Loveline! Loveline!
That loveline of a girl, she acts like she is deaf. Someone keep shouting on top of his voice, she wont answer.
I sat down, my mind was not at rest, there was something bothering me, i had no idea what it was. But i had a very scary feeling. I have never felt this way before.
Loveline dropped the two bottles of hero she was holding, everyone turned and asked what is it. She let out a loud scream as she pointed at the floor filled with blood.
Ojumuekwe rushed oompa and tilted him to his side. He had already turned cold. Someone has stabbed him.
Ojumuekwe picked him up onto his shoulder. Oompa was tall and well built. Ojumuekwe couldn't carry him all alone, so francis pulled up his keke close to madam lagos shop and Ojumuekwe dropped him into it, as they sped off to ahukanna memorial hospital.
Loveline shuddered in fear and awe of what has just happened.
Her mother called her and and tried consoling her, but she yanked herself out of her mothers grip and ran towards the hospital.
Loveline took a liking to oompa right from the first day he entered their shop and screamed her name.
Oompa was the only one allowed to scream her name, she always insisted.
On a good day she would sit down beside oompa while he drinks and she will just stare at him.
Madam Lagos customers will tease her that oompa was his inlaw.
Oompa never cared about what they said. At all times he always seem to be lost in deep thoughts while he gulps down the numerous bottles of hero till he passed out.
Oompa is a thug, a gangster, a thief and all bad things any guy can be, Loveline's mother warned her daughter.
This is going to be the very first and last time that i will see you with that boy. He is no good for you, i am telling you ooo. I don't like him at all. My daughter listen to me. She warned sternly.
This was not the first time Loveline was warning her about oompa. She just sat there fumbling with her clothes and not paying heed to what her mother was saying.
As she ran towards that hospital. She felt her heart sinking. She could feel it.
The love of her life was dead. She suddenly stopped dead in her track and tears flowed from her eyes. She tried to brace herself but she couldn't calm herself down. The pain in her heart was so much and so unbearable.
Whatever gave her the strength to continue, she walked briskly past the hospital gateman. She rushed into the waiting room.
Ojumekwe and Francis understood the situation. All madam Lagos regular customers know the relationship between loveline and oompa.
She peeped into the emergency room and she didn't understand what was happening there. Suddenly a doctor flung the theatre door open.
He needs blood transfusion. Ojumekwe and francis looked at each other. Loveline looked at the doctors the urgency in his eyes suggests that oompa can only be saved with that blood transfusion.
Check my blood. Loveline chipped in.
Ojumekwe held her hand. Think about what you are doing.
She freed herself from his grasp. Save him was all she said.
The doctor took her into another room, Ojumekwe told Francis to rush back home and call loveline's mother.
Few minutes later francis came back to the hospital with loveline's mother. When she heard what her daughter was about to do. She put her wrapper around her waist and rushed off with francis.
By the time, they got to the hospital, loveline has already collapsed. She has been slightly anaemic this month and was even on medication.
The nurses rushed loveline, and tried resuscitating her, but to no avail. The doctor that came in for night duty, walked in immediately.
He was briefed on what was happening.
Loveline's mother was screaming and wailing outside. Ojumekwe and francis tried to get her to keep be a calm, but she went on and on lamenting and regretting why she started beer parlour business.
Her daughter will still be hale and hearty now if she didn't meet this wicked boy oo.
Mintues turned into hours, there was no news about either loveline or oompa. The waiting room was beginning to fill up. Madam lagos customers rushed to the hospital to console her when they heard the news.
It turned into endless hours. It was around 11 pm. That the doctor manging loveline came out. He took her to his office and explained the obvious.
Loveline was in coma, but no one knows when she will wake up.
She was anaemic, traumatised and in shock. All she needs is prayers, the doctor suggested.
She was anaemic, traumatised and in shock. All she needs is prayers, the doctor suggested.
But doctor i have just one question, she will still wake up abi.
Hopefully, by Gods grace.
She found hope in the doctors words.
And went home.
And went home.
All the people in the waiting room left. When the nurses calmed them down that loveline's situation was more of like a bed rest situation and she will be fine.
They all were glad she was alive and they all left, forgetting oompa.
