False Negative

Dark clouds were gathering, the sky was getting gloomy. It was threatening to rain. Oblivious to that, were a group of children within the ages of 3 to 5 years of age playing in the playground. Toyin’s 3 year old daughter, Zara short for Chizaraekpereanyi was among them. She looked up from the sand castle she was building with her friends and saw her mother looking at them.

 “Mommy! Daddy! We’re building a sand castle.” She said excitedly.

“I can see that honey.” Toyin said smiling.  Her husband, Uche, who was reading a magazine beside her smiled and gave her a thumbs up then continued reading his magazine.

Toyin knew she was meant to get her to adequate shelter before the rain started as the rain falling on her could become a problem for both of them but she didn’t have the heart to see the disappointment on Zara’s face as she dragged her from her friends. They were currently on a company-sponsored retreat at Epe Resort as a family and this was Zara’s first proper trip as a child. Zara was just learning how to relate with other kids especially since the first few years of her life had been rough and as such she was overprotected.

Toyin had had Zara after five years of waiting and insults from her husband’s mother. When Zara finally came, they had thrown a big naming ceremony and her mother-in-law had finally let her rest. She had been a very healthy baby till one fateful day. Zara was just a year old. Toyin had come back from work that evening and met the nanny doing a cold compress for her daughter who was lying down on the sofa.

 “Joko, what’s wrong?” She said dropping her bag to pick up her baby.

“Madam her body just dey hot this afternoon. She no even gree chop food. I give am small, she go vomit am. I don call you two times but you no dey pick phone. I even call oga sef. Him tok say he go soon come back.”

She had carried her baby and noticed her body felt quite warm. She touched her forehead and it was burning up. Even her skin was beginning to look pale. This baby was falling really sick and she hadn’t been in this situation before. The cold compress didn’t seem to be working at all especially as the nanny had said she had been doing it for some hours now. She was beginning to panic. Zara had never had this kind of high fever since she was born and she didn’t know what to do. She reached into her bag and took her phone. She wanted to call her mother to ask her what she could do. Her first instinct was to rush her baby to the clinic but she needed her mum’s input too. When she brought it out, she two the two missed calls from her nanny. She had been very busy that day at work and as such she hadn’t even looked at her phone in a while. She dialed up her mother and on the second ring her mother picked up.

“Hello mummy.”

“Hello dear. Your voice sounds somehow. Are you okay?” Her mum had said.

“No mummy. Toyin said.

“Zara is burning up and we’ve been doing cold compresses on her for a while but the temperature isn’t reducing. The nanny even said she hasn’t eating anything tangible because she has been throwing the food she’s given up.” She continued.

“I want to take her to the clinic but I want to know if there’s something we can do before we get there to at least reduce the fever.” She concluded.

“Have you given her a bath yet? Just run cold water on her and let the water dry up on her. Then give her paracetamol syrup.”

“Is your husband back?” Her mum asked.

“No he’s not.” She replied.

“Okay. Do what I told you to do first, see if her temperature reduces, then if your husband is not back before then, you should take her to the clinic.”

“Thanks mum.”

“You’re welcome dear. Keep me updated okay?”

“And don’t worry. Zara will be fine ni agbara eje Jesu.” Her mum added.

“Amin. Ese mummy” Toyin said and hung up.

She had done what her mum said she should do. Every five minutes, she touched Zara’s forehead. It seemed like she was getting better but she still wasn’t eating. That was worrisome. She already had the nanny arranged the baby bag. She took her car keys and headed out to the clinic with her nanny.

She had gone to the clinic and Zara was attended to by a doctor who ran some tests on her including a genotype test since Toyin said they hadn’t done any for her since she was born. That was the day she found out Zara was sickle cell anemic. She recalled how she vehemently told the doctor it couldn’t be possible since she and Uche had done theirs before getting married and how they knew that they were in the clear.

“There has to be a mistake somewhere.” She remembered telling the doctor. The only justification she could think of was that someone could have swapped her baby’s results for another baby’s. It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t enough that her baby was sick and she didn’t know how to react, she had just also learnt that she had a kid with special needs. The doctor had pacified her and told her that the health of the kid was their priority at the moment and that after Zara was relatively better they could revisit the matter. She agreed and her baby was admitted into the clinic. She called Uche who was on his way down and told him. She had settled the bills and taken Zara to the ward. Zara was to be placed on drip. Her baby’s luscious healthy hair was shaved off since they couldn’t find a single vein on her body to insert the cannula. Her head was their only hope. They had eventually found a vein. She was given some injections to reduce the fever. A couple of days went by, Zara had gotten better. She could eat her favorite food Amala now. She had her glow back. They were discharged from the hospital and they went home.

Toyin and Uche decided to revisit the genotype issue. The doctor advised them to redo the tests at a government hospital. When the results came out, it turned out that the private lab where they had done it before, had gotten her husband’s genotype wrong. She had been furious. She was going to sue that lab, she swore. She wasn’t the type to take unnecessary risks. If she had found out her husband now was AS just like her, they wouldn’t have gotten married. She had made sure they had done that test so that there would be no ‘had-I-known’. Uche had calmed her down.

“We can’t rewrite the past”. He had said.

“We just had to find a way to adjust to the situation on ground”. He added.

They had gotten books to read on their daughter’s condition, visited the sickle cell club at Idi-Araba regularly for advice and registered her at the sickle cell pediatric clinic.

Things had not been smooth at first. Zara kept falling sick and couldn’t play with kids her age since her immune system wasn’t quite strong until they eventually learnt how to manage the situation. She gradually went back to being the healthy child she was. Toyin and Uche were able to heave a huge sigh of relief. They started allowing her play around kids her age when they were sure her immune system could take it. This retreat had been a really good avenue for that.

However, the rain was really threatening to fall. It was becoming quite windy. They had to leave now so that Zara wouldn’t be beaten by the rain and then catch a cold or fall into a crisis. Toyin stood up from the bench and tapped her husband who didn’t seem to have noticed it was about to rain.

“Zara, come on, we have to go in now.” She called out.

“It’s about to rain”. She added, walking towards her and Uche walking behind her.

“But we will soon finish.” Zara whined.

“I am sorry baby.” Toyin said, lifting Zara off the ground and dusting the sand off her clothes.

“Don’t worry we’ll come back when it’s no longer raining. Oya, say bye to your friends.” She added.

Zara with a very sad face waved and said bye to her friends.

It was drizzling already. Toyin started running toward their room with Zara in her hand and her Uche running besides her using the magazine to protect Zara’s head from the rain. They got in and the rain started pouring down.