ANGEL OF HOPE, FINAL EPPISODE.

Angel Of Hope (heavenoasis.blogspot.com)

(continued from the last episode)

There was nothing else to do. I walked away from the gathering and out of the airport. I walked the thirteen mile distance between the Airport and Asokoro before I stopped under a tree and howled with madness, not caring who was passing by or looking at me. I didn’t know how long I stayed there but I fell asleep under the tree and woke up later. By then, the sun was up and high in the sky. A quick glance through my watch showed 3:21 PM. Tears sprang to my eyes again when I saw the watch because it was one of her birthday gifts for my last birthday, including the shirt that I was wearing.

The sleep seemed to calm my nerves. I put a call through to some of her closet friends who were around in the country and many of them offered to come out to Abuja. By 6PM, Janet, Chioma and Fatimah were in Abuja and the four of us were already at the airport to fill the forms and inquire about her. While we were waiting to be attended to, I told her friends that i wanted to put a call through to her mother and they all said it was a good idea but I should find a way of breaking the sad news.

I made the call and told her that April had met with an accident and if she could come over to Nigeria. She asked if the accident was serious but I didn’t answer, I pretend as if I couldn’t hear her anymore and hung the call. After about two hours, we were driven, alongside the other people who had lost their loved ones in the fatal crash to the FCT hospital morgue. None of her friends could enter the morgue for fear so I went alone to find her body while the friends waited at the reception. I moved from cabinet to cabinet, finding her but her body was nowhere to be found.

After an hour of endless search, the airport spokesman who followed us to the hospital said that we should check the emergency unit of the hospital, maybe she was there “But I thought that there no survivor in the crash?” I asked with quivering voice.

“Some people survived it, though their conditions are too critical at the moment to raise our hopes. Maybe she would be there if you can’t find her here” the man said and spurn away to attend to another family that demanded his attention.

Get the cheapest phones on Jumia.

We all trooped to the unit and found her that she was in the theater undergoing a surgical operation. We waited with bated breath at the reception while the door to the theater was locked against non-medical personnel. By 6PM, I drove back to the airport to welcome her mom and bring to the hospital. On the way, she tried to know the extent of the accident but I kept hinting at the edges, not daring to tell her exactly what has happened till we reach the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, the operation was still going on. Then we gently broke the news to her mum who didn’t utter a word or a sound. We all waited, expecting the outburst we were sure would come but she was so calm about it. There was something in the calm way she took the news that shows how hurt she was by the news. An outburst would have expended some of the pains and agony but holding the grief in is worse; it is like sleeping on a bomb that was about to explode; it’ll tear the flesh, bones and veins to pieces. I sat on the iron bench beside her and held her hand in mine. She gripped it tightly as if she wanted to crush it as she shut her eyes tight and pressed her lips and eyes against the tears and sobs that were threatening to escape.

By 9PM, the first of the doctors came out of the OR and he was trailed by a half dozen of other surgeons and medical practitioners. April was wheeled on a gurney from the OR to the intensive care unit by two orderlies and we followed them into the room. All of us converged on them instantly like a swarm of bees attacking a cube of sugar. We didn’t say anything but our silence was louder than words could say “We tried out best but let’s hope for the best” he said and walked away. Asked if we could check her and the two nurses in charge said no problem as long as we didn’t touch her or anything in the ward.

She was totally covered from head to toe with white bandages save for her face; all other parts of her body were wrapped in bandage.

“She suffered a lot of injuries from the crash. It’s a miracle that is she is alive even.” One of the nurses said.

“What are the chances of her pulling through this?” her mother asked quietly, with trepidation.
“Less than zero point one percent. Even if she pulls through, she might be vegetative all her life….”

“Is there anything we can do increase the chances, money is not a problem?”

“There’s none. This is the time to start praying for miracles if you believe in miracles” the nurse said and exited. There was a heavy silence as the door closed softly behind the nurses. We all remained in the room. I persuaded Janet and her friends to go and book an hotel for the night and that the following day, they could come to check on April. They left reluctantly and it remained April’s mum and I.

“Won’t you too go and sleep now after all the stress you must have pass through in the day?” she asked to break the silence that I ensued.

I shook my head firmly.

“Thank you for all these” she said and quickly looked away from me. She took slow-deliberate steps towards the window and pulled the cotton, looking out at the dark sleeping night. “It must be very hard for you, passing through this after all that you both have been through together”

“Yes it is but I know it is harder for you as a mother to see your beloved daughter in this state. I am sorry, if not for me, she would still active and healthy now and you wouldn’t be here in this country right now”

“Don’t be silly” she rebuked firmly “Don’t you believe in fate and destiny? Whatever that has been destined for someone will surely come to pass and that is the way I see this now. You haven’t done anything wrong to bring this, it was preordained”

“I don’t think I will be able to live with myself if I lose her, she’s all I have” I said miserably and two ripe tears ran down my cheeks before I could pull myself together. We talked deep into the night, both of us sitting at her bedside, afraid to fall asleep and lose her.

Around 3 AM the following morning, she opened her eyes. I was behind myself with joy. Her mother and I jumped up excitedly and made joyful noises. For some moments, she looked vacantly at us but with time, she recognized who we were and her face creased into the smile I knew and admired so much. But our joy was short lived because almost immediately, she had cardiac arrest. We called the doctors in and soon, she was wheeled out of the ICU, back into the operating room.

The doctors came out of the operating room by 5:15AM.

“I’m sorry,” the chief surgeon said “We lost her a couple of minutes ago”

“Jesus!” her mother said under her breath. I cried and wished that I was dead, to join her at the gates of heaven.

THE E^ND.

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