Waves Aligning

by Adaora O

  “Dear, please do not take it the wrong way. I would have told you earlier but on one of those nights when I tried to tell you, you thought I was fishing for some mutual benevolence and shut me up. The following days came with one trying wave or the other. When the terms of the employment were made clearer to me, it sounded like a ‘fever dream’, so I decided to keep it to my chest until I knew for sure that I was not leading you blindly to sea… again.”

  Sensing Ama’s growing impatience, expressed by her heavy breathing, Dede’s words became rushed as he explained that after upper school, he lost contact with an old friend called Lancelot but fell into luck’s path when they met again after almost twenty-five years. While on admission at the hospital following his domestic accident, Dede took a stroll to the accounts department of the hospital after his discharge, to re-confirm that his bills had indeed been settled when he saw his friend. He had come to visit a member of his staff, also admitted in the hospital. Lancelot had done so well for himself and owned many business ventures around the country. Before he left, he gave Dede his number but since Dede still had not got around to buying a mobile phone at the time, he kept the piece of paper with the phone number in his pocket. Of course, he lost the paper.

  They re-established contact on the day of the demonstration, when he met Mr Clarke and Lancelot close to his house. “To cut the long story short, I got the position of Logistics Manager in his vegetable oil processing company. With a rather short interview and no employment letter, I did not have a clear understanding of the terms of employment. A day after, Lancelot told me I would undergo some training and would be paid an advance of 75,000 Naira. He said that after the training, my position would be confirmed and would attract a monthly income which would be disclosed in my employment letter. He also said that once I start work, I would need to go through a series of courses on the job.”

  Ama could not believe her ears. “Oh! Is that the reason you rushed off to buy a phone that day? You needed to save Mr Lancelot’s number?” she exclaimed. “But you should have told me nonetheless,” she continued. Dede apologised again. Ama knew her husband only meant well and was doing all he could to reclaim his image as a husband and father.

  A streak of silver lining shone in the dim clouds of the Onas on the fourth day when the doctors certified Dubem fit for discharge from the hospital. The intravenous antibiotics pumped into his body kicked in fast, giving the bacteria responsible for his infection the boot. Dede took his son home after his discharge but stopped at the bank to withdraw the required 30,000 Naira part-payment for the hospital. The tricycle stopped a few metres from the house. Concluding the trip was not profitable to him as Dede and Dubem were his only passengers, the driver asked them to disembark, informing them of his decision to take a detour. Miffed at his audacity, Dubem blamed the driver’s effrontery on his father’s inclination towards paying his transport fares upfront. Dede did not mind much as the house no longer sat too far away, and he liked to walk. Moreover, he needed time to think. As they made the few metres’ trek home, Dede pondered on how to raise the balance for his children’s hospital bill. For reasons best known to them, the state government had decided to leave Chinny and Dubem out of their financial magnanimity.

  Do I ask for another advance at work? Would that not be ridiculous? Maybe I should talk to Lancelot. No, no, that would reek of taking advantage of a privilege. Should I approach Chief Utah when he gets back? No… it would seem presumptuous. Deep in thought, Dede did not realise that Dubem’s steps had faltered and that he no longer walked beside him. He turned back to beckon on his son to find glazed eyes and an ashen face. He followed Dubem’s eyeline and for a moment, his heart ceased to beat. Dede’s legs became like jelly and holding his chest, he crouched. Dede opened his mouth to speak but no words came. He straightened and took a good look at the carcass he once called home, for before him lay one of his four blessings – burnt to the ground. Rapid breathing, profuse sweat, dry mouth and his son’s strong arms holding him up served as Dede’s last memories before he floated into oblivion.

  Confused and unsure of his location, Dede tried to get up from the uncomfortable eight-spring bed but Kika’s arms restrained him. Recollecting, Dede choked, “My house… my house… fire… how? Oh God!!” Uncontrollable tears coursed down his face. He wailed like a baby as the full impact of the situation hit him. Violet and Adaiba rushed in and tried unsuccessfully to comfort him. Kika could feel his brother’s distress and did his best to soothe his aching heart.

