Rugged To The Core

Chapter 84

"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."

~ C.S. Lewis

Lucky

     Fabian pulled himself up, he was now out of the pool, dripping wet. Water literally rained down from his heavy demin jacket, his ankara pants stuck to him like a second skin. He reached up to run his hands down his face, breathing into his palms as he walked towards my direction.

He stood before me and eyed me. I swung my arm back and sent my palm into his cheek in a resounding slap.

Through the corner of my eyes, I caught Bisola scurrying to the pool.

Fabian quickly recovered from the slap, he didn't retaliate in any way, instead, he began sauntering away whilst I screamed at him.

"You idiot! Do you feel any better now? Weren't you supposed to be brothers!? And now you're trying to kill each other? You got the better of him, so congratulations. You took it to the pool and neutralised your opponent."

     Suddenly, Fabian froze. It was like he'd just remembered something. He swiftly turned back around to the pool to find Abel still in the water, completely submerged. Even I was surprised by that. Bisola was on her knees by the edge of the pool, her right hand in the water, calling out to him.

Like something had come over Fabian, his countenance completely changed. He went from angry and disgruntled to shock, regret, panic and most importantly realisation. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He cursed aloud as he took off, heading towards the pool.

He dove right in and swam further to Abel. I watched in perplexity and a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't understand anything.

Moments later, Fabian resurfaced, gasping as he shook his head, water splashing from from his now loose dreads. His arms were cinched around Abel's upper body. Locked under his arms. Though his eyes were open, Abel was immobile.

Fabian managed to swim to the edge of the pool and hoisted his friend up, out from the pool. He then lifted himself up and got on one knee, hovering over him. Abel was still immobile.

"Ugo! Ugo!" He clutched at his friend's shirt with one hand and began slapping his cheek with the other. "I'm so sorry, man." He broke into a sob, grimacing. "I'm sorry, I forgot. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, brother."

The entire time, I had been standing there like a deer in the headlights, waiting to see what would give me better comprehension. But then it dawned on me like a brick had dropped on my head.

A small crowd had encircled both Fabian and Abel, preventing me from seeing what was going on. I came back to reality and ran through the crowd like a lightening bolt, feeling like my heart would burst out of my chest. It had already dawned on me what was happening, right before my eyes. Abel had mentioned he couldn't swim before and it seemed Fabian had forgotten about that in the midst of his rage.

Fabian had successfully completed CPR by the time I arrived. Abel was coughing out water in small bits.

"Abel! Abel! Can you hear me?" I asked in a broken voice as I knelt by his other side, my hands aimlessly hovering over him, not knowing where to check for damage.

"Lucky, go home. Leave this to me!" He ordered, cradling Abel.

"What!? This is your fault!" I cried out.

"Go tell Ajiri to unlock my car, I'm taking him with me!"Fabian barked at no one in particular. He had employees scattered around the scene so they would carry out his order.