MY DAUGHTER EMMA by ULASI JOSHUA IKECHUKWU (classic literature books .txt) 📕

ACT ONE

SCENE 1: INT. IN THE HOSPITAL. EVENING

EMMA: Call a doctor.

MR. KING: Call a doctor who specializes in heart surgery, because the pains within my upper trunk are great.

NINA: There are no doctors in the ward right now. It’s late night, and the two doctors on duty are in the middle of a surgery. I’ll call them though, if there’s really an urgent reason to do so.

MR. KING: What do you think we are doing here, acting a play? Please call me some doctors here. This is an emergency situation. Does it not matter to you that my pulmonary arteries are knocking together, and that my veins are giving way?

NINA: Oh sorry sir. I’ll call the doctors who are on call duty.

MR. KING: Please be fast about that.

NINA: My goodness! There’s no call credit left in my phone. I exhausted it a few minutes ago. What shall we do now?

EMMA: I’ll ask the patients in the other ward. Perhaps someone might be kind enough to provide his phone.
Emma ran up to the next ward as fast as her feet could carry her.

EMMA: Please I need someone to give me a phone so that we could call a doctor; my father is dying.

Voices of several volunteers in the ward “Here’s one!”

Emma picked up a cell phone from an elderly woman and ran down the ward where her father was waiting with the nurse.

EMMA: Here is a phone nurse Nina. Please call the doctors to save my papa’s life.

NINA: My goodness, the call isn’t going through; the battery is low. Can you bring me another cell phone Emma?

EMMA: Alright nurse Nina.
Emma’s footsteps were heard as she ran to return the cell phone.

EMMA: Thank you very much madam. The battery is low, so I have to return your phone.
Emma’s voice became louder this time

EMMA: Can someone please give me a phone so I can call a doctor for my papa?

A voice from the ward: Here’s my cell phone little girl. The battery was fully charged a few hours ago in this hospital.

EMMA: Thank you very much madam.
Emma returns to the men’s ward.
EMMA: Here’s another cell phone nurse Nina. Please call a doctor at once.
Nurse Nina moves closer to the wall containing the doctors’ phone numbers and begins to make a call.

NINA: Oh dear, I’m afraid I can’t call a doctor right now; the cell phone is locked with password.

EMMA: There’s no other cell phone available in the wards nurse Nina. What shall we do?

NINA: Take it back to the woman from whom you collected it, and ask her to unlock it.

EMMA: Alright nurse Nina.

Emma runs to the elderly woman in the next ward

EMMA: Could you please unlock the cell phone madam? The nurse said it is locked with password.

ANITA: Oh dear, the phone is a new years gift from my daughter. Last year, I had a pink cell phone yellow edges and colour screen. But it was stolen while I made my way through the subways. My daughter bought this one and locked it with password so that it won’t be useful to those who steal. Even when stolen, it could perhaps be retuned or placed in a place where it could be found. Let me unlock it for you.


SCENE 2: INT. IN THE MEN’S WARD EVENING

NINA: I wonder what has kept your daughter for so long.

MR. KING:No she is not my daughter nurse.

NINA: But she helped you into this hospital, and she calls you papa.

MR. KING:Yes, but that’s far from the reality; I have something to tell before I die nurse. And I’ll be pleased if you listen carefully.

NINA: Oh let me fetch your daughter sir. I think the message is for her as well.

MR. KING:There is no need to waste time in calling Emma. I have a feeling that I’ve got very little time to live.

NINA: But you’ve been through this illness for some days sir, and your voice proves you can still hold on till the doctor arrives.

MR. KING:You don’t understand nurse. There is always a last struggle, and this is it. Emma is not my daughter, and I want you to explain this to her when she comes back.

NINA: What exactly do you mean sir?

MR. KING:Ten years ago, I was in Africa with a team of twenty doctors for a humanitarian mission. We were racing against time to help the villagers overcome the sheer forces of the deadly Nebola disease. There were twenty doctors and six biologists; I was their driver.

NINA: I see. You don’t want Emma to feel that the Nebola diseases which her dada contracted ten years ago had finally taken his life. That’s why you want me to tell her that you are not her father.

MR. KING:Not exactly. In Africa, the disease outbreak lasted for several months, and we had to stay there to help the locals. But at some point, there was a problem; one of the locals who attended to us was in labour in our makeshift camp.

NINA: Were you responsible for the pregnancy?

MR. KING:No. she was pregnant before we arrived. But she was slim and did not really appear like a woman who was expecting. She gave birth to two babies within ten minutes. Twin babies; a boy and a girl.