  Not making any headway with consolations, he resorted to encouragement and ended with, “Brace up my brother. You are a man. One way or another everything will work out. Be a man.”

  Outside and sitting in despondency, Dubem listened to his father being comforted and wondered if his mother would find or take any comfort when she heard the news. He thought it was normal to go through rough patches in life, but was now convinced that even the most resilient of people would crash while navigating the unique terrain he and his family had travelled for as long as he could remember. Certain that her heart would break into fragments, Dubem wished for a part of his mother’s pain when it came to her, for there at the hospital she sat, expecting their early return. He made to go into the house, but his father’s soliloquy stopped him at the door.

  “All my life, I was told that being a man solved the problems of humanity. That as a man, fate was on your side. It is a man’s world, they say. Time has taught me that fate is no respecter of gender. Male or female, calamity, anguish and misfortune will befall you if fate so desires. Male or female, love, fortune and success through hard work can decide to pick you as a candidate. Yes. Indeed, male or female, you are not absolved from taking responsibility for your choices, actions or the lack of them. Hmmmm. We are but mere participants in this board game called life, striving hard to reach our various mapped out destinies. I am a grieving man, lost and hopeless. Let me grieve. If that is all I can do. Let me grieve.”

  Adaiba almost bumped into Dubem on her way out to hide her tears. “Dubem, come,” she whispered, pulling him further away from earshot. “What happened? What is going on? The fire happened three days ago. We called everybody, but all the phones were either not reachable or switched off. Nobody knew your whereabouts. My father made up his mind to report to the police station this morning, only to learn everything from the 7:00 am news. Mama rushed to the market to buy some condiments and was just cooking lunch to bring to the hospital when someone came to tell us that Uncle passed out.”

  Dubem told his cousin that the media said it all. “So, you mean Chinny is still unconscious?” Adaiba asked, distressed at Chinny’s state. “They say the fire must have started from the kitchen. Hmmmm. Dubem, it was horrible. You need to have seen how people tried to save the house. Especially Ejiofor – your neighbour. That boy is something else. After we heard the news this morning, we went to his house to find out if he knew about the villa saga, only for him to tell me that he witnessed the whole thing and that he feigned ignorance of the whereabouts of your family because he did not want the horrible news of the fire to be dumped on you just yet. Not with Chinny’s condition.” Dubem shook his head in regret at the paradigm shift as he realised that not every shadow gave the reflection of the true height or width of its original figure. It all depended on the time of day. Ejiofor’s behaviour as relayed to him by his father now made perfect sense.

  *

  For the first time, Ama had a genuine smile when she saw Violet and her husband. Unlike her parents, Adaiba was always a delight to see. “I cooked rice and susuu,” Violet said, handing the flask to Ama. Home-cooked food never looked more appealing as Ama, holding in a chuckle at how Violet pronounced ‘sauce’, began to dish the food. Dede declined, saying he had lunch with Kika. So, forgetting for a moment the beep from the machine attached to her daughter’s chest and arms, Ama sat back to enjoy her lunch. As she chewed on her smoked fish, Ama apologised to Kika and his wif
e for the way they ran off to Item town without informing anyone, explaining that the delicacy of the circumstance caused them to act in haste and without thinking. Ama tried to fill in the blanks in the account they heard from the media, Dede and Dubem, saying that the media enjoyed being sensational with news, while men had never been detailed in storytelling. They could not have done better than her at recounting the incident at the villa, she thought.

  At ease and with no sense of the steady rise in tension within the room, Ama chatted away. Adaiba fixed her eyes on Chinny, willing her to sit up and ease her mother’s imminent pain. When Dede brought himself to tell his wife about the fire, he thought he saw her eyes dilate and drown in unison. The almost-empty plate of food went crashing loudly to the ground.

