TIT FOR TAT – 1

Adese stared blankly into space. The tablet in her hand hung loosely, tilting downward as if about to fall of her limp hands. She didn’t know why she’d chosen today to go through his personal effects. Maybe she’d wanted something to soothe her aching her heart—she didn’t know. She was too… broken would be the word. She was too broken to know what she’d initially be searching for.

She hadn’t really been searching—or snooping, as many are wont to call it these days. She hadn’t been looking for anything in particular. She’d only wanted a feel of him. A reminder of who he was. What he was to her… a reminder of the emotions he educed in her. She’d wanted to remember him, to feel his presence once more—to love him again.

Now, her heart was broken—again. Her feelings, her love cruelly torn from her heart, tossed on the hard, bare ground and squashed by a vicious stomp.

How could he do this? How could she not have known?

The door squealed as it was pushed open and Ivie, her sister-in-law, poked her head in. “Adese, it is time to leave for the cemetery.”

Adese turned her head to look at her. She was already dressed in the family’s chosen bluish-black mourning native wear. The tablet slipped from her hands and dropped onto the bed as she stood up. She picked it up, blinked to force back tears and then slid it into a drawer and with the key in its lock, secured the drawer and not saying a word, followed Ivie out of the room. Their bedroom.

*~*

 

DR ADESE EHIMHEN sat in her office, not particularly studying the x-ray image before her. It’s been nine months—nine months since she found out and not nine months since he died. He’s been dead now a week shy of ten months. Her mourning was done.

Had she even mourned?

She wasn’t sure anymore. She’d started out mourning, overwhelmed with grief and broken by unspeakable sorrow of losing her barely-two-years husband. Then she’d gone through his tablet, seen the chat-messages and then nude pictures, and her mourning had stopped. But her sorrow hadn’t. Her grief had doubled and her heartbreak had become irreparable.

It’s been nine months and she couldn’t forget it; still couldn’t get over it. How do you get over something that you can’t understand? How do you forget something that preys on your mind every waking moment? How do you forgive something that still hurts so unbelievably?

She can never forgive him. Or her.

Adese exhaled and pushed away from her desk, rubbing a hand against her forehead that felt suddenly damp. She picked the AC-remote and turned up the air-conditioner. Worrying, and helpless anger usually made her feel heated. And the heat usually came with palpitations. She pressed that hand beneath her breastbone and inhaled. She needed to stay calm; she needed to find a way to let this go.

Her intercom rang and she inhaled once more before picking up the receiver. “Yes, Laura?”

“The patient for ten-thirty is here.” Laura, her secretary, said into the line. “Should I send them in?”

“Please, do so. And have Nurse Lola check on Mrs Odi in Room-106 and get back to me on her status.” Adese waited for the deferential response before she hung up the receiver.

She adjusted the collar of her white-coat, brushed down the front of her neatly-tucked-in silk blue-and-beige blouse and dabbed a hand across her forehead to make sure the sweating was gone. Then she lifted the AC-remote and turned it down a notch. Most patients don’t care much for very cold rooms; unless of course, they were going through chemotherapy and having hot-flashes.

At the singular tap, she fixed a sedate smile and said distinctly. “Come in.”

They came in. Two ladies, one older and the other much younger, likely in her mid-twenties. It was clear they were mother and daughter, the resemblance was there. But that wasn’t what struck Adese. It wasn’t what dropped her jaw for what she was certain must have been a full ten seconds.

It was her.

The woman—young nude woman—from the tablet. The one whose erotic messages to her husband had kept her awake these nine months. The one who Demola—her cheating-ass dead husband—had reassured over and over again that he would soon leave her for. The one who’d sent a video of herself masturbating to her husband and titled it, ‘erotic nights’.

It was her. How could she not know her? She’d stared at the pictures, watched the video—with a repugnance that had been nauseating—often enough in the last nine months to know her by just a glance.

“Good morning, doctor.” The older woman, the mother of the whore, greeted.

Adese didn’t know how she did it. But she managed to move her eyes from the husband-snatching-hoe and sent a smile to the rather pretty, plump and rich lace caftan-dressed woman. “Good morning, madam. Do have a seat, please.” She shifted her gaze to the… the other one. “And you two, please.”

She kept the smile in place as they came forward. The younger one swaying her full hips as she took the first seat and sat down before her mother did.

Cheap and poor manners!

Adese kept the disdain inside and away from her features. “How may I help you, ma’am?” She focused on the mother.

“I am Mrs Awoniyi.” The woman smiled as she spoke. Her smile was engaging, pleasant. “And this is my daughter, Tiwalade.”

I know. I know your whoring daughter’s name. I have it engraved in my memory. “Nice to meet you, Mrs Awoniyi.” Adese said aloud, with the appropriate smile. “And hello, Tiwa. I can call you, Tiwa, right?” Or would Spitfire be better?

Tiwa moved her smallish, curvy frame in the armchair, beamed a smile that went from ear to ear. “Tiwa is just fine, doctor. And nice office you’ve got here.”

“Thank you.” Bitch. “So, who’s the one in need of medical attention here?”

“My daughter.” Mrs Awoniyi responded, gesturing to the still smiling young woman beside her. “She felt a lump in her breast last week. We didn’t think much of it… or rather, she didn’t, because she only mentioned it to me two days ago. And…”

“The thing is that I thought it was nothing unusual.” Tiwa cut of her mother mid-speech. “I mean, sometimes you get to feel these tiny lumps and the next time you check, they’re gone.”

