Author’s Notes (Part 2, Section 3)

25/06/2020

Maybe someday, one day.

~ Dreamer Girl by Asa

New Delhi, India, March 25th, 2013.~ Queeneth's trip to India

"Happy birthday dear, " The woman who sat next to us in the airplane, said to me.

My dad already told her a few hours earlier that I would be twelve years old in a few minutes.

I could not believe that I was traveling to India on my birthday for my surgery. Honestly, I was very excited. It seemed very promising because I thought it would be extra fun and I would do extra fun things today just before my surgery. Although I was very tired because my dad and I had spent the whole day on the airplane, traveling from Nigeria.

India was very far away from my country so we had spent roughly twenty-three hours traveling.

The Nigerian woman who had wished me a happy birthday in the airplane was someone we met whilst we had a stopover at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Since the airline we followed was owned by the Arabs Aviation, the pilot had had to stop over at the airport in Abu Dhabi so we could board the same airline but a different airplane.

While we waited at the airport for the takeover, my dad and I met the woman who also happened to be a Nigerian like us and my dad conversed so well with her because we seemed to have the same purpose for our travel.

Her husband was suffering from a terminal illness and was also taking him to India for surgery. We sympathized with each other and spoke about our individual lives and how we have tried to cope, having loved ones who suffer from certain conditions and how it felt, knowing you have to be strong for them.

I felt bad for the woman because she seemed to be in more pain than my dad and I was. I saw someone next to her who seemed to be like her daughter. The young lady looked weird, particularly for the fact that one of her eyeballs had a tiny little slit that stood single next to her actual pupil, like a crocodile's. It would have been scary if the thin slit was the only thing that demarcated the white part of her eyes but it was weird because I had never seen someone look that way.

Maybe, this is how people look at me too when they look at my legs. I thought, chastising myself to stop looking at her like she was some monster.

The woman and the young lady were very nice to me and wished me the very best in my forthcoming surgery. We waited at the airport in Abu Dhabi, until it was time for the second half of our flight.

We happened to board the same airplane as well. It was pretty late in the night or perhaps, very early in the morning but I was so tired and now, I knew I was closer to Asia. All I had to do was to hang on till the entire flight was over.

In as much as I enjoyed the flight due to the nice food I got to eat served by the beautiful air hostesses, and getting to have a top view of the clouds, my butt felt numb now as I had sat for too long and it was cold.

My dad even made it worse by farting in the afternoon as he sat right next to me of course. The smell was so terrible but I had to pretend like nothing happened because if I reacted by scrunching up my nose or repellently yelling, I would distract the other passengers in the airplane.

"Manage it like that." He winked at me and I rolled my eyes when he wasn't looking. He was so annoying for doing that, knowing fully well that I could not move away from him but just had to bear the offensive smell of the gas.

During the flight from Abu Dhabi to India, midnight struck so I had practically spent an entire day on the plane and now it is my twelfth birthday. It was mystically intriguing to be spending my birthday on an airplane.

Since the woman had wished me a happy birthday since my dad told her about it, my dad did the same too, and blessed me with a lot of prayers. I was happy and gradually we were getting close to India now.

I was looking forward to the later part today and what it had in stock for me.

**

India's weather was surprisingly very cold. We had arrived at the capital of India, New Delhi. My teeth were chattering against each other, and goosebumps sprouted on my skin, making the hairs on my flesh stand upright. I regretted not wearing something cozy which could generate sufficient warmth at a time like this. It looked like it had rained or was about to rain for some reason but all in all, it looked beautiful from where I saw it.

Cars were still moving on the road, despite how chilly the midnight was. The weather made my arrival in the country, look even more promising, despite how unwelcoming it was. It made me want to know what to expect.

My dad and I alighted from a car that drove us from the airport to the capital and then we alighted from the car and boarded a white taxi. It was unlike the taxis in my country that were yellow with green and red straight colors, darting through the body, hence demarcating the plain yellow colors.

I was even surprised to find taxis in India. I have always thought of it as a highly developed country like the United Kingdom, the United States, and so on. It was amusing to see a taxi in a country like this. We boarded the taxi and my dad told the driver the direction where we were headed.