  On cue, Kika and his wife began to move in on Ama who Dede already held down with one hand. “Wait, wait… wait,” she breathed in a pain-laden voice. She continued as she withdrew from her husband’s grip, “Nobody should touch me. I need to understand what you are saying.” Still sitting, but turning fully to face her husband, she asked, “Dede, are you saying that as at this moment, we have no house?” Dede died a little as his fragile wife crumbled into pieces before his eyes. She made to stand, but her legs failed to support her, so she let the weight of her pain push her back down. Ama began to sob. She clasped her mouth with both hands for fear of attracting the attention of the already forbearing hospital management. “How?” she asked looking from Dede to Kika. “What happened to my home?” she asked again, turning to Ejiofor, Violet and Adaiba, her voice the sound of her just-broken plate. There was a curt knock on the door and the doctor on duty came in with two nurses.

  14

  The medical staff blinked at the number of people in the room but recovered soon enough, responding with measured calmness to the chorused “good evening”. The male nurse busied himself with aerating the room and admitting more of the natural evening light by drawing the curtains and opening the windows. The medical doctor, a middle-aged man, read the screen of the beeping monitor, prised open Chinny’s eyes, felt for a pulse on her wrist and took notes, while the female nurse propped up Chinny’s head, puffed her side pillows and adjusted her to make her more comfortable. She took her temperature and began to note the reading when the doctor asked Dede and Ama to join him in his office. As the staff filed out, Dede followed them. Standing, Ama wiped her tear-stained face to also do the doctor’s bidding.

  Once the door closed behind Ama, Kika and Violet scampered to Chinny’s side, alarm and worry in their eyes. Kika peered into the monitor. His stance drew a smile from Dubem’s face as he wondered what his uncle hoped to find on the screen. “It is just checking her heartbeat… to make sure she is fine. They made her sleep to reduce the pain in her head,” Dubem said in answer to his uncle’s unasked questions.

  “Oh. Okay,” husband and wife chorused and returned to the other end of the room. Quiet and morose, Ejiofor suffered a different and more intense pain compared to everyone else. Leaning against the wall beside Chinny’s bed, Adaiba’s eyes rested on her cousin – willing her to wake up.

  The doctor’s office, a room one-and-a-half times the size of Chinny’s hospital room, had two chairs on the other side of the desk from where the doctor sat. With furrowed brows, the doctor asked them to sit down as he pored over some files. After what felt like a lifetime, he looked up and informed Dede and Ama that based on the scans and X-ray reports which had come back to him, besides her head injury following her fall, Chinny did not suffer further injuries. The swelling in her brain was contracting but not as fast as anyone hoped for. He informed them of the need to change her medication from Thiopental to Midazolam. However, the challenge with the new drug which had been established to be the best for a clinically induced coma and known to promote the healing process was its economic factor – it cost almost seventy per cent more than any of its counterparts. More worrisome was the mono-directional nature of the drug since it could not be substituted once administered. In summary, the doctor required payments for previously dispensed treatments as well as the inevitable further treatments. The name of the medications alone sent shivers down the Onas’ spines.

  “Although we have received the sum of 85,000 Naira from one ehm… ehm,” the doctor fished around his desk for something. Dede and Ama looked at each other in puzzlement, wondering what he meant. “Yes. Found it!” the doctor continued. He informed them that the payment came from one Mr Kenneth but that it would only suffice for so much and hoped there would not be any need to continue with the medication beyond seven days. Dede and Ama thanked the doctor and left for their daughter’s room, their hearts spilling with gratitude for Kenneth’s kindness.

  Now closer to the reception area, raised voices floated towards them. “There are too many people there. Oga, you have to wait,” shrieked a nurse.

  “I understood you the first time. I am neither deaf nor daft. All I ask is for you to go and fetch me either the mother or father. That’s all,” the man hissed. Dede’s eyebrows took a rise.

  “I know that voice,” he told his wife. Ama did not recognise the voice. Her thoughts were in a faraway place. “It sounds like Oliseh. I’ll check. You go on,” said Dede as they approached the reception entrance. Ama walked on, taking a right bend to the wards, her heart, grateful for the unexpected financial aid, but heavy with the thoughts of homelessness and looming disgrace – how would the remaining hospital bill be paid?

