GIVE ME A HEART
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CHAPTER1??3??
I woke up to find myself still in the same toilet. I had slept for probably a long time without knowing. Rising up to my feet, I glared at the door. If I was going to break that door to get out of here then I was going to break it. I positioned myself then with all the strength Left in me, I ran with full force into the door. The door opened to my surprise as if it wasn’t locked but due to the force I came with, I lost my balance and crashed roughly on the hard ground.
I got up and dusted my suit. I suddenly realized I was stinking. Staying locked up in the toilet had stenched my suit with the smell of faeces. I had to get a change of clothes and fast. I ran out of the basement. What I met surprised me. It was morning and everyone were returning to their various departments. I checked the time. It was 8:24.am. I instantly got frightened. I was late.
I ran up to my office passing some of my co-workers. I greeted them but I noticed they were making funny faces as I ran past them. When I opened the door to my office, I was greeted with a hoarse angry voice.
” You’re late,” Victoria yelled at me. ” Where have you been? Yesterday you sneaked out of the office without leaving your report. You even left your paper works undone. What the hell is your problem?”
I was on the verge of explaining to her what happened at the basement when she covered her nose.
” What’s that smell?” She asked. ” Did you ever bath?”
I stopped dead and smelled myself. Gosh, I smelled horrible. What I’m I turning into. I opened my mouth to speak when she interrupted me again.
” Please, just leave the office, okay?” She barked, picking up an air freshener and began flinting around the office. ” If any of the top management gets here and smells this they’d raise hell. Get out. Go take a bath and get a change of clothes.”
I felt hurt. The way she said it made it looked all cruel to me. I slowly left the office terribly ashamed of myself. Before I left I overheard her talking to herself.
” Such a dirty boy. How am I supposed to work with someone who can’t take care of himself.”
I closed the door and walked dejectedly towards the stairs. People who saw me moved away from me, covering their nose. With my head bowed, I walked out of the company, boarded a bike and arrived home. I was soo disappointed in myself. Why do people hate me? Why can’t I make any friends? Why is the world always against me? The only person I could call a friend was Ronnie. I started to realize how attached I was becoming close to her. I needed her now. I needed her like a virus in my blood. She was the only one who understands me. The only one who listens to me.
I took a shower, had a change of clothes and went to madam Shola for breakfast. It was dodo and beans. Just as I was about eating my food my phone began buzzing in my pocket.
I picked the call. ” Hello? Who’s this?”
” Andrew, where are you!!!” A shrill voice blasted into my eardrums. Only one person owns that voice. Victoria. ” If you don’t get to the office in ten minutes, you’re going to park your things and get out of my office, do you understand? Just who do you think you are leaving all the heavy work for me. My manager came in repeatedly to ask why you are not on duty, I had to lie to cover you up. Get your ass in here before I gather your things and throw you out.”
She hanged up.
I packaged my breakfast in a takeaway plate and boarded a bike to work.
When I arrived at my office, Victoria was fuming like an angry lioness. She yelled, she barked, she called me names, it was too much to bear but I kept quiet because any stupid word from my mouth, and she’d gather enough reason to kick me out of the office. After all, wasn’t she the one who suggested they picked me up for the job?
I worked really hard. I didn’t even had the chance to eat my breakfast. Victoria was soo pissed off, she loaded my desk with double the amount of files I was supposed to work today. She even took my breakfast and dumped it in the trash.
” You’re not allowed to bring food in the office,” she said, pointing to the company rules on the notice board. ” It’s a stackable offense. You eat in the company’s canteen. Where do you grow up from? The village?”
And in all these, I’d just swallow it up and nod my head to her every command. Sometimes I felt like giving her a slap in the face but I was too soft to lay my hands on a lady. Ten years after Veronica’s incident had turned me into a soft, quiet monk. Ronnie wasn’t at work today and I wondered why. I’d have given anything to see her and find comfort in the shade of her arms from this bully called Victoria.
But Ronnie was absent. I decided to pay her a visit after work today. I left work by 9:00.pm. I decided to finish up everything Victoria dropped for me today to aviod trouble tomorrow.
9:20.pm I’m standing outside Ronnie’s gate, not sure if I was supposed to get in our leave for my house but I desperately wanted to see her. This was stupid, I shouldn’t be here. I decided to walk home. Just then a big dark Prado Jeep came around the corner and pulled up beside me. Ronnie wind down her window.
” Why, Andrew,” she called. ” What are you doing out here by this time of the night.”
