Superstitious

27. A rock and a hard place.

Jason 

"Turn on the aircon", Elsa says, her eyes closed and her seat adjusted back while she reclined relaxedly against it.

Tumelo turns on the AC. It's about time he does. We've been on this car for almost three hours now and it's getting hot, I can feel a sweat coming on.

Seemingly though, Elsa and I are the only ones feeling the heat. Tumelo is just focused on the road while he's peacefully nodding to the hip-hop music he has on, Mbali on the other hand is leaned back with her arms crossed against her chest and her eyes fixed on the window, glumly staring at the cars passing by. She seriously needs to get over the fact that I almost left her at the store or people will think she's being kidnapped.

The AC becomes efficient only for a few minutes because I feel hot again, maybe even worse. All the windows are opened but still, to an extent where I get jaded. Maybe Tumelo turned it off.

"Is the aircon still on?", I ask him, pulling the t-shirt off my neck 'cause it's starting to suffocate me.

Tumelo eyes me from the rear-view mirror. "Yeah", he says, his eyebrow rising. "You still hot?"

Mbali glances at Tumelo then snickers, either at the fact that I'm suffering or at the fact that I'm still hot.

I scowl at her before she turns back to the window. Tumelo is still eyeing me. "Yeah. It's hot in here."

I'm not being whiney or anything but it really is, to an extent where I feel an abrupt sharp pain in my stomach. I place my hand on it, brushing it back and forth as it gradually keeps on paining. I think those pancakes did some damage.

Mbali turns away from the window and notices me brushing my stomach with my other arm and head leaned against Tumelo's seat in front of me. "What's wrong with you?", she asks me.

The music is getting too loud, and before I could tell Tumelo that, he reads my mind and turns it down, but not for me, for Elsa. He calls out her name, worriedly.

"Elsa?", he calls, waking her up. I hear her panting like crazy and when I manage to lift my head up, I get a sight of her. Her eyes are shut, but she's panting and she's sweating--- more than I am--- her face turning bleak.

Tumelo propels the car to the sidewalk before turning the engine off. I get relieved when we stop, the motion of the car was also making me worse, hence I now feel nauseous.

"Els", Tumelo shakes her awake. "Wake up."

She opens her eyes, wearingly. "I don't feel good", she says, and apparently, I don't feel good either. Was it the food or the snacks?

"What's wrong?"

She lets out a distorted cough. "My whole body is in flames and my throat"--- she clears it--- "it feels rough."

"Talk about mutualism", Mbali starts, "this one here is also sick", she says pointing at my sprawled body.

Tumelo turns back. "And what's wrong with you?"

"I'm---", I gag unexpectedly, "I'm sick", I continue, swiftly pulling the door handle opened before pushing the door and rushing out to the near by bush.

"What's seriously going on?", I distinctly hear Mbali saying and before I can hear Tumelo's response,  the nasty vomit abruptly makes its way out of my mouth. I can't tell you the colour because I shut my eyes the moment it sprayed out. All I feel now is a rough throat and ruffling behind me. I glance back and catch a glimpse of Mbali holding a bottle of water in her hand before turning onward to puke another load.

"Oh no. Am I that disgusting?", she jokes.

"I think you know the answer to that", I snatch the bottle from her hand, not facing her. I take a sip and gargle before spitting out. "How's Elsa?", I ask her.

"She's not good, bruh", she says, "we need to get her to the hospital."

"What's wrong with her?", I ask, finally turning to her and taking another sip.

"Something she ate from the resturant is, apparently, not good for her pregnancy", she says, making a disgusted face after seeing my vomit on the grass.

"Stop being weird", I say. "Let's go."

We walk back towards the car and I grip Mbali's arm, suddenly feeling dizzy.

"Make it snappy", Tumelo says from the car. "We need to get to the hospital... Now."

We make our way to the car and close the doors. Tumelo immediately starts the engine and drives off. The speed we're driving on is too high and I don't think Tumelo is aware of that. He's too worried and scared, too distracted with his fright to even consider checking the speedmeter. All he does is keep on glancing at Elsa--- who is breathing heavily and practically crying--- and me while I suffer through these cramps, nausea and a sharp headache.

Mbali here next to me is impatiently staring at the GPS, like it will magically tell us that we're two kilometres away from the hospital while we're only hundred kilometres away from the nearest city where the hospital is located.

I hear her huffing with dread and impatient and I feel sorry for her. She cares and she's also worried. This car is flying, I can't even see the cars passing by.

The GPS informs us that we should turn left in three kilometres where we'll be entering a highway and Tumelo better slow down his speed before the turn, otherwise we are all going to die.

I'm impatiently waiting for Tumelo to reduce his speed before the turn but he doesn't, and he makes the turn anyway. After that, Elsa calls him and he shifts his attention to her.

"My hands are swelling", she informs frightenedly, lifting them up to her face as they tremor.

They are really swelling, in a scary way, in a way that makes my eyes and Tumelo's widen.

Tumelo flicks his eyes from the hands to the face, then exclaims, "Oh no! Your face, too."

"Watch out!", Mbali yelps, and Tumelo flicks his eyes back on the road right after the car makes an abrupt bump, abrupt enough to make both Elsa and Mbali scream, and in a split second, I swear I see a person flying across the road.

Tumelo sidely drifts the car with great force, screetching to the side right before he brusquely hits the brakes, forcefully impeling us towards anything that's infront of us (the seats of course) as we ram against  them.

After the brake, everything is spinning and all I hear is groaning and panting and a puke coming on, so I immediately open the door and let it out right there on the road. A few pukes later, I see trails of blood and instantly think they are mine. My heart sinks, but it sinks deeper when I see a person helplessly laying there on the road, right infront of the car, blooding coming out of her nose and mouth. I puke once more.

"Oh my God, Tumelo!", Mbali yelps before I can, "I think you killed someone... again!"

Tumelo glances at Elsa, who looks static; eyes shut and no breathing before he swiftly climbs out of the car and rushes out to the kid he just hit, who may or may not be dead.

I follow him, using every ounce of energy I have left in me.

"Come on!", Tumelo yells, cradling the girls head into his tremoring arms. There's blood, dark in colour, coming out of her nose and mouth, some from her head.

"Guys!", Mbali calls from the car, standing infront of Elsa's door. "Elsa's pulse is too weak", she says panicky, "I think she's... dying."