  The two friends exchanged a warm embrace as Dede cast an apologetic glance at the nurse who gave him a professional smile. “How did you hear? Who told you where we were?” Dede asked. Oliseh chuckled as he told Dede that his fame had gone ahead of him.

  “The story is all over the news. My friend, the media is having a big party with the story about how a young lady in search of her abducted brother uncovered a kidnapping and human trafficking ring.” Dede tried his best to fill his friend in on the other details, including the fire. Short of words, Oliseh hung his head in empathy and after a few moments, placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder in consolation. Kika, Violet, Ama and Adaiba met them at the reception area and after Ama greeted Oliseh and went off with their visitors to the gate, Oliseh asked if he could see the children. Dede explained that he may only be able to speak to Dubem since Chinny still lay unconscious. Amused at his friend’s awful attempt at masking his worry, Dede obliged Oliseh and took him to the hospital room.

  Oliseh would have sworn that the young man who sat on the hospital bed at Chinny’s feet was a statue till Ejiofor raised his head and let out a low “Good evening sir”. Dubem’s incandescent happiness at seeing his benefactor and friend received equal reaction from an overjoyed Oliseh. Ama came back into the room and they all talked for a bit, but not long afterwards, each drifted off in their own thoughts. A while later when it became obvious that the only sound to be heard in the room was the beep from the electrocardiogram attached to Chinny, Oliseh announced his departure. At the reception door, he declined Dede’s offer to walk him to the hospital gate and took out two envelopes from his bag.

  He handed Dede the first envelope saying, “This is not much but it would solve a need. Please my friend, do not refuse it. This other envelope contains proceeds from the sale of two out of Dubem’s four kilns. Please hand it to him and apologise on my behalf for the liberty I took in making the sale.” Dede thanked his friend, but as he returned to the room, his creased forehead expressed puzzlement at the meaning of a kiln, why his son had it and why it fetched such a heavy bundle. In the room, as Dubem started to explain the use of the contraption he built, Ejiofor excused himself.

  “I must begin to head back home,” he said. The Onas could not agree more as the young man looked as though he would burst into tears in no time. As soon as they were alone, Dede examined the contents of the envelopes he had just received. The smaller envelope contained 45,000 Naira while the larger envelope had a sum of 130,000 Naira.

 
Dubem shoved the envelope back to his father saying, “Father, I did it all to help us… our family.” Overcome with gratitude, Ama and Dede’s guilt grew limitless. It was not their children’s place to cater for them – not at their young ages.

  The rest of the evening slid by with an easy air. Dubem said he would go back to Uncle Kika’s house for the night but intended to push it until as late as when Adaiba brought dinner. He went back to the house with her, promising to come early with breakfast the next morning.

  With a troubled night and a mind battered by a plethora of questions regarding renting a house, funds with which to pay off the mortgage and hospital bills, a groggy-eyed Dubem, accompanied by Ejiofor, came in carrying a breakfast of moimoi with milk and sugar-laced pap. Everyone ate in silence as Dubem stared at his still-unconscious sister. Contrary to the common saying, Google was not Dubem’s friend on this occasion. Nothing he read on the internet did anything to encourage him about how soon Chinny would become well.

  The hospital had been quiet since the discharge of the sixteen girls, who now underwent rehabilitation in a centre situated in Enugu, and did not have as much bustle as it did a few days ago. A little bird whispered that there would be a formal handover of the girls by the state government to their respective parents who were still being interrogated. And the hospital management hoped to feature in the headlines… again.

  Not long after the dishes were put away, the doctor came in holding a big envelope. The result of the scan taken last night came back with great news. The swelling had shrunk remarkably and a steady reduction in the dosage of Midazolam could begin. Several minutes after the doctor left, Dede, Dubem, Ejiofor and Ama still floated in the euphoria of the welcome news but the reception nurse informed them of Chief Utah’s arrival, cutting short their victory party.