RED INK
EP 29: Hold my Disposition
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Sai sat down in her bed, drinking the little soup that was bought for her by Clara. It was goat meat soup boiled together with mushrooms and basil, which added a tender taste to its consistency. It was satisfying her craving. Though she still had drip fixed to her hand, she was feeling better, too well.
Her bodyguards had been well fed by Clara who saw the need to get them meals to eat while they were here at the hospital, since they couldn't leave their posts. Now Clara had gone out again, to get them their third meal of the day.
It's been two days since she was awake and Dillion had not come to see her. What was happening? Griggs stated that he would come when he was ready to but she just wasn't prepared to be left suspended like this.
She drank her last drop of soup from the plate, Crux who seemed to be the most sympathetic one among them helped her with her plate, by placing it on the fridge.
"Thank you...C-ruz?"
"Crux." He corrected, going to stand back in his position.
"Thank you, Cruz." She smiled at him. He smiled back, his hands folded in front of him, not bothering to correct her.
Sai rested back on her bed and put on the TV. She was having strength to hold conversation, but she didn't want to. She raised the remote, skipping through boring TV shows before deciding she would leave it at animal world where they were making a documentary on snakes in the wild.
As she watched the program, she remembered a number, was it correct? It's been two years already. She had relapses and subtle memories come back to her. She closed her eyes shut, blocking the sharp pain that came with that memory.
Crux noticed that she was squinting. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Just..." she paused, controlling the pain. "Just a little. It's coming to me."
"Should I call the Doctor?—"
"No!" She cried, almost surprised at herself by the way she yelled. When she realised, she apologized. "I'm sorry. I will get by it. It's just... memory lapse. Something is coming to me."
Storm and the other two bodyguards within the room were all looking at her now, worries on their faces.
As she shut her eyes, the numbers in her head were placing themselves in a way she remembered them. In a way she used to remember them whenever she wanted to call. As soon as she was certain of the numbers, the pain stopped and she opened her eyes, shocked for some seconds before regaining herself.
She looked at all her bodyguards. "Does any of you have a phone with you?"
She was sure they did but they looked hesitant to give it to her.
"Please, I just remembered something. I need to use the phone."
Do you want to call boss?" Storm asked.
She looked at all their faces again, she figured there was no way to just convince them, so she outright told them, "There is a number that came to me. I want to try it it it exists or it's just in my head. Please, help me with your phones? Anyone."
They were all reluctant.
Looking at all their faces with dismay, Crux brought out his phone and gave it to her, ignoring the dashing gazes they were shooting him. "You can try to get it out of your system." He told her.
She collected it and smiled, thanking him with her eyes. She dialed the number 818-853-224 and prayed to God for it to ring.
She placed it on loud speaker, holding it out so the guards could hear the conversation if that happened and to her surprise, it was a real number! And she knew whose number it was. The gesture she took to put the call on loud speaker seemed to put her guards at ease. No one picked the call on the first ring, so she dialed again.
Three seconds into the ring, the call was picked, a thick male voice answering on the other end. "Hello? How can I help you?"
This voice was unfamiliar. She was praying for a more familiar voice. She clasped the phone.
"Hello?" The male voice asked again. "Can you hear me?"
She swallowed. "Good afternoon." She said.
"Yes. Good afternoon. Who is calling and how may I help you?"
"Am I..." She paused before proceeding to continue her question. "Is this the Dedutch mansion? Can I speak to Jonas A Dedutch?"
The lined went silent on the other end, seeming like empty shell in a tunnel of endless.
"Hello?" She asked, clasping the phone tighter, not realizing she had taken it closer to her ear. "Hello?"
"Who is this?" The tone of the receiver changed.
She adjusted in her bed with excitement. "This is—"
Drogo jerked the phone from her hands and ended the call, handing the phone back to Crux.
Sai looked at him confused as to why he took such measures. "Did you just..?" She gasped.
"Yes, madame. I did." Drogo said without regret.
"What?" Sai was upset, but it wasn't showing on her face. There was more confusion than anger emblazoned on it. "What did you just say?"
"I did it for your own safety madam." He turned to Crux. "Switch off your phone. Break it! You will be given a new one."
Crux nodded, removing his sim from his phone and switching it off.
Drogo turned back to Sai. "Miss Sairham, you almost compromised our location."
"Compromised? What does that even mean?"
"It means you almost put us all in danger. It was already dangerous for Crux to give you his phone, for which he knows he will be punished for later on." He shot Crux a dead stare. Crux bowed his head.
Sai looked at Crux. "You will be punished for giving me your phone?"
Crux didn't answer.
"Not only that, miss Sairham," Drogo continued. "You cannot keep in contact with anybody outside of these walls. You are under protection from people that aren't trustworthy. You should know that by now."
"What people? The number I just called belongs to my father's office. How on earth is that supposed to put me in danger?! I've been kept away for two years? What are you all not telling me?!"
Sairham had been watching them. She had asked questions why Dillion would send people to protect her. What was he protecting her from? Who? Why? She had told herself she would wait for him to come before asking her questions. But the moment those digits came to her head, she just couldn't wait. She needed to know what was happening and her natural curiosity was getting the better of her.
Drogo bowed to her. "I am sorry, miss Sairham. But we cannot do what you ask of us. We cannot tell you what you want to know. That will only be answered by our boss. Until then, please, don't do anything to compromise our mission." He felt sincere about his statement. He turned to Crux and Storm, "Hand me your phones."
Storm brought his phone from his pocket and handed it to Drogo, Crux doing same. "Go back to your posts." He ordered.
They all went to stand at their various posts, leaving Sairham speechless in her bed.
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Minutes later, Drogo was in the hallway of her room, facing the other two guards outside the door, his phone in his hand. "Yes boss. She just called the direct line. It seemed she has fully regained her memory...I will keep you posted."
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Aurora was dressed in her scrub and her white coat over it, a stethoscope around her neck, walking side by side with Hither, who was also in the same scrub... without the white coat. He was holding a file in hid hands, reading as he walked across the path way to his office.
They had just finished a laparoscopic surgery on a kidney stone patient and now had their schedule cleared out. She was not able to have her meeting with Doctor Hither the other day because he became packed with surgeries after surgeries and he was rumoured to be sleeping in the hospital on days that had tight surgery schedules.
She swore the previous day because she had to scrub in on her day off. But she did it feeling better towards night as she approached home, Lorin judiciously thanking God she wasn't in the medical field.
Doctor Hither opened his office door, eyes still fixed on the files of papers in his hands. He turned the page, studying every detail before sittong down in his seat, not paying attention to Aurora who was now sitting on the opposite end.
After some minutes, Doctor Hither started mumbling some words audible words from the file he was reading. Clearly, it was about a patient with pancreatic cancer. He dropped the file on the table, his eyes not leaving the page as he remove his black pen from his breast pocket, marking up a page he was coming back to later on. Even Aurora practiced such custom. It made it easier for her to return back to a clipped word or sentence.
When she was waiting for him to be done and respond to her, Doctor Gerald walked through the already opened office door. He grinned at her. "Hey, big feet, " He teased. Big feet was an ironical name given to her considering her feet were the opposite of what they named her. Everybody in the hospital had a nick name, especially the doctors. Doctor Hither was called different names amongst the Doctors, some called him professor, others called him 'Stiff neck', another named him "Treadmill' because he just didn't stop working. Doctor Gerald was known as Crazy senior to some, Crazy moron to some others or just Crazy. That's because he always kept everyone on their toes and irking. He got on people's nerves a lot bit he was very good at his work.
"You signed in to work today and you didn't even report to me? You have started growing invincible wings, Aurora. Watch out! Your national board exam may suffer.
Aurora sighed. " Well, I came earlier than you, Doctor Gerald. There is no way in hell I will go to your house to report my presence to you. Is this high school or what?!"
"Ya! Resident! Watch your mouth. I will cut your wings. Huh?"
"Will you both just shut it?!!!" It was Doctor Hither. His face was fuming. "You are in my office! When you both go outside, you can continue your ranting!" He breathed and stretched his hand to Gerald. "I see it's ready."
Gerald nodded, handing the file in his hand to him.
He collected it and removed the graphic paper. It was an x-ray report. "Ah...What beauty..." He said to himself, which made Gerald and Aurora thought it wasn't the best expression to use in such context by the looks on their faces. He stood up with the file in his hand and walked over to his window, raising the graphic paper to the light from the window. "Is this already available in the system?"
"Yes." Gerald replied him. "It has been processed under the patient's file name."
Hither nodded. "And her guardians, are they here yet?"
Gerald shook his head. "They are yet to come. They apparently live three hours away. It's a long drive."
"Were you able to get their consent via phone?"
"Yes."
"Good then." He took the graphic paper back to the file and covered it, sitting back in his chair. "I will also need the pediatrician's report on that young boy who came in this afternoon."
"The report is not ready yet, Doctor Simon is still working on it. He will be done in thirty minutes time."
"It's better. Are there any new trauma patients in the ER?"
"No. None for now." He pocketed his hands and smiled. "But you know how our job is, we are always packed with enough anxiety. We don't know what could happen in the next nanoseconds."
Hither grunted. "I won't keep you then. I have other patients to attend to." He stood up. "Send the soft copy report to me, I will go through it."
"No problem." He turned to Aurora who didn't pay him attention and walked out of the office.
After arranging his files neatly on the table, Hither picked up his stethoscope and placed it around his neck. "Then shall we get down to the business we intended to go for?"
Aurora looked at him. What business?
As if reading her mind, he added, "The one you came for yesterday which you were not able to achieve."
Oh...! That one.
As soon as Doctor Hither left the office, she followed him, closing his door behind her.
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They strolled through the pathway that led to a VIP room. As they got to the door, she saw two guards guarding it from outside. Seeing their faces, she knew it was those people who came with guns. This was Sairham's room.
Doctor Hither greeted them, they opened the door for him to enter. She followed behind.
When they got in, she saw another set of guards, four of them, the one close to her by the door and the other ones across the room by the window, they were watching them both.
"Sairham.." Doctor Hither called to her.
"Doctor." She replied.
Aurora wanted to see the face of the girl that Patricia had been talking about. The one who was pregnant and was infamous for being in the shortest coma ever known in the medical field, the one who Doctor Hither was compiling research on. She needed to see her face, how she looked like. So she walked further into the room. When she saw her, she gulped. God was unfair...he loved some people more than some. How could he create someone this gently beautiful, taking his time, while he rushed others artworks? If that wasn't favouritism, she didn't know what was.
God just picked some people to b fairest of them all...or so she thought.