Chapter 22: Chapter 22
"UK! Oh my God! Stay with me, UK please, stay with me. Why in God's name has nobody called 911 till now? Hey, you there, quick hand me a knife," Jade was barking orders. My hands and feet were free in no time, I was slowly losing consciousness. "Please stay with me UK, don't go, please I beg you,"
"Get... Juliet," I said inaudibly. "What did you say?" Jade asked. I slowly lifted my hand and pointed to where Juliet lay, "get... Ju...liet... and...mo...ther," I felt my life slowly drifting. "so...cold," he quickly wrapped his jacket around me. Two other guys went in to check for Juliet.
Whatever happened after then, I was unconscious to know, but one thing was certain, Jade was back and we were safe. Where am I? I was awake but I had my eyes closed, listening to my surrounding. I heard beeping, a woman was talking, she was talking about someone being unconscious for 4 days. "Poor thing, I heard she came all the way to America to write the exams taking place tomorrow. Look at her, I feel so sorry for her," another woman said.
Immediately I heard that, I opened my eyes. I was in a hospital room, I had so many tubes connected to my body. There was an oxygen mask covering my nose and mouth, voices I heard belonged to 2 nurses. "Oh my God she's awake, Kiran, hurry and call the doctor," one of them said and she rushed to me. "How are you feeling Miss Udofia?" Jade rushed in despite how the doctor and nurses tried to stop him, he looked so tired and worn out. Our eyes locked and we stayed that way, as the doctor and nurses were moving around, checking me up, I didn't take my eyes off him.
The doctor and nurses left us alone, he came slowly towards me, he didn't sit on the chair next to the bed, he went on his knees, hugged me and sobbed. "Thank you, for coming back. You don't know how scared I was when I saw you in the basement, all bruised up and tied. I then I saw mother and Juliet, they had no serious injury like you. And then you didn't wake up that day, or the next, you laid still and the only thing that gave me hope that you were still alive was the signal on that machine."
"Jade?" I croaked. I couldn't even believe my voice, "where's Juliet?" I asked. I couldn't imagine that the first thing I'll ask after waking up would be the whereabout of Juliet. "Juliet is fine, she was discharged yesterday and mother too. Just focus on getting better," he answered. "What day is this?" I asked again, "today is Sunday," he replied. "if today is Sunday then... my exams is tomorrow," he nodded. "The scholarship exams is in 10 hours from now but you wouldn't be able to write it."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked
"You're too weak to move, not to talk of going to write the exam, you need to rest until you're fully recovered then..."
"Then what?" I cut in, " what happens to me when I get better? I'm going to go back? To Nigeria?"
"I'm sorry"
"No you're not sorry Jade, do not apologise to me, because I'm going to go write my exams okay?"
He shook his head, "UK you can't, the doctor said you can't move, this exams is not as important as your life."
"That's where you're wrong Jade, this exams is my life, if I miss it, then my life is worthless," tears streamed out of my eyes. How did this happen? Everything was going on fine until Christy attacked us. I turned my face to the other side ending the conversation, Jade took the hint and left me alone. I felt numb inside, this felt worst than what I felt when I was told I couldn't get on the plane to New I must have fallen asleep, when I woke up, I saw a basket of flowers on the table beside my bed. There was only a letter of the alphabet written on the card, "J "
A nurse came in to check up on me, "how are you feeling Miss Udofia?" She asked. "Really in need to empty my bladder," I said and she laughed, "sure thing hun. If you could hold it a bit, let me take out some of these tubes. I'll just remove this and this one over here, then viola you're free to go. The bathroom is right over there, you'll just have to hold this drip stand and roll it with you so that the drip can still get to you. I can't take it off until it's finished, do you need me to help you in the bathroom?" I shook my head, "one more thing nurse, what's the time please?" "7:24
"What!" I exclaimed and she rose a brow, "sorry, nevermind." and I slowly walked into the bathroom. It was a standard bathroom, with shower and everything
I didn't feel like using the restroom, I wanted to escape. No matter what happened, I needed to write my exams and no one would stop me. It seemed the heavens wanted me to leave this hospital and go write my exams, because right there on the bathroom sink laid my neatly folded clothes, clean underwear and a pair of sandals
My frequent habit of putting money inside the pockets of all my clothes paid off because inside the back pocket of my trousers was a 10 dollar bill. I tried doing what I see in movies, you know that moment when a patient tries to sneak out of the hospital, and then the person pull out the tubes and everything connected to his body very fast and doesn't seem fazed? Well I tried pulling out the needle connecting the drip into my body and boy did it hurt.
I yelped, "Miss, are you okay in there?" the nurse asked. During my "James Bond moment" I had forgotten that the nurse was still there and she'd not allow me to go out, so I did something to make her leave. "Actually nurse, I'm having an upset stomach, is there anything you can get me, it hurts so much, please" I said and fake cried. "Of course, I'll be back right away," she replied and went out.
I hurriedly changed from the hospital dress into my clothes, God I needed a shower. I never knew how I looked since that incident, looking at the mirror in the bathroom, there was a bandage wrapped around my forehead. No wonder my forehead hurt. I sneaked out of the room without anyone noticing, luckily no one recognized me or raised a brow.
I hailed a taxi, "Wall Street, immediately after the stock exchange market" and he zoomed off. The taxi stopped in front of Jade's gate and I hopped out, gave him the money and ran inside, "Miss, your balance" the taxi driver called out. "Keep the change," I replied and rushed in, my body pumping with adrenaline. Who said I was too weak to move? They don't know that I am aje-kpa-ko (a Nigerian slang for someone that doesn't fall sick easily, a person who can withstand any kind of circumstance, hunger, cold, sickness etc)
When I got inside, there were 2 policemen talking with Hannah, "Miss Udofia, what a pleasant surprise, I'm Officer Darren from NYPD. We'd like to ask you a few questions about the incident," one of the policemen said and brought his hand for a handshake. I shook his hand, "I'm sorry Officer Darren but I'm in a hurry, I'll talk to you later," I replied and started to my room. "UK I thought you should still be at the hospital, according to Jade the doctor said you can't move but you're right here," Hannah said. "Hannah, I'm alive and I can walk perfectly well, I have an exam to write in less than an hour and I really need to get ready so please, every other thing can wait until I finish." I replied and she nodded, "thank you," I said and went to my room.