Her parents' accident

"Hello miss Richards, can you come to the hospital right now?" The caller asked.

"Sure, is everything okay?" She asked feeling unsettled.

"You will know when you get here," the caller calmly replied.

"Adam come on let's go," she took Adam's hand on one hand while holding the phone with the other, her handbag tucked in her armpit.

"Are you still there?" The caller could not hear her clearly.

"Yes doctor, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." she answered. "Okay," he replied then hang up.

After exiting the park, she immediately hailed a taxi." The First Hospital," she told the driver once Adam and her were seated.

Val couldn't help but feel restless. Several questions ran through her mind yet no one was there to provide her with answers. Back then, when she was filling in information of the patient, she had filled her phone number as the emergency contacts. So the doctor calling her meant two things, either her father's health was deteriorating or improving.

She wanted to hope that it was the later but since when was an emergency a good thing?

The fifteen minutes ride felt like an eternity. She was very anxious. Had something happened to her father? Was his health getting worse? What if he never wakes up?

She didn't want Adam and her to be orphans. They needed their father, especially Adam who was only five years old .

"Sis did something happen to dad?" Adam broke the uncomfortable silence. He didn't understand much, just that his father was sick and couldn't wake up. However, he could see that his sister was tensed, making him worried.

"No Adam, dad is going to be okay. Don't worry we are going to see him in a few minutes okay?" Those words weren't just meant to comfort Adam but herself as well.

"Did he wake up? Sister is daddy going to play with me today?" He innocently asked  his face lighting up with a smile when he thought of playing with his daddy again.

Maybe his father had woken up and sister was taking him to meet his father.

Looking at her brothers's face, Val felt at a loss. She was tired of disappointing the little guy over and over again. He was too young to go through all this pain and disappointments. Since their mother passed away, he always asked about her and she would tell him that she had turned into a star. Then there was their father, unconscious for a month now. Everytime they visited him at the hospital, Adam's mood would be affected sometimes he cried.

"I don't know Adam, the doctor didn't tell. Let's be patient we will find out when we get there." She too, so badly wanted their father back on his feet.

It's been a month already and yet their father still showed no signs of waking up. The doctor had told her that there was a blood clot in his head but could wear out with time. She had thought that it wouldn't be long before he regained his consciousness, but who was she kidding, One month had passed and yet he still showed no signs of waking up.

She couldn't help but recall that fateful day. Her father was a taxi driver while her mother owned a grocery store downtown. Usually, their father would pick their mother up in the evening.

That day, just like every other day, their father passed by the grocery store to pick his wife.

Unfortunately, they collided head on with a speeding truck. According to the police, the truck lost its brakes and so the whole thing was just concluded as a normal traffic accident.

The truck driver was fortunate as he just sustained a few injuries.

Her parents though weren't so lucky. By the time an ambulance arrived at the scene, their mother was already dead and their father unconscious. A broken glass had sliced deep into her mother's neck, cutting an artery. She had therefore bleed out until she died. Her father on the other hand had sustained a severe injury in his head and deep cuts all over his body. He was lucky though as the ambulance arrived at the scene when he was still breathing. Although his pulse was weak, the doctors had performed first aid on him and the bleeding had been stopped in time.

At the hospital, the doctor had told her that they can either wait for the blood clot in his head to wear off with time or perform a surgery to save him. She had chosen the former option without a second thought for two reasons. One, his chances of surviving the surgery was less than thity percent, so the doctor had said, and second, she didn't have the two million shillings needed to perform the surgery.

She had been hopeful, hopeful that her father would heal with time but seeing him every day in his sickbed, not making even the slightest movement discouraged her. She hadn't been able to see him in the past two days as she had been busy and now that she was going to see him again made her tense.

The taxi slowly came to a stop at the hospital's entrance. After paying, she and Adam got out of the car and rushed into the hospital.

Her father's ward was located in the second floor and since the elevator was busy she  decided to take the stairs instead of waiting.

"Val," just when she wanted to take the first step, she heard someone behind calling her name. Turning around she saw her uncle and his family behind her.

"Uncle, you are here?" She wasn't very surprised to see her uncle after all his brother was bedridden. He even helped them cover her mother's funeral expenses. She was happy and grateful that there was someone who cared for her family.

