Written by Mofoluwake Jackson.
Lara laughed out loud, it was a pained laugh. It had been four days since they had returned from the doctor, their meeting had been something!
From the moment they had walked into the office she had felt on edge and the doctor’s smile hadn’t been modest. Her husband had been fidgety so maybe that’s why he hadn’t noticed the doctor’s sly smile and penetrating look. He had paused after greeting them to round off what he had going on his desktop which gave Lara time to recover from his creepy smile. When he turned to face them though the sly smile was back and as he spoke, his words were calculated spears being pressed into her sides on after the other.
“I won’t beat around the bush. Your husband’s case is severe and his sperm count drastically low. It will take a miracle to get anything out of him, even if he took the treatment we offered before. So I have come up with the perfect solution to your problem. May I go on? ”
At this point he had a telling glint in his eyes that made Lara even more uneasy, her sixth sense warned her about the doctor and his “solution to their problems”. Kola on the other hand seemed oblivious and probed the doctor to carry on with his suggestion.
Lara chided herself for her paranoia, after all, this man was a gynecologist, an expert in his own right, whatever he had to say would most likely make sense. But why didn’t her heart trust his supposed solution, and then he spoke again and cleared her doubts.
“I suggest that you get a surrogate to impregnate your wife.”
Lara wasn’t sure she had heard right but waited to hear Kola ask the doctor a resounding “What?!” before she could utter her own.
The doctor held up his hand and continued talking quickly.
“Look, before you choke yourselves hear me out. Surrogacy is not unheard of, our society might not yet have embraced it but right now it is the best solution for you. Of course your wife won’t have to sleep with a stranger, you would both go over likely options together and come up with the most suitable surrogate who would disappear as soon as your wife is confirmed pregnant.
“That is the traditional method as I know it, but modern medicine has the InVitro fertilisation method where a sperm is made to fertilise your wife’s egg. I have told you the traditional method simply because of my friend, your uncle, but that is strictly your business and I will deny holding that part of the discussion with you.”
He dropped his hand and leaned into his chair watching them. Lara was already on her feet gyrating and binding and casting. She even rebuked the doctor asking that devil (the doctor) get behind her.
Kola was again subdued, he cried painfully.
And the pervert of a doctor just sat staring at them. Like he was watching a fascinating movie. Lara wanted to choke him. How dare he even consider such profanity talk less of suggesting it?
Lara looked at her husband cry and she saw defeat, so she dragged him out of the office and to the car before that doctor perverted his thought line. The doctor had asked them to come back when they had thought it through. Lara willed herself to be civil and not go back in and spit in the doctor’s face, the guts of him to even assume they would think about it.
They had driven home in painful silence, and both gone into separate rooms to privately lick their wounds.
Uncle Dede had tried to no avail to get either of them talking and his friend too wouldn’t discuss the meeting with him citing ‘patient-doctor confidentiality’. Uncle Dede too was frustrated and just resolved to pray until they all recovered from their ‘meeting’.
Kola wouldn’t look at Lara, they both tried hard to go about their routines without having to go deep into conversation in a bid at avoiding the elephant in the room. It was very hard.
Despite how much they tried to avoid their reality it seemed the universe suddenly took some likening to them.