Becca - by Eyitoluwase Soyinka

"Can you describe what happened that night?" "Shhhhh, doctor, he's sleeping." She throws me a stern gaze and I swallow back my protest.The white walls of the hospital stare blankly at me and I sigh. I hate this job. I squat beside her as she gently rocks the baby to sleep. I try to sound as sincere as I can, which is almost impossible. The baby she's rocking is imaginary. "Can I have a go?" I gesture at the imaginary child, asking if I can also rock thin air.She smiles and nods. We both fall into companionable silence. "Yunno, it's so much quieter now with the children having gone over to their aunt's place." I nod. "Their aunt's place?"She nods and stretches her arms out."My sister Becca was excited to have them come for the summer." This is new, I murmur to myself. "Where's Becca living?""Back home. She never could outgrow our small town... I haven't seen her in years."She removes a picture from her pocket and points at a rather young blonde lady with pretty eyes and freckles. I wince slightly. This is who she's coined Becca. "Mind if I have Becca's number? Yunno, just to check up on the kids?"She opens her mouth to respond, then suddenly clamps it shut and narrows her eyes before bursting out in laughter."Oh, Doctor Bush, Becca's happily married with two kids. Don't try to be smooth, all asking for her number and then taking her out." Sigh."Oops. Next time I'll ask for marital status."She giggles."I know. Becca's really beautiful, isn't she? Would catch any man's eye, if you ask me." Her voice becomes tender " I still don't understand why she settled for that poor Burton man."I nod in agreement as if I understand."Maybe she loved him." "Oh, pshaw. Love ain't nothing if it doesn't put food on the table, Doc. But I guess you're right." "I miss her, although we see each other at church every Sunday." Sigh. She pauses, long enough that I'm sure she's asleep, her eyes closed."I was once like Becca, yunno... beautiful and free."An edge of melancholy enters her voice and I know what's coming."I met me this fine-looking man, a horseback rider, so he was really sturdy and I fell for him. You know that nonsense, blah blah love. I got with child and he just decided to drop all that horseback stuff and learn real work so he could support us all, but it was just never enough, yunno."The country got harder, what with all the wars going around and him putting more children in me faster than I could say Jack."She claps her hands."Before you know it, we had five children and one still in the belly." "That sounds exhausting.""I tell you, Doc, it was more than that. You see, my horseback man missed riding. That was his life. So he went on and on, moody around the house, only spoke to me when he wanted to hit it, would never play with the kids, and spent nights watching them riding games."He'd leave all them children to me and say, 'But you a woman. That's what you supposed to do.'" "That's bad." "Exactly, Doc, because what about my dreams? What about things I wanted to do? And boy, oh boy, let me tell you, pregnant with five children ain't something one woman can see to. "Them little chits always shouting. 'Ma, she took my food.' 'Ma, he slapped my hand.' 'Ma, she played with my toys.' 'Ma, he took my brush.' 'Ma, he put worms on my bed.' "THEM CHILDREN NEVER SHUT UP!"She screams, banging the table aggressively. Oh, not this again, I mutter to myself. "You need to calm down, Theresa," I say in a soothing voice.She continues like she never heard a word I spoke."I knew I was gonna run half mad if I continued like that. So I wrote to Becca, telling her to come and rescue me and keep the children safe." She stretches forth her hand and I place the baby I've been rocking in them. I open my mouth to ask a question, but then someone knocks on the door. I make excuses and walk out. "Detective Cruiz, anything?"I shake my head."The woman's a looney," our chief quips, passing me a hot cup of tea."You don't just butcher a husband and wife in cold blood, after stashing their five kids away, and suddenly claim lunacy," I respond angrily."Cruiz..." my partner, Frank, calls my name."I just don't get it.""And neither do I, Cruiz. She believes that she's the person in that story. How can a person's mind be so twisted?" I sigh, frustrated. It's been five months.We still don't know where she hid those children.The police department is in uproar. How can five children go missing and we still can't find them?"They're probably dead," Frank says.I shake my head and refuse to think about that. "I'll go talk to her tomorrow again." Maybe tomorrow she'll tell us how she stalked the family for five years.Editing their photos and putting herself in Becca's place.How she placed hidden cameras in their house, including the bathroom.Maybe if we're lucky, she'll describe how, in her mind, Becca asked her for help, and how that help led to her killing the husband and wife.And maybe, just maybe, she'll tell us where she hid those children.

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