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Minutes later, we were sitting in the living room, drinking coffee, talking about business and other things. I didn’t tell her about Victoria nor did I even mentioned what happened in the basement.
” Why were you absent at work today?” I asked.
She sipped her coffee without looking at me. ” I was at the hospital.”
I became alert. ” You’re sick?”
She nodded. ” Yes. I think that’s probably the reason the reason why my fiance refused to get married to me.”
I didn’t know what to say. ” Hope it’s not that bad.”
She tried not to meet my eyes but I saw tension and fear in those big pretty eyes. ” The doctor says I have not much time left. A surgery has to be carried out before long. If I survive the surgery, I’ll live.”
” But if you don’t?” I asked.
She turned and stared at me. ” Well, there’s not much use of saying I’ll be alive if the surgery turns out a failure.”
I became quiet for a long time. I wasn’t expecting this. It all seemed to be happening pretty fast. I remembered Veronica and her deadly heart disease. Ronnie was such a nice person with a good heart. It’d give me great grief to see her suffer like this. I could see she was scared, I could see she was lonely and frightened. I didn’t know what to do.
” That’s just too bad,” I said, knowing it wasn’t the best thing to say at the moment but the best I could come up with.
” Too bad?” Her voice went hoarse. ” That’s the best thing you have to say to me?”
I sucked in air, realising she was upset and I wasn’t helping her in any way. ” I…I…I just don’t…I’m not really good at these things. I’m sorry.”
She stood up and walked to the inbuilt bar and brought out some whiskey. She took one shot, then two, then three.
” Ronnie,” I called. ” When is this surgery of yours commencing?”
She shooked her head. ” At the end of the week. Possibly in three days time.”
We said nothing again. After a while, I spoke, ” I’ll pray for you. You’ll definitely make it out of your surgery.”
She smiled. ” That’s awfully nice of you. Well, before the surgery how’d you like to meet my parents?”
” Your parents?” I asked. ” Do they live here in Lagos?”
” Nope,” she took her last shot of whiskey. ” They live in Port Harcourt. They’d be visiting next tomorrow.”
I was more than curious to meet her parents so I nodded. ” It’d be great to meet them.”
She walked up towards the bedroom upstairs. ” I’m going to take a shower. Hope you’ll stay there night.”
” If it makes you happy, then I’ll stay.”
She seemed glad to hear that and she left me. I became restless. I paced up and down the room. So Ronnie was sick. It made me sad to think in three day time, she’d be going under the knife for a sickness I’m not aware of. I didn’t know why but I really wanted Ronnie to live. I wanted her to survive the surgery.
Just as I was pacing around the living room, I accidentally knocked over her bag and her entire content spilled to the floor. I bent down and began picking them up.
Suddenly I stopped all of a sudden. Inside her bag were drugs. Syrings, tablets of different colours, pills and dozen other drugs.
I remained on my knees, staring at these drugs for as long as the time ticked by. I thought of Ronnie and suddenly understood why she was soo frightened.
*******
Moments later, I was drinking a bottle of water as I moved to the couch to sleep. Ronnie called me upstairs to her room. I walked up into her room and stood on the doorway. ” Yes? You called for me?”
She was in her night gown. She laid sprawled on her bed, gazing at the ceiling. For a while, she said nothing and I began worrying if was still awake.
” If I was going to die in three days time, there’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. ” Think you can do it for me?”
I waited for a few seconds. ” What would that be?”
” You always pray for a heart, don’t you, Andrew?” She asked.
” Yes,” i said.
She rolled over and turned to meet me eyes. ” I want to sleep on your chest and feel your heartbeat.”
I stood rooted to the spot. ” Why would you want to do that?”
Ronnie moistured her lips. ” Because I want to know if you truely have a heart.”
I wanted to say something but I the words in my mouth wouldn’t come out.
” Take off your shirt, Andrew,” she said. ” If I’m going to die soon enough, I’d like to know what it means to have a heart.”
” You’re not going to die,” I said, remembering those drugs I saw in her bag.
” I hope so,” she said. ” But Incase I do, just take off your shirt.”
After a moment hesitation, I took off my shirt and climbed on the bed. She drew closer to me and placed her head on my chest. I felt my heart freezing and my blood pumping wildly. She closed her eyes and listened to my heartbeat banging against my ribs. I couldn’t sleep that night. I watched her as she slept peacefully like a baby and I was still watching her as the first c0ck crowed that morning.
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