Ndrek Gjini is an Albanian journalist and poet living in Ireland. He is author of books published in Albanian and English. He holds an MA in Writing from NUI Galway. He worked for Galway City Council as Arts Office Assistant, currently works for Galway Education Centre and is Managing Editor for The Galway Review.

The DNA test

By Ndrek Gjini

Alex Muddy is a taxi man. He is living alone now. The marriage break-up was such a disaster for him. ‘A happy father of three children’, he thought he was, for more than fifteen years. He was a hardworking man trying to keep everything in order and everyone happy. ‘A taxi man, yes I still am a taxi man, but not a father of three lovely children as I thought’,  he whimpered.

Last year on September 27, around 2:30 am, a lady in her thirties raised her thumb asking him for a lift to the maternity hospital. ‘As soon as you can please, please’, the lady pleaded. In further emotional talk, she told him to which hospital she wanted to go to. Alex remained silent. ‘A lovely baby is on the way’, he thought as he sped towards the maternity hospital.

When they arrived there, the lady asked him if he could give her his phone number and address. ‘Just in case’, she added in a soft voice. ’Maybe I will need your help again when going home…with my baby’, she explained after she paid the fare.
‘Ok’ he replied and gave her a small printed card with all his details on it, without thinking that this card was going to bring disaster to his life

Three days later, his home phone rang. ‘Hello, is that Alex Muddy’, the voice asked. Without waiting for any answer, the voice continued to explain that he was to go to the maternity hospital to take home his wife and their lovely baby girl.
Alex was asleep. It was his wife who answered the phone. She rushed into his bedroom. ‘Get up you bastard ‘, she shouted at him. Waking up in hurry he was very confused. What on earth had he done wrong?

Days and weeks passed. His wife kept screaming and blaming him saying that he was unfaithful to her. His life became miserable. Alex wondered what he should do to remedy this awful blow that had happened in his life. For a long time it was a dilemma not knowing where to start. ‘I sold some land and my parents’ house’, Alex moaned. He said he needed the money as he had decided to do a DNA test for himself, for the little girl who was born that fateful night and whose mother claimed him as father, for his three sons, and for his wife

‘The DNA test proved that’, Alex whimpered in tears, ‘the little girl is not mine, the DNA test also proved that, none of my three sons are mine either’.