Virus (7 page)

4.15pm (Same day)

Wole walked down the long dusty road
heading towards home. His eyes were sad and filled with tears. His
uniform was dirty and torn in several places with streaks of blood
staining the front of his shirt.

He swayed slightly as he walked,
moving as if his feet could barely support his body. His eyes were
glazed and unfocused with his head held in a straight position as
if frozen.

Baba Adora sat in his usual spot
with a wooden table in front of him, covered with more than two
dozen shoes in various stages of disrepair. He looked up when he
heard Wole’s approaching footsteps. The warm smile that sneaked on
his face was instantly replaced by a hard frown when he saw Wole’s
disheveled appearance.

Dread filled his insides. Whatever
had happened to Wole sure was not good. Wole slowly sauntered past
seeming oblivious to Baba Adora’s presence.

“What happened to you my
child?”

His low but firm voice snapped Wole
out of the daze that gripped him. The tears that were brimming in
his eyes slowly began to slide down his cheeks. “Chike got hurt.”
were his only words before he turned and walked off leaving Baba
Adora staring after him.

Collins and Judith got off a bike in
front of a decrepit looking single story apartment building. Judith
took two steps and paused waiting as Collins paid the bike man. She
looked pretty in a deep blue long sleeved blouse tucked into a cute
black skirt, which reached a point above her knees.

Collins joined her a few moments
later placing an arm on the small of her back. She sighed looking
teary as he gently steered her towards the front door. The door
opened before they reached it and a mole like man hovered in the
entrance.

He wore a long white lab coat
reaching his ankles, buttoned all the way down. He had big boots on
his feet shaped a bit like wellingtons. His head was large, his
nose shaped like a beak and his lips so thin they appeared to be
lines.

A bright light illuminated the room
behind him. Standing with the light serving as a backdrop made him
look like a cross between an angel and a shadowy dwarf like
ghost.

“Is she the one?” He asked pointing
a bony finger at Judith.

Collins nodded slowly his eyes wary
and nervous. He had to admit, the man gave him the creeps. He could
only imagine what Judith would be feeling.

“Come on in then and let’s be done
with it. Tit.there is so I have so much I still have to
do.”

He shuffled back into the building
as soon as he finished speaking. The way he walked was even more
disturbing than the rest of him. He had a limping shuffle that made
him look like a stick trying to walk.

Swallowing nervously, Collins and
Judith followed him pausing just outside the door.

“Come in and lets be done with it.”
Desmond barked from inside the house. “I still have tons of things
to do.”

The sharp scent of disinfectant hit
them as they walked into the spartanly furnished room. A television
set sat in the center of the room on a grey stand. Its screen and
plastic surface so badly scratched that Collins immediately
surmised that it was not working.

As if to puncture holes in that line
of thought, it came on with a screech startling them. They did not
relax until they turned and saw Desmond holding the remote
control.

He stood in front of another door.
Judith gave the room a somber sweep before following Collins who
strode into the next room under the man’s summons. Desmond brought
him to a halt by poking a bony finger into his chest.

“You will stay here__” He barked in
a voice that brooked no argument. “You__” He continued turning to
face Judith. “Will come with me.”

Swallowing Judith walked into the
room and Desmond shut the door after them with a loud crash. Relief
burst from Collin’s lips as he headed to the sofa to sit down. Its
surface was crème leather and very weather beaten. He was on the
verge of sinking on it when he spotted several brown stains on the
seat cushion. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he edged to the left
side of the sofa and settled down to wait.

Judith stretched out on the cold
surface of an aluminum table placed in the center of the inner
room. The quack, as she had taken to calling him in her mind,mind
loomed a few inches over her face. He did not have much in terms of
height, as his upper torso barely made it over the edge of the
table.

“Are you comfortable?” He asked. He
sounded somewhat sarcastic. As if he knew she was not comfortable,
did not really care either way but was just asking out of a sense
of false charity.

She nodded, seeing no other
recourse. Nodding with satisfaction, he reached for her arm. She
shrank away when his cold fingers touched her skin.

His eyes became as hard as pebbles.
For a frightening second, Judith was afraid he was going to hit
her, or stab her, only just noticing the large syringe held in his
hand.

“Hold out your arm__” He spat at
her. The fury she saw lurking in his eyes made her want to leap off
the table and run away as fast as her legs could carry her. It was
the thought of her parent’s disapproving stares that made her lie
back and hold out her arm.

“What do you want to give me?” She
asked trying to keep the tremor out of her voice and not quite
succeeding.

“Something to help you relax.” He
growled as he grabbed her arm and quickly stuck the needle into her
skin.

He barely removed the needle before
the feeling of weightlessness began. She felt so calm, languid, her
body light as a feather. So light, in fact that it seemed as if she
could float right off the table.

She hardly felt his hands opening
her legs wide and inserting what looked like a mega sized syringe
into her sex. What she did feel was the pain that started seven
seconds later.

Chike’s eyes opened in a flash. The
dream and peace had all but vanished. His skin was scorching hot
and his breath was coming in long labored gasps. He tried to move
but found that he could not. All his strength seemed to have
deserted him. His eyes grew wide and darted around the room,
frantically searching for help.

