Chapter 38
Juana didn't speak for the rest of the day and two days after she was admitted, she still didn't speak.
It was her third day in the hospital when Colin arrived. He hadn't heard that she was admitted because no one told him, but somehow he got to know three days after. He was very worried and it showed in his expression. He blamed her granny and father in his mind for not informing him.It was not their fault, they didn't understand the connection between them.
He held her hands and whispered into her ears not caring about everyone watching him. He sang her a song that they both sang whenever they were happy.
After singing, he waited. She was looking him in the eye but wasn't saying a word. Her grandmother and her father watched Colin tend to her. They didn't know what to say, until Baron spoke:
"Get your hands off her, you know nothing about what's wrong with her" he said harshly after some moments of awkward silence
"Whoever gave you the right to touch her that way?" He said. He had already almost fired him the day he found out his daughter was at his place, and the same day he was late to work.
Colin moved back a little and dropped her hands on the bed gently. He never gave him a breathing space to reply his many questions
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working, Colin?" He asked with a strong tone, like he was angry and confused at the same time, but granny intervened.
"Let's leave the young man alone, he understands her better than you do" she said and pulled a confused Baron out of the ward. Colin was glad. He went back to her and sat her on his thighs. He looked into her eyes and saw great fear. "Talk to me, honey" he said.
He rubbed her back gently and urged her to speak. Just then, Doctor Alan walked in to attend to his patient. He didn't look too surprised to find a strange young man embracing his patient. Someone probably must have notified him of his presence-Granny most probably.
He walked towards them, bent over and asked carefully: "Do you think you can get her to speak?" Colin shook his head in the affirmative.
He sat in a corner of the room and watched them. Colin rubbed Juana's back and said, "What happened? What took your voice? You told me my name will always be on your lips, please call my name now" She nodded her head
It took a while before she finally spoke.
"I'm scared, Colin" she said. "Ivy's going to die" she said but without crying. The fear in her eyes was amplified with every word.
"No she's not going to die" he said.
"I saw it. She's going to die" she said again, her voice breaking.
Colin was quiet. Doctor Alan sighed and went over to them.
"This is magical" he said and clapped. Then he took her hands and rubbed it lightly: "Who is Ivy?"
"My best friend"
"Why do you think she's going to die? If you do not believe this nightmare, it's likely not to happen" he said. He shook his head knowing he wasn't making sense to himself. He sounded absurd in his own ears.
"Colin, please don't let this happen to her. I don't want her to die. I can't take it" she said, her voice still breaking.
"It's okay" Doctor Alan said and carefully administered her a Stellate ganglion block (SGB) injection. The procedure, called stellate ganglion block, or SGB, involves injecting a local anesthetic into the stellate ganglion. This group of nerve cells and nerves in the neck helps regulate the body's “fight or flight” mechanism. It was meant to make her feel better.
Colin took her phone and left her after she was injected and went to join the others in the reception.
"How's she?" Granny asked him. Baron was wearing a frown.
"Better"
"Did she talk to you?"
"She did. Doctor Alan needs you both in his office now" he said. Granny rubbed her hands together in thanksgiving and smiled. She was grateful to God. Baron stared at him for a moment before standing up from his seat. He wondered what kind of connection was between his daughter and his employee. No matter how he tried to fathom it, it was hidden so well from his knowledge.
After they left, Colin called Ivy on Juana's phone. It was silly but he needed to do it-tell her about her friend's nightmare which was centred around her. He warned her not to abort the baby or do anything dangerous to herself, and he urged her to talk to her aunt about it, before she found out on her own and got angry. Ivy was worried about Juana but appreciated him for telling her those things. She didn't tell him that she had already begun taking pills to kill the pregnancy.
She didn't tell him that she was scared about her life, scared about the outcome of everything, she didn't tell him that she had called Eric and told him about it, and that he had asked her not to implicate him or ridicule him or destroy his reputation and that of his parents. He had answered rudely. Eric was nineteen and his parents were influential people in their state. She didn't tell him all these because she didn't know who she was speaking with, yet. She didn't know the stranger who was using Juana's phone.
Colin prayed after hanging up. He himself didn't want Ivy to die because it'd greatly affect his girlfriend.
Three things were on his mind:Officially disclosing their relationship to her family, taking her to see his mother and making sure Helen's killer is arrested. He believed that Helen's boyfriend, Michael killed her, and now that his own girlfriend found him, he was ready to get him arrested to prevent him harming her like he did his best friend, six years ago. He had been especially shocked and scared when he heard Juana talk so softly about Michael. He wondered what lies he had been feeding her with, about himself. Colin believed that he wanted to win Juana to himself with beautiful lies just like he did with Helen, so as to kill her.
When Juana told him that he had repented and needed someone to believe him, someone to trust him, Colin disbelieved her totally. Serial killers do not just stop killing all of a sudden. The fact that he said Juana looked so much like his dead girlfriend, Helen spelled danger.
Michael wanted Juana, but she wasn't seeing it. She was seeing him as a now-innocent young man who needs to rebuild his broken life. He had a way with catching females, luring them into his trap and then raping them or killing them or doing both. Colin was not going to allow that happen to her. He was much older now and more mature to understand things. If he were in the past, maybe he'd have protected Helen better.
"I wish she'd listen to me and stop talking to him. Her boldness is strange and dangerous" Colin said to himself. He was scared that she would end up like his best friend did. It was only a matter of time. If she got discharged, she'd go back to her bold but dangerous lifestyle.
He had plans for both of them. The kind of plans he had for Helen and himself before the cold hands of death snatched her. He wanted to make his mom happy, and he knew if his mom met and knew Juana, she'd like her so much. She was lovable, just stubborn. He wanted to make her feel good everyday.
He wanted to take her around the world after school, get to know her family, mix with all of them, and marry her.
