bench.” The door was closed.
Tomaida sat on the bench as instructed. It was thirty minutes before a nurse walked up to her. “Mrs Kalunga?”
“Yes!”
“Hi. I’m sister Sakala. We spoke earlier in the morning. ”
Tomaida stood up. “Yes. Where is my husband?”
“He is in the male medical ward. Come with me to the office plea-se”
Sister Sakala led the way to a back room. She showed Tomaida where to seat, then sat down opposite her. “Your husband was picked up at a cemetery trying to unearth a grave.”
“What? Why?” Tomaida stood up in shock.
“plea-se seat down. I know it’s quite an unusual situation. And judging from your response I take it this is the first time it is happening?”
Tomaida sat down, nodding her head. “He’s never done that. I didnt even know he goes to the cemetery.”
“He kept calling for his wife?”
Tomaida swallowed ha-rd . “His first wife pas-sed away.”
“I see.” Sister Sakala replied. “Your husba0
caused him to break down. Any recent trauma?”
“No, I have no idea.” Tomaida lied. de-ep within she felt it could only be the baby revelation that caused him to react that way.
“Are you sure?” Sister Sakala persisted. Tomaida shook her head. “Ok. We have given him some medication to calm him down. So he is currently sed@t£d. We intend on keeping him admitted for a few days and then reas-sess where he stands and decide on a course of action.”
“Ok. plea-se have him moved to the highcost ward. A pri-vate cubicle preferably.”
Tbc