The Lost Kingdom

Chapter 5

THE LOST KINGDOM
CHAPTER 5
PULANE

"Here we are!" I announce when we come in front of the store where they sell the uniform. The pre-school has an uniform,khaki shirts,blue pullovers and jackets, khaki shorts and any shoes of their choice.

"Hi how can we help you?" The store assistant ask when we walk in.

"I'm looking for Wunderkind school uniform for him." I gesture at Zayn who's holding my hand.

"Follow me." I do as told. There are sorts of school uniforms here.

"Is he your child or little brother?" I get that question a lot so I'm not longer minding it.

"My child." She shows me where the uniform is and I start choosing Zayn's sizes.

We were shown a changing room. Zayn was so excited that he didn't want to take it off. I paid with my money and exited the store. I'm not going to buy new shoes because Zayn has a white Nike Air Force at home. One thing about children's shoes is that they are not expensive and since he turned one I always buy him branded shoes every December because I take an entire year saving money.

I decided to take Zayn to Fisherways so that he can have a hake. It always makes me happy taking my son out. I don't have much but anything for the smile on his face like right now.

"Zayn I'm going to the restrooms don't go anywhere." I hand him my phone and walks to the direction of the restrooms.

The door to the men's opened and a man walked out and bumped into me.

"Ouch…" Luckily he held me before I could fall. I stared at him and it was like I was looking at an older version of Zayn with those blue eyes but he quickly left before I could say anything or stare at him more.

My heart was beating rapidly though because something in me is telling me that is Zayn's father. I quickly run back to the restaurant in an attempt to see him but nothing.

"Mommy are you okay?"

"Yes baby. I just saw someone I recognised but he's gone. I'm coming back." I turn around and go back to the restrooms.

XAVIER

"My patient really need a stem cell transplantation soon otherwise he's not going to survive." AK says the moment he sit down. He's a neurosurgeon at this hospital I'm volunteering at. We always get lunch breaks at unusual hours due to our tight schedules.

"I've always been fascinated with neurology but being an oncologist and being good at it feels like a win. I mean not everybody believes that their cancer can be cured even if it was caught earlier." Jordan adds.

The three of us are having lunch at the canteen. Their jobs are too complicated and demanding. I'm just a paediatrician and it actually makes me happy. I love kids no matter how loud they are. They are innocent and gives a sense of serenity.

Some are annoying though and there's nothing annoying like a talkative toddler but in all the choices that I've been given I chose to be a paediatrician. It's been three years since I've been a professional paediatrician but I don't regret anything.

"I've come to the conclusion that one of my patients has acute myeloid leukaemia." At the mention of leukaemia I start paying more attention to Jordan. AK whistles because he knows the type of cancer AML is. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare blood cancer. It begins when the bone marrow cells that usually make blood cells start producing immature white blood cells called myeloblasts. It may be referred to as acute myelogenous leukemia or acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

"That's not worse. What's worse is that the person is only twenty three years old. This person has their entire life ahead of them and now this happens. The problem is that she's refusing treatment and the disease is spreading throughout her body. I'm afraid that she'll end up developing tumor." He sighs.

"Have you explained the treatment very well?" I ask him because I'm too curious about this matter. The patient might be scared.

"I did. I explained to her about the two phases of treatment. She'll need to undergo chemotherapy so that we can destroy the leukaemia cells before she can undergo remission continuation therapy which will make sure that leukaemia cells never grow and can relapse but she says she'll rather die or be treated with traditional methods." He explains. I just stare at him and nod while listening to them as they speak. They know that I'm not a talker but an observer.

After work I get home and put the pots on the stove while I design a box and paint it black. Painting is therapeutic for me when I have lots on my mind.

A notification sound from my phone makes me pause my work and go to attend it. It's a text message from Zoe,my little sister.

“I'm landing in South Africa in few weeks”—ZOE

I choose to not respond to it. Despite being siblings Zoe and I are not close. She was born when I was six years old. She doesn't even know our parents because when I was six we went to an orphanage.

I ran away when I was fourteen and only came back for her when she was fifteen because I had started working. My life is not really something I can narrate to someone because I also didn't think I'll be here one day,being twenty four and being a doctor while owning a confection company.

I look at the full painted black box and admire my work before taking it to the dungeon's gift room. I wear the key to the dungeon on my neck as a pendant.

I go back to my pots and attend them. Music goes hand in hand with cooking and a glass of wine so I connect my house speaker to my phone and start playing some RNB jams as I sing along. I know all the songs in my RNB playlist because I play them on a daily basis.

I dish up for myself and eat then take the leftovers to the fridge. I wash my used utensils and clean the kitchen. When I'm satisfied it's squeaky clean I switch off the lights and go to my bedroom to sleep.