A Loner's Journey Through Lemonade Making

Chapter 4| Freshly Picked Bride

I'd fallen asleep about ten minutes after Teni did. Sleeping was something I'd been doing a lot of during the past few days. And once in a while in the evenings, I would take a walk around the hospital compound. Seeing patients being brought in, looking scared and wondering if they would ever leave the hospital alive and seeing discharged patients leave with their family members showed me that there was just a thin line between life and death. I took my life for granted. I took the fact that I could breathe properly without a ventilator or oxygen mask for granted. Although I thanked God for my life in most of my prayers, I still almost didn't like the fact that I was alive. Sadly, it took being admitted to a hospital to realise that.

Nurse Ezinne's soothing voice which she raised to wake me up returned to its normal pitch when I sat up from my bed. Teni was still deep asleep, her blue blanket covering half her body.

"Aunty?"

"You sleep too much! Are you pregnant or is it that they share money in your dream?" she joked, exaggerating the whole thing liked I'd been sleeping for a year.

I laughed and rubbed my eyes. "Aunty you can joke ehn!" I laughed again but stopped when I remembered a question I'd been meaning to ask. Before the words could come out of my mouth, she started talking.

"A lady is here to see you." she began.

I creased my brows in confusion. I doubted if it was Aunty Oma. I hadn't seen her in almost a week. It was like they'd forgotten about my existence.

"Who?"

"Ijeoma or something. Whatever it is ends with Oma. She says she's your mum." her tone softened as she looked at me, as if pressuring me to say something.
She couldn't possibly know, could she? Doctor Yewande might have told her. It was quite possible.

"She's not my mum." I started. She squeezed my shoulders, urging me to go on. I wanted to, but I shook my head. "Aunty, where's Doctor Yewande? I haven't seen her for some days now." I finally asked.

She didn't say anything about my digression, which I was extremely pleased about. "She left for her honeymoon about two days ago." came her reply.

My mouth formed into an oval shape. I was surprised, which was quite foolish of me considering the fact that she'd told me about her month old marriage. And for a day or two, I hadn't seen her. It was another doctor called Doctor Moses who attended to me. I wondered how it had never crossed my mind. I sighed, accepting the fact that I wouldn't see her before leaving, or ever again, even.

"But can I talk to her?" I looked at her pleadingly.

"No you can't. You shouldn't disturb them. They hadn't been able to go since because she had been really occupied then."

"Okay." I accepted and sighed again, looking into Teni's direction. She was still asleep, though she had changed her position. The crutches beside her bed suddenly became the most interesting thing to me and I found myself studying them.

"Oma is still downstairs. She's waiting to come up." I didn't reply nor look at her. "You're leaving today."

"What?!" I immediately snapped my gaze from Teni's crutches back to her. Why was I even surprised? I'd been there for almost a week and I was positive my bill would run into a million if I spent one more night there.

"You're fit to go already. Your foot has healed, your constant headaches have stopped....you're fine."

"I know...but I don't what to leave." I said, reclining until I felt my neck touch the two pillows I'd stacked on top of each other.

"Tell me about her, Ijeoma." Nurse Ezinne urged, adjusting her black leather watch with thin straps on her left hand. Today, she didn't put on a white dress, but a nurse pantsuit with different colours. Her ID card was pinned to the top of her shirt.