At the maternity clinic

I am gazing listlessly around, eating my vetkoek, when I notice the doekwoman again. My first idea of her changes. She has transformed. Instead of looking strange and tense, she is smiling warmly. She is talking in a lively way with a young mother who seems stressed. The mom has a bundled-up, crying newborn, and a toddler who is whining for something.

I watch them. Something is odd. It’s not like the two women are friends. I had seen the odd woman look carefully at every woman in the queue before. She would have recognised this friend already.

Next thing, the mother is handing the newborn to the woman in the doek. With a final look over her shoulder, the mother walks off slowly with her toddler towards the toilets. All around them, the other queuing women chat and laugh and tend to their babies. They take no notice.

I’m suddenly on high alert. The woman in the doek clasps the newborn in her arms so tenderly … longingly. She smiles into its face. She looks beautiful when she smiles; so radiant. But she also keeps glancing at the mother heading off, holding the hand of her toddler.

As soon as the door of the toilet closes behind the pair, the woman in the doek strolls slowly away from the queue, rocking the newborn. She is obviously good with babies, because it stops crying. At the end of the queue she doesn’t stop; she starts walking faster. Soon she’s out of the waiting room and heading to the gate.

I gasp as the truth flashes upon me: the woman in the doek is stealing the newborn!

Hardly knowing what I am doing, I leave my place near the back of the queue and rush – with difficulty – after her. Damn this huge tummy! She doesn’t look back. She is walking fast, but taking care to not draw any attention to herself.

I pick up speed and, like her, I pass the hospital gate and the security guard. I know I should stop and tell the man what is going on, so that he can arrest her, but I keep going.

She doesn’t look behind her; she just keeps walking fast and calmly towards the taxi rank. I am almost trotting. I catch up. I grab her elbow from behind.

She spins around in shock and terror; her face tells it all. Yes, she was stealing this baby.

“Please … take this baby back,” I say.

Tears well up in her eyes. She hugs the child and shakes her head. “No! She’s mine now. I need her. That woman already has a child. I deserve her!”

I don’t hesitate. “That is not right – taking her baby. But you can have mine. I can see you need a baby, are desperate for a baby. I don’t want mine.”

 ***

Tell us: What do you think of this way of solving both the women’s problems? Is it good for the unborn baby?