Chapter 12 – Mother
Honami left her translation work on her laptop open while she daydreamed. The deadline for her work was the day after tomorrow. However, for some reason, she couldn’t continue to work. This morning and afternoon she also barely ate and just kept drinking coffee.
Honami was aware of the reason for it. She could not distract herself from the incident she saw on the television before. Such a pitiful boy. There was no way she could ignore how cruel the killer was.
How could horrible things like that happen? The victim’s face when he was alive was plastered on the television and Honami could not forget that.
At the corner of the table, the frame where she placed a photo was visible from the corner of her eyes. It was the face of her daughter who smiled brightly. She wore a cute ribbon on her head and stretched her hand towards the camera’s lens. It was her first birthday photo. Suddenly tears began to flood Honami’s eyes.
The one who could protect her smile was only me …
She knew that Yasuhiko also loved their daughter from the bottom of his heart. The man would even be willing to throw away his life because of how important their daughter was. But, for some reason, a father’s love was different from a mother’s love.
For a mother, their children are one entity, one body, and one soul with them. Unlike a man, who only becomes a father after the child was born, Honami thought that a woman immediately became a mother after discovering a new life in her stomach. Ah no, more precisely, a woman had become a mother since she started trying to have children. Honami felt it when she recalled the days when she underwent her infertility treatment.
Therefore, Honami believed that she became a mother when she knocked on the fertility treatment clinic’s door. Even after all these years, she still could remember the various things that she had done to have children.
On her first day in the clinic, Honami was shown a twenty-minute ‘Infertility Treatment’ video in front of the doctor’s examination room. Then, her blood was taken to check various things such as blood type, venereal disease, and measles antibody. When the doctor was aware that Honami’s husband was also present in the clinic, the doctor asked the nurse to take a sample of Yasuhiko’s blood and sperm.
“Huh? Am I also being examined? Why? Does it have anything to do with my blood?”
Even though that man was so passionate about bringing Honami to the hospital because he wanted a child, he grumbled because he was scared of needles. Honami also hated needles and the process of drawing blood. Moreover, she just had received an explanation that every month she had to have her blood drawn to check her hormones. However, Honami resisted her desire to scold her husband.
After their blood was drawn and it was finished, a male staff member called Yasuhiko to do a sperm check.
“Yesterday, I drank a lot of alcohol, you know.”
“Recently I haven’t been able to sleep well, how about that?”
Yasuhiko continued to complain as he was escorted to the room for a sperm check. In that room, a man must masturbate to take the sperm and then put it in a container to be tested later. Thirty minutes later, Yasuhiko returned to the waiting room.
“What happened?” Honami asked.
“Hm? There is nothing special,” he said nonchalantly.
Was it not going well? Honami thought that maybe he failed to do that because according to Honami, her husband was a sensitive person. Moreover, he was nervous because it was for a test. When Honami wanted to ask further, she was already called by the doctor.
The doctor looked old. An ultrasound check was performed to check the inside of Honami’s body. The doctor inserted a device called a probe into her vagina. Honami remembered she was so shocked because her uterus was being touched. Moreover, she felt tense because this was her first medical check after she neglected it in high school. The doctor said this was to check her uterus condition. However, the touch of fingers that entered her body felt uncomfortable. She hoped that all of this would end soon.
“You just had your period, right? Then this is a good opportunity. We can take pictures of the uterus and fallopian tubes at the same time. “
To take the pictures, a liquid was inserted into the fallopian tube through the uterine cavity, then an X-ray was taken. This was a test to find out if there are abnormalities in the uterus, and also to find out if the fallopian tubes are blocked or not. This test can sometimes also expedite the fallopian tubes that are blocked due to the form of the fluid that was pressing into all corners of the uterine cavity. Because of that effect, in addition to testing, this process could also be used for treatment. People whose fallopian tubes opened because of this test said they could get pregnant immediately three months later. When Honami entered the large x-ray room and laid on the bed, hoses and tools were immediately inserted into her body.
“There will be a little pressure in this process.”
“If it hurts, please say it.”
A nurse held Honami’s hands while saying that. It was then that an extreme pain attacked her lower body. Her vision turned white and she could not breathe. She had shouted “It hurts!” countless times but the nurse just kept encouraging her: “A little more, hold on a little more.”
Then, the nurse and the doctor came out of the X-ray room after and said:
“After this, a picture will be taken, so please don’t move at all.”
After that, even though Honami had managed to endure the repeated pain and successfully completed the X-ray, she continued to vomit. Maybe because she was too tense, or perhaps the liquid that entered her body did not fit. So, she took a rest on the bed for a few moments after that.
However, with the thought that she could get pregnant with this treatment, she could feel a little energy emerge from her weak body.