Edegbe came to the smell of antiseptic, a pungent smell that itched his nostrils. He sneezed, a dire mistake because he was soon greeted by a litany of pain that came from his right side. He groaned and opened his eyes. His vision appeared blurry and he blinked a few times. He tried to sit up but the pain did not let him, somebody in white came to his side to hold him down. What had happened? The last he remembered was at the fair, and they were running, he remembered seeing the little girl pushed to the side, he remembered trying to help her, then he remembered hearing gunshots. Had he been shot? He tried to sit up again but the person holding him down was determined to keep him down, and he felt weak. He ran his hand over his throat, feeling parched.
"Lie down," he heard the voice then blinked for a man with a softly rugged face to appear in his vision. Okay, he had been shot, and was now in the hospital. But why were the doctors doing nothing to lessen the pain? Did he spend his money on half baked treatments? Why was Efe letting them treat him this way? The remembering of Efe brought great dread over him, and both himself and the doctor holding him down did not expect that he would have enough strength to pull his hand off and sit upright.
"Wallahi, what is wrong with you? Do you want to open up your injury?" The doctor said, more surprised than angry.
He opened his mouth to speak and as air hit the back of his throat, he felt the burn and immediately swallowed his saliva. He wanted to speak, but more than that, he needed to drink water, but he knew they would not give him any if he did not cooperate with them. He cleared his throat and tried. "Fri…friend."
"Sir, please lie down. If you open up your wound, we will have to stitch it again, and that is even more pain than what you feel," the doctor advised.
"My…..Ef….friend?"
"Your friend?"
He nodded.
"The tall big one?"
He nodded again.
"He's fine. Wallahi, he's fine," he added when Edegbe shot him a disbelieving look. "He's really fine. The nurses are going to call him now, but please lie down." The doctor aided by pushing his shoulder and slowly he laid back on the bed.
"Water."
"How do you feel?"
"Weak. Thirsty, water."
"Does your wound pain you so much?"
The doctor looked too healthy to be deaf, so Edegbe concluded he was stupid. It was madness, did they want him to die before giving him water? What kind of question was he even asking? Yet, he nodded his reply.
"We're going to give you more pain reliefs."
"Water."
The second time Edegbe woke up, it was night and his eyes fluttered for a few minutes before he slept again. The third time he woke up, he fought to stay awake but the drowsiness hit him so hard his eyes disobeyed him. The fourth time he woke up, he swore to the doctor. "Stop giving me whatever it is you're giving me that's making me sleep."
The next time, he sat upright on the bed. Victor rushed in excitedly. "Sah, you're alive!"
"What do you mean I'm alive, did anybody say I was dead?"
"No, no. You were just asleep for two weeks."
He'd been in and out for two weeks? No wonder he felt lethargic. "Where is Efe?"
"I already called him, he's coming. He was very worried he refused to leave the hospital, I had to talk to him for two hours before he agreed."
"You're exaggerating, Efe does not need an hour of cajoling, if you're making sense, the first two lines would do, if you're not, he's going to tell you to shut up." He yawned and rubbed his grumbling stomach before asking, "What happened? And I don't want you to go through your usual route of senseless chatty talk, go straight to the point and tell me what happened."
"I don't really know, Sah, I was already running ahead of you when I heard the gunshot, and when I reached the car, Sah Efe was carrying you on his shoulder."
"On his shoulder? Is he that strong or am I that light?"
"He was really worried , Sah."
Edegbe sighed, did he think he would die?
"Even your neighbours, Alhaji and that woman that likes tying wrapper, usually comes to cheek up on you."
"Alhaji and Yasmin? How did they know?"
"Ahn-ahn, this type of news flies around. I don't know, sha, maybe it was Sah Efe that told them, he was really worried."
The door to the room opened and the subject of discussion walked in, almost breathless. Victor tiptoed out of the room, giving them privacy. They stared at each other for a long time, neither of them saying anything. Then Efe asked, his voice thick with emotion, "Which side is your wound on?"
Edegbe tapped his right lightly for a response. Efe came over to his other side and gave him a punch.
"Ouch, he said you were worried about me! Is this how you treat a sick man?"
But Efe wasn't having any of it, he held his gaze solemnly, his face crisscrossed with relief and a mild anger. "What happened? I grabbed your arm while we were running but you freed yourself and ran back, what happened?"
He knew his reply would fuel the man's existing anger but he replied anyway. "There was a child there in the center of the whole thing."
"And you went to play hero?"
"Since when have you been sarcastic?"
"Edegbe, do you realize how stupid what you did is?"
"It was the human kindness in me that wanted to save her. That child has a mother, do you remember that woman from the bus whose child died?"
"The child died."
"I know, you don't have to remind me."
"Not the child on the bus, the one with whom you displayed the chivalry that landed you in this state."
Edegbe was silent as he let the information sink. "She died, you saw her?"
