Chapter 24 6

See if you can hold him down with a bun in the oven... no pun intended!

EVE

"Are you okay?" Tomide peers at me anxiously. I nod, silently willing him to put his attention back on the matter at hand.

He takes my word for it, nods and continues tapping his feet impatiently on the bare floor.

I try, I really do try to help him relax, at least in my mind anyway, but when you're a guy and you find out your girlfriend, cum step sister almost committed suicide because you called off the relationship, then there's nothing anyone can possibly do to help or make you feel calm.

Tomide had just come back from Ibadan where he went to break it up with Ronke, but on getting back home, barely had he even taken a sip of water when he got a distress call from a hospital in Ibadan, claiming Ronke had been rushed there after trying to slash her wrists with a blade. So I volunteered to travel back to Ibadan with him.

You can imagine the tension on the journey there.

I don't know where my motion sickness came from because I began vomiting once the car started moving. Luckily, I wasn't driving and we had to keep stopping so I could offload on the bushy side of the road. Thankfully it stopped as soon as we got to the hospital.

We were both shocked into silence when we found out that Ronke didn't cut her wrists as we were initially told, instead, she had plunged a long knife into the side of her neck. In doing that, she'd severed her carotid artery - the one that leads blood directly to the brain. So she needs blood - lots of it.

Makes you wonder what possessed her to make that kind of fatal decision. All because of a break up?

A psychiatrist had been assigned to talk to Tomide and mentally get him through the situation with his girlfriend, turned ex - girlfriend, but she didn't stay long after firing series of questions at him, most prominent of which was "Were there any initial signs of suicide?"

How do you even begin to answer that question?

So Tomide kept his answers light, sticking to monologues instead of full out sentences and explanations. It was better that way. The psychiatrist gave us both a disapproving glare and stalked off with promises of coming back when Ronke was out of the woods so she could talk to her. I really hoped, especially for Tomide's sake, that she would get out of the woods.

I see he's hurting and internalising it all. He's not a talker, Tom, and I understand that. Neither am I. I think he's more ashamed than traumatised at this point. So even though the queasiness is back, I try to suck it up and talk to him, you know, lighten the dark dreary mood that's wrapped both of us up.

"So is it true what they say about a chicken that crosses the road?" I mentally gag at my stupid attempt at a joke.

I make out soft grunts coming from him and I turn to him in confusion. He's laughing ... an actual - body - shaking laugh. I smile at him and in no time, we're both laughing out loud.

Yes, it may seem really weird to other people who are currently staring at us, and wondering how we can feel such joy in an intensive care unit ward, but hey... we've really got to keep it together, otherwise we might break down ourselves and join Ronke on one of the ICU beds.

We're still laughing when the doctor walks over to us. "Hello! Are you two here for Ronke, the suicide patient?" I wince at his choice of words. How insensitive of him!

"Yes we are, doctor." Tomide takes it better than I do. He's calm as he stands up to face the doctor.

"Can we talk in my office now, please?"

"I'd like to come too if you don’t mind," I butt in.

The doctor nods and we both tail behind him as he leads us down a corridor. I try not to peep into any of the wards we pass, but the round see - through windows don't help matters. Every room we pass, people are hooked to IV's and wires stick out from their bodies that are hooked up to machines. The occupants of the beds lie deathly still as a loved one holds their hands staring glumly at them or crying silently.

I force myself to look forward and not dwell on this but it's kind of hard and the queasiness in my stomach is coming on stronger now. As we round a corner, I feel the sudden urge to throw up, so I clamp a hand across my mouth and break away from them, looking wildly around for a toilet.

I bump into a nurse who takes in how I look and hurriedly leads me to a toilet where I slump to the ground and practically spew out my whole guts in the toilet bowl. The soothing fingers of the nurse intermittently rubbing my back and keeping stray hair away from my face is a great support to me right now. She repeatedly dabs water from the tap on my forehead and face in a bid to stem the vomit flow.

When I think I've finally emptied out my whole bowel, I try standing, but my limbs are shaky and I'm quite weak. The kind nurse - wish I knew her name, helps me up with agile strength. I'm guessing she's used to helping vulnerable patients all the time because she's quite adept at keeping me on my feet and walking me out, with me leaning most of my weight on her.

She insists I do a test to ascertain the reason for my current state and since I'm not able to talk much, I just nod and allow myself to be led to the lab where she collects some of my blood in a vial, writes down my name and tells me to come back in the next twenty minutes for the result. I still didn't get her name, silly me. I need to, so I can properly thank her instead of calling her nurse.

I can't really remember where the doctor's office is anymore so I make my way back to the reception and slump into one of the seats where I curl up, waiting for Tomide to return.

It doesn't take long because he comes back looking worried and hassled. "Where were you, Eve? I was worried, thought something had happened to you, are you okay?"

And I just realised Tom is a worrier - he would make a perfect husband and father someday to some lucky woman, that is, if life affords him the opportunity. "I'm fine coz, what did the doctor say? How's Ronke? She's going to be fine, yes?"

All this comes out in a rush, because I suddenly remember the reason for our being in a hospital and in another city too.

