Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

Author:Buchi Emecheta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: George Braziller Inc.
Published: 1974-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

8

Role Acceptance

One day, weeks later, when Adah, Francis and their two young children had settled in at the Nobles’, Adah felt unwilling to go to work. She felt uncomfortable and unusually heavy. She could have stayed longer in bed, but she had to be in the library by nine-thirty. Sad, and feeling very sorry for herself, as she usually did on such days, she dragged herself up, envying her husband who was still having a good snore. She felt like waking him up, just for the sheer joy of it. She was just stretching her hand towards him, on the verge of pulling him up, when the piece of humanity inside her gave her a gentle kick. It seemed to be saying to her, What do you think you’re doing, eh? This gentle push was followed by arrow-like punches. One of the punches was so intense that she was jolted into reality.

According to her calculations, she should have the baby at the beginning of December. As a matter of fact, she could have the baby any time, because it was almost due. It was already December, the second day of the month. The baby would not come on the second, she told herself. The actual date was the ninth. So she was sure the child inside her was simply having a morning stretch. Do babies do morning exercises in their mothers’ tummies? She must check it up sometime.

But one thing was beginning to worry her, though. Her bulk. Her boss was always looking at her, when she thought Adah was not watching, wondering. Adah had lied to them, to the doctor, saying that her baby was due early in February, so that she could stay as long as possible at work. They would then have enough money to tide them over till she started work again. Francis had been convinced that it would be right for him to work during Christmas at the post office. So if only Adah could work as long as possible, they would be able to pay their rent, pay for the children’s nursery and put some money by until she got strong enough to go back to work.

Looking back at that time, she still wondered why she never thought it odd that she should be doing all the worrying about what they were going to live on, why she, and she alone, always felt she was letting those she loved down if she stayed away from work, even for the sake of having a baby. The funniest thing was that she felt it was her duty to work, not her husband’s. He was to have an easy life, the life of a mature student, studying at his own pace.

She got herself ready that morning, and hurried to Kentish Town station. When she got there, she realised that the railwaymen were having one of their go-slows. She did not know of this, because she was so completely isolated from other people, that if not for her visits to her place of work, she would not know anything that happened outside her home.

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