CHAPTER FIVE

The next day I didn't feel like going to school, so I woke up really late. I bathed, dressed and went out of my room without laying the bed. I found Henry finishing talking to dad on phone. "Good morning." He said. "Good morning." I said after giving a slight smile which disappeared immediately. "You ready to go see mom?" He asked and I answered, "Yeah." We both went out the house and we locked it. Henry sat in the car and I sat next. He started driving while we were both silent. We only started speaking when we were almost reaching the hospital. "Hey, you good?" Henry said. "Yeah, am fine." I told him. We reached the hospital and he parked the car. We got into the reception and Henry spoke to the receptionist. She called a person who we moved with to the room where mom and dad were. "Good morning Dad." I said. "Good morning to you too." He said and I said, "Will mom be fine?" "Yeah she will. Henry can I talk to you from outside?" They went outside and started speaking leaving me with mom who was on the bed. Seeing her in that condition made me feel so sad, tears started rolling down on my cheeks. I held mom's hand and said, "Please wake up, please." Henry came and touched my shoulder. "Hey, mom will be fine. Okay? Stop crying." He said and I hugged him after cleaning my tears. "Where is dad?" I asked afterwards. "He went to have a shower and bring more clothes since he is for staying here until mom gets fine." He answered and I went and sat at the chair near the window. "Do you think this is all my fault? Cause if I had gone to the shop she wouldn't have been here right now, she would have been some where having fan." I said after thinking to my self. "No Rita, it's not your fault. Stop blaming your self." Henry said looking at me so keenly. We both became so silent for a while. I thought we were going to stay silent until forever but a doctor came in and said, "Where's your dad? We need to ask him some question about the patients health." "He went to home to have a shower. Is it really important to have all those details?" Henry said. "Yes, it is. It's the only way we could know exactly how to save her and it's way much cheaper than us doing the tests and later on charge your dad yet the patient might die." The doctor said. "Hey, don't say that. My mom wont die." I said really mad at what the doctor said. "Am sorry. Could you please call your dad?" He said directing the 'sorry' more to me and the 'could you please call your dad' to Henry. "Yeah, sure." Henry said and got his phone. He called dad and asked him to come to the hospital and later on hang up. We went back to the silence we were in before and dad came in after a while. "Henry, what's up why did you want me to come to the hospital?" Dad said when he came into the room. "Nothin' much the doctor just wanted to speak to you. He said that you should meet him in his office." Henry answered. Dad went out and we both went back to the silence we were in before. I stood from the chair and started moving around the room and Henry occupied my vacant seat. I moved around hopping to find something to do then someone I wasn't expecting to call called me. "Hi." Hannah said. "Hello" I said. "I heard your mom got an accident." She said like as if she were concerned. "Am just calling you for the last time just to let you know that we can no longer be friends and now you're an orphan, it's just not what my best friend would be like." She said the 'orphan' word which made me mad. "Hey am not an orphan." I said back. "Practically you are. You're mom got an accident. It was on the news." She said. "My mom ain't dead. She's just in hospital and in comma. Please don't call back." I said and hang up. Seriously, I couldn't tell what was wrong with her. She was like the best friend I could have and now she being so annoying. "Hey who was that?" Henry asked. "It was Hannah. I really don't get what got into her. She was my best friend and I really trusted her but now she's being so rude. Like seriously she called me an orphan." I told him as my heart was almost bursting due to anger. "Relax. She's just trying to make you annoyed. So, don't let her do it and besides she isn't the only friend you got." He said. I smiled and said. "Yeah, she isn't the only friend." "Then don't care about what she says." He said. "Thanks." I told him. "For what?" He asked. "For calming me down." I said. He smiled and said, "Anything for my lil' sis." Dad came into the room with the doctor who he was speaking to. "I think the kids can go back home." The doctor said. "You heard the doctor." Dad said looking at Henry. " Why are we going back home?" I asked. "Because we are going to take some examinations on your mom and we don't want you to be around." The doctor said. "But you're dad can remain." He added. "Bye. Drive safely." Dad said, we answered and went out. When we reached the parking yard, I stood still because I never wanted to leave the hospital. "Hey get into the car." Henry said when he had already entered. I opened the door and sat at the front. "What are you going to do when you reach home?" Henry asked. " I don't know. I guess I shall just be doin' nothing" I said and he started driving until we reached home. When we were home, I went to my room and sat on my bed doing nothing. Later, I fell a sleep and I was waken at 4:31 pm by a phone call from dad. I answered and said, "Hello, dad." "Hi Rita. Where's Henry?" He asked. "I think he's sleeping. What do you need from him?" I asked. "Nothing much. It's just that he's phone is off. Could you please call him? Actually, tell him to call me right now immediately." He said but the way he said it as like as if there was a problem. I went to Henry's room which was locked. I knocked at the door three times and he opened. "Dad said that you should call him." I said. "Okay." He said. "Like right now." I said. He went to his bed to get the phone and I went back to my room to have a bath. As I was bathing, I heard Henry calling me so loudly. "Hey Rita. Hurry and come down stairs right now." I hurried out the bathroom. I got dressed and went out. "Dad needs us in the hospital." He said. We went to the car and went out of the gate. When we reached the hospital, I found people who were looking at us so sadly. I thought it was because mom had got an accident but I was wrong. When we reached the room, we found everything so quite and mom was no longer in the machines and whatever they put her in. I thought she was fine but the look on the doctors face made me so much into panic mode. The doctor came to us and said, "I don't know how to tell you this but we couldn't manage to save your mom." He said it and I moved one step back not wanting to believe that mom is dead. "No, no, no. It can't be. Are you trying to say that our mom is dead?" I said. "Yes." He said it so firmly that tears just started rolling down my cheeks. I started sobbing and dad came to come me down. I caught my head trying to believe it was a dream. Due to confusion I fainted. When I woke up, tears were just rolling down my eyes. I never thought my mom could die. I resumed to my crying since I had nothing much to say. Henry came into the room I was in and held my hand. "Hey, lil' sis. You have to stop crying. Yes, mom is dead but you wont cry forever. You just have to get over it and focus for your future. That was the end of her journey. You'll have to continue working on your future." He said and I just nodded my head. "now let's go home." He said and I sat. He handed me a glass of water. "First you drink some water." He said. I drank and he helped me get out of the room. When I saw outside it was dark. "For how long had I fainted?" I asked him. "Four hours." He said. In my head I screamed 'What!!'. We reached the car, my dad was there waiting for us. We entered and no one spoke about mom but I could feel the common sadness we were all in. We reached home and I first went to the kitchen where I was last with mom to keep her memories. I hadn't yet baked the cookies and had kept the dough in the in the fridge. I took pictures of the dough and had many images of mom going through my mind. I went out the kitchen and went to my room. Where I ate some biscuits. That's when I realized that no one had eaten anything but maybe they bought some snacks. I was so tired, I slept immediately after.