All For What!

2

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

~~~

After Sa'eed had left for work the next day, Maryam was left home alone — as usual. She was in the kitchen preparing dinner, with their house help Sa'adatu, giving her a helping hand. They had a house help who did all the household chores, but the one thing she never allowed her do, was to cook. Sa'adatu might be a middle aged woman, but she still could not allow a woman who was not family, cook for her husband. Moreover, he had specially told her he enjoyed her cooking a lot.

She was busy cooking, when she felt a sharp pain surged into her abdomen. At first, she ignored it, thinking the baby was only kicking as usual, by with each passing second, the pain became unbearable for her.

Sa'adatu noticed and held her by the arm. "Are you alright, Maryam?" She inquired, worry dripping from her voice. She was used to calling her by her name, because Maryam had insisted she did so, for she was old enough to be her mother and she respected her a lot. She was hardworking. Plus, she had never  given her a single reason to complain about her services.

"I'm okay, Sa'adatu. Please go back to what you were doing," Maryam breathed and stirred the soup she was cooking. Her eyes widened as she suddenly felt wetness — as though she had peed herself. Realizing her water just broke, she swallowed. She was going into labor and it was not even her due day yet.  "Go to my room, look for my phone and call Sa'eed, tell him I'm in labour. Please be fast, mama," she managed to say, before the pain surged into her again, more painfully.

"Alright," she responded and dashed upstairs to their room. She found Maryam's cell phone laying on the bed and took it. Without wasting time, she dialed Sa'eed's number.

He picked almost immediately it rang.

"AssalamuAlaykum, habib—" he started, but Sa'adatu abruptly cut him off.

"Maryam's water just broke, she's going into labor," she informed.

"It isn't even her due date yet. Where is she now? Give her the phone, I want to speak to her," his voice was calm, but the worry in it did not go unnoticed by Sa'adatu.

"She's downstairs, in the kitchen."

"What are you still waiting for? Please tell the driver to take her to the specialist hospital, I will be there soon." he informed and ended the call. He took his car keys from his desk and dashed out. 

Unfortunately for him, he met with a traffic jam on his way to the hospital. He brought out his phone and called his wife's number and Sa'adatu picked up. He could hear his wife's grunts. He wanted so badly to talk to her, but she did not want to. "Where are you people right now?"

"We're almost at the hospital." Sa'adatu responded.

Sa'eed did not bother to reply, before ending the call. He couldn't bear the sound of her heavy breaths anymore. Visibly, he was disturbed, nervous and scared all at the same time. 

When the traffic jam finally got to the hospital, he went straight to the gynecology section and saw Sa'adatu waiting outside the labour room.