"Fortis Hospital." He said.

During the ride, it rained heavily with massive strikes of thunder and lightning flashing through the night sky as I looked at the roads that seemed very much unfamiliar to me. There were only a few cars driving on the road, unlike my country, Nigeria where cars and buses and even trailers with heavy goods and commodities drove anytime, on the road, repeating a cycle that never stops.

Surprisingly, my legs didn't hurt from the cold emanating from the rain. I took it as a good sign. India looked promising as much as it looked beautiful in the night time. Although it wasn't as beautiful as Abu Dhabi, it spoke to my soul in some kind of way.

When we got to Fortis hospital, it was so silent, the people who stayed around were asleep since it was in the middle of the night but of course, the medical team members who were scheduled for the night shift were very much active for patients like me.

The hospital wasn't anything so special. What was there to be fascinated about in a hospital? Asides from the fact that it looked a lot better and more developed anyway unlike some hospitals in my country that had negligent staff and wouldn't attend to patients who were even dying simply because they were not registered with the hospital and bad relationships with already registered patients. It was terrible.

But here I could only see the nurses on duty and I had seen a dark-skinned male nurse that was Indian who seemed to fascinate me because I never thought that males could as well be nurses like females till I later realized that It was a common thing.

All through the journey, I was still in the wheelchair, I had barely even used my legs to walk at all simply because I was here for medical purposes but I did not bother much since I was pretty tired and needed to sleep.

The nurses did everything necessary and I was taken to my ward where I would be for the entirety of my stay.

I could not remember much any longer since I was tired and badly needed to sleep but I had woken up later in the day with an enthusiastic birthday vibe, hoping that all of the promises India seemed to hold would come to actualization.

I woke up to welcoming, warm weather unlike the cold, unbearable weather of the night when I had just arrived and it honestly seemed like a good day.

I hadn't stepped out of the hospital throughout the whole day but it was fine because I was offered my best food to eat, which was fried rice. Of course, it tasted different but it sort of tasted better and it put me in a good mood surprisingly through the day. There was a particularly beautiful, Indian nurse who's name was Antonia, she seemed to like me a lot already and came often to my ward with the doctors.

During the evening time, I requested to have a look around the environment to have a proper view of what India looked like during the day, and this time around, I was hoping I would walk with my legs now just before my surgery since I had not used them very much for about two days now.

The streets of India did not look as classy and as elite as I had expected. The night had deceived me. Now, I could see a glorified version of my country, Nigeria. I had seen tricycles on the streets, which was popularly known as keke napeps in my country and I even saw a few pieces of paper rolling off the streets, aimlessly with the wind. Scanty and unkempt roads with citizens who didn't care to keep their environment clean Just like my country.

I was disappointed.

Nevertheless, I still wanted to work around and see more of New Delhi. So I asked the nurse who had accompanied me out of the hospital in my wheelchair. My dad walked alongside the man as well since he had been my ally all through this trip.

"Sir, can I take walk around this place? I want to see more of those tall buildings and more of New Delhi." I asked. I wanted to get off that wheelchair now. It was my birthday wish. "Today is my birthday and I want to enjoy it while I can," I added, pleading desperately.

"You can't move out of this hospital because you are already admitted. You are a patient now." The man said and I looked dejectedly at my dad, but he couldn't object to the man's words because sadly, he was right.

I was so heartbroken and had even preferred going back to my ward to sleep or spend the rest of my day since I couldn't get my one true wish to be granted. Instead, I was wheeled around the hospital's premises, seeing the same view of the tall buildings and the warm, hazy light of the setting sun before me, over and over again till I got tired but couldn't ask for more since I could not leave the hospital.

So this is the birthday I was looking forward to eagerly? That I only spent it on the hospital premises that was beginning to annoy me now. I guess I'm here for no other reason than for a surgical purpose. 

But what made me sad more than anything was the temporary cessation of the ability to use my legs to walk. I didn't know when next I was going to use my legs to walk again since the forthcoming surgery was a very serious one and apparently, bones do take a lot of time to heal.

It felt suffocating and I yearned so much for my freedom, even if it was going to last for just this fleeting moment. I wanted to use my legs for one last time...