Chapter22
Ahmad
“I’ll take over from here,” Sabrina announced to the nurse who was assessing my wounds. The nurse left the room and I began to dread what was coming next.
“Sabrina, I don’t—”
“Shut the fuck up, Ahmad,” Sabrina said as soon as the doors closed. “I’m asking the goddamn questions now, niggah. My girl, my best friend is out there in the waiting room, crying her eyes out over this bullshit and I don’t like that one bit. I told you that you’d better take care of her and what would happen to you if you didn’t. Did you think I was playing? Huh?”
“This is all a big misunderstanding, Sabrina,” I began to plead my case.
“Misunderstanding? How’s that?” Sabrina had begun cleaning the side of my face and she wasn’t using any of the care and compassion that I was sure she’d been taught in nursing school. Her strokes were just as harsh and painful as I’m sure she’d intended them to be but I knew it was in my best interest not to object.
“Will you just be quiet and listen to me, please? Yes, I had sex with Shannon, several times. It was before Nikki and I were serious. Hell, I didn’t realize that the two of them were sisters until recently.”
“Recently meaning nine months ago?”
“No, more recent than that. Anyway, I always used condoms with Shannon.”
“Really? Then, how could the baby be yours?”
“Because she told me that she stole the rubbers from the trash and made herself pregnant.”
“Oh come on, Ahmad! Why in the hell would she do some nasty shit like that? Looks like you’re going to need stitches. Nikki cracked your ass pretty good.”
The thought of Sabrina stitching up my head was terrifying. I knew she probably would not numb the area first.
“Are you going to get someone else to do that?” I asked, nervously.
“Nope. I can do it myself. You were saying?” Oh shit!
“She did it because she thought I was going into the draft and she wanted to hook a gravy train.”
“What?”
“Yeah. When she found out that I quit the team, it was too late for her to have an abortion.”
“Don’t you watch Oprah or read Essence? Women do this type of crazy stuff all the time just to trap a successful, or in your case, potentially successful man. Didn’t your dumb ass know better than to throw your shit in the trash? Did it ever occur to you to flush it down the toilet and then watch it go down?” Now you tell me.
“I don’t know, Sabrina. I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
“Yeah you were. You were just thinking with the wrong head. Why didn’t you tell this to Nikki when you found out about it?”
“I don’t know. I know that I should have but I didn’t want to admit anything until I knew for sure. I was hoping that it would all just go away.”
“Yeah, well, we can all see what a smart ass solution that was.”
“I know that now.”
“So, how can you be sure that the baby is yours? Shannon could have saved anybody’s sperm.”
“I can’t. I need to have a blood test done.”
Sabrina stopped working on me for a minute. She stared at me questioningly. I hoped she believed the unbelievable story that I’d just told her because as crazy as it sounded, the story was true. I knew that Sabrina believing me was the first step to getting Nikki to believe me.
“Okay, Ahmad. What you’ve just told me sounds like a load of shit but I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt.” Damn, my face hurts.
“Can you give me something for the pain?”
“Nope. Not yet.”
“Sabrina, my head is killing me.”
“At least you’re still alive to feel it. Be thankful for that. Now, be still so I can suture you.”
When Sabrina was done, she agreed to arrange to get a blood test done for me. She got Shannon’s permission and, if the cards are in my favor, we could all put this night behind us.
I wanted to talk to Nikki but I knew that she would refuse to listen to anything that I had to say. I needed to assure her that I hadn’t betrayed her. I would never do that. Against my better judgment, I went to find her.
Look at her. You are responsible for Nikki’s sadness. After all, she’s been through, you’ve just added to her pain. Selfish bastard. You have to do whatever you have to do to make this right. Nikki doesn’t deserve any of this. She loves you.
I walked over to where she was balled up in the fetal position on a hard chair in the waiting room. I looked out of the hospital window and saw the sun beginning to make its presence known in the sky.
Damn, is it morning already?
“Nikki,” I whispered, as I leaned over her.
She looked up at me with coldness in her eyes that chilled me to the bone.
“What is it, Ahmad?”
“Are you okay?”
“That has to be the dumbest ass question anyone has ever asked me. Do you think I’m okay? Would you be okay if you’d just found out that I might possibly have a baby with your brother?”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry about what? Huh? Sorry that you fucked my sister? Sorry that she just gave birth to your baby? Sorry that you lied to me? Sorry that I busted your skull wide open when I learned the truth? What, exactly, are you sorry about, Ahmad?”
“All of it. I’m sorry for everything. I hurt you and I hate that. Have you spoken with Sabrina?”
“Yeah, she told me what you said. The problem is that I don’t know if I can believe any of that. It all sounds a bit too far-fetched to me.”
