by Daniel Olas
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“I noticed that I’ve being dizzy throughout the flight and this acute pain right beneath my rib cage!” Ronald said as he dropped his suit case and removing his suit. They’ve being lodged into a hotel—a five star hotel! Their room is made up of two rooms; a moderate sitting room with a little space created at the right as dinning with the floor raised up three metres above the floor of sitting room. A wide entrance is made adjacent to the dining, and this serves as the bed room with two small rooms that serves as toilet and bathroom located at the left just immediately after stepping into the bedroom. Ronald crashed on the couch.
“Has it always being like that? Or maybe it’s due to the long hours of sitting down in the airplane!” Cole said bringing cold bottle water that he took from the small refrigerator placed close to the wall around the dinning.
“No! This is the first time and in fact, it started almost immediately we were airborne. I just don’t know what’s wrong!” Ronald said as he took the glass cup and gulped down the content.
“Then, a doctor has to be contacted. Dr Royll should be available. You can also give him a phone call to inform him of your arrival and your present health status. And that of course must be done fast!” Coker advised as he gulped down the content in his glass cup.
“Hmm! Mr Coker, you really impressed me! That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Get to Dr Royll on the phone for me!” Ronald said as he removes his shoes and his socks.
Mr Coker dialled the number as he loses his tie and unbuttoning his shirt halfway with the other hand. Mr Coker has been working for Mr Ronald for the past five years and he has gone to be not just Mr Ronald’s personal assistance but also his adviser and even his close confidant. Mr Ronald is not yet married but in a relationship back in Nigeria. The tides of the corporate world have given him no time to express the love he has for his girlfriend. You may start to wonder, how old is he that he’s not yet married. Mr Ronald is a young man of twenty eight years old and he owns chains of enterprises and companies. He is one of the leading CEOs in the country and his company holds a lion share in the economy of the country. Recently, Forbes named him the second richest in the Africa and the fifteenth in the world. He inherited his wealth from his late father—Mr Noah Ronald—who willed all his properties to his only son—Mr Ronald Jr. Before his death, he was the fourth richest man in Africa and undoubtedly the richest man in Nigeria. And since the takeover of Mr Ronald, he has expanded and enlarged the coast of the business and the shore of the company. Thus, the chronicles of his wealth!
“Hello! Dr Royll! It’s been ages!” Mr Ronald bellowed discreetly to the phone while spreading his arm gesticulating.
“Mr Ronald! Quite a while! How’re you doing?” Ronald cut in.
“Look doctor, I’m not okay and that’s why I’m calling. I need you to check me up; can you come over to my place of lodge?”
“Of course! But I think I need to know the symptoms so as to…” Ronald cut in again.
“An acute pain just beneath my rib cage and dizziness!” Mr Ronald explained touching the point where he’s feeling the pain.
“Am afraid you’ll have to come over to the hospital. Because with that symptoms, I think you will need to undergo an x-ray test to check for any damage below your rib cage!”
“An x-ray?” Ronald asked chuckling with sarcasm! “Look, it’s not up to that but if you insist… I will have to come then but that’ll be after a conference meeting I have to attend tomorrow. Let’s say, by 15:00; I’d be at the hospital!” Ronald concluded signalling to Cole to bring more cold water.
“That’s fine! Be sure to take enough rest tonight. I’ll be expecting you by your said time!” And he dropped the call.
“Please do make a phone call to the kitchen and order for vegetable sauce and salad. They should include all what a vegetarian would order for. I want to sleep tonight feeling like a vegetarian. And you? You would like something like that?” Mr Ronald asked as he made to stand up
“Negative sir. I think I would like to sleep feeling more of a meaterean than a vegetarian!” Cole smiled and Ronald smirked. Waving at him, he said—
“Take a tie and suit yourself! Just make the call now!” Mr Ronald said as he left the sitting room to take a shower while Cole was dialling the digits on the telephone provided for each room and with every arm of the hotel call code being placed as a note beside the telephone. Ranging from the kitchen to the bar, the cleaners and even the hotel manager; they all have a call code that any customer can call if they need their attention.
Cole was smiling at himself as he ordered his meaterean dish as dinner. A flabby man he is, so does he likes fat things—turkey lap and chicken lap are his favourite. Just twenty six years of age, he finished from University of Lagos and he studied Geophysics but the economic crisis that Nigeria found herself does affects a person like him who doesn’t want to be a teacher after burning the midnight candle for four years. “If I wanted to be a teacher, I wouldn’t have gone to the university but the teacher’s college!” He would say when he was still searching for employment and his friends advising him to take up a teaching job. His sense of reasoning and manner of expression has attracted Mr Ronald himself when he was interviewing him for the post of a personal assistance. He gave him the job on the condition of being on trial and could be fired at any time—provided he fails his trial. But for five years, Cole has gone to prove himself as not just someone who has gone to the university to study geophysics but has also study human relationship of which he has practiced for five years successfully. And now, if he thinks he deserves a meaterean dish as a dinner; do you think he does not worth it? Of course he does!
An air of satisfaction fills the environ of Cole as he dropped the call waiting for that ‘Miami special meaterean dish!’