EAGLE FROM THE RUBBLE: CHAPTER 42

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It was now completely dark and the bus was packed full with people who were rushing to get home after the day's business. The driver of the bus was reckless in his driving and the passengers kept shouting their protests.

The last thing he remembered was his jumping out of the bus through the window. He woke up at the hospital and tried to raise his head but could not. He discovered that his head was covered with plaster. He tried to move his hands but was held back by a hand.

"He is awake," a voice said. "Thanks be to God"He noticed a woman, in fact, a nun bending over.

"Thank God you are alive. You are a very lucky young man," the woman said, smiling at him.

He closed his painful eyes again. Lucky indeed, he thought. That was the last adjective he would have thought of in qualifying himself. To him, he was the most unlucky person on earth. He opened his eyes once more and looked at the nun. She seemed to be a doctor. She was very professional but kind and gentle.

She brought out a stethoscope and checked his heartbeat. She took his blood pressure surrounded by some nurses. After making sure the patient was alright, she looked at him intently.

"This is your fifth day here. We almost lost hope on the first and second days but here you are, recovering," she said to Obioha, smiling.

Obioha blinked his eyes severally, trying to piece together what she was saying. He wanted to ask her how he got there but could not make the effort, instead found himself drifting off to sleep. It was like that for the next few days. He was drifting in and out of sleep.

After about a week, he found he could now lift his hand, turn around on the bed and even prop himself up. He came to understand that this hospital belonged to the Sisters of Divine Mercy located at the outskirts of Lagos. The staff were very friendly and tried all they could to get him on his feet again. He would have been glad for their care if things had worked out differently for him.

But for now, nothing in life held any meaning to him anymore. At one point, he began wondering why God allowed him to survive the accident. He became very uncooperative with the nurses. He refused to talk to them about himself and refused also to take his drugs. He was in a large male ward with about thirty patients. The ward was kept sparking clean and patients were well taken care of.

Today, the ward was agog with activities. The patients had taken their bath and breakfast earlier than usual. The Sisters intimated them the day before that they were expecting a priest from the Catholic Secretariat to come and celebrate mass for the patients. Everyone in the ward was excited and some patients told the sisters that they would like to go for confession before the mass and the sisters promised that their requests would be communicated to the priest. In all these activities, Obioha lay on his bed unmoved, uninvolved and uninterested. In fact he felt disgusted with everything around him.

He may have dozed off for he woke with a start when the voices of the other patients singing hymns roused him. He saw the patients and some staff gathered together facing a makeshift altar at the centre of the ward. They sat, facing a priest who in turn had his back towards Obioha while facing the gathering. Obioha turned in his bed after taking in all these, and faced the wall.

His mind wandered off. He thought about his childhood, when he was very happy and full of life. He then thought about his experiences and all the traumas trailing him.
Suddenly he became aware of voices drawing closer to his bed. He stiffened and listened.

"Yes Father, you really need to talk to him." It was the voice of the doctor in charge of the patients. "Since he was brought here by some good Samaritans, he had refused to talk to us. We don't even know his identity and recently, he started refusing to take his drugs.

"Each time any attempt is made to get him to talk to people; he turns his face towards the wall just as he has done now. I am very worried about him."

"He must have been through a lot," the priest said, drawing closer. "My friend," he called, but Obioha refused to turn around.

After trying for several minutes, the Rev. Father and doctor both gave up.

"I am becoming worried about him," the doctor said.

"You should be, bu..." he made to say something then changed his mind. "Let him be," he said as they moved away.