Tayo drove with an intensity that denoted the emergency at hand. Initially it was a light smoke, and then suddenly the fire made manifest its presence; a burning home, from beauty to ashes. Tayo stepped on the accelerator pedal of his car as the speed rose to 100km/hr. He couldn’t concentrate on the road as he turned his head to look at the bleeding Osasu at intervals. “What have I done?” he murmured to himself as tears rolled down his cheeks. “Baby, please stay with me. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, please.” He begged. He made a sharp drift to avoid the traffic that was ahead and swerved off the road. The car tyres bumped on the pedestrian road with Tayo blaring on the car horn to send across a nervy message to the pedestrians to get out of the way. He cared less about the law he was breaking, all he wanted to do was get Osasu to the hospital in time. “God please, nothing must happen to my wife.” He checked on her through the rear-view mirror. He cared less about the twin whose laps cushioned her head. All that matter to him was his wife’s life, not Osato’s tears that he concluded in his mind were crocodile tears. All Osato ever wanted was to have him wholly to herself. At the expense of her sister’s life, she appeared to be getting her desire. Osato held her sister’s hands as she watched her struggle for her life; Osasu’s eyes were slightly opened, but the bleeding from her head had soaked Osato’s white jeans and made them red. She couldn’t utter a word; she just lay there helplessly with tears flooding her face. Osato realized what was happening and she couldn’t hide her own emotions, she wept on in prayers. “God please don’t let my sister die. God I’m sorry. Please.” She then looked at dying Osasu pitifully, knowing that she was the primary cause of what was happening. Was it fate or misfortune? She begged, “Osasu, please I am sorry. Just hang in there; we will be in the hospital in no time. Just stay alive for me, for Mark and Brian, for mum and dad, for us. Please,” the word ‘please’ echoing in the car with mucus running from her nose. The first being she bonded with was dying and they were 15 minutes away from the nearest hospital. She lifted her gaze from Osasu, cast a horrific look on Tayo and screeched, “Can’t you drive faster? She’s in pains! She’s dying!” “Don’t you dare shout at me Osato.” Tayo turned around to emphasize every statement he was about to say, paying very little attention to the road. “If anything happens to my wife, I will hold you responsible for it.” “So I am not your wife now?” “You are not my wife, I didn’t marry a whore!” “Okay, okay! Just drive,” Osato gave up on the argument. Tayo faced the road to see where he was navigating and realized he was driving straight into a canal, he swerved to the right to avoid the foreseen pit and then his right side mirror hit a heavy object that he couldn’t place due to his hastiness. The side mirror was knocked off, and he heard shouts of “wait, wait. Don’t go,” by some of the people on the street.
He just ignored them and drove off, his side mirror wasn’t as important as Osasu. Tayo looked through the rear mirror again and asked Osato if Osasu was still breathing. Osato replied grudgingly with “yes, but move faster.” “Hang in there baby, we are almost at the hospital.” Tayo said as he pumped the car brake to reduce his speed as he made a sharp turn to arrive at the street of their proposed destination. On their arrival, he wasn’t patient enough to turn off the ignition. He just halted the car by slamming the brake and pulling the hand brake. He rushed into the emergency ward to get the nurses who brought a stretcher to get Osasu from the car. Three minutes into the examination of Osasu by a doctor; the doctor concluded that she had to be operated on urgently. “She has lost so much blood. As it stands, the level of damage is unclear, but I can tell you that her brain has been badly affected. From my observation I can tell that her sense organs are not responding; perhaps as a result of the shock. She needs a surgery and she needs it now.” “Doctor, do all you can,” Tayo implored the doctor who was already heading for the theatre. “Please save my sister,” Osato said in tears as if to mean doctors are gods; they only try, once death is inevitable, there’s nothing they can do. Abi? The couple waited.
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He carried her into the emergency ward screaming, “Doctor!” A nurse came rushing down towards him,
“What happened to her?”
“We been dey street, naim one mumu driver clear am commot for road,” a man in his late thirties replied, breathing heavily with every word he said. “Oya put her on that bed,” the nurse who seemed nicer that the average Nigerian nurse pointed to a bed in the corner of the room.
“I will give your sister first aid treatment, but she will have to wait to see the doctor for further observations.” “Nurse, abeg na, she nor be my sister, na street we help am, she dey die. Treat am now now na.” The man countered, obviously unwilling to cough up funds for a perfect stranger.
“The doctors are attending to a patient that needs surgery. There’s no one here to attend to her now. I can see she is still breathing, she will be fine.” “Okay nurse. But make I clear you, boys dey outside hospital gate dey para. If this babe die, if she kpeme, naim be say yawa don gas.”
“She no go die,” the nurse assured him diplomatically, but he wasn’t satisfied. “If that babe die, the hospital no go rest. Make God just dash me that bastard driver, make I wound am. Ehn, dem wan kee us finish abi. We no get car but we for this street, we dey wound anything. Na me ,Sly, talk am”, he boomed, thumping on his chest for emphasis.
He exited the emergency ward and walked towards his fellow good Samaritans, while the nurse went ahead to clean the victim’s wounds; from her assessment she would pull through. The pain she was suffering was inevitable.
Sly waited with his goons outside as they anticipated the doctor’s report. When he told them she hadn’t been attended to they almost created a fuss but he was quick to calm their nerves, “Make una never mad. If anything do am, na me Sly go mad pass.” He was the most feared tout on the street. He had been in many fights and slept in the jail severally. One of his legs was shorter than the other; a memento from a fight years back. But that hadn’t stopped him from getting into street fights or issues with the law. He was the voice of his street.
After about 15 minutes of waiting, one of his boys brought something to his attention. “Sly see double daring!” He approached him, squatting and staggering as he demonstrated his amazement. “Kekere, wetin happen na?” Sly questioned. “Na the car be that.”Kekere pointed at Tayo’s car. Tayo had hit the lady but in his haste. “Yee-paripa!” Sly jumped up twice, like a boxer whose arrival had just been announced. “Kekere, as he be say na you notice am ehn. If the owner of that car comot, tear am knife for belle make you bounce.” “Okay egbon” Kekere acknowledged Sly’s command. “Boys, we mission don complete for here, make we dey clear.” Sly ordered the rest of his pack and they left the hospital premises with Kekere lurking behind.
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Tayo and Osato who hadn’t said a word to each other both jumped up the moment they saw the doctor coming out of the operation theatre. As he approached them, impatient Tayo asked from a distance,
“Doctor how is my wife?’” “Mr…….”
“Coker, Mr. Coker,” Tayo finished up for the doctor who was trying so hard to remember his name. “Mr. Coker, your wife is okay. The surgery was successful; we were able to stabilize her. She is alive. But there has been major damage to her brain. We have to be patient enough for her to respond to treatment.”
“Okay, I don’t get. Respond to treatment? I thought you said the surgery was a success.”Tayo asked confusedly, “Yes, it was. But she is presently unconscious. I mean she’s in a vegetable state. Chances are 10% that she will come around soon, but like I said, we can’t be so sure. She might get lucky. We will keep doing our best, but you need to be patient.”
Osato cuts in before Tayo could say a word, “Doctor, can I see my sister?” She spoke in tears. “You don’t need to cry, she will be alright. You can’t see her now, she needs rest.” The doctor concluded and excused himself from their presence. The couple looked at each other with hatred, in tears and anger. Tayo left the building and Osato followed him.
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Kekere noticed someone approaching the car. He hid between the neatly trimmed flowers of the hospital environment as he crawled towards the car. The moment he had a close view and saw that the person wasn’t paying attention, he brought out his short knife and rushed up to Tayo’s car.
