Someone sobbed at her feet as consciousness returned. Her heavy lids kept her from seeing who held her feet but she could not miss the pain in her mother's voice.
Sight returned slowly, along with the feelings of touch. The soft bedsheet beneath her body had a silky feel to it and its white was almost blinding.
Her eyes strolled down to the pink patient gown she wore. A pattern of dark polka dots decorated the dress. She tried to sit up but sore pain just below her waist forced her to remain like that.
She shook her legs and her mother's head flew off her leg. The woman looked at her, shock-eyed before flying to her and holding her in a tight hug while crying and babling incoherent words.
Jide.
She looked around. Her brother sat at the far end of the room, somewhere closer to the shadows where the light barely touched.
"J..Jide?"
"Romola, why do you want to do this to me?" Her mother cried. "First, Sunbo. Now you."
Jide rose from his chair and came into the light, standing in front of the metal bars that marked the end of the hospital bed. He gripped the white rods in his hand as she studied his face. Tear streaks had left a stain beside his nose and on his cheeks.
The parched feeling in her throat did not stop her asking, "When did she die?"
"It was not long since we brought her here. She wasn't moving or talking. S he just stopped breathing."
"Do you know the time?"
Jide shook his head. Romola turned to her mother on the side and shook off the crying woman. All the pity she had felt for the woman had now turned to hate. A deep cold hate that formed a voluminious mass of disgust in her being.
"Leave me, Maami. Just leave me."
"Romola," Her mother's shocked face was yet to fade. "It's me."
"Yes. It's you. It's your fault. I told you to leave him. I begged you and now, where is Sunbo?" Romola gripped the sides of her head and began to rock back and forth on the bed, drawing her knees towards her. Despite the IV line attached to her hand, she rocked as far front and back as she could, not caring about what would happen to the IV line.
Much of the blame was to herself but it was far easier to blame her mother. Or to blame Iya Tobi who had delayed her. Or to blame Sekemi, who had caused her to go home. Or maybe Yetunde, who had placed her in the position to argue with Sekemi in the first place. There was enough blame to go around and she was the chief partaker.
Romola buried her head in the pink cloth and wrapped her hand over her head and cried. She cried until she had no more strength. Until her tear ducts dried and until she had no more strength.
Sunbo's death tore at her spirit. She replayed every bit of the incident, thinking of the one thing that she could have changed that would've saved Sunbo's life.
"Oh good, you're awake." Another voice broke through the chorus of tears from mother and daughter.
A nurse stood by the doorway with a notepad in her hand. It was the same nurse that had tried to draw her blood.
Romola sat up as the nurse approached.
The nurse stood beside her. "How are you feeling?"
Cold. That was the real answer but she nodded slowly.
"I heard what happened to your sister. I'm really sorry."
Romola nodded. The woman's apologies had no effect on Sunbo's life.
"Are you sure you're fine?"
Romola turned her head robotically and stared the nurse up and down before nodding again. She had failed Sunbo. There was nothing more to it. Her sister was dead and she was alive. Life for her would continue. Nothing more.
"I am. Is that what you want to know?"
The nurse wore a worried look that was quicky displaced with a small sympathetic smile. A fake smile, of course because if the nurse had been truly sympathetic, she would've helped Sunbo. "Well, the doctor says you should be free to leave by tomorrow morning and I know this isn't the appropriate time but I have to let you know your bills. You can't leave the hospital without complete payment."
Romola blinked slowly. "And how much is it?"
"Just three hundred and seventy-five naira only. No cost for the food you'll eat tonight and tomorrow morning." The nurse tore a page from the notepad.
Romola collected the note, laughing and turning it over. "Is that all? Add the feeding cost."
"Romola." Her mother tried to hold her again.
She turned on the woman, pushing the woman in a way that at her full strength, she would've caused serious harm but her weak limb barely moved the woman in any direction. She didn't care anymore if her mother died. Or if Jide died or if Lolade died. She didn't care.
"I told you to leave me."
"Just relax. I know you've been through a lot today." The nurse tried to force her back to the bed.
She tightened her muscles and remained sitting. "There is no need to go back to bed. Discharge me."
"No. I can't. You need to rest."
Romola tried to reach for the IV but the nurse clutched her hand.
"Fine, I'll have you discharged once they pay the fee."
"Who is they?"
The nurse straightened up. "Someone has offered to pay your fees."
"No."
"What are you saying?" Her mother held the nurse's hand. "Thank you. They should pay."
"I said no. If you people want to arrest me for not paying my bills, feel free but I will not accept this. Explain to me how money suddenly appears after I don't need it anymore?"
The nurse voice softened. "We are willing to write off your bill if you will donate some-"
"Donate what?" A flash of anger rose to the surface then drowned in the sea of passiveness. Romola fell back to the bed. "I'm not donating anything."
"You don't understand. There is a little girl. She's going to die if she doesn't get blood today. You're a good match."
"How do you know that?"
"We screened your blood while you passed out. Standard procedure. But this girl will die if she doesn't get a transfusion today."
"Her parents can buy blood, right?"
"You are the only match we have currently. Others are on their way but she'll need to start the transfusion before they can get here."
Romola turned on her side away from the nurse. She didn't want to do anything other than to curl up in a ball, close her eyes and pretend that she wasn't in the hospital where Sunbo died. Sunbo was gone and she didn't have a right to live or to exist.
"Just leave me alone. I don't care."
YOU ARE READING
Scars (Romola 2)
Romance"Then maybe you should have stayed in schoool. Instead of trying to be an elevated secretary and teaching me my Job." - - - - - Beyond managing Iya Tobi's store and pursing a shadow of an education, Romola's plate is full. It's been two years since...
