The next morning was cold and serene. The dim lights of the hospital room seeped into Michael's eyes. The room was stuffy and faintly smelt of disinfectants.
He looked around the room and saw the white coloured walls. They were bare and ugly. He could hear the regular beeping of the heart monitor and the faint dripping sound of the IV fluid drip. As he tried to get up on his feet, he whimpered with pain.
He couldn't feel his right leg.
His greatest fears had come true. He had always wanted to visit the Lagos State Teaching Hospital as a student or doctor not a patient. He tried to remember how he got here but he couldn't.
The last thing he remembered was the flashy lights of a fast approaching car when he was crossing the road. He had been in an accident —he realised. Faintly he heard the voices of the nurses behind the door.
"Help, help … Get me out of here. Anyone."
He gently pulled away the plaster on his hand.
The door opened and a nurse rushed in with Tosin following behind. She quickly took his pulse reading and checked the IV drip.
"Good morning, Michael. I'm Doyin… I will be checking up on you regularly. Your pulse reading is fine. Don't worry we will get you on your feet in no time. We take really good care of our patients here in LASUTH. I will leave you two to it then."
She dressed the drip stand and walked out of the room. The sound of the shut door left the room in an awkward silence. Tosin pulled the nearby chair across the floor to break the silence.
"How are you feeling now?"
"Nothing. I can't feel my leg."
He tried lifting his bandaged right leg and whimpered.
"Stop it. You'll only hurt yourself the more. You have had enough pain for one day."
He didn't utter a word.
"I rushed you to the hospital as soon as I saw you lying on the road. You were in a terrible car accident. Unluckily, the stupid driver got away before I could come out of the bar. I would have made him pay."
He gathered all his thoughts into one sentence.
"How long have you been here?" He said in a flat tone.
"Since last night. I couldn't sleep through the whole night. I won't leave until your mom arrives."
"Where is she?"
"She will be here any moment. The hospital called her about an hour ago."
Michael's voice was brittle.
"What happened to me? Am I gonna be okay?"
He turned his gaze sharply towards Tosin.
Tosin looked away from him. "In the accident, your right leg was em… badly damaged. That's all I know."
"Will I be fine?"
He had this look in his eyes that could melt a candle wax in a split second.
"Look me in the eyes T."
She didn't move or say anything.
"I'm talking to you T. Will I be alright? Answer me." He was completely engulfed in his emotions.
"I don't know, okay. I don't have the answers to that question."
Tiny drops of tears slowly started to course down her cheeks. She grabbed a tissue and wiped it off.
"Look Michael, I'm really sorry, I just wanted you to have a little fun. I didn't mean for this to happen. I know I shouldn't have left you behind. It's all my fault. I'm really really sorry."
She went over to him.
"Get out. Get out now!!...Please."
Tears were starting to form in Michael's eyes.
Tosin got up and wiped her face with her black handkerchief. She opened the door to leave and saw Rachel walking towards her. She didn't know who she was but assumed she was Michael's mother. Quickly, she walked past Rachel with her face down.
"Baby is that you?" Rachel asked as she ran towards him.
She flung her bag onto the chair and burst into tears.
"What happened dear? I have been worried sick the whole night. How did this happen? And… why is your leg bandaged?"
He refused to speak.
She grabbed his face and cried.
"I'm gonna go get the doctor, someone needs to explain what happened to my boy. She left the ward to get the doctor. She arrived a few minutes later with the doctor and a nurse accompanying him. Rachel wore a worried expression as she watched the doctor do some quick check-ups.
"Talk to me, doctor. Is my son going to be alright?"
The doctor slung his stethoscope over his shoulders and turned over to Rachel.
"Can we step outside?"
By this time, the nurse had already administered a sedative. Rachel followed the doctor out the room, shut the door behind her, leaving Michael with the nurse inside.
"Your son… Michael sustained a couple injuries during the accident, including a severe fracture to his right femur and a torn ACL. Unfortunately, this means he may have a hard time walking properly going forward. These kinds of injuries are common among athletes—was he one?"
"Yes… he actually plays for his school's soccer team. He just had his first match in months just yesterday."
"Well he won't be able to play for a while. However, you can have him undergo surgery to get him back on his feet. He won't be able to perform physically demanding activities with his feet like soccer… at least not until he fully recovers. Unfortunately, we don't have the necessary facilities to perform the surgery here in Nigeria. You can fly him abroad and have the surgery, if you can afford it."
"Money is not the problem. I can afford it. Anything for my sweet boy."
"Your son is a lucky lad. Most of our patients who come in as victims of car accidents usually don't get this lucky. Some end up with paraplegia or worse, unfortunately many don't even make it to the hospital. If that girl hadn't rushed him here, things could have gotten way worse."
"Sorry doctor, who is the girl?"
"You didn't see her? The tall, tan-skinned girl in the hoodie?"
Rachel quickly remembered walking past her as she made her down the hallway. "I didn't meet her."
"Oh well, I'll be in my office then. I wish him a quick recovery."
Rachel slowly walked into Michael's ward, her heart heavy with distress. She couldn't stop wondering where and how Michael had gotten into the car accident. The girl she'd seen on her way to the ward—surely she had something to do with what had happened to her son. Never had she imagined that she'd see him in such a condition.
About three minutes later, Michael had regained consciousness. He reached for the glass of water resting on the drawer next to him, when the glass fell and shattered into a million pieces.
This noise woke up Rachel. She rushed over to him.
"You're up. I thought you'd never wake up."
Michael got up and sat on the bed. He reached for the other glass and poured himself a glass of water.
"Well you thought wrong."
He slowly gulped the water.
"Besides what are you doing here anyways. Aren't you supposed to be at work or something?"
"Enough. Please don't start now. I've put up with your nonsense long enough but not today. I'm your mother and you can't change that fact. I won't stand you speaking to me in that tone anymore. I literally gave birth to you. Do you have any idea the kind of pain I was put through those long nine months? It was unbearable —but I did it because I loved you even before you were born."
She went closer and grabbed his hands.
"I know I haven't been the best mother to you but you have to understand how I felt. It wasn't easy for me when I was denied custody of you. Believe me when I say that I really tried —but it just wasn't fair on your dad. I…"
She paused abruptly and looked upward.
"You what? Why did you stop?"
She turned her gaze back to him.
"Michael, this is a bad time to have this conversation. How about you recover first, then we'll talk about it? Please, cooperate with me so we can ensure you have a safe, speedy recovery. I promise I will explain everything to you later."
He didn't say anything but just finished his glass and set it down.