Shabo's story, chapter 3
The next few days were not so calm for Shabo. She had the money and she was well-determined to undergo an abortion but she was too scared. She was still too young to embark on an operation all by herself. Then she finally, one quiet morning, she summoned courage to the family planning centre to do the deed.
Since abortion is illegal, such procedures are performed secretly, often by people who are very poorly qualified for the purpose. What is more, the perioperative conditions too are often very substandard increasing the risk for so many complications. What is worst, there is often nothing that can be done in case of anything going wrong. But for Shabo and girls like her such issue, for obvious reasons, carry less importance than the fact that they must get rid of their illegitimate child.
The woman, upon seeing Shabo with the money in her hand, smiled and said, "very good, got the money? Come along with me." She was certainly thinking that the money had come from her lover for whom the pregnancy was a problem as well but who was too embarrassed (and scared too) to accompany the girl.
Shabo was taken to a very small, dingy almost dark room. Despite being so small, the room apparently served the purpose of a fully functional, make-shift surgical suite. When you entered the room, on your right, there was a bench--- the waiting area. Right in front of you , curtains stained with dirt and blood hung down to cover a rusting patient bed--- the operation room. On the left, there was a cot (charpai)- apparently the recovery area.
Shabo was lucky, since the surgical suite did not appear too busy on the day. There was no one in the waiting area or the recovery area. A woman seemed to be lying on the bed inside the curtains. Shabo could hear someone, apparently a staff member (nurse), talking to her, asking her to calm down and not to be afraid. Shabo could, however, not hear the patient herself.
The lady took the money from Shabo, counted it, and then giving Shabo a confirmatory smile put the money in a cloth purse that was hanging down her neck, with a thread too long to be seen normally. She then asked Shabo to wait for her turn. She sent her assistant asking her to lock the facility so they could start their work.
The next couple of hours were an episode of indescribable horror for Shabo. All she heard were cries of the woman who, it seemed, as if she was cut into pieces. She was crying inconsolably and interspersed in her cries, she could also hear the technician and her assistant talk to her, calm down it is going to be over, relax, relax, it is almost done, and talking to each other, give me this equipment give me that, cotton, wipe the blood. The procedure finished, the woman was quiet, not because she was not in pain, but because she was fainting.
Now it was Shabo's turn. Her face was not pale with fear, it was white. She could not say a word, she did not even ask if it would be painful, perhaps she already had determined what would probably happen to her.
And this she mounted the couch without speaking word, or showing any sign of relief or distress.
The technician undressed her lower torso quickly, without even asking for permission, without even telling her to relax. She herself was perturbed, not for Shabo but for the previous patient, who now looked more dead than alive. She then draped Shabo in a sheet of plastic leaving exposed only the area where her surgical field was.
The procedure commenced without any words being exchanged between Shabo and the other lady. Shabo was so nervous, she perceived the touch of the fingers of the lady like stabs of knives. Curiously, however, she did not utter any sound in response. She cried however when the technician applied suction (to suck out the contents of the pregnancy), at which point the helper was called so as to hold Shabo back from interfering with the surgery. In the meanwhile, the two also talked about the other patient, occasionally removing the curtain to have a look at her.
Shabo's procedure was much less invasive as her pregnancy was just over five weeks. She was not like the previous patient whose pregnancy was advanced and whose procedure, therefore, was more complicated. Since the procedure was 'small', Shabo was not given any post surgical instructions, except that she kept a pad (they called it a pad, although it was just a piece of shabby cloth) down there until the bleeding had completely stopped. She was also suggested to run a pregnancy test in one week to confirm it was not there.
nice...keep writing
Salma asked Sadat, "what are you doing Sadat?" He replied, "Mom, I was tired, wanted to have a cup of tea, just went to check if Shabo was awake so she could make me a cuppa." Salma was not fully satisfied with the answer but since she had not seen anything herself, she could not reprimand her son on mere suspicion. She still however told him that instead of going there, he would have better awakened mommy.
The next day Salma asked Shabo if Sadat had happened to her room. She denied. It was impossible now for the two to talk or sit together now, given the new incident which had taken place. The next week the family was going to attend a wedding and Sadat was not going. Her mother always believed it was good to keep her son from being seen by other relatives unnecessarily as he might be struck by the evil eye (nazar). She was reluctant to let Shabo stay behind but she had to since she could not trust the other maids fully.
