VALLEY:The Trials Of A Girl Orphan

CHAPTER 6

Aunty! Aunty! The sound of the young nurse woke us up. I sprang up from
the bench in the reception.
“Good morning.” We said in unison.
“The doctor wants to see you. Moreover, the girl is hungry.” The nurse said and
walked away. I gave Olamiposi #200 to buy food for Aduragbemi. Ewa and I
rushed to the doctor’s office.
“Sit down, girls.” The doctor said.
Ewa and I sat on the two chairs adjacent the doctor.
“Where are your parents? I need to talk to them.”
“Parents? We are orphans sir.” Ewa said.
“Oh, do you have anyone older that I can talk to?”
“Doctor, please just talk to us. How is my sister?” Ewa said.
“Your sister has stomach cancer.”
“Stomach cancer?” Ewa and I said in shock.
Where would we start from? Cancer? I knew it had no absolute cure apart from
surgery. What kind of problem was this? How would she survive?
“Yes, stomach cancer and unfortunately, you guys have kept her in for too long
and it is very critical now. I discovered that she had taken some drugs that
actually agitated the problem. We need to carry out a surgery soon or else the
story may change.”
“No, no, my sister won’t die. We’ll try our best.” Ewa said amidst tears.
“We need a sum of five hundred thousand for a start” The doctor said.
Five Hundred thousand? Where would we get that? I was lost in thought. What
would happen now? Ewa and I left the office. I always thought diseases like thataffected only rich people. Why us? Does the planet hate us so much? We entered
the ward where Adura was. She was seated eating.
“How are you feeling now?” Ewa asked Adura.
“I am much better. Olamiposi said you went to see the doctor. What did he say?”
Adura asked. Ewa couldn’t say anything. I went to Adura and hugged her head to
my chest. Tears flowed down my cheeks. Adura was a very playful girl, always
disturbing me whenever I wanted to be serious. It was impossible to get angry at
her because her laughter would eventually get you to laugh too.
“Ewa, Keyshia, what is wrong? None of you is saying anything. What did the
doctor say?” Olami asked. We broke the news to them.
“Cancer? What? How come? What are we going to do now? Why does God hate
us so much? What sin have we committed to deserve all these?” Olami lamented.
“No, Olami. Don’t say that. God loves us very much. It’s just our time of trial and
we will emerge victorious.” Aduragbemi said feigning a smile.
We were in this trauma for a long time. Ewa and I started begging for money
from different bus stations. Aduragbemi’s health was deteriorating at a high rate.
We tried our best possible to raise the money. Along the line, the hospital bills got
too much that we decided to take Adura home. All she did was to lie down and
stare around. She had become very frail. Despite this, whenever we got
discouraged, she was always there to cheer us up.
******
Two months later, Christmas was fast approaching. It didn’t look promising for
us though. We had managed to raise five thousand naira for Adura’s surgery. She
had become so thin that it was difficult to recognize her. Her skin was pale. Her
head was getting bald. Her voice was croaky but she never stopped smiling and
encouraging us. In fact, we had decided to buy food with the five thousand and
save a bit for some drugs. We had gone to the hospital many times to beg but
they remained adamant. All they wanted was money. They didn’t care about poordoctor, a pediatrician to be precise. I vowed that I would be more interested in
saving lives rather than money.
Finally, it happened! It was a very cold morning. It was Christmas. Ewa and I
woke up early to go and fetch water to take our bath in one of the uncompleted
rooms. We left Olami and Adura at home. Aduragbemi was still asleep. The last
few days had been hectic for her. Her sickness got worse. She had been having
chronic stomach pain for almost a week. Sometimes, she could not sleep early.
She would try to be strong but it got so severe that she would burst into tears.
Ewa and I got to the borehole system a little bit late. There was already a long
queue there. We joined the queue. After about 30 minutes, it finally got to our
turn. We fetched the water and were already on our way home. Suddenly, we
saw Olami running toward us. She was very worried.
“Olami, what’s wrong?” I asked as she stopped in front of us. She started crying.
“Olamiposi, ki lo sele? Talk to us now. Has Adura woken up?” Ewa asked.
“Ewa, I don’t know what’s wrong with Adura. She woke up some minutes ago and
asked for food. I left to get her something to eat. When I got back, I met her
coughing. I rushed to get her water but.” Olami said as she cried.
“But what?” Ewa asked
“I think she is dead.” Olami said.
As we heard this, we dropped our buckets on the floor. The buckets broke. We
started wailing.
“Dead? No!” Ewa said. She started running towards the house as she said this.
Olami and I followed her. Olami was right. Adura was lying on the floor lifeless.
Ewa rushed to her
“Adura! Adura! It’s your sister. See, come and eat. Your food is here. Keyshia, why
is she not answering? Wake her up! What kind of sleep is this?” Ewa said as she
broke down in tears. We all wept profusely. Adura was gone forever. She was
never going to give us the encouraging smile anymore. She would never call
‘Aunty Keyshia’ again. Aduragbemi, my ever joyous baby sister was gone.