"No, the police said so."
"The police are already involved? Did they catch the culprit already?"
"Edegbe, it does not take two weeks to catch a culprit."
"Hmmm, you've said my name twice in five minutes, you must be really upset."
"Do you realize that you could have died? You were bleeding so much that had to keep bringing more pints of blood, do you know how—" his voice caught in his throat.
"How would I have known that an idiot would draw out a gun, this is north for—"
"—don't blame the north for your stupidity! This thing could happen anywhere."
"And it happened here," he paused. "What really happened?"
Efe sighed, a defeated sigh. "Nobody really knows, those guys started fighting and because fights around here usually end in bloodshed and a dead body, people started running. Then there were gunshots, not the people fighting though, nobody knows who the shooter is. Two people were killed, the child died, and three people, yourself included, were injured."
"But when people start fighting, other people should try to separate them, not run like their life depends on it."
"Did you not hear me say fights around here usually end in bloodshed and a dead body?"
"If nobody had ran, the shooter would not have opened fire and I would not see the need to save a child." He argued.
"And the child died."
Stupid north.
"And the police have been coming here daily to make me repeat my statement."
Jobless people.
"And I have to watch, uselessly, for two weeks not knowing if you'll ever get up from this bed."
"See, I know you're upset, but I'm also upset, you should not direct your anger at me. If nobody had started shooting, we wouldn't be here in the first place."
Efe stared at him, speechless, then raised his hand and gave him another punch. "That's for being senseless." And another one. "That's for making me worry."
"Do you want to kill me? You're supposed to be worried for goodness sake!" He clutched his stomach. "And I heard you carried me over your shoulder like a bag of dried hay."
"That's nothing you should be shy of."
He shook his head. "I would have preferred being dragged to that, do you know what it means? To be carried like that?"
Efe laughed. "I can't believe you're worried about how I carried you when you were almost dying."
"How would you feel if I carried you like that?" Edegbe asked him, displeasure evident on his face.
"But you can't carry me that, you would die before you can even lift my leg," he teased.
"Get out!" Edegbe shouted, pointing at the door, and Efe threw his head back and laughed at his theatrics.
A knock sounded at the door and they both turned. It was Victor. "Sah, your neighbours are here, should they come insid—" The door widen, cutting Victor short, and Alhaji stepped inside, Yasmin behind him.
"So good to see you again, Mr Edegbe, I'm glad you're safe," he said. "How do you feel? It's so unfortunate that things keeps happening to you, things that'll make you hate this part of the country, but I hope you don't judge."
Edegbe managed a nod in his direction and glanced at the direction of Yasmin, but his gaze was fixed on what she was carrying, a potted plant. "What is that?" He asked looking at the spikes.
"It's a gift," she said. "A cactus plant." She fingered it lightly. "Do you know what is so special about this plant? It has the ability to store a large amount of water in its stem, and so it can survive in conditions where water is very scarce." She placed it on the table beside the bed.
"It's for me?"
"What kind of a stupid question is that?"
Edegbe looked at the plant, touched by the gesture, but when he looked at her face, her expression was so blank he did not know what to make of it. How could she offer a gift with such straight face. "What?" He blinked at her, his one eyed blink and she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
Taken aback, his eyes shone in disbelief. What? What was wrong with the woman? Her lips was soft against his and her scent was intoxicating. He grabbed her wrist when she started to pull away from him, and drew her back into himself and then kissed her. Her lips parted and he slid his tongue in, swirling and tasting the sweet velvet she produced. It was not a kiss with a future, but it was not platonic either.
When their lips finally parted, they were the only ones left in the room. Edegbe adjusted on the bed, scrutinized under her gaze. "What?" He asked again. "I don't like the way you are looking at me."
"I overheard your conversation, and I'm going to say the things he refused to tell you, you're foolish."
He blinked. "Get out!" He pointed towards the door.
She didn't leave, she drew a chair out and sat by the bed side. "You would think you can save everybody, but wallahi, you can't. The difference between a wise and a foolish man is that a wise man knows when to be selfish, knows that he should be selfish at times, your friend knows that much."
"He's now my friend?"
"He was worried about you."
"I know, I would be worried if he was the one in my place, but don't insult me, I won't have anybody insult me."
She was quiet for a while. "Amina died, she resolved to suicide, what do you think you can do about it?"
Edegbe was silent.
"When I would stand outside and watch you unconscious, I would say to myself, 'The man hates the north so much, he can't die here,' but of course, that was an excuse, I just did not want you to die. And saying you can't die here meant you could die in the south, but I did not want you to go back to the south either, more or less die there. I realized I wanted you here, alive and hale so you can call me stupid to my face." She stood up. "If you don't value your life and think you can do as you like, maybe because you feel you have nine lives, can you stop to think about me? Me, Edegbe, who is looking forward to spending more time with you, get well soon."