Initially I thought it was water from the bowl that had poured out. “I’ll get the mop. Where’s it?” She gripped her abdomen in pain and gasped.

“We should be getting to the hospital. My water just broke.”

I stood there watching her. It was taking a long time for me to process what she had said.

“We better get going unless of course you want to deliver this baby here.” She waddled over to one of the chairs and sat down. I stood rooted to the spot. She was having her baby?

Now? Here?

“Didn’t you just tell Pope your delivery date was two weeks away?”

Though she was obviously in pain she looked amused while she said, “Yeah, but the baby has other ideas.”

She directed me to where her hospital bag had been packed and to where her car keys were.

I picked up her car keys before I realised she was in no condition to drive. She couldn’t even fit behind the steering wheel.

“You can’t drive.”

“I’m not planning to.”

She got up and waddled out of the kitchen and through the hall to the front yard where her

VW Tuareg was parked. She waddled to the back seat and climbed in.

“Wow, hold on. Naadu. I can’t drive that. I don’t have my driver’s license yet. I haven’t even practiced with Mantse in ages.”

I could see the sweat on her upper lip and forehead. “You do remember how to move don’t you?” I nodded.

“That’s all you need. The hospital is not far. Just a twenty minute drive.”

“Let me get a taxi.”

“There’s no time to get a taxi. The junction is a thirty minute walk. Who knows how long it will be before you get a taxi. Let’s go now, please. I’ll talk you through it.”

“How about the neighbours?”

“Buerki, let’s go now!”

I opened the front gate wider and came back to the car. I climbed in and strapped myself in. I could hear Mantse’s voice in my head. I adjusted the seat, checked the mirrors, took a deep breath and tried to quell the rising panic I was feeling. I started the car, depressed the clutch, put the gear into reverse, brought the clutch to half-clutch, gradually put my foot on the accelerator and released the handbrake. The car moved and I drove it slowly out of the gate. I wanted to get down and close the gate but Naadu said to keep going.

It took me an hour to get to the hospital. I ‘killed the fire’ four times and I didn’t go faster than 20 kph. I was too scared to. That was the longest one hour of my life. Naadu had already called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. Two nurses had a wheelchair waiting when we arrived at the loading port. After Naadu got down I drove to the car park. I took two parking spaces instead of one but I didn’t have any strength or energy left to park properly.

“Your mother’s in here,” the nurse said to me.

I joined Naadu in her room. She had been made to change into a hospital gown and had been propped up with pillows on her bed. She was ending a call to her mother when I came in.

“You should call Pope.” She shook her head. “He’d want to be here.” Again she shook her head.

“Who is being childish now? It’s my fault he isn’t here. He would have been here if it weren’t for me.”

She grimaced. “What’s happening between your dad and me is complicated,” she panted. A nurse came in to monitor her dilations. I stepped out of the room and called the same Pope I hadn’t wanted to speak to two hours earlier.

“Pope, Naadu is in labour. We’re at St. Lydia’s hospital.” I hung up before he could say anything and went back to wait with Naadu in her room. Naadu’s mother arrived first. She had short yellow hair, rings on each finger except her thumbs and was in a neck brace. I was glad to swap places with her.

An hour later, the nurse again went to check on Naadu. “This baby is in a hurry to come out, papa,” the nurse said running out of the room.

“The baby is crowning already.” She called an orderly who then wheeled Naadu to the delivery room. The minute the doors to the delivery room swung shut, Pope and Nene came running into the waiting room.

Pope hugged me, “Don’t you ever do that to me, Buerki. Don’t you ever. I already lost a wife, I can’t lose a daughter too. I was so worried. I . . .” I pulled out of his embrace and shouted, “Go, go, go. You’ll miss it.”

At the doors, he turned and said, “Promise you’ll still be here when I get back?”

I nodded. Once Pope disappeared behind the doors, Nene attached himself to me like a used chewing gum under a school desk. He even wanted to follow me into the female washroom.

He wanted to make sure I didn’t disappear again. Either that or he wanted me to take him with me if I decided to leave. I had no intention of doing either. I was tired of running.

“How did you guys get here so fast? I thought you’d get stuck in the traffic at Tema roundabout.”

“We left as soon as Naadu called to say you were with her. We were already at the Tetteh Quarshie roundabout when you called to say Naadu was having the baby.”