Different Worlds

Chapter Sixteen

A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry for the long wait. Like I said in the last chapter, I was working on a small project which I've dropped: Our Pains and Tears. It's a compilation of short stories that talk about racism and the effects it has on black people, you can check it out on my profile. Anyways, we're back on, now and I'll try to be posting regularly.

Thanks for the patience.

Without further ado,
Enjoy
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Noah

The sun had gone to rest about an hour ago and the street lights illuminated the road for people to be able to see where they were going. Although, the head lamps of cars also added to the brightening of the road. The road was clear this time around which made the ride to Ijeoma's apartment smoother and shorter, I took a quick glance at her in the passenger seat – she had her phone in her hands as she used her clean and neatly trimmed fingers to swipe across the screen.

I cleared my throat in order to get her attention and also as a starting point for the conversation we were about to have. "Uhm, I did some digging around and found out that your father will be undergoing a Radical prostatectomy in two days"

I paused and gave her a quick glance – her fingers halted in the air for a few seconds as it was in the process of swiping her screen before going through with its action. She didn't make any sound indicating she heard what I said but from the mindless swiping she was doing, I could tell that I had grabbed her attention.

"Radical prostatectomy is the removal of the entire prostrate clan and the procedure is extremely difficult because of the presence of nerves in the region of the prostrate" I paused for a few seconds to let her digest the information before continuing. "They are going to be using the robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy procedure which is a type of minimally invasive surgery that uses surgical robotic equipment to remove the entire prostate and they'll be flying in a doctor from India to do the procedure since our hospital isn't very strong in robotics"

"Why are you telling me this?" she finally spoke up.

"Ijeoma, your father has been trying to talk to you for the past three days now" I said gently

"And I don't want to hear what he has to say" she replied defensively

"Look I.J, I get you're upset –"

"Upset?" she scoffed cutting me off. "Upset is when my father refused me going to my own graduation dinner party. Upset is when my father refused to let me have sleepovers at a friend's place or when he wouldn't let me go see the movies with my friends. That man threw me and my unborn child out of his house like trash ... like I didn't mean a thing to him. Do you know what that does to a person? Knowing that the people who are supposed to love you unconditionally don't give a damn about you, do you? So Noah, I'm not upset ... I don't think words can describe how I feel"

"I know that you're father has been total shit to you and he has hurt you in so many ways but he's here now and he wants to talk. Like I said, this surgery is risky and this could be the only time you have to hear what he has to say" I said softly. "I just don't want you to make decisions out of anger and later regret it"

"Noah, do you know how much better my life could've been if he hadn't thrown me out of his house? I could've gone back to school ... I could be doing my internship by now or something ... I sure as hell wouldn't be working my ass of in a hospital's cafeteria just to put food on my table or pay bills"

"And you would never have met me" I pointed out and she became silent. "I like to believe that things happen for a reason, if all that happened as terrible as they were didn't happen then you wouldn't be here with me today"