My heart bleeds on paper

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

She woke up. 

We feared she would not, but she did. After three months of being in a coma, she finally woke up.

At first, I was filled with happiness but later I began to think that maybe it would have been better if God had not answered my prayers.

The first day she woke up, it felt like a dream, I genuinely thought I was dreaming, and Ayo and Zainab too. 

That day we had a small gathering at the hospital. We were all hurdled up watching a film with Ayo's Laptop, I remember the title of the film was "Sugar Rush". We were all chuckling at the film as it had quite the comedy in it. Once in a while, we would compare the actions of the characters to ourselves. I remember Ayo commented that her stomach acts up once she gets scared or nervous, so she had the tendency of frustrating her killer by farting up the air just like one of the characters did. We laughed about it and turned to look at her just for us to take a double take when we discovered that her eyes were open.

We all paused for like 2 seconds before crowding her bed to make sure we definitely were not dreaming. We were not.

For the first time since the incident occurred, i saw Ayo cry. Tears slipped through his eyes after we confirmed that she was indeed awake. He rushed to get the doctor. 

The doctor came, began checking her vitals, that was when the euphoria began its reduction. 

She could not speak.

She respond to every question asked but she did not use her words. 

The doctor speculated that it was trauma from the incident. I pointed out to the doctor that she didn't slit her mouth but her wrist. He proceeded to educate me that trauma comes in different forms and it is not unexpected given this is the second time she almost lost her life. He said with time she would come around.

We decided to stay in the hospital for two weeks more to make sure everything was fine with and also with us - as we decided to run a full medical check up on ourselves to make sure that we were healthy.

One week after she woke up... she still hadn't uttered a word.

She'd wake up, eat, watch TV, sleep, scan the room, steal glances at us when she thought we weren't watching, browse through her phone, eat again, take her medicine. It was a monotonous cycle, a never-ending loop that was slowly but surely driving us all up the wall, and personally, it was driving me to the brink of insanity. I missed her voice, i miss hearing words float out of her pretty lips.

No matter how hard we tried, she remained utterly silent. She wouldn't crack a smile or even shed a tear. At this point, I'd welcome any sign of life, anything at all. I won't deny that I'm immensely grateful she's no longer in a coma, but it's undeniably frustrating that she can't speak. Still, I'm counting my blessings and taking it one step at a time. If she won't use her voice, I'll do my best to be her voice.

It's been two weeks now, and she's set to be discharged in just a day. Yet, she still hasn't spoken, her face devoid of any expression. We're concerned, but also deeply grateful that we've been given a second chance to care for her. After all, you can only worry about someone when they're still here, living and breathing. I'll take whatever I can get as long as she's alive. Besides, I've become attuned to her body language when she needs something.

"You don't like the program? Should I change it?" I ask her, noticing her distant gaze fixed on the TV.

She looks at me with eyes filled with relief, and I offer a reassuring smile as I begin to flip through the channels, kee

"How far na, una don chop?" It was Ayo with Zainab beside him. I laugh, at this point it's safe to say that you two are joined at the hip.

"See who dey talk" Zainab teases back