Ojumekwe has already reached the door when he remembered oompa. He asked francis to go home and he went back inside and slept on the hospital couch.
The nurse woke me up. I stirred and recognised where i was. Is oompa awake, is he OK now.
Not exactly, come and see the doctor.
As i walked with the nurse down the long corridor. I wanted to go back.
I wasn't going to be responsible for what happened to him or foot his bills.
Then i remembered how i met oompa.
Bazuka was his name, he used to moved cannabis around the neighbourhood. Oompa was his second in command. But i was from another neighbourhood. And my own oga sent me to move something in their neighbourhood. We knew ourselves and our territory. Immediately i entered, bazuka sent someone to call me. I hid the goods i was carrying. He harassed me severely and threatened to kill me.
As he pointed the short gun at me. I thought he was insane. How senseless!? The boys use to move goods in or around the neighbourhood too.
I was pissed. Oompa just sat in the corner watching. He didn't utter a word. Then bazuka pulled the gun. I was going to just die senselessly. I stood there. His hands were on the trigger.
Suddenly someone pushed me. He collected the gun from his hand. He shot it up and banged the handled of the gun on his head. Bazuka passed out. There was trouble.
Oompa, screamed quiet!
Now everyone, run or remain here and fight.
I am out.
This meant if bazuka wakes up there will be war and he doesn't intend fighting.
He left. I struggled to stand up and run as all bazukas boys ran. But some remained with him.
It was a night of terror. Bazuka woke up and declared on oompa and any one that followed him.
Oompa went into hiding, i went back to my neighbourhood. But my master didnt take it lightly lightly with me. He chased me out. I was left with no place to go.
I also went into hiding, it was all because of me that everyone is in trouble. That was when i bumped into oompa few days later after those nights of terror.
I followed him to where he stayed. He insisted that i left. That my life was in danger as i stayed with him.
But i pitched my tent with him. And never looked back.
The following week bazuka was arrested by police. We thought we were finally safe.
So while all these horrid scene were flashing through my mind on that hospital corridors. I knew i owed this man so much for rescuing me.
I walked into the doctors office.
He was a stout looking man. As he sat on his chair i could see his legs dangling off the seats. He adjusted his weird looking glasses. And started one of the longest sermons i have ever heard in my life.
All whatever he said i cant remember but he startled me when he said. Your friend is dieing.
What?!
Why?!
How doctor!?! , I asked desperately for answers.
The point is just that, there is hope if he gets bone marrow transplant.
He is suffering from aplastic anaemia. And he needs the transplant as soon as possible.
So you need to contact any of his relatives you know, for possible match.
He doesn't have any relative!
Now this is going to be a very difficult situation.
We will keep him under watch with us until you come up with a better suggestions as to saving his life. For now i need to go home.
He stood up.
I left the doctors office more devastated than when i entered. What do i do now. Maybe oompa would just have to wake up and make this decision by himself.
I went home, had my bath, and then came into the room to clean my body, my phone rang.
Hello is this ojumuekwe
Yes it is.
Yes it is.
It is a nurse from ahukanna Memorial hospital.
Yes, it me
Oompa is awake .
What!!!
I dropped the call, quickly wore a polo and shorts. Half way the streets i remembered i wasn't wearing my boxers.
I just couldn't go back.
I hurried towards the hospital.
I rushed into the ward.
Oh boy! , i am so glad you are awake.
What happened.
I told him everything, he blamed me for letting loveline donate blood for him.
I deserve to die and no one else should be hurt because of me.
He answered and turned in his bed facing the wall.
I left the room, if he already feels he doesn't deserve to be loved.
What will happen if i tell him he is dieing.
So i decided to keep the information to myself.
The next day i went to visit oompa, he wasn't in his room,
Where is oompa i asked the nurse downstairs at the reception. He is at love line's room.
I went there.
What i saw scared the demons off me.
Loveline was dead!!!
Loveline's mother was with her daughter when oompa was wheeled into the room. Loveline stirred when oompa touched her.
But few minutes later her body began turning cold. Her colour was pale. She rushed and called the doctors. Then the doctors confirmed she had died.
Oompa sat there sobbing. I have never seen a man who sobbed this much.
