ONE DAY LATE - a short story

Chirping cricket sounds with croaking toad sounds juggled Shade out of her sleep in the early hours of a Saturday morning. Shade had spent the night in the room of her boyfriend of 8 months after a good hangout.  They had slept off after an intense pleasurable intercourse. Shade quickly reached out to her phone to check her tracker if she wasn’t ovulating to prevent any unplanned pregnancy.

Shade and Femi, two young adults in love with themselves often hung out every Friday night after a long week of lectures, seminars and workshops. This previous night was not an exemption as they ended the night in the arms of each other in Femi’s apartment.

Shade scrolled through her phone checking her tracker, to her utmost surprise her ovulation was to kickstart that particular day according to the cycle predictions. 

Her heart skipped a bit as she had always been extremely cautious of her cycle dates. She had always ensured they used a condom once the tracker notifies her of ovulation. For some unknown reason, she didn’t get any notifications from the tracker this particular month. 

Fear gripped Shade from head to toe as memories of her last pregnancy scare resounded through her ears. She remembered how had Femi blatantly refused taking responsibilities for the child. Fortunately, it turned out as a false positive result.

Shade knew immediately that she needed to take an emergency contraceptive. She quickly did a google search to find pharmacies nearby. Her efforts to find a store at the early hours of the morning proved futile as they were closed on the morning of weekends. She decided to purchase it later the evening. 

Unfortunately, work took the best part of Shade’s time and she didn’t remember to purchase the pill until Monday evening while she was at tutorials within the campus. She quickly dashed out to a nearby pharmacy close to the campus gate and purchased a pack of ECPs. She quickly popped one of the two tablets inside the pack and went back to continue her tutorials in confidence of eradication of any unplanned pregnancy without asking for direction of use.

Alas! Exactly 2 weeks later while at a lecture, Shade started to feel feverish, weak and nauseated. She decided to take a pregnancy test alongside the malaria medications she was already using. Voila, she was pregnant. However, this time it turned out to be a positive positive not a false positive as her previous experience. 

Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) are best used immediately after unprotected sex or at most 72hrs after. The popular brands come as a single tablet in a pack or two tablets in a pack which are supposed to be consumed immediately. Most importantly, ECPs cannot terminate already occurred pregnancy and ECPs cannot replace long term contraception for sexually active partners.