THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
CHAPTER 113
BY SOLOMON ADINYA
“Madam I’ll advice you to take your husband home . At this point there’s nothing any hospital can do for him , from the scans we’ve carried out on him , his organs are all damaged , his kidney is gone , his liver is gone , his intestines has decayed .” A doctor wearing wearing a white lab coat over a blue long sleeve shirt , red tie and black trousers with a black Oxford shoe said .
“Please Na doctor help my husband, we cannot just take him home to go and die Na , even if it’s a dog will you not try your best ?” Ene said wiping tears off her face .
“Madam I’m just advising you to save your money, you have spent one million naira in three weeks ,I am the head physician , I see how difficult is it’s for you to raise the money , but then you can leave him here if you want to .
“The doctor said , they had rushed Simon to the Otukpo General Hospital, they couldn’t handle his situation , he was referred to FMC Makurdi and there, the doctors couldn’t understand how he was still hanging on to the thread of life .
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
Ogwuche who had regained weight ,and stood like his former self , arms folded over his chest , understood with his colleague, though it had felt like a Hundred years since he practiced , he didn’t feel like a doctor anymore , but knew the doctor was saying the truth .
“Mama we have to move papa home , I don’t think he has much days left .” Ogwuche said , Ene looked at him with teary puppy eyes .
“Ogwuche this is your father oh , how can you say that? No matter how bad you feel , you shouldn’t talk like a stranger , whatever he might have done to you, he’s still your father let’s try and save him . I won’t take my husband home .”Ene said crying .
“Mama Papa is suffering , he has not been able to close his eyes for ten days , see the odour coming out of his body.”Ogwuche said pointing to the ward , over four beds where removed from around Simon’s bed , the stench that emanated from his body was noxious and putrid .
“Mama Papa is just suffering , maybe he needs us to take him back home , so he can go home .” Ogwuche said .
“Madam it would be easier taking him now that he’s alive , it might cost more to take his corpse.”
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
The man said . “I cannot ask you to leave the hospital , if you decide to keep him , it’s in your rights .” The doctor said before he left .
Ogwuche and Ene returned back to Simon’s bed , Ene was crying , Simon had swollen up so much , that a stinking liquid was pouring out from all of his body , each touch hot him like hell , he couldn’t move his body , he had been praying for death .
That same evening Simon called Ene to his bedside.
“Ene you… have… tried… thank you .” he struggled to pronounce each word .
“Please… take me back to Aga..dagba… I am not… going to make it .” He mumbled staring at the faces that stared at him from afar , holding their noses , some wore nose mask and those who didn’t have nose mask used their handkerchief.
“You… You have been… a good wife ,I am sorry for the times… I treated you wrong .The times I beat you up… please take me back … back home… I need to die in my home .” He said tears surging out of his eyes .
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
“Keep quiet Simon you’re not going to die .” Ene said praying with her white Rosary . “You will not die , Jesus will heal you .”She said manifesting faith,but Simon shook his head .
“The pain … the pain … the pain is too much oooo. please.” Ene sat beside her husband all night crying , Ogwuche went to seat outside , he had been trying to force sympathy from his heart for his father , but couldn’t, he wondered if he was wicked.
He wondered why he wasn’t worried , he remembered the beatings he received as a kid from the hands of his father , he remembered how happy he was when his uncle came to take him away , when he was just ten years old , he remembered the few times they returned home , his father would berate him for not being man enough by letting other boys have the best of in fisticuffs.
He would make him fight on even when he was clearly disadvantaged,this kids were stronger than him .
He also remembered how he had made him farm for him ,and he would sell everything and not give him a dime, just because he had used his money to marry a problem into his life .
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
Ogwuche slept outside , his mother’s wrapper wasn’t enough to cover all of his body . He had been enduring the harsh colds at night , and escaping the eyes of his colleagues who were big doctors in the wards , he couldn’t explain his situation , so he avoided them .
The way the doctors stared at him with pity , he knew his information must have flown all around the hospital. The metal bench was freezing cold .
Ene continued praying all night till morning holding her husband’s swollen hand , in the morning Simon sent for Ogwuche. “My son please… go and …get a …vehicle, I don’t want to sleep in this hospital today , take me back to my house .” Simon ordered his son.
“Okay papa I’ve heard you .” Was all Ogwuche said , he stepped out and went to the garage , he saw a vehicle , when the driver saw the state at wish Simon’s body was , he asked that they paid seventy thousand naira ,after so much begging they agreed on sixty . Simon was discharged from the hospital.
The driver tied his face with a bandana , it was tug of war to put him inside the back of the bus , all the seats were removed from the Hiace bus, a mat was first spread and a blanket on the floor , before the nurses moved him with a gurney into through the boot of the bus he was loaded into the vehicle, he cried at each touch , it felt like a thousand needles were piercing his body.
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
Silently he reminisced on the life he had lived , he saw the trees , the sun and the bridges from his lying position , he knew he would never see them again , so he cherished the beauty, Ene sat with him in the back of the vehicle, Ogwuche couldn’t stand the stench he sat with the driver in from .
He remembered how it all started over twenty two years earlier , he had arrived at his father’s land just beside the market Square, there was his uncle with men , men with tapes taking measurements of a land he didn’t own , four lands had gone with the wind .
“Uncle Mark this is our land you cannot take it Na , because you have money you want to seize all our family land ?”Simon asked his uncle angrily, the elders had adviced that he should leave four lands that his father’s step brother had encroached on ,he couldn’t take the blatant disregard anymore. “uncle take your men and leave our land o.” Simon cried bitterly.
“Simmon what are you going to do with all this land ? Do you have money to develop it? You’re poor.” His uncle jeered at him ,as his guards laughed . “At your age no house to your name , no car , you’re just a secondary school dropout, just impregnating all the single women from here to Toronto , giving birth to bastard children . You have to let me use this land , call any amount I’ll pay you and your useless brother Agada .” Simon’s father’s step brother said .
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
“Uncle this land is not for sale , you have taken the one at primary school , you took the one near the Church, now you want to take this one again ?” Simon asked furiously.
“What can you do ? do you have money to develop it ? is it not better that I build it for the family? Ogar was my elder brother his property is mine ,I’ll pay you small something so you can leave the land .”
Mark had said to Simon , he brought out a bundle of fifty naira notes and threw it on the ground .
THE NIGHT WIFE CHAPTERS 111-120
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