"Uncle Gary!" before she could say anything else, the little pumpkin beside her had already left her side and excitedly ran to his uncle.

"Hello my little champ," uncle Gary openned his arms and embraced the little one. Adam and Gary had a very good relationship. Gary being a kids' lover had immediately hit off with Adam.

"Did you just come out of a desert?" Gary asked chuckling.

Val felt awkward. In her haste, she had forgotten that Adam was covered in dust and that there were sand particles in his hair.

Adam though did not feel embarrassed at all instead he innocently explained, "uncle I just played with Kelly at the park, I don't know how the dust got on my clothes."

Gary couldn't help but laugh at Adams' reply. "Then do you know how it got on your hair?" He asked him wiping his hair with a handkerchief.

Truth be told, Adam looked like someone who took a swim on the sand. His usually black and neat hair now had traces of a brown color.

"I don't know and please uncle tell sister not to punish me for this, it was not intentional." Adam at his age only thought of escaping punishments and so he immediately asked his uncle to help him out.

"What did your sister say she would do to you?" Gary asked him playfully. This nephew of his had gotten more and more mischievous and was now thinking of using him to protect himself.

Val on the other hand was wondering when she said she would punish him. Didn't she just scold him for dirtying his clothes?

Adam though had an answer, "she said she would make me wash these clothes," he explained pouting his lips, sounding wronged. Even his big brown eyes looked watery as if he was about to cry.

Val's jaw dropped. When did she tell him to wash his clothes? Wasn't he the one who said he will wash them?

Ignoring Adam, Val went forward and greeted her uncle and his family. "Hello uncle," she greeted giving him a side hug as Adam had occupied uncle Gary's arms.

"Hello to you too Val have you been doing well?" "Mmh" Val replied, a small smile playing on her lips. "Thank you for last time uncle," she hadn't properly thanked this uncle yet as she had been grieving at that time. She barely noticed anything or anyone then.

"We're family Val there's no need for formalities." Gary pitied this niece. Not only had she lost her mother but she also had to take care of a four year old brother and a bedridden father.

"Adam, in the future you should listen to your sister in the future do you understand?" Adam didn't understand why his uncle suddenly looked serious but he still nodded his head. Of course he listens to his sister. Val understood the meaning behind her uncle's words but did not comment.

"Hello aunt, cousin." Val politely greeted the two ladies standing beside her uncle.

She wasn't very close with the two women as they lived separately. Although she'd been in the same university with her cousin, they didn't have much interactions.

"Hi cousin, father has been asking about you the past few weeks, how have you been?  What about uncle has he regained consciousness?" Her cousin Maggie asked on behalf of all of them.

"I'm okay and dad is yet to wake up," she gave her a simple reply.

"It's going to be okay we're also here to check on him," Maggie comforted reaching out to give her a hug.

"Come on let's go see him," her auntie said.

Val broke away from Maggie's hug and led them towards her dad's ward.

"How is brother?" Gary asked as they made their way up.

"I wasn't able to visit the last two days but the last time I was here, he looked the same. The doctor though called me a few minutes ago.  I'm afraid uncle." She was very scared of what the doctor might have to say.

"What did the doctor say?" Gary was also afraid of losing his only brother. They had been very close since childhood and although they had grown slightly apart as they had focused on their personal lives, no amount of distance could break their brotherly bond.

"He didn't say anything he just asked me to come here," Val replied. Gary gently patted her consolingly on the shoulders.

Stepping into the male ward, they all noticed that Val's father wasn't in his usual bed. They all knew well that there were three possible reasons as to why he was absent, either her father had been discharged, moved to another ward or worse dead. Thinking of the of the later, Val felt a chill run down her spine.

She immediately took out her phone and called her father's doctor who picked up at the third ring.

"Hello miss Richards, have you arrived?" Doctor Ken asked.

"Yes but where is my father?" Val hoped that the doctor wasn't going to give her any bad news.

"Just come to my office and I'll explain everything to you. My office is at the left corner of the third floor" replied the doctor. He understood that the family of the patient might be panicked but he couldn't say everything on phone.

"Okay,' Val replied before hanging up.

"The doctor said he would talk to us in his office," she told them before leading the way.