PARALYZED: Us Against The World

- Eighteen

Mom wanted me to be her tag along to work today. It was a weekend, a Saturday and she was gonna be working extra hours like usual. She just wanted me around.

Dad Steve was back. He was gonna be doing bounding time with Marcus. Simisola was still around for a while. She was gonna be staying with us until probably her school's resumption.

Normally, going to moms working place with her wasn't my first time. We use to do that alot during my physiotherapy sessions. I used to do my physiotherapy sessions at the hospital where she used to work.

Well, that was a really long time ago. I stopped attending my physiotherapy sessions; I kinda think it was a waste of time. Paralysis was here to stay and that's the reality I came to realize.

Mom was definitely not in support of my decision. At first she tried forcing the physiotherapy thing on me but had to eventually give. You know, I didn't stop it because I felt my chance of ever walking was impossible, rather I stopped because I wouldn't want to be feeding myself with false hopes. I was paralyzed not dead. Life still has a lot to offer.

Physiotherapy wasn't all that bad you know. I gat to make friends with most of the nurses there, though it wasn't on a personal level and with this lady from back there.

(ʘᴗʘ✿)

It's been ages since my last visit there, four to five months.

Well, I'd be seeing a friend back at the hospital, Mrs. Nike, we just call her the cat woman lady around here. She has this thing for cats, mostly cats and sometimes she can be delusional about them. Her name Nike isn't really pronounced as nike from the Nike shoes but rather as 'Nickel', like the one from the element of the periodic table. The spelling just differs really much from the pronunciation.

What can I say about her? She's definitely the strongest woman on earth. A cancer warrior. One can say she came, saw and is still conquering.

I think we actually met a month after the accident. I think it was actually around the time my mom fell I'll. Oh boy, things were really nasty for mom, she was pretty much in a bad shape; typhoid fever was what knock mom down. She was on the path to recovery then. Mrs Nike was also a patient at the hospital; she still is actually.

Things started off as a common cold for mom, then a running nose to eventually a flu. She thought it was something she could easily push over with a night's rest and hot soup from grandma's cook book; she was wrong you know.

Things got worse and we had to quarantine her in her room to avoid anyone else from having her flu.

She didn't wanted go to the hospital at first for the doctors check up, I honestly understood her reasons though, after all she was a nurse herself. Just the thought of being treated by one of the guys you assisted in your place of work seemed weird enough.

I missed my way to mom's room that night and wondered into her's thinking it was mom's.

She mistook me for her grandkid the first time she saw me.

"You've really grown from the last time I saw you." She said.

" O wa nikan tabi pẹlu iya rẹ?" She adds. In translation, what she said was 'you came alone or with your mom?' Everything was said in the Yoruba language where she hails from.

" Sorry ma'am, I'm the wrong person, I mean, I stepped into the room." I said trying to explain.

" Step into the light, please my dear." Where I was, the curtain from the window side casted a dark shadow where I was making where I was dark.

Honestly when I was asked to step into the light, things felt like that scene from the 'Beauty and the Beast' movie where Belle told the Beast to step into the light. It was honestly weird you know.

I moved myself closer to her. As I did she got up from the bed where she laid, sitting up straight.

Honestly it was a definitely awkward thing that happened that day. I shyly made my way to her, as I did, I felt nervous, more nervous than I'd ever felt in my life.

She was definitely a really tall person, if I'm not mistaking, 6'5ft was about her height. It was the first time in my life I was seeing an elderly person that tall. Age does this thing to our height, you know the shrinking thing. As we age, the shorter in height we get but in her case, I can say things were a bit different. Though old, she was still having all the height from back when she was young despite the aging factor.

"O dabi pe Ọlọrun gba afikun ọjọ kan lati ṣe ọ." She said smiling, I didn't know what it meant. I gave her the look that said I was confused.

" It means God took an extra day while making you." She said with a quick eye wink.

" What's the name, beautiful?"

"Nimi." I said feeling shy. I wanted to smile back but then I didn't cause I was nervous. I wasn't use to talking to people twice, I mean, three times my age, you could justify where the nervousness was coming from.

"Look at those eyes of yours!"

"They're huge, I know." I said rubbing my shoulder.

" You're not the first to notice."

"No not at all dear. There're gorgeous."

" You know, back in the day, my eyes use to be like yours."

" Okay?" I couldn't get whether it was a compliment or something else.

"Just one stare and the boys of my neighborhood where all down on their knee's begging for my number." She whispered to herself.

"What?" I was confused.

" Nothing dear!" Awkward.

" All I said was I love those glasses of yours."

" Thank you?" I said.

" You're the prettiest thing that's walked in her all day." She said smiling and touching my hair.

Just like that, that was how everything started. From simple compliments, I mean awkward compliments to friends.

Imagining the age difference between all of us one could imagine how awkward our friendship was.

***

Later on,when mom was being discharged, I discovered mom and Mrs. Nike knew each other, though it was just the normal nurse and patient relationship.

A/N

{ I know, this one's coming in later than expected but hope you like it. It kinda felt like I deviated a bit off but well, it's actually a build up to the chapters to come.}

Seetu_143

Seetu_143