The Cost Of Retribution( Not your usual Hausa love story)

Chapter 5 - To Doubt and Grieve

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*Amani*

Its been one week today since Tahir Abdullah gave me his business card at the kangiwa office and asked me to call when I was ready. I hadn't been able to, I'd dialed the number a few times but I couldn't let it go through.

Because thinking about it now, I couldn't have done it anyway,

I was scared of how things could go down there, and of course Mama, what would I say to her if she found out.

I had to find another way. So I went to speak with the police, they had assured me that they were trying their best but everybody knows how that ends. Sitting and watching layla wither everyday was killing me. That's all she did, just sit and stare into space, Mama and I tried to cheer her up all the time but it didn't work, it was like she was a zombie or something.

Dr David had let her go home because he was confident that since I was around everything would be fine. The day we got home another episode happened, the scariest yet that left all of us in tears. A therapist came to see her three times a week but Layla hardly spoke at all. She just sat opposite the woman and stared into space nodding and shaking her head.

She was depressed no doubt about that, but with how her situation was just getting worse and therapy was not working I was getting more and more uneasy.

"Hey"Jafar said snapping fingers in my face "earth to Amani, what's wrong?"

"Nothing" I said composing myself "I'm fine, what were you saying?"

We were seated in the back of the MRI scan room, both me and Jafar were with Dr Uzomma today and she had a patient whose symptoms lead us to suspect an underlying brain tumor hence us sitting in the room and waiting for the gentlemans scans to boot up.

The scans slowly showed on the monitor and we all let out a breath, not one of relief though because what we were afraid of was right there on the screen, a tumor growing itself close to the brain stem.

"Someone please find Dr David and bring him here" Dr Uzomma said moving closer to the monitors her glasses perched up high on her nose.

"I'll get him" I said quickly getting up and exiting the room. Waking down the hallway and keeping an eye out for Dr David I hadn't noticed the commotion coming from the trauma room nearby and also a very familiar face who stood outside it in histerics, my breath hitched in my throat as I approached him.

"Abdul what is going on? What happened?" I said to the man standing in front of me. He and I had history together but things didn't go according to plan and his sister was a very good friend of layla too they went to school together.

"Yasmin is in there" he chocked out, seeing as this macho man I knew had no problem hiding his emotions at the moment my heart was racing with the worst case scenario in mind, before a booming voice pulled me out of my shock.

"Dr Suleiman get in here we need help" I turned to see Dr Mukhtar giving chest compressions to a body that lay bloody and still as the others around worked to him barking orders to them.

"Quit that look on your face, Get in here and push in a cc of epinefrin" he bellowed again while I just stood there my feet refusing to move as I watched them try to revive Yasmin laying there. You guessed right, shock.

"Go do something" Abdul said his voice thick with emotion, that did it as I burst into the room grabbing a syringe of epi,

"Yasmin Abubakar, 22 year old female with major lacerations all over the body and a huge contusion on the head. Suspecting a traumatic brain injury." The intern read as I tried to rid my brain of emotions at that moment.