The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives Read Online Free PDF Page B

tell him that his shop had been burgled, he listened attentively while they read out the list of what had been stolen. Then, tensing his buttocks, he strode to the toilet. Within minutes, he reappeared with all tension gone from his face.
    “All I can say is that what has happened has happened.” This was not the philosophical response the perplexedemployees expected; they looked at each other and wondered if Baba Segi was still suffering from shock.
     
    B OLANLE HUGGED HER ELBOWS . T AJU had discovered a new method of rankling her. Every time he changed gears, he leaned his arm close to her breast. In the distance, an old train snorted and let out a gasp before it commenced its daily chugging. Sango Road was waking up. Minibus drivers were starting up their vehicles and spilling out of the overcrowded motor parks. Women with sleeping babies on their backs swept out their marketplace stalls and tut-tutted at the sight of cigarette butts and broken bottles: leftovers of the night’s revelry.
    The University College Hospital had a horrible reputation. Patients being taken there would bid their loved ones farewell. The lack of government funding, coupled with the misappropriation of the little the hospital generated, had left the buildings dilapidated. Crucial medical tests were rationed and the doctors refused patients who hadn’t brought their own medicine. The only reason people went there rather than the thousands of back-alley clinics was they could be sure the doctors had proper medical degrees.
    Bolanle knew they were close as soon as she saw the palm trees that lined the main entrance and shielded early-morning mourners from the sun’s unyielding rays. There were always tears at the gate because it was here that the news of death was passed on to brokenhearted family members: here, therewas no risk of them throwing themselves over the hospital’s many balconies. Besides this, the main gate was an awkward place for mourners to make a scene. There were too many people wrapped up in their own problems. So the mourners sat on big round boulders and wept silently.
    “Where can I park?” Taju asked one of the security guards positioned around the gates to enforce organized grieving.
    “Do I look like a parking attendant?” barked the man as he walked away.
    “Sorry. I thought you were here to work. I didn’t realize this was your father’s living room,” Taju hissed as he drove off, tires screeching. Before the guard could turn and wag a finger, they were negotiating the roundabout in front of the main building.
    They must have driven around for ten minutes in search of a parking space before Baba Segi finally suggested that Taju let them out.
    “There is a space there, sir,” Taju said, pointing at an empty spot under a sign that said MORTUARY .
    “Are you sure you want to park there?”
    “No problem, sir. I will stay here in the car. Nothing will happen.” Taju reassuringly beat his chest like he had dominion over the ghosts that lay beyond the big gray door and whatever mischief they might have in mind.
    “Well, at least we know where to find you. We shouldn’t be too long.”
    “Go well, sir.” Taju ignored Bolanle. He ruffled his hair for a toothpick and inserted it between his teeth.
    When Bolanle and Baba Segi reached the top of the first flight of stairs, the landing opened up into a long corridor that stretched out in both directions. Baba Segi glimpsed a figure in a white coat and ran to him. “Doctor! Doctor! I need somebody to help me. It is my wife’s womb—” he panted.
    The medic surveyed Bolanle’s waistline and inquired if she was in labor.
    “No,” Bolanle replied. Before Baba Segi could further humiliate her, she added calmly, “We are here to seek medical advice.”
    “I see,” the doctor said, nodding. “Is this your first time at UCH?”
    “ I have never had reason to come here before. Ogun bears witness,” Baba Segi blurted.
    Addressing Bolanle, the doctor gave them