NINA: So where is this lucky woman?

MR. KING:I do not know where she is now. Neither do I know where her boy is. But the girl’s whereabouts is not hidden from me.

NINA: Did she run away with her baby boy? Did she abandon her baby girl? I heard that mothers in parts of Africa prefer male children to female children.

MR. KING:The woman was in a big trouble.

NINA: Did she contract the Nebola?

MR. KING:No she contracted a disease more deadly than Nebola; a very contagious and incurable disease. We could not help her.

NINA: Were you also infected? Do you have the disease? Did I contract it from you? Am I going to die too?

MR. KING:No. Their culture seems to have these ailments. One of them was the killing of twins. They believed that twins were bad omens. Evil people sent from the gods to bring destruction in the land. So they kill all the twins as soon as they are born.

NINA: That is horrifying isn’t it?

MR. KING:It should be better told than experienced. Our doctors had helped the young woman to her feet a few hours after the delivery. But keen eyes had browsed through our makeshift tents, and had broken the unexpected news to the villagers who made their way to our defenseless camp. There were doctors, scientists, drivers and attendants, but no policemen nor people in uniforms. There were neither guns nor bullets to keep the angry crowd away.

NINA: Were you attacked by the villagers?


MR. KING:No. they went straight for the helpless woman, and we could not save her. They came in through every side: the main entrance, the windows, and the roof. They emerged from the bushes, and cut through all the tents before they realized that the woman had been hidden in the brick house. They shouted: where are they? Bring them out here or else somebody dies with them. One of the locals who advised us to hide the woman and her twins in the brick house had earlier asked me to call the police. But I had no reason to call the police; I saw no dangerous situation. Besides, the only police station was more than thirty miles away. So if I had called them, they would only have arrived to pick up the dead babies.

NINA: So the babies were killed after all.

MR. KING:Twins were laid out in front of their mother shortly after she was delivered, and slaughtered. Their heads were cut off, and their bodies were tossed to the wild animals. All in an effort to ensure that the gods cannot send them again on an evil mission.

NINA: It is a pity.

MR. KING: (In a slower and deeper voice) The angry mob kept coming closer and closer. Approaching us with clubs, machetes, rocks and broken bottles. I feared for the life of the young woman who was just delivered of twin babies, because by this time, we all certainly knew that either she or her babies were the primary target. I’ve heard of the killing of twins in Africa, and how it was eventually stopped by a missionary named Mary Slassor. But I had never in my lifetime, witnessed the gruesome murder of promising children in front of their helpless mother.

MR. KING:(Continued the narration in his usual tone) We closed the windows and shut the entrance door so as to keep the babies and their mom from their reach. But soon after the windows were successfully shut, we heard what seemed like thunder. It was the angry men pushing down the doors.

MR. KING:(In a louder tone). “Bring them out here. They were sent by the god Odem, and they must die.” They screamed at us.

NINA: My grandfather was born and raised in Africa. He told stories of how the evil god Odem had caused crops not to grow in Africa.

MR. KING:Really?

NINA: He said that the god Simna was the goddess of fertility and great harvest. She brought about bountiful harvests in Africa, until the evil god Odem robbed her of her powers.

MR. KING:How could Odem have done that?

NINA: I cannot remember exactly how the story was told, but basically god Odem seduced Simna, the goddess of fertility and great harvest, made love to her, and robbed her of her powers. So the villagers may be right in the pursuit of the evil god, but not in the killing of the babies. You still have not told me why you think Emma is not your daughter, and you claim that your life is short.

MR. KING:(Continued his story)They broke down the wooden door, pulled out the window, and rushed towards the babies. I saw men with angry faces, women with flaming eyes, and children with swollen bellies. Some of them did not even know why they were there. They snatched the twins from their mother, and laid them on a table inside the room. A fierce looking man swung his machete, and there it landed, even cutting off some pieces of woods from the table. There was blood everywhere; on the walls on the floor, and on the crowd as well. People drew back as the blood gushed profusely.

NINA: So the two babies died within an hour of their birth. But babies shouldn’t have that much blood. Should they?

MR. KING:No, that was the blood of their mother. She had laid herself on the babies as the machete landed, believing that her blood could somehow save her babies from the mob. As the crowd drew back, I grabbed the babies and jumped through the window. There was no one left outside to stop me; the angry crowd had all moved inside the large brick house to watch the killing of the twins. I ran as much as my feet could carry me. I knew I was a good driver, but when it comes to running on foot, I only realized how good I was on that day.

NINA: Did they pursue after you?


MR. KING:Of course they did. But I ran