STORY SERIES: MY PRECIOUS (Part 2)

PART 2

"Mr. Bode." She shouted from her side of the office as he came back from Mr. Abba's office. He raised his head from his phone with a frown but the frown on his face was not going to have any effect on Grace.

"Jones and Jones wants a P.R.O to come over now." She informed him.

He raised his left brows.

"So?"

She knew where this was going.

"It was your call and I only —"

"I believe you are a P.R.O. so what are you waiting for? Please, go on time and return to give me feedback." He ordered.

She was angry and offended but there was nothing to be done. She had to go. She packed her handbag, grabbed her phone and car keys on the table and left for her extra assignment.

As she drove, she briefly went through her own profile. She was a twenty six years old working class lady with a nice pay who feels nothing less than an errand girl in her office, that's what some of her coworkers calls her. She has a record of zero romance in her life time. Too nice and gentle, kind and tender hearted. She's so empty, no family members of any sort. She tries to think how messed up her life was.

As she drove, she felt something wrong with the car as she took a bend to a street. She parked the car immediately after a big shady tree, she got down, opened the bonnet and looked at it. Everything looked fine to her. She closed the bonnet and hopped into her car, she ignites it but it won't kick off. She goes back to the bonnet, looks in but she knows nothing about it, she looks away as she ponders on how to get out of the situation. She thought she heard the sound of her car igniting but it was soft and real, it wasn't her car.

She slowly followed its direction from the sound. It couldn't be what she was possibly thinking. She was astonished when she came upon the sight of a baby wrapped in rough blue shawl. Her heart fell. She looked around and called for whoever that was responsible for the baby but no one answered, not even the passersby. She turned to leave but taking another glimpse of the baby, she froze.

Grace snapped out of the moment.

No. She won't let this child play baby tricks on her, looking cute, sweet and all.

She walked back to her car, the baby who had earlier stopped crying resumed again. Grace hit her head lightly on the steering wheels, she couldn't just leave a baby all by itself and it doesn't look as if anyone was coming to the rescue soon enough. Damn conscience! She got out of her car again and went to the baby, a lady was standing with a child. Grace felt something prick her heart. Was this the baby's mother? She asked herself.

"Good afternoon ma." Grace greeted as she genuflected halfway.

"My sister, good afternoon. Look at this poor baby eh, the mother is heartless o. How can you abandon a child that's barely seven months? Can you imagine?" The lady said with so much sympathy.

"How long has this baby been here?"

"Early this morning. No one has felt bad enough to do anything for the baby, everyone just passes by and leave."

"Is that so? So, what are we going to do?" Grace asked eagerly. She couldn't imagine the sweet little thing being out here for any more minute. She carried the baby who stopped crying immediately Grace rocked her.

"We? No o. I have my own child o. Ah! I don't want police trouble." The lady peeked at the baby who was playing with Grace's long earrings.

"She seems to like you. You can go to the nearest police station and report the case." She said clasping to her son's hand.

"Haba, aunty. Let's go together. I don't want to be suspected for kidnapping. If you go with me, you can be a witness, you know how police officers can be." Grace pleaded.

The lady thought for a while.

"Okay. Let's go together, at least when they do further investigation, people can testify that the baby has been here since." She said.

"Thank you ma. Just give me a few minutes, I want to check my car."

"Okay."

Grace tried igniting the car and to her surprise, it responded once. The lady hopped in seconds after the car kicked, they had a brief conversation on the way as Grace drove .

They met two male and a female officers at the counter when they got to the police station. The lady quickly looked around the station reception. There were pictures and posters. The President's picture, Governor's picture, Commissioner of Police picture was on the wall. There was a big poster on the wall by the right that read: POLICE IS YOUR FRIEND.

"So, madam. You are saying you found this baby at Solu street, under a big mango tree?" One of the male officer asked looking interested.

"Yes sir." Grace replied.

"Aunty, write your statement here." The female officer said indifferently as she dropped a book on the desk.

"Okay ma." Grace replied and quickly wrote what she had earlier reported.

"So, what do we do now?" Grace asked as she returned the book to the officer.

"Drop the baby here or do you want to take her home? We will take it over from here." She replied.

"Okay, what if no one files in for a missing child, how do we go about it?" Grace pushed the question in quickly. She could see the tiredness in the officer's eyes.

"It goes to an orphanage home. Simple." She replied and went in.

Grace looked at the baby, she had large eyes and they were pretty. It was then Grace just realized she didn't even know the baby's sex till now. She laughed at herself. She touched the baby's cheek playfully and she giggled. It was cute, really cute.

"Sir, when she said drop the baby here, does she mean it literally?" Grace asked. The lady with her nodded as she drew her child closer.

"Will the baby sleep here?" The lady asked.

"Madame, you have done your part. She means it literally. We can handle it from here. Thank you for being a good citizen. You can leave now." The male officer who was earlier interested answered them.

"Okay. Thank you for listening to us." Grace said and gave the baby to the second male officer who was there.

"It's our job."

The baby started crying again and Grace felt as if a heavy stone was placed in her heart. She walked away briskly that the lady with her had to run to meet up with her outside.