And I’m sure you’re always checking on your size-C nasty little mounds, ill-mannered twit! “That can happen sometimes, but so you’re not in doubt, we usually recommend a mammogram to be absolutely certain it’s nothing to worry about.” Adese thought she required a Nobel Prize for the self-control she was displaying. “Which I’m…”

“That is exactly why we’re here.” The enthusiastically-smiling Tiwa interrupted her too. “Actually, my mum insisted. For me, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I’ve got beautiful breasts…” she let out a laugh and sent her a wink. “Between us ladies, I think it’s one of my top assets.”

“Tiwalade!” Mrs Awoniyi’s rebuff was sharp.

But her daughter only rolled her eyes and pouted. “C’mon mum, we’re all girls in here. And besides, Dr Ehimhen deals with breasts all day long, so it’s nothing she embarrassed about.”

“Absolutely not.” Adese assured. This was what Demola wanted—this pint-sized mass of poor manners and no tact? The pain and the insult of it hit again, but Adese only drowned it with a wider smile sent to the rather embarrassed Mrs Awoniyi. “You don’t have to worry about my sensitivities, ma’am. It’s rather easier when ladies are at ease with talking about their bodies.”

The poor woman nodded. Adese felt vaguely sorry for her. But at same time, she wondered if she had done enough to teach her daughter right from wrong.

“And so, to begin making sure that there is absolutely nothing wrong with your top assets,” Adese bolstered her smile at the term, “I’ll immediately recommend you take a mammogram. It’s nothing to be scared about and you don’t have to go anywhere else for it. We’re well equipped here to handle most oncology-related matters and with a specialty in breast cancers. Of course, I’m not saying you might have a cancerous growth… just assuring you that we can take care of you here.”

“We know that. That is why we’re here.” Tiwa beamed another one of her big smiles. “A family friend who knew someone who was a patient said your clinic comes highly recommended and that you’re the best breast-cancer oncologist in the country.”

Adese dipped her head in a show of humility. “Thank you for that. Now, could you tell me when you started your cycle this month? I ask because it’s imperative you take your mammogram at the right time, so we don’t make mistakes.”

“I just finished my period yesterday.” Tiwa cheerfully provided the answer.

“Perfect. Just the right timing.” Adese tore out a page from her notepad, scribbled on it and passed it to her. “Here. Give this to my secretary and she will direct you on where to go from here. Once you’re done, you return here and we talk about the result. But first, I’ll do a manual exam.” Adese gestured to the examination table.

Tiwa took the paper, slid it into her handbag and then strutted to the table. She lifted her snug V-neck cotton top without any self-consciousness. And her hands properly gloved, Adese stood over her and examined her size-C pear-shaped breasts.

“There is a notable lump, nothing significant under my hands.” She said briskly as she stepped back from the table. “But I don’t want to make assumptions here. So, you’ll do the mammogram and we will see what it says.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Tiwa slithered off the table to her feet. “I’m sure it will be nothing. C’mon mum, let’s go to the lab.” She ordered as she strutted to the door.

“Thank you, doctor.” Mrs Awoniyi said with a smile as she followed her daughter out.

She didn’t know her, Adese finally allowed her suppressed fury and complete disdain to creep to the surface and etch over her features. How could she know her? She hadn’t changed her professional name in the twenty months she and Demola had been married. She had wanted to, but he’d said it was all an unnecessary fuss over something inconsequential. And at the time, she’d thought herself the luckiest woman on earth to be married to such a contemporary, thoughtful and devoted man.

But he hadn’t been devoted—not to her. He hadn’t been thoughtful—not of her feelings and of her faith in him. And if he had been contemporary, it was in the expert way he’d completely deceived her and kept his affair hidden from her.

But now she was here. His little Spitfire was here and she probably has a lump in her breast. She had come to her to treat the top assets she’d show-cased to her husband.

God is indeed a just God.

*~*

 

ADESE stared at the x-ray image and the radiographer’s recommendation with unblinking serious eyes. She stared at it longer than she normally would have; re-read the short note thrice before she finally raised her eyes and met those of a now wobbly-smiling Tiwa.

“So, what’s the verdict?” She asked, forcing cheerfulness into her tone.

Adese held her gaze steadily. “I am very sorry, Tiwa…” There was a quick gasp from both daughter and mother. “But you do have a tumour in your right breast. It’s not malignant yet but it will be at the end of the day. It is growing and it will definitely spread to the other breast. I am sorry.”

“What?” Her voice shook now as Tiwa’s eyes rounded in fear. “How can this be? How can it happen? I mean… my mother never had cancer… no one in…”

“But your Aunty Nike did and this thing…”

“Aunty Nike having breast cancer and cutting off one of her breasts has nothing to do with me, mum!” Tiwa interjected, whirling around to glare at her mother. “And I was talking to the doctor not you!”

“Calm down, Tiwa.” Adese soothed, sent a soothing smile to the mother. “I know this is scary but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be afraid. I am not just a medical oncologist but also a surgeon…”

“I will need surgery?” The fear in Tiwa’s eyes amplified. “You’re saying I’ll have to cut of my breast?”

“We will begin with treatments… see how they go. But a surgery might be inevitable.” Adese made a low apologetic sound. “Tiwa, listen to me, I’ll do everything I can to prevent this. But the most important thing here is your health, your life. Preserving your life is what should concern us at the moment.”

“Oh my God! I can’t lose my breasts… doctor, I can’t afford to lose my breasts!”

Adese stared at the teary, frightened eyes and allowed compassion to shine through hers. She was about to lose her top assets… such a pity!

***

Read: Two & Three