He slumps onto the seat beside me and I uncoil myself and face him fully, waiting for him to drop the bomb. "So...."

"She needs blood, Eve and the hospital doesn't have enough. They need to buy more and they've practically called all the hospitals around but her blood type is rare and difficult to come by." His voice has reduced to a whisper now and I'm just about guessing his next statement. "She could..."

I hush him with a finger on his lips, negating it as I shake my head. "She won't, nothing will happen to her. There has to be other options, there just has to be."

"There are," he continues, gently removing my finger from his lips. "Blood donation from someone with the same blood type."

I know he won't like what I'm about to say next but it's got to be said. So I take a deep breath and plunge into it, regardless of how and what he thinks about it. "Um.. Tom, since you both are like... um .... siblings or something, you could probably... you know... oh heck... just give her your blood already." I finish, looking away embarrassingly. This has got to be even harder for him as I brave a glance at him.

He looks at me and nods grimly. "Yeah, I've thought about that and I'm going to do it. Just waiting for the nurse to return so I can go get some tests done to ascertain if we have the same blood type."

I squeeze the hand that's clenched tightly into fists on his jeans. "It will be okay. Nothing will happen to her." Of course I don't mention the part where Ronke must have a screw loose in her head for doing something as crazy as wanting to take her own life. "What's her blood type?" I ask, not that I know anything 'bout that, I'm just asking for the sake of knowing.

He sighs and replies glumly. "A-"

I don't say anything because I really don't even understand the blood types, but Tom goes ahead to clarify it. "Doctor says it's one of the rarest types, hence the difficulty in getting it."

"But..."

"Mr. Olaitan, please come with me to the lab." A nurse materialises in front of us, cutting off what I was going to say.

Tomide grabs my hand, squeezes once and releases it as he gets up and walks off after the nurse. Minutes pass and I'm left feeling worried. The time says past twelve in the afternoon from the big clock on the wall, but it feels like I've been here for ages.

I don't know how long I'm out, but someone nudges me gently and I yawn, opening my eyes to see Tom sitting down beside me. The look on his face is undecipherable. Looks like a cross between relief and confusion. I snap to attention, the sudden movement making me dizzy. "Tom.... is everything okay? How's Ronke? Is she okay? Will you please answer me now." I fist my hands into the collar of his shirt and shake him, anxiety uncoiling inside me.

A slow smile tugs at the corners of his lips and I just stare, unable to wrap my head around the reason for this. I sigh exasperatingly. "You better -”

"We're not related Eve. Ronke and I aren't siblings as we previously thought." His eyes seem light and happy and there's a lift to his shoulders. His legs are bouncing up and down with barely - unleashed excitement.

My fingers loosen themselves from his collar as I slump into my seat in confusion as a frown begins to form on my face. "But... how did you ascertain that, though. They were able to tell from a simple blood test?" I ask incredulously.

"Actually no, but I was curious to see if we were really related so I decided to do a sibling DNA test and voila, it came back negative. We're not even remotely related. Science doesn't lie." He was full - on grinning now but something else tugged at the back of my mind.

"But... that just means Ronke's mother lied to your father." I cock my head to the side as my mind reels with the information. "It also means her four children are illegitimate and she was out to milk your father of all his money.”She's a fraud, Tom, and you need to take her down." I whisper.

Tomide's eyes widen to the point that I think they might pop out of their sockets. Yup! His brain has woken up. He was obviously beclouded by the fact that he wasn't actually related to Ronke, because I'm sure he understands the implications, perfectly now.

"That means... I can contest dad's will in court." He finishes, breathing fast now.

"Copy that, Einstein." We smile at each other until my phone rings shrilly. I whip it out from my bag and groan as I see the caller's name splayed boldy across the screen - Sweet mother.

Damn! I forgot to inform mom before I left hastily. I answer on the third ring. "Mum, I'm fine, don't worry. I'm with Tom and we've got great news for you, and dad too. I'll see you in a bit, okay? Love you!" I garble into the phone and cut it when I'm done, without even allowing her to speak. If I had allowed her to talk, she would have asked too many questions in a short space of time and that is something we don't have the luxury of now.

I look up to see Tom smiling at me and I smile right back.

"Mrs. Eve Olaitan?" The nurse who took my blood for testing, comes up to me with a big smile. "Your tests results are out. Congratulations, to you both," and she hands me an envelope and looks at Tom with a big smile plastered on her face and walks off in the direction in which she came.

"Congratulations?" I’m wondering what she meant as I begin opening the envelope. A ping sounds off from my phone and I become distracted, setting the envelope aside as I click on my phone to see a text from Mr. Faseun.

Dear Eve, thank you for showing your true colours. Next time you get the itch, I'd advise you to weigh your decisions before wanting to sleep with both son and father too. It is safe to say that I don't want to ever see you again. I do hope you take this in good stead. That means you should never step your foot in Deuce manufacturing company again, because you'll be thrown out.

I'm still frowning at my phone and wondering what lies Dee fed his father, when Tomide gasps beside me.

"What the heck, Eve!" His mouth is formed into an o as he stares at me. The paper the nurse just brought is clasped tightly in his hand.