Genesis

by Kipjo Ewers

  “Open your hand,” she commanded Kimberly.

  A rattled Kimberly obeyed as Head Nurse Bayinika placed the five-year old’s hand that slightly twitched into Kimberly’s to hold. His hand was warm and soft to touch. The twitching lessened as the hand attempted to hold onto one of her fingers. Her mother’s words from the tarmac flowed out of her lips as she used her thumb to rub the top of his hand.

  “They’re more afraid then I will ever be.”

  “Exactly,” Head Nurse Bayinika nodded, “And sometimes, all they need is this to get them through the day. Do you think you can do this?”

  Kimberly answered with a jumpy nod, which Head Nurse Bayinika accepted with a confident smile.

  “Then let us get to work.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Under Head Nurse Bayinika, Kimberly became a junior nurse whose responsibilities were confined to the children’s ward. There she ran errands, assisted in rotating patients to prevent bed sores, helped patients to the facilities when asked, checked IV drips, observed and monitored patients' conditions while bringing alerts to a senior nurse, and assisted with the food schedule.

  Kimberly excelled at her duties, at times filling in as a translator for those nurses not fluent in the Arabic dialect. Even after her school suspension was up, she found herself racing back to the island after classes to help at the medical center.

  The first reason was the shiver that ran up her spine the first time she saw her mother enter the facility dawned in the garbs of her primary profession. Kimberly had seen pictures and listened to Sophia’s tales of her journey and time of being a neurosurgeon in Texas, but this was one of the few times she had the privilege of seeing her in action.

  Kimberly watched from a distance as Sophia with staff and visiting specialists made the rounds to each patient to check on their progress and discuss medical treatments to put them on the road to recovery. She observed her mother’s soft and inviting bedside mannerism. She also noticed that though Sophia possessed a well of medical knowledge she stored in her mind due to her superhuman memory, she preferred to ask and listen to the opinions of her peers.

  Kimberly learned to take her mother’s humility and put it into practice. There were times that they passed each other in the hallways, Sophia would not glance her way, but Kimberly’s hairs on her neck would stand on end igniting a smile on her face as she felt her mother’s gaze upon her.

  The second reason she kept going back was for the children. Those that were recovering or much healthier were happy to see another kid around their age coming to spend time with them. She would take videos of the island and the animal preserve so that they could see what was waiting for them when they got better. With the help of Nadiya, Kimberly brought in a couple of meerkats, bunnies, island puppies and kittens for the children to play with and pet, along with organizing movie and game night for them.

  One child, she was particularly drawn to was Amatullah Youssef a thirteen-year-old girl with beautiful jet-black hair and silver eyes from Ghouta. She was gassed along with her friends while heading the school.

  Of the five of them, she was the only one to survive the attack. She was also one of the few who partially recovered from the effects of the sarin while still in Syria. Her parents took the opportunity to get her better treatment as well as to get her and her baby brother out of Syria before things got worse.

  When Kimberly first met Amatullah, the young lady still affected with the shakes and twitches of the nerve gas covered part of her face wearing a stern piercing glare directed at her.

  “Go away angel,” Amatullah commanded Kimberly in Arabic. “Tell Allah I still got moves to make here on Earth.”

  “I’m not an angel,” Kimberly answered back in Arabic while blushing.

  “Then why are you blushing like one?” The young girl retorted. “Anyway, I ain’t got time for you. I need to get better so I can start my comedic career and make Kevin Hart figures.”

  “You plan to blow up like Kevin Hart?” Kimberly chuckled.

  “Who can resist someone as cute as me, a chick that can get away with making Muslim and Jihad jokes?”

  The young girl went about flicking her hair like a fashion model.

  “I’m a mini Gal Gadot, I’m Sofia Vergara without the boobs and booty. I already got this bit where I’m wearing a burka.”

  Kimberly began to giggle as she watched her fashion her sheet into a makeshift burka.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Amatullah said with narrowed evil eyes under the slit she made. “Is there a bomb under there …or is she naked? It’s both you infidels!”

  Kimberly covered her mouth to muffle her laughter as a grinning twitching Amatullah pulled the sheet from her face.

  “My teacher gave me a beating for saying that bit at school, but it was so worth it to see the look on her face.”

  That and many more comments caused Kimberly to burst out laughing and form an intimate bond between the two girls from day one.

  Amatullah would make jokes at her own expense.

  “Aside from the shaking and frothing at the mouth, Sarin is a good and thorough colonic.” She explained one day while pulling up her medical gown. “I peed and crapped so much I got a six-pack.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  One day when Kimberly was present with Amatullah’s family visiting.

  “These two were always lecturing me about getting an education to better my life,” she referred to parents. “One blast of sarin gas, and look where we are? Say thank you, papa.”

  “You’re not that sickly that I can’t give you a proper beating,” Mr. Youssef warned her in Arabic.

  “You try,” she fired back. “I got white kid’s privilege now. I bet I can divorce you!”