He recalled seeing his mother seated
beside his bed before he went to sleep, but the plastic chair was
empty. Several voices rang out from behind the door. He recognized
his mother and father’s voices as one of them. He desperately tried
to call out for help, but could not manage more than a weak croak.
What in the world was wrong with him? His heart started to race so
fast that he felt it was going to explode and then came a heavy
blackness and he knew no more.

Outside his room

“You are going to have to file a
lawsuit against that school and its principal Steven. How could the
school management have been careless enough to allow that mad man
to attack our boy? Didn’t the principal realize the danger Eze
posed to all the students?”

“I agree with you Chioma. I am
shaking with rage now. First thing tomorrow morning I am going over
to ogochi’s place to ask where I can get a lawyer. The school is
not going to get away with the danger they put our son’s life
in__”

He droned on and on, citing many
criminal cases that the government either did nothing about, or had
swept under the carpet. Chioma tried to listen for the first five
minutes and simply lost interest afterwards.

A preoccupied look crept on her face
as she tried to think of an excuse to put an end to the dull
conversation. Her face lit up immediately she thought of
one.

“Excuse me Stevenfrank___” She
interrupted rising to her feet slowly. “I want to go and check on
Chike. I will be back soon.”

He nodded, looking slightly
displeased that she had interrupted him in mid-sentence. Smiling at
him sweetly she quickly strode to Chike’s door, opened it and
walked in.

A pause followed and then___ she
came rushing out breathing heavily and looking
terrified.

“Steven Frank come quick___ I think
something is wrong with Chike.”

Steven Frank tore to his son’s room
with his wife following closely behind.

Chapter
Thirteen

After school hours (Next
day)

Wole walked towards the front door
of his house. His mother stood in front of the door with her arms
akimbo and a hard scowl on her face.

That look on a normal day would have
driven a cold shiver down his spine. Today however, he was
strangely indifferent. His mother’s frown became less hard, it was
almost as if she seemed to sense his indifference. There was also
something else in his carriage that put her maternal senses on full
alert; she could not quite put a finger on what it was. Before she
could dwell on it further he stopped in front of her.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked
taking a step forward. “Did Eze attack anyone again?”

“No he didn’t. The police arrested
him yesterday. I don’t think he has been released yet.”

“Then why do you look so glum?
Thought you would be happy that your friend sustained nothing more
than a blow to his pride?”

“But that’s just it mum. He
sustained more than that. We heard at school that he was rushed
back to the hospital late last night.”

“What?? But I thought you said the
doctors examined him and found nothing wrong?”

“According to the principal he
developed a very high fever last night. Tunrayo and I just came
from the hospital__ she has gone home.” He added noticing her
questioning look.

“We would have stayed with him
longer but I knew how worried you will be, so I came
home.”

A long silence followed his sad
words.

“How is he doing?” His mother asked
breaking the silence.

“I don’t know mummy. He was not
speaking and he kept falling in and out of consciousness. The
doctor seems to think he is in shock__ but__” His eyes grew distant
as his voice drifted off.

A sigh burst from his mother’s lips
as she turned and headed back into the house.

“Come and get something to eat. When
you have rested and gotten something into your stomach, you and I
will go to the hospital to see how he is doing.”

She was pleased to see his eyes
brighten considerably at her words. He quickly followed her into
the house without another word.

Much later

She followed him into the hospital
complex with a wary look in her eyes. Oraromi crown hospital was
the only hospital Oraromi had. Except of course, if you counted
that quack doctor’s clinic; a hard frown roughened her brow as she
remembered it.

She could never remember the
doctor’s name. She doubted anyone did. Everyone called him quack or
fake doctor. His clinic was a seedy establishment, which the town’s
people should have shut down ages ago.

Much to everyone’s chagrin however,
the damn place was still open. There was no mystery to why that
was. His clinic was famous for the abortions he did. Now when
youths were very promiscuous, it was not surprising that his
business thrived.

She came out of her reverie when
Wole stepped in front of an open door, which led into a wide room.
Sadness filled her heart when she saw Chike lying prone on the bed.
He wore no shirt and a thick bandage covered his entire right
shoulder. He looked unconscious as far as she could
tell.

His chest rose and fell so fast, as
if his heart and lungs were working at twice the normal capacity.
Rivers of sweat poured out of his skin soaking the
bedclothes.

“Is this how he was when you left
him?” She asked not taking her horrified gaze off Chike’s prone
form.

“No__” Wole began slowly, trying
extremely hard not to cry.

His mother sighed walking forward
and put her arm on his shoulder. A small crowd gathered around
Chike’s bed. His parents sat on the right side of the bed looking
at their son with worry on their faces. Chioma was shedding quiet
tears.

Alaba his geography teacher was
there. His face looked wan and drawn. The blue shirt and black
slacks he wore were slightly rumpled and a thick coat of dust
covered his shoes. Tunrayo and her mother stood a few feet away.
She gave Wole a weak smile as he and his mother entered the
room.

Anike (Wole’s mum) walked straight
to Chike’s parents with a sad and somber look on her face. She
dragged a reluctant Wole with her.

“I am really sorry Mr. and Mrs.
Chidozie.”

They both nodded without responding,
barely able to take their eyes off their son. She sighed, squeezing
Wole’s shoulder so hard that he almost screeched in
pain.

A wave of guilt flooded her insides
when she found herself feeling relieved that it was Chike and not
Wole lying prone on the hospital bed. Feeling shocked by her
thoughts she shook her head and listened to the low murmurs around
her.