MAX
It's been almost two months since Mama Cita's funeral. The realities of being a single mother without any (financial) backing from her baby's dad or her parents had finally taken their toll on Max. The moment she pulled a knife on her dad, she knew that was the end of their relationship, and she had vowed to herself and her late grandmother she was going to make it without receiving a penny from her parents.
Not wanting to be a burden for too long on her host, she returned to occupy her grandmother's apartment a week after she was buried. Her grandmother was lowered next to her grandfather in his building. Life had gradually returned to normal in the neighborhood, except Mama Cita's absence could still be felt in her compound. She was running out of cash as she had spent more than half the money she had saved up all the while and whatever little money she got during the funeral.
Her dad had shown up severally in the compound but both had avoided each other like plague. Her mom never returned after the burial and John had spent the first two weekends after the funeral with her. She needed to act fast because help wasn't near in sight.
The mosquitoes wouldn't let her sleep as she lay awake thinking on this Wednesday night. Thank goodness for the fact that John had brought her cradle for her on his first visit, so Anna was safe from the mosquito bites. She concluded she needed to leave the community and Cantina completely if she was to make headway in life. But where would she go to? What about her baby?
Remembering Cain's letters, she stood up from the bed putting on her torchlight as she began to search for them. Once she found them, she quickly checked his address to make sure they all corresponded. Quartz army barracks, Aztec.
She made up her mind she was going there to meet him. But what about Anna? The furthest she had traveled was for the FEDCOL games held two years ago in FGC Macro. Aztec, according to her friends who go there on holidays or live there is a complete day's journey and she knew she dared not take the chance of going with Anna on such an unknown journey. She had sent him a letter on her brother's last visit but John had since gone back to school for her to know if he sent a reply. Because she was sure her parents would seize the letter if they saw it in the mailbox before John. Also, how can she just show up in his house with a baby she never mentioned? What if he had another girl already and didn't reply to her letter?
As she thought about this, she remembered an incident that happened while she was still in school. A girl had dumped her baby by the roadside and the baby was picked up and handed over to a childless couple who were willing to take the child in after settling with the police. But no, she can't do that. She can't dump her love by the roadside.
But she also knew whatever she had left wouldn't go more than two weeks, after which she wouldn't be able to fend for herself and the baby again. Giving the child up was the best thing to do for both her and the child she concluded. It wasn't long before she slept off.
Thursday morning, after bathing the baby and doing her house chores, she strapped the baby behind her back and left for Cantina. Her mission was to survey the area where it was best to keep the baby. Satellite town came to mind. There are rich people there and the chances of Anna being picked up by a rich family would be higher in such an area. She had been there severally to visit her school friends.
She planned to look for the best place where she would place the baby and no one would be able to see her, but yet would be easy to locate. After about two hours of walking around, she finally found a spot. A certain junction that is always lonely, but gets busy from the time schools begin to close for the day. She would drop the baby around some minutes to 1 pm and hang around looking out for who would pick her up.
Going back home she was satisfied with her plans. The plan was, as soon as the baby had been found, she would wait around with the crowd that was likely to gather to see the person who would volunteer to keep the child. After which she'll return to Bruges town much later in the evening when it was getting dark so the few people in the compound wouldn't suspect her coming without Anna. Then first thing Saturday morning, she would leave for Aztec. Wow. Very easy she concluded in her naive mind as she parked her bag.
But again how would she identify her child later in the future when she returns to claim her? She decided to give the baby a mark. With tears in her eyes, as her baby cried in pain, she used a hot nail to write the initials "MAC" at the right top corner of the baby's back by making tiny incisions. Before then, she had already picked some items used by their community for such purposes. This was done in the night just after she bathed the child so as not to raise attention. It was from this mixture she then added inside the incisions which would later turn out to leave a permanent and visible mark on the child's back. Fortunately, Anna also took after her light skin color.
She decided not to do it Friday morning but wait till Monday when the wound would have begun to heal. But this is another Thursday night. For the fourth time that week, she had gotten to the road but turned back home crying as she couldn't do it. She sat in the room crying as she watched the baby sleeping. "How can she think it was that easy to just go and drop her baby like that? A three-month-old baby? After carrying her for nine months? A baby whose birth caused the death of Mama Citas. Grandma would turn in her grave, she thought as she cried.
Later that night she had a dream in which she saw her child down with a fever and she running around looking for help. When she finally gave the baby to her granduncle's wife, the lady pronounced the baby dead. She broke down in crying and shouting only to wake up to the voice of her baby crying. She quickly jumped from the bed and ran over to pick the child from her cradle. Running her hand around, she made sure the baby was ok, she'll do it today she concluded as she brëast fed the baby. Checking the clock on the wall, the time was 4:30 hours.
*************
It was 18:00 hours, the sky was getting darker and Max had been pacing around Satellite Town. She still couldn't drop the baby as she had planned. She had sworn to herself she wasn't returning home with the baby and she wasn't going back on that. She had spent most of the afternoon inside a catholic church as though she came for a devotion.
Just then she saw a lady who had been in the church with her all afternoon walking by. She remembered the lady was crying before the statue of the Blessed Mother as she prayed. Then it hit her, this woman is childless that's why she had been praying and crying. From her vantage position, she watched the woman negotiate a bend and quickly followed the woman.
Giving the woman a good distance, she followed behind as the lady walked down the quiet street. Then she saw her turn to a building. As she passed, she saw a man opening the door for the lady, kissed her, and let her in. That must be her husband she concluded. She walked on towards the end of the street having decided to drop the child at their apartment.
By the time returned after going around the adjoining street, the whole place was dark. Walking quietly towards the building, she could hear her heart pounding. As though things were working in her favor, their security light was still off and Anna was sleeping, fortunately. Getting to the door, through the window she noticed the man and the lady on the dining table eating quietly.
She whispered a little prayer, then promised the sleeping child she'd come looking for her, then asked her grandmother for forgiveness before placing the child on the floor wrapped. Knocking on the door, she heard the man answer "Yes, hold on a second". She took to her heels. Running to the dark road, she stood and watched the lights come on and the door thrown open.
She watched the man looking around after seeing the sleeping child before calling out to his wife. Then she noticed someone walking down the street with a torch light and decided it was time to leave.