  Her mother burst out laughing while her father leaped out of his chair and grabbed her pretending to give her a spanking only to hug and shower her with tear-filled kisses.

  “Papa stop!” Amatullah groaned. “I already got a bath today!”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  There were good days and bad days.

  Days when Kimberly held her hand while she rocked in her sleep whispering the names of her school friends that didn’t make it.

  One day Amatullah caused Kimberly to leap out of her skin as she woke up screaming from a night terror she had. At that moment it was like looking into a mirror at herself.

  Before any of the senior nurses got to her, Kimberly fought through her fear walking over to her bedside and holding her like her mother would. As Sophia came by to investigate the commotion, she witnessed Head Nurse Bayinika standing at the doorway monitoring them as a sobbing Amatullah clung onto Kimberly while she sang a soft melody in her ear to calm her while telling her everything was going to be alright eventually calming her down.

  Sophia quickly walked away wiping the mist from her eyes, relieved to see that her little girl was still there.

  When she was a little stronger, Kimberly took her out in a wheelchair along with her family so that she could take in the island and the ocean view.

  To which Amatullah would say.

  “Getting gassed was worth it.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  The two girls became almost inseparable as Kimberly opened up to Amatullah about her life before her transformation, what it was like being a superhuman, and her dreams of becoming a superhero when she grew up. Amatullah even gave her an attentive ear when she ranted about how she felt her mother held her back at times.

  Kimberly took pride when they were outside to display some of her abilities. Amatullah’s favorite was Kimberly’s ability to mimic voices and sounds that she heard. She erupted into tears of laughter finding it hard to catch her breath when
Kimberly emulated Kevin Hart scenes from “Central Intelligence” and both “Ride Along” movies.

  “You should forget about being a superhero and go on the road with me!” Amatullah coughed out her suggestion. “You would be so amazing.”

  “Tempting, but no,” Kimberly sighed. “It’s a hero’s life for me.”

  “Oh please, you’re only twelve, and from what you’ve told me you’ll probably live to be like a bazillion years old, not to mention your mom’s not looking to drag you into the family business.”

  “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

  Amatullah gave her a dull look as Kimberly recited the iconic phrase in the legendary Stan Lee’s voice.

  “It’s like I said, I feel like I was born for this.”

  “Do you want to know why the world is in the sad state that it is in?” Amatullah asked with the most serious tone Kimberly had ever heard her talk with. “It’s because the world is miserable. Take my former President, every time you see him he looks constipated. I don’t think he’s had a decent bowel movement in over thirty years, I’m pretty sure he sprays nothing but bunny pellets.”

  “Ewwww!”

  “Eww?” Amatullah mimicked her while leaning back in her chair with a stunned expression. “What are you five? Anyway, here you got this President riddled with constipation with a hot wife who he is incapable of satisfying because his junk won’t work due to him being constipated all of the time, on top of the fact that his very head looks the end of a dirty Q-Tip which deep down he knows. I would start bombing and gassing people too. When your mother threw that anti-aircraft vehicle at his palace, he was probably sitting at his desk pulling his hair out screaming ‘Dear god woman! I made this easy for you! I am sitting right at my desk! Do I really have to walk outside with a bullseye on my suit?’”

  Kimberly stood there for the first time also wearing a serious face, not finding the humor in what was said.

  “Why do you keep making jokes about being gassed? A lot of people die …you could have died?”

  Amatullah rolled her wheelchair closer to Kimberly wearing a soft scowl as tears ran down her face.

  “Because a lot of people did die, because all of my friends …died. Because I almost died, and I will never know why he did it. I will never know why a powerful man believed that killing innocent men, women, and children was justified. I make jokes because I am terrified I will close my eyes and never wake up because of what was done to me, and I will die alone. And I will never know why.”

  Amatullah forced a smile on her face while wiping her tears away. Kimberly strolled up to her holding her hand.

  “You’re not going to die,” Kimberly said with a voice of encouragement. “You’re going to beat this and go on to outshine Kevin Hart remember?”

  A shaking Amatullah looked up at her friend as she tried to get a tighter grip on her hand.

  “The world doesn’t need more violence, it needs more laughter and smiles. It needs for people not to be so damn serious. That is how you defeat men like Al-Assad.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  One day, as Kimberly sat on her bed braiding Amatullah’s hair to match her own, she gave her the good news.

  “Your mother gave me a checkup today and said I am vastly improving. She said if I keep getting better I can go home in two weeks. I can’t wait to see my new house.”

  “You’re going to love it,” Kimberly grinned. “You’re gonna have your own room like me! My mom made sure every house here is like fully furnished with everything you could ever want! We can go to the beach, go fishing with Akram …”

  Before she could finish her sentence, Amatullah violently swayed to the right before catching herself.

  “Are you okay?” Kimberly asked with a worried tone.

