SWEET OLEANDER

Chapter 17

       An anthill-complexioned man stood at about five feet five. His tear-stained red eyes and quivering drew the attention of everyone. While he perambulated from one end to the other, his hands remained on his hips.
"Ha-- ahn Aniebiet, hope all is well?", Nkim quizzed.
Mr Travis Ojong rose to meet h
Aniebiet, beckoning on Nkim to sit and relax.
"Aniebiet what is the matter?", he asked
"Haa, general, all is not well. Oh.
"What happened? " Mr Travis Ojong asked Aniebiet who pulled him away from the front of the house. Aniebiet placed his hand on his head and began to lament.
"Calm down and talk to me", Mr Travis Ojong persuaded although his insides were heaving up with fear. He recalled the dream he had, the one Ifiok would normally encourage him to hold hands with her and they will pray about; the one he brushed off as would never materialize...
"Its..  Ifiok"
"What happened to her?" His heartbeat tripled.
"General, sister was involved in the
accident that occurred on the road today".
Mr Travis Ojong's mouth experienced a scarcity of words.
"People who went to see their people at the hospital said she was not moving. She lost a lot of blood, but someone said she was asking for water ", he lamented.
"And?", he questioned
"She wasn't given any" He felt relieved. If she had been given water it would increase the bleeding.
     Mr Travis Ojong couldn't believe his ears. He knew something had happened to her when she took ill while they were dating once. The other time, when they were expecting a child and he had gone to the farm, he had a quick nudge to return home a few minutes after he left. He did. Lo and behold, she was vomiting profusely.
     He felt that nudge this time and he was still feeling it. He watched his brother inlaw like one would a new and captivating but sad movie. One thing that was relieving is the fact that she wasn't given water. He was glad she had been rushed to the hospital by good samaritans.
     Bachot, Nkim and Bekom ran out of the house. Bachot ran to grab Aniebiet who had fallen to his knees weeping. Nkim nudged his brother and embraced him. Mr Travis Ojong, reluctantly at first then gave into his embrace"
"What about the children?", Bekom inquired.
"Nothing happened  to them", Aniebiet stammered. "Sister Ifiok is my only surviving sibling. She should come back to me" he wept. Confusion washed over Mr Travis Ojong. It was relieving to hear about the children's safety but what about their mother?  He pat  a sobbing Aniebiet on the shoulder rather calmly  and reassuringly  "She has gone nowhere".
     Mr Travis Ojong  disappeared into his building and in  a few minutes  reappeared  freshened up.
"Where are you going?", Nkim asked
"To see my wife and kids of course. To bring them home"
" Is that yor car key in yor hand? Haba, Travis. You know you cannot drive in this condition" , Bekom advanced towards him.
Nkim approached his brother as he heaved.
"Give me the key, let me drive"
"No brother. You just came. How can I bother you? Is not that same road you travelled that you and ya family managed to escape?"
Nkim slumped his shoulders.  "At least let me do something for you nor"
"Can my boy stay with you, Tita while I accompany my friend?", Bachot asked.
Nkim shrugged
"My friend is right, you just came, hence you need some rest"
He rushed into the  house to pick up his car key.
"You are not going to drive neither are you going without me", Bachot said as he collected Mr Travis Ojong's  car key from him. He placed it in his pocket. Mr Travis Ojong growled at him and did nothing more but pace about with his hands in his pocket.
Ogar was quiet, not because he  wasn't excited to spend time with his cousins but because of  at the news that greeted his ears. Aunty Ifiok told them  alot of Ekoi folktales.
     The one he loved the most was the one about the warrior who encountered the ascentral elders, a wounded elephant, and  a carnivorous dwarf. The story  the Ekparabong  settlement came about. His Name? Ojong.
"Drive safe ehn? Watch out for portholes and don't be too much in a hurry" Nkim  called out.
"No Problem Tita. We would do just that proff.",Bachot replied "Madam", he saluted Bekom
  Ogar's heart sank as he watched his uncle, dad and Aniebiet enter into his father's 2002 Toyota Corolla. They disappeared behind the curtains of Ekparabong dust. Something about the atmosphere had changed. The birds didn't chirp those pleasant tunes anymore.
     Instead there was a defeaning kind of silence. Silence engineered by anxiety.
     Sunlight felt like a phase of tormentuos heat on the skin. Everyone in the room began to sweat profusely. The girls stopped giggling. One of them already had a teary eye. Takim and Ogar exchanged troubled glances. The little one was fast asleep, his head supposed by one of the luggages.
     Ogar prayed a silent prayer for Ifiok. His heart thumped loudly  and swiftly in his chest.Why did it have to be her? Aniebiet said there were other people there. Was he being selfish to wish it were someone else? Some had already died.  They also had relatives and they may mean something  special to them as Ifiok meant to him.
     Aniebiet said she seemed lifeless but Mr Travis Ojong didn't think she was dead. He would Bank on that. She was probably unconscious as he had seen many people involved in accidents in the movies.  His stomach churned as he thought about  the uncertainty of it.

Mr Travis Ojong found himself muttering for help from God.
"Your wife is a fighter so I am quite sure she would recover from the trauma speedily "
"It doesn't always happen as we are anticipating"
"Besides the healthcare System is fair here. Remember our teaching hospital was the first tetiary Health Institution in the South-South  ever to perform an open heart surgery"
"So?"
" You need not worry"
"What do you mean?" Mr Travis Ojong could put two and two together  at this point. He possessed neither the energy nor the logical reasoning.
"They are competent enough to cater to your wife"
     Aniebiet was silent for most of the journey after he disclosed that she had been taken to Calabar Teaching Hospital.
"What are you doing?" Bachot asked as Mr Travis Ojong placed his phone to his ear
"Attempting to call my wife", he replied. He placed the phone on his ear for a moment and gasped, as the rode through the newly constructed Ikom bridge.
     From vegetation  to settlements with browning roofs, thatched roofs and police stops, the journey  continued. They made a number of stops to stretch their legs and eat. Aniebiet could scarcely have a bite much like his brother in law.
     At last they drove through the vicinity.  A multiple storey structure stood with a few other buildings behind. They walked past the well manicured lawn with trees occasionally  seen waving in the evening wind.  The reception was coated in warm yellow paint and had louvres to its left and right. The lightning on the PIp ceiling shunes brightly abd beautifully.
     Mr Travis Ojong sweated though he sat right under the humming ceiling fan which blew mild air decent enough to complement the cross ventilation from both windows.  Strike was about to begin and this happens to him and his wife?
    He texted a little on his phone. Bachot met the receptionist to inform her of their predicament.As fate would have it one of the few doctors on duty was an old time classmate and Beji's colleague. Its him they called to narrate their ordeal to. Soon Mr Travis Ojong got a haptic signal in his pocket. He rose to see the doctor.  
     What might happen to Ifiok? Will she begin to limp line him or will she have her leg amputated?