“But it’s the truth, I promise.”
“Regardless, Ahmad, as soon as you realized what was happening, you should have said something. Now I realized why you were so quiet on the ride over here. It wasn’t because you were upset because we didn’t make love. Your balls were in a knot because you knew your game was about to be peeped.”
The sound of Nikki’s voice was different. The loving tone that it once held was now replaced with a painful hatred that I’d caused. Her language was hard and uncaring.
“Nikki, you have to believe that I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you,” I said, moving closer to her. I looked around to make sure there wasn’t anything close by that could be used as a weapon.
“Don’t tell me what I have to believe. I don’t have to believe shit, Ahmad.”
“Nikki, please, you’re my wife and—”
“Ahmad, just stop talking to me, okay. Let’s just wait and see what the tests say.”
I so desperately wanted to hold Nikki in my arms but I knew that she wouldn’t allow me to get that close. I decided to walk away and give her the space she needed right now.
I found myself taking an elevator ride up to the Labor and Delivery unit. I hoped that Shannon’s ridiculous story had changed, naming someone else as the father.
As I walked down the long hallway that was filled with endless doors adorned with pink and blue bows, I passed a glass wall with the word nursery etched on it in black. I stopped and looked inside. There had to be at least seven or eight babies lined up in row after row of clear bassinets, all squirming like caterpillars.
Where is the little person that was at the root of this issue? “Which baby are you here to see?” the nurse called from the intercom.
“Umm, Shannon Evans’ baby.”
Is it a girl or boy? Neither Nikki nor Sabrina had said.
The nurse checked the cards taped to the end of each bassinet before picking up a baby wearing a pink hat and approaching the window. She was the tiniest in the room. The closer the nurse got to the window, the more my heart pounded.
Oh my, God! That is Corrie’s sweet little face.
I no longer needed a blood test to tell me what my heart already knew. This was my child. I saw my reflection in her innocent face just as I had seen in Corrie’s on the day she was born.
It’s true. I have another child. What in the wo
rld am I going to do with two children? What is going to happen to Nikki and me? Can we survive this? Am I asking too much of her? What will Shannon want from me now?
I managed to smile and nod at the nurse before she returned the baby to her spot in the row.
“So, Ahmad,” Sabrina said from behind, startling me away from my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Damn.”
“I know. I mean she looks just like Corrie. Sabrina, what am I gonna do?”
“Hell if I know. I would just wait until the test results came back, if I were you. Just to be one hundred percent sure. If she is yours, you’ve got some big decisions to make, my friend.”
“Okay, that’s what I’ll do. Does the baby have a name yet?”
“Yeah, Aliyah Nicolette.” Nicolette?
“Shannon gave the baby Nikki’s name? That’s messed up.”
“Shannon didn’t name her. Nikki did. That was before all of this drama.”
Wow! Nikki must really feel like a fool.
“Have the doctor’s talked to you yet?
“Talk to me? About what?”
Sabrina took a deep breath. Her eyes soften as she moved closer to me.
“Shannon was using while she was pregnant, Ahmad.”
“Using? Using what?”
Sabrina didn’t answer. She raised her eyebrow and looked away.
“Are you telling me that Shannon pumped crack into my baby?”
My baby? I can’t believe that I said that out loud.
“Yeah.”
“Shit!”
“Quiet down. This is a hospital. Now, they don’t know how affected the baby is yet but she has been exposed to drugs.”
How much worse can things get? My daughter is a crack baby. What does that mean for her life? Will she have medical issues that require special care?
“Do you think I should talk to Shannon?”
“What for?”
“I don’t know, just to see—”
“No. There’s no need to say anything to her right now. Besides, she’s a crackhead. What is she going to tell you? Nikki is the one you should be concentrating on. She’s your wife or have you forgotten?”
“I haven’t but I think that she has,” I answered, dropping my head in shame for all of the hurt I’d cause her.
“No she hasn’t,” Sabrina reassured. “She’s just in a lot of pain right now. I mean, after all, you did fuck her sister.”
“Yeah, I know that, Sabrina. You don’t have to keep saying it.”
“Hey, don’t get an attitude with me. I’m not the one responsible for any of this. You are.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just, I don’t know. How long will the test take?”
“Usually a few days but the guy in the lab has been flirting with me for a minute and I promised to have lunch with him if he could speed things along. We should know something in a little while. Why don’t you and Nikki go to the cafeteria and get some breakfast? I’ll come and get you when I know something.”
“Like Nikki will go anywhere with me.”
“You’ll figure something out,” Sabrina said, walking in the opposite direction.
I’ll figure something out? Never in my life have I had so many things to figure out.