Running Away Solves Everything

Tomilola

The eventide of Monday, 4th of June is the time I get apprehended and I would only get out when pigs flew. But this wasn’t the saddest stound of my life, because I was prepared and absolutely nothing could take me unawares. Not the bald bunkmate I get or the bug-infested bunk I settled on. I would pray and I will strife to be a better person.

But what happened in the morning?

I visited the family I drove to Ultimate Cherry, so I could ignore the rest of the world.

I was gladdened that there were improvements in their beings and from afar, they looked like they could be discharged right then.

The girl was wide-eyed and I walked up to her with a smiley glued on my moody essence. “How are you?” I sat beside her as soon as her eyes met my fake face, but in a flash, they were back to her laps. “You want to sleep back?” 

“M-mom!” She screamed, pointing at her mother opposite her. I intended to drag her back, but I didn’t use enough energy, so she overpowered me. She sprinted to her mother, still crying, “M-mom!” Tears built up in my eyes and hers, but mine rolled out first. It’s when she gets to her mum that I become astonished. The girl knelt at her mom’s side and placed her hands on her bandaged head and closed her eyes. I was astonished because I think she was praying, and Ekene told me she was living with autism.

I could feel my heart burn as I watched that girl cry, and that same heart leap out of the fire when her mother opened her eyes. I had never been this marvelled by emotions. “Ufuoma,” she tried lifting her neck up, but she couldn’t, so I raced to her to help. “See trouble o. Don’t cry.”

It’s when the girl stopped crying that I wiped the salty liquid from my face. For sometime, they paid no attention to the boy at their mother’s side, because the mother kept whispering words to Ufuoma's face. I smile and move closer to the duo. “Auntiee!” The girl called me and her mum let out a cackle as she pulled me towards them. “Auntiee!”

“Were you the girl that brought us here?” Their mum asked in between her laugh. I cheerfully nod and she says, “Thank you.” It was simultaneous.

“No problem Ma.” Their mother’s words were youthful, but from her countenance in the hospital, anyone would assume she was not less than fifty.

Standing fans were more effective than ceiling fans in this hospital, and their mum asked me to switch the one at the right side of her son off, as she sighted him shivering.

“What’s his name?” I asked as I moved.

Ufuoma compressed the pillow underneath her mother, then walked over to the hospital bed she was on at my arrival.

“Elvis.”

Right after the fan went off, I pulled out my phone charger from my bag and replaced it with the fuse of the Century standing fan. But what I noticed from the beads of sweat formed on his neck was that he was not shivering from cold, he’s jittery from the dream he’s having. So, I lean over him, drawing out the church bulletin from my bag and fanning him with that.

The words spewed from his mouth were simply mumbles, propelled by one thing in his dream that was causing him so much torment. It’s not my intention to wake him, but in a second, his eyes fly open.

“Bad dream?” Compassion flooded my bones as I looked Elvis in the eyes. “Don’t worry. It can’t be real. It’s all beautiful.” I know my words were too cheesy, but that’s all that came into my head.

He struggled to get up and when he did, his jitters were off the charts. I could see an arousal in his body and I was sure it was affecting his brain too. He was already screaming and he looked like he was about to cry. I didn’t know what to do, but I was certain he needed to feel calm, and any panic attack started from the brain, so that should be right about where my first move needed to be centred. How do I get his brain to be calm?