"Hello, how may we help you, ma'am?"
I was looking around to see if could see the white doctor I made out with last night, but he wasn't here in the hospital hall. I turned to the nurse whose words jolted me back to reality after I had been long lost in search of the man who took me to cloud nine last night.
"I'm…" I wanted to ask her about Doctor Alessandro, but I sensed she just spoke English and she isn't white, nor does she look Ivorian. "You speak English."
She smiled. "Because I can't speak French, though I was thought that shit in school."
We both laughed. She seemed not to have noticed I was Ivorian. I didn't dress the native way; I was cladded in a shirt and black pants.
"Nigerian?" I raised a brow.
"Confirm." She whispered. "You nko?"
I laughed. I used to have Nigerians around me in school, they were funny and lovely people, and they made jokes about a lot of things.
"I'm Ivorian, but I know you guys, very funny people," I whispered back.
She stopped. She didn't think it was funny to say Nigerians are funny people.
"So, what do you need?" she asked.
"PEP," I stated.
She paused and gave me a wry look, the worst I've had so far. The sought mothers give to really mischievous daughters when they slip around like rats running to and fro a long walkway.
"What?" I asked.
"Bad girl." She smiled. "Meet the white nurse over there, she is in charge of all those."
She pointed at a white nurse with short brunette hair. I nodded and made for the nurse. She looked overworked, unlike the Nigerian nurse who was full of beauty and energy.
"Hello," I said as I approached the white nurse. She turned to me and smiled at me, her smile is such a gentle one, that of an already tired lady who has to stay back on duty for one reason or the other.
"I was asked to meet you," I said as I closed in on her.
Murmurings ripped up in the hall. People were beginning to recognize me. I heard them utter my name. they were unsure, because of how common I was dressed, and the fact that I had no protocol, and I didn't call for special order.
"Seems everyone here knows you." She noted. "Come with me."
I followed her into an office. It seemed to be a reserved space for staff nurses.
"So, how may I help you, but may I know your name?" she still offered me her smile.
I dropped my card on the desk. "You look too tired to have a long talk with me. Just give me some PEPs"
She looked me in the face and smiled. "Thanks for opting to fight what's not meant to be."
I made faces. Some people were ashamed of coming to get the PEP, but I wasn't like them, so, I didn't feel special for those words' sake.
"Very well."
***
Having done the first business of the day, I booked a second cap, but this time, it wasn't a limo, it was a vintage kind of Morris Minor. A black one with all its beauty and its driver was dressed the way drivers dress in the 1960s.
He opened the door for me and I hopped in, enjoying the fact that everyone was watching me live the classic life of those days. Yeah, I could afford an SUV, but here, you pay more to live the life of your fathers, because, everything is so modernized that old things grew in value.
"Is that for a movie shoot?" I heard someone ask his neighbor.
"I have no idea, get off from here." His neighbor rebuked him.
We took off. Honorable Yapi's place was our destination. The car wasn't as fast as the modern cars, and it had no air conditioner, so, I had to enjoy whining down the glass so the air that came with a car in motion filled the car and kept me ventilated.
Once again, I fell asleep. I was a creature of the night when I had a tough combat to deal with because I needed to be fully awake when the night came.
Soon, we were there. The driver was a good boy, he woke me up long before we arrived at Yapi's place.
"Wait here," I ordered and alighted.
The sound of the car door when shut was such a sweet thing, it reminded me of my days in the military facility my former KGB agent who trained me built in the bush.
War in Africa always comes with a series of biddings from a series of weapon dealers, and the former KGB agent was a weapons dealer who was trapped in our motherland during the days of war and was left with no option but to take sides as he was useful for whoever he fell to.
I walked majestically into Honorable Yapi's compound. Many noble persons and government officials were there already, including the minister of education with cum on her lap last night.
How could a minister of education be so addicted to social life, when she should be busy seeing to the betterment of our academic system?
She didn't remember last night, in the restroom with me, so, I passed her. everyone was just arriving at honorable Yapi's place.
"Hey, you came with that rosy vintage car." Someone tugged gently at my hand.
I turned to her, she was young and naïve, dressed in a thin French gown that made her look gorgeous, but I seriously didn't want to have anything to do with her, because her obsession with relics might lure her to my side when I don't want her presence.
"Sure." I turned away.
"Wait." She hollered. "Can I take pictures of it?"
"If the driver permits you," I replied, and that was all I said to her.
***
"Good day, everyone." Came Yapi's voice.
That's his way of starting a party. He starts it as though something useful will go down, but at the end of the day, it's always one funny thing or the other, drinking into a stupor, eating, breaking glasses and plates, and sometimes, the sort of orgy that happened last night.
"We have a special guest amongst us." He continued.