It was a golden opportunity for Sadat and Shabana to meet up. As soon as the family had left, Sadat asked Shabo, who had been dusting one of the rooms, to come over to his room. Shabo came to him. At first Sadat was very angry and annoyed, but later when Shabo told him that she had been a tremendous problem in her life and that she was still suffering from its sequelae, Sadat's attitude changed. He was not able to decide what to say. He told her she should have informed him. Shabo kept crying and Sadat tried to console her.
Sadat was not very happy when he was leaving. His mother asked him why it was so and he told there was nothing like that. Shabo too was upset but being a maid she had no right to express any dismay.
Sadat wondered about what happened to Shabo. He felt as if he was to blame. For the first time, it occurred to him that we had been doing was sinful and shameful. He started to feel guilty. He felt as if he had done a wrong that could never be undone. Once he just asked, Moazzam, his best friend in college, what he would do if he had been in a situation like his.. He did not mention that the guy was him and the girl was his maid Shabo. Moazzam told him the best course of action would be to get married to the girl and give the story a happy ending. "If it was only so easy!" wondered Sadat, without making the remark out loud.
Sadat wondered how it would feel to have Shabo as his wife. He thought it was impossible because all the odds were against it. First and foremost, he had a cousin, Zareena, and, although Sadat was never attracted to her, and found her rather a plain girl, she was promised to Sadat ever since the two were children. Sadat had heard his mothers and sisters talk sometime about their marriage. Second, she was his maid and none in his family would agree to this marriage. Last but not least, Sadat was sure Shabo was loyal to him, he had his suspicions.
Segmund it is very interesting! you have the gift of writing. and thank you to compile it and send to us who are very interested.
looking forward.... :-)
Amazing story.. cant wait long for the next chapter... Please proceed asap...
thanks
you are marvelous ....
Thank you very much. I am so pleased to see people like what I write.
Lovely story....Keep up the good work!
The emotional scars of the procedure did not heal with the physical wounds Shabo had sustained a few days ago and they persisted for weeks to come. She noticed that she was very irritable, very nervous, she would get startled with small things. She could not take the whole episode off her mind.
She did not know if she would tell Sadat about it when he is back. She felt it would be better to not tell anyone about her shame and let it die along with her. She isolated herself and started to eat less than normally. One of the other maids thought it was because she was in love with someone. Salma Durrani asked her several times if everything was ok, but she would not say anything about, how the hell could she?
Sadat came home on his vacations. He was very angry with Shabo, feeling that she had stopped thinking about her, he felt she was not attracted to him anymore, and that was most likely the reasons why she had never called him, and always put the phone down when she heard it was him on the phone.
The day he came he was very eager to dispel his anger at her, to ask her what kept her from talking to her and tell her how he had been frustrated over her indifferent attitude. But he could obviously not do it in front of everyone else. He was waiting for the night to approach, so that, like before, Shabo can slip into his room.
It was well past midnight and Sadat, although he was dead tired from the day's journey, was still not sleeping at all. He waited and waited for that feeble knock at his window which always signalled Shabo's arrival. When she did not come till 2 O' clock in the morning, he decided to go himself and wake her up. He was almost very angry and was not thinking of doing anything amorous to Shabo, he just wanted to give her his piece of mind. He came out of his room and slyly walked to Shabo's room which was completely separate from the rest of the building in the far end of the house near the lawn.
Sadat did not know that his mother was awake already, for her prayers (tahajjud, she had just recently started doing so). Women in Salma's age know very well it is good to be cautious regarding their children's habits. She instantly finished her prayers by quickly turning her face to either side and stood up to see who it was it walking. She stood there quietly. Sadat was lucky Shabo did not open the door for him. Still while he was coming back, clenching his fists and pursing his lips to ease his anger, his mother turned the lights of the lawn on.
WOW!
Thanks Yazleb,
FS, thank you. I will think about it. :)
Link for Chapter 2
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/3853361
good going...
segmund...you can post your stories there...
http://www.wattpad.com/
more more more.......round of applause..its great!! thanks for sharing :-D
Haniya, thanks dear.
Zafirah, I do not have the link, a friend has promised to compile some of the stories for me. May be I can then send it to you in one complete file.
please give the link?
thanks. keep it up!
Dear you are amazing speechless Bravo !!keep writing.