Red-Hot Desert Docs. Carol Marinelli

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      He started to walk in but Adele blocked his path.

      Well, she hardly blocked it, because she was very slight and he could easily have moved her aside or stepped around her, but there was something in her stance that was a challenge. ‘Zahir!’ Adele said, and she looked up at him and, for only the second time in twelve months of their history, their eyes met properly.

      ‘Adele, let me past.’

      ‘No,’ she said, and stood her ground. ‘Zahir, there are some things a mother would prefer her son didn’t see.’

      As realisation hit he gave a small nod. ‘Very well.’

      ‘We’ve got this,’ Adele reassured him.

      He was like a cat put out in the rain but reluctantly he stepped back. ‘Could you keep me informed?’

      She nodded.

      Poor Leila, Adele thought as she got her into a gown and did some obs. Leila point blank refused to allow Adele to remove her jewellery.

      Janet inserted an IV and Maria ordered some IV fluids. In a short space of time Zahir’s mother was starting to look better.

      ‘I’ve been unwell for a while,’ she explained. ‘I came over last month to have some time with my sons but I also had some tests done. I’m supposed to be having a hysterectomy tomorrow. I don’t want my husband to know.’ She took a breath. ‘As awkward as it might be, I was going to tell my sons today at afternoon tea.’

      Maria went through her medical history but at first Leila was very vague in her responses.

      ‘How many pregnancies have you had?’ Maria asked.

      ‘I have two children.’

      ‘How many pregnancies?’ Maria asked again.

      ‘Three,’ Leila said, and Adele saw a tear slip from her eyes and into her hair. ‘I don’t like to speak of that time.’

      Maria looked at Adele, whose hand Leila was holding, in the hope Adele could get more out of her. ‘The doctor needs to know your history, Leila. She needs to know about your pregnancies and labours and any problems you have had.’

      ‘My womb causes me many problems. I got pregnant very quickly with Zahir but he was born prematurely. It was a very difficult labour.’

      They waited for her to elaborate but she didn’t.

      ‘And the next pregnancy?’ Adele prompted.

      ‘It took five more years to get pregnant and then I had Dakan. Again it was very difficult, he had very large shoulders. Two years later, I was lucky and I fell pregnant but my body did not do well... I had the best healer and a specialist attar but there was little they could do for me.’

      ‘Attar?’ Adele checked.

      ‘He makes up the herbs the healer advises. I took the potion every day yet I still felt very unwell, and I started to vomit.’

      ‘At what stage of the pregnancy?’ Maria asked.

      ‘He said I had four months left to go,’ Leila answered. ‘I was getting worse and I insisted that I be flown to a medical facility overseas. My husband and the healer were very opposed to the idea but I demanded it. In Dubai they said that I had to deliver the baby and that my blood pressure was very high. I called my husband and he said the healer had told him it was too soon and that the baby would die and that I needed to come home. Fatiq flew to Dubai to come and bring me back home...’

      Leila started to cry in earnest then. ‘But by then I had delivered and the healer was right. A few hours after my husband arrived our son died.’

      ‘I’m so sorry,’ Adele said.

      ‘I have a picture of him.’

      Adele got Leila’s bag and watched as she took out her purse and showed them the tiniest most beautiful baby. ‘We named him Aafaq, it means the place where the earth and sky meet.’

      ‘It’s a beautiful name,’ Adele said, and she looked at a younger Leila and a man who looked very much like Zahir and was probably around the age his son was now.

      They were both holding their tiny baby and he was off machines.

      ‘What a beautiful baby,’ Adele said.

      They were a beautiful family, Adele thought, despite the pain. The King’s arm was around his wife and he was gazing down at his son and you could see the love and sorrow in his expression.

      ‘We cannot even speak of Aafaq,’ Leila sighed. ‘There is too much hurt there to even discuss that time. I think that my husband blames me for turning my back on the healer and yet he loves me also. I want for us to be able to speak about the son we lost but we can’t. Aafaq would have been twenty-five years old next month and time still hasn’t healed it. I miss him every day.’

      It was so sad, Adele thought, and she continued to hold the older woman’s hand as Maria examined her. A while later an ultrasound confirmed fibroids and Maria went through the options.

      ‘We have a private wing here and I can speak with the consultant gynaecologist, Mr Oman. Or you can be transferred to the hospital you’re already booked into, though I doubt they’d operate tomorrow. You might need a few days to rest and recover from this bleeding.’

      ‘I think I would rather stay here but I shall discuss it with my son. Will you speak with him, please?’ Leila asked Maria. ‘He will be so worried and I am so embarrassed.’

      ‘Stop thinking like that,’ Adele told her. ‘Zahir is a doctor, he deals with this sort of thing all the time.’

      ‘Adele’s right,’ Maria said. ‘Can I tell Zahir that you were already planning to have surgery?’

      ‘Yes.’ Leila nodded. ‘But please don’t mention what I said about Aafaq.’

      ‘I shan’t. Do you want him to come in when I’ve finished speaking with him?’

      ‘Please.’

      ‘Check first, though,’ Adele called, as Maria left. ‘I’m just going to help Leila freshen up.’

      Adele left to make preparations so that she could give Leila a wash and change of sheets. When she came back into the cubicle Leila was staring at the photo but then she placed it back in her bag.

      It must be so hard for her, Adele thought, not to be able to speak of her son. She wondered if Zahir even knew about the baby his mother had lost.

      ‘Were you going to tell your husband after the operation?’ Adele asked as she washed her.

      ‘Yes,’ Leila said. ‘I might even have told him before or got one of my sons to. I know it is hard to understand our ways,’ Leila said. ‘Most of the time I am very grateful for the care I receive. There are times, though, that more is needed.’

      Aafaq had been one of those times, Adele guessed.

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