  “I don’t know, the room felt like it was spinning for a second, and I got a bit dizzy. I think I’m okay.”

  “I’m going to call one of the nurses to check up on …”

  In the middle of her sentence, Amatullah’s eyes rolled in the back of her head as a thick wad of drool came out of her mouth. Kimberly screamed as she fell back into her as her heart monitor began to blare that she was flatlining.

  “Help! Somebody help! Nurse Bayinika! Mom! Mommy!”

  The first person to rush into the room was Sophia.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know!” Kimberly squealed. “She just …”

  Without another word, Sophia sprang into action taking Amatullah from her laying her down on the bed. With one rip she tore open her medical robe first checking for breath before checking for a heartbeat.

  “Amatullah! Are you there? Talk to me, honey!”

  With no response, Sophia went straight into administering CPR as Head Nurse Bayinika rolled in with a defibrillator followed by two more nurses.

  “I need some vasopressin right now!” Sophia screamed while administering chest compressions.

  Thick tears rolled from Kimberly’s eyes as she stood frozen in place while one of the female nurses quickly prepared the syringe injecting Amatullah with it. The monitor still read flatline.

  “Kimberly leave the room now!” Sophia ordered.

  “Mom …”

  “Kimberly! Leave the room now!”

  Sophia’s thunderous command rattled Kimberly to the core making her run out of the room, as she continued to administer CPR to Amatullah.

  “Come on baby, come on …come back to us.”

  Head nurse Bayinika with the defibrillator paddles powered up came in as Sophia backed up allowing her to do her job.

  “Clear!” Head nurse Bayinika screamed.

  She administered the shock to jumpstart the child’s heart, but the monitor still read and screamed flatline.

  The Head nurse backed away as Sophia jumped back in again using CPR to pull Amatullah back to the world of the living.

  “Come on honey …fight …fight!”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  A terrified Kimberly bawling hysterically ran down the hallway of the medical facility right into the last people she wanted to see.

  “Kimberly …what’s the matter? Is everything okay?” Mr. Youssef asked with terror in his tone.

  “What happened? Is Amatullah alright?” Mrs. Youssef chimed in matching her husband’s fearful voice.

  “I don’t …know…what …happen?” Kimberly got out in between sobs. “My mommy is …in there …”

  Before she could finish Mr. Youssef bolted past her screaming his daughter’s name with his wife bawled following behind him.

  A wailing powerless Kimberly collapsed onto her knees and clasped her hands together crying out.

  “Please don’t do this! Please! I’ll be good! I promise to be good! Please don’t take my friend away!”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Thirty minutes later, Kimberly said curled up like a ball with her back against the wall of the hallway waiting with a dazed face ravaged with dry tears. Her heart quickened as her ears picked up the sound of footsteps coming her way. She slowly turned to see her mother coming down the hallway, and her heart sank deep into her stomach as she saw an expression on her mother’s face she had never seen before.

  The look of defeat was written all over Sophia’s face as she came towards her.

  “No …no …”

  Sophia threw away her doctor professionalism allowing her tears to run.

  “Kimberly …I’m so sorry.”

  A blood-curdling wail came from her daughter rattling her as Kimberly clutched her hair attempting to pull it out.

  “No! No! She was getting better! She was getting better!”

  Kimberly continued to bawl and wail to the point that she kicked her legs breaking floor tile while her back and skull created a crater in the w
all behind her. She appeared to hyperventilate as her mother dove to the floor to cradle and hold her to both comfort her and prevent her from destroying the hallway.

  Kimberly weakly attempted to pull herself away from her mother, but Sophia refused to let her go.

  “She was getting better!” Kimberly sobbed. “She was getting better!”

  “I know honey,” Sophia answered with a cracked voice. “I know …”

  With no explanation of what could have happened, Sophia held and rocked Kimberly gripping her mother as she continued to cry due to a shattered heart.

  CHAPTER 16

  The next couple of days moved in slow motion for Adrian. His mood became fouler and more distant. Everyone on the team cut him some slack, including Rogers to a point. The days that he did not have to pass by Erica’s laboratory he was okay. The days that he did, he stopped and stood around as if contemplating marching in for a confrontation. He would then storm off in a rage, which made him a terror for the mini doozers running around the base. His heart quietly ached as his mind would not erase what he believed were the best nine months of his life, months that became an illusion caused by a severely malfunctioning machine. That was what he wanted to think. Those were the days he felt like breaking something. On those days he would make his way down to the Hurt Locker cranking up the training mod levels to blow off some steam.

  Returning from one of his sessions, Adrian passed the last person he expected to speak to him.

  “Mr. Esposito, may I have a word with you.”

  Adrian found himself stopping and slowly turning with his “not in the mood” look on as Maxine approached and stood in his personal space.

  “This is in regards to my sisters, I would like for you to stay away from them going forward please,” she said getting straight to the point.

  It felt like she slapped him in the face with her request, which made Adrian mirror the effect with a stunned expression.