Dream Count

Zikora goes into labor two weeks early. Her mother is the only one with her at the hospital. Chia is traveling, and the child’s father, Zikora’s longtime boyfriend Kwame, has been unresponsive. In terrible pain, Zikora gets angry with Dr. K and the nurses no matter what they tell her. As the labor goes on, she feels increasingly detached from her body. She lies in bed, remembering all the frightening stories she’s heard about childbirth. Even Omelogor’s cousin died in childbirth at a Lagos hospital. Chia has assured her that won’t happen in America, but Zikora isn’t sure.

Zikora’s pain intensifies, and she screams for the epidural. She knows she is shaming her mother because she isn’t being the stoic her mother has always wanted her to be. (Growing up she wasn’t even allowed to mention menstrual cramps.) While the anesthesiologist administers the epidural, Zikora’s eyes well up as she thinks about Kwame and wishes he were there.

Zikora remembers the start of her and Kwame’s relationship. They met at a cookbook launch and hit it off when they started joking about self-described connoisseurs who overuse the word “nutty” to describe the flavors of cheeses and other foods.