I am alot of things

An angry woman,

A horrible horrible friend and sister.

A snub... Errr....okay, not really a snub. I am definitely not a snub

But then, does any of this qualify me as someone who should enter some weirdo  killer's bucket list?

I highly doubt that. It can't be my sparkling personality that makes me a target

It has to be something else I've done. And boy, I'll need magnifying glasses to look through that list, cos, d list go big pass dictionary.

Where do I start my suspicion from?  The skeletons from my past? Or the ghosts hounding my present.?

Moreover, the person after me, has to be the same person after  Shimba and Mrs Anene. It's most likely a person we all three know, and may have possibly wronged.

To know who that person is, we all have to sit together and go over the people we know, and find the connecting links

Suddenly, the smell of urine that has been made old and golden,by the heat of the sun wafted through the window and straight to my nose,  pressing the breaks on my million dollar analysis.

The hunger I had tried to suppress  by distracting myself with all that  thinking,  morphed into nausea.

The smell was like a plague, tormenting me, just like the new paranoia I developed, having to stand guard at  the entrance to our private ward, battling, sleep, mosquitoes and fatigue. Not to mention the stench and the irritating non stop buzz of the hospital.

I looked at Dariya who was playing with her phone, that Shimba had brought from my house. His boys had found it and given it to David, who in turn, gave it to him to give me, along with my own phone and the seventeen thousand naira  they found under my bathroom tile.

If they were thorough enough to find what is left of my entire wealth, under that hidden tile, who knows how well they must have scrutinized my inner wears

I thought of mummy John and her son. As much as she's  annoying, I still hoped this trouble didn't affect her. I would have to go there and  make sure. I wouldn't go to that extent if not for little John.

My stomach churned again in hunger.  I thought of calling Shimba to bring me something, but he had already done enough for me. David had been acting very cold towards me and I don't even know why.

I needed to get out of this hospital room, and buy some food, this general hospital never provides that. But most importantly I needed a bath, I was disgusting myself with the smell of my body. I could leave for a while,

But the fear of what could happen if I left Dariya alone for even a minute, was what had me still seated in the exhausting white plastic chair.

I could never bring myself to stop imagining what would have happened if that attempted killer had strangled her a minute longer, or cut her a little deeper, or punched her a little harder,

Damaging one of those important organs with fancy names, like oesophagus or spleen, or even her heart.

I held my head in my hands, mentally chanting words I didn't believe, words like
"It wasn't my fault" and "there was nothing I could have done about it"

The hospital door creaked open and a dark skinned, short, chubby nurse walked in.  With a silver tray, she looked to be in her fifties,

"Good morning ma" i stood up as I greeted, taking the opportunity to stretch my  exhausted body that now felt like an elephants leg.

"My dear,how are you?" She asked me with a gentle smile

"I'm fine ma"

"You look really tired, you should go home and rest" she said as she dropped the tray on the half rusted metal bedside cabinet in the room

"How is baby doing" she asked as she placed the back of her palm against Dariya's forehead and then her cheeks.

" She didn't complain through the night, except for the neck brace. She said it's itchy and uncomfortable, and she barely slept" I updated the nