Esther tried to reach out to Rita at the compound but found out that she had relocated. The environment was peaceful, with a stand of trees swaying gently before the block and showering fresh air all around.
She began inspecting the area to confirm Rita's absence, but unexpectedly found her lying under a mango tree behind the dispensary. "Hey, Rita, wake up!" she called out as she approached her.
Rita raised her head and looked at Esther with a scowling countenance, her eyes brimming with tears. She sat straightaway and glared at Esther.
"Rita, don't cry. All will be well!" Esther consoled her on noticing that she was shedding tears. Standing before Rita, Esther lowered a hand and gently touched Rita to appease and calm her down.
"No, no, no. Don't touch me!" Rita yelled and pushed away Esther's hand. She also tried to grasp her book from her hand.
"Give me my book!" she said aggressively, her hand hanging freely in the air. Esther had noticed her intentions and precipitously pushed away the book.
"Calm down my daughter. I was still searching for ways of helping you. Please, Rita, loosen up. We are here to help you but not make you suffer. This delay arose due to unavoidable circumstances." Esther pleaded with such a soothing tone that made the young girl feel a little at ease.
Rita rose then, but slowly and spiritlessly. Esther knew she was hungry and said, "Let's go and have lunch."
"No, I don't want food," she refused sharply, "If you are hungry, go and eat."
Esther was unaware that Rita and Mercy had lunch together and was eager to leave. So she insisted, asking Rita, "Should I bring a chapatti for you to have for lunch?"
"No, I don't want your chapatti either, I want to go home!"
The young girl was so steamed, and tears still oozed out of her eyes. When she jerked forward to run away, Esther grasped her and asked,
"Why do you want to run away? Please follow me now if you wish and get some medication. Don't go home empty-handed like you are not from the hospital. Where do you want to run to?"
Rita nodded and put her right thumb back to her mouth and started sucking it again. Although she was a little uninterested in following Esther anymore, she still fell behind her, walking meekly as they headed toward clinical room 2.
Rita, on realizing that they were again heading to clinical room 2, began diverging slowly from the path to escape. Her eyes were fixed on Esther. Alas, the latter was incognizant of Rita's deviation. She proceeded steadily without looking behind, facing the ground like a hungry sheep searching for grass to graze on.
When she could no longer hear the crunching of Rita's shoes, she stopped suddenly and slued to face the back path only to see Rita starting to run from a distance.
"Hey, what are you trying to do?" Esther shouted and scowled at Rita, terrorizing her. Her consciousness and unpleasant look baffled Rita making her halt her movement and begin returning slowly. She was still gazing at Esther and she soon bumped into a tree trunk which was just a few meters before her as she walked heedlessly and surpassingly speedy, though unaware of its presence.
Rita knew she was being thrown back into another awkward predicament. How would she overcome this?
Nevertheless, she still contained a constrained smile accompanying her forced heartiness as she drew back.
"What should I do to rescue myself from this situation?" Rita whispered to herself as she walked meekly towards Esther.
She was approaching Esther closer when Esther asked, "Rita, what were you trying to do?"
"Nothing," she replied, "I was going to ease myself."
Her reply amused Esther exceedingly and interestingly, the toilets were also in the same direction.
"I am sorry," Esther apologized ostentatiously, "I didn't know. Can you return and do it? You are excused."
"No, I will not return. Let's continue, we move!" Rita nodded shortly.
"Then come in front and we continue."
Rita rushed forward with a pleasant countenance inherent on her face. When they proceeded and reached the shade in front of the room, Rita stepped aside to give space to Esther to knock and open the door.
"Come back and stand here!" Esther held her hand and pulled her backward. She thought Rita would escape again.
Rita stepped back to the door, and Esther leaned over her head as she knocked. From a distance, Rita looked like a small log propping up the door, which Esther was trying to open. A few patients were commenting about it from a tree shade a few meters away. Since they hadn't seen the two of them approaching, their minds were filled with the idea that Ken might have advanced to the point of using a log to support the door.
"Kok Kok kok," the door sounded and a deep harsh voice came from the clinical room. "Who are you?"
Rita shivered instantly and jumped aside. She was so scared, thinking Ken could easily open the door at once and slap her. Esther on the other hand remained still and answered,
"I am Esther."
"Esther, what is it again?" He responded in a low solacing tone. What if she was a patient and not a fellow workmate?
"I have brought the child I told you about."
"Well, there is no problem. Wait!"
The door was locked at that moment. He moved and unlocked it very fast.
"You can now open the door and come in," he said humbly shortly after disengaging the door.
Esther opened the door very quickly and zipped into the room, holding Rita's hand.
"Well, thank you for bringing her back. You can now retreat; I remember what you told me to do." He welcomed Esther, then he turned to Rita synchronically pointing a finger at a seat before his table.
"Rita, take that seat," he said.
His eyes remained fixed on Esther and the pleasantness of his face was dying away. "Esther," he called out, "I beg you go back."
Subsequently, Esther glanced at Rita, then Ken, and finally frowned upon them as she quit the room.
"So, Rita have you been given any medication?"
"No, so far I haven't received any. I hope l shall leave here with it." She gave tongue to her discontentment in a dull voice.
"It's fine. You will leave this place as fast as possible. So, relax now. I was supposed to send you to the laboratory but since it is locked, I have some medicine that you will use this evening and come back tomorrow."
He was searching for the painkillers that he had picked up from the facility the day before when he was suffering from a severe headache. After overdrinking, he had woken up in the morning in the forest, where he discovered a python lying next to him that had swallowed a calf. The harrowing memory of surviving a python's jaws ignited his mind and plagued him with intense headaches, leading him to the promise of drinking no more.
Finally, when he found the tablets and displayed them on his table, Rita gazed at them mirthfully. Her eyes followed his hands every time he displaced them to see if he would not remove them.
He said afterward, "Bring your book here."
She removed the book from her bag without hesitation and gave it to him.
"Rita, don't mind about what I am soon doing to the piece of work I wrote. To be sure, I will pluck it off, but that will not affect your medication." He uttered and plucked off the page.
"It is okay," she responded after he had removed the page from the book. "I don't want the book. I only want to recover," She added.
"You don't want the book?"
"Yes," she replied energetically.
He rose humbly with the book in his hand and cautioned her. "I removed the sheet of paper because the information in it is not the reflection of what I am finally giving you. Please go, keep the book very well and return with it tomorrow. Unless you have a book, you will not be treated tomorrow."
Then he got the tablets from the table, packaged them, and prescribed them.
As he gave them to her, he said, "Take this to your mother or father to guide you on how to use them. Is that fine?"
"Yes," she replied laughingly, "I will take them, but for tomorrow I shall come early. I hope you will help me faster."
"That is so great of you. Come early so that you will not be delayed."
The book was still in his hand then he gave it back to her as he bid her farewell.
"Go well!" he said.
"Stay well. See you tomorrow," she replied and exited the room. The door was already open.
After leaving Ken's office, Rita considered returning to the dispensary to see Mercy. However, she was afraid of encountering Esther again, whom she perceived as a monster.
She also knew she needed to have some tests done before she could get the right medication. Her teacher had told her that taking medication without being tested was dangerous. She didn't want to risk being detained again as Mercy was insisting on her undergoing a laboratory test, so she decided to leave.
On leaving the hospital, she discarded the painkillers given to her, intending to return the following day for the correct medication.
Ken stayed back and re-arranged his office. Thereafter, he got back to his phone and watched the interesting TikTok videos which he didn't get a chance to watch due to inevitable thwarting events at the facility.
A few minutes later, Ken was heard laughing uncontrollably in the room like a mud man as he mimicked loudly the talk of one of the comedians whose video he was watching.
One of the patients who was amused by his peculiar laughter, moved sheer to the verandah of the office and kept enjoying being entertained.
All of a sudden, he laughed loudly when Ken became funnier and funnier. The voice was so deep and Ken was taken aback. He moved to the door and peeped out to the compound and only saw the blue shirt of a young man seated. He couldn't recognize his identity well.
"Who is that?" He bellowed, and his deep voice alarmed the young man. He was so terrorized that he took to the woods instantly. His shoes crunched on the ground surpassingly as headed to the tree where people were seated, making them think he was being chased.
"Hey, young man, what is going on there?" A man among the patients shouted.
He didn't stop to answer him. Instead, he hastened his steps as he proceeded to the gate of the facility.
These patients were also scared. They kept asking themselves as they looked around. "What could have gone wrong?"
As soon as the young man reached the gate and exited the facility, the rest of the patients came running following him.
It was already 5:00 pm. Ken too locked his office and left, but several questions about where he could go and have some leisure showered his brain with constant thoughts. He didn't have a family, but it was better to stay with people for some time before he could go home and take a rest.