I feel sick even in my soul. I never Loved this girl or showed any liking towards her but she gave her life for me. And her blood flows through my veins.
I feel so so sick.
I wheeled him to his room and decided to sleep there in case he tried something funny at night.
The next morning, i went home to take my bath.
When i got back in the afternoon, oompa was looking too glommy and depressed.
Why didn't you tell me?
Was what he asked immediately i walked into the room.
Tell you what? I asked in amazement.
That i was dieing too.
There is hope.
What type of hope was what he asked sneering at me.
He called me three times.
Go home, raise up my mattress you Will see a neatly sown part of the mattress. Cut it open, take the money and use it wisely.
Stop taking alcohol, start clean and fresh and of course in a new town.
Leave here today, right now.
I knew this was it. He was giving me his entire savings and he was giving up on life.
I didn't know his life story, but all i know was that he was an orphan hausa boy trained by an igbo woman.
I cried and begged him to change his mind.
But he was firm and has already made up his mind.
I stayed there till 8pm. I bid him good bye. I was heading home and then to lagos state as i promised him.
What else am i living for. I lived with the hope of finding my parents but i would die before them.
Ajuwaya brought the goods i sent him for. This will give me a peaceful transit to the other side. Heaven or hell. I am tired of this world.
I held my mothers rosary. This was the only thing from my past i had
A brown rosary partially burnt.
It was my only belonging i kept throughout my life. My mother told me to keep it safe that it was my only identity.
I never understood what she meant.
My mother died when i was 10 years,she was so good to me. She died of a strange sickness but in her last breath. She said some weird things that i never bothered to kind of till today. She said she wasn't really my mother!
She told the strangest story that gave me the shudders.
It was during the war, they were escaping the city of kano. They were fleeing in a 911 when they stopped to pee. She heard the cry of a baby. She searched the surrounding. She didnt see any baby. Burnt corpses layed scattered everywhere.
When she was about giving up, she saw a burnt corpses covering a baby. The corpses was of the likes of a mother. She placed her both hands beneath the baby's head and then layed to cover the baby but due to blast all her back and intestine were burnt.
So she picked up the baby and ran. And they fleed to the east. Were she raised him like his own son, since she lost her twins in one of the blast.
But her motherly sense told her that the woman wasnt her mother
She told me to hold on to that rosary and never lose it. Just maybe one day i will find her mother.
Strange story i figured, she saved me after a woman saved me from a bomb blast. But she thinks the other woman wasnt my mother
Well it didnt matter anymore. I had lost the will to live. I mixed the the potion. I was reluctant to drink it anyway.
There is this saying that when a man stares death in the face, he longs for life.
I only wished they will be another way i would see things.
I gulped down the horrible tasting potion. I held on to my rosary. I slowly felt my breath shortening. A sever pain tucked my heart. I surrendered to the pain.
I had passed on, then suddenly i heard the door open. I am his sister.
What! I went blank and i think i died.
I woke up, in a hospital........
What happened?
Where am i?
I looked around, i was in a very fancy hospital, the last time i remember i was in a hospital but it was not as fancy as this one.
There were a lot stringes and needles and lots and lots of equipments. I tried to lift myself up but i felt this sharp pain in my shoulder.
One of the equipment started beeping. A nurse rushed inside. She was a white nurse was my first observations.
Where am i!
Calm down, i will explain soon enough.
Then a young girl and a woman walked inside.
I will leave you with them, she nurse looked at me reassuringly.
I felt safer with the nurse than with the two strange women.
Who are you and where am i.
Let me explain, the young lady walked closer to me, sat down on the bed and touched my arm.
I pulled away quickly like i was electrocuted.
That woman over there is your mother. When you were just 18 months old, her house help kidnapped you from the house.
Then there was a bomb blast. By the time we identified her, you were no where to be found.

Then i asked, but how does she know i am her son. The rosary.
It sounded funny to me, then she pulled out a brown rosary just like mine from her neck. I swear it was identical.
This rosary is only sold in st Anthony parish padua. When your father travelled there he got it for every member of the House including you.
So where is he now?
He was a victim of one of the blasts.
I was speechless.
I neede time to process all these new information.
I had a family, a mother and a sister.
Mercy had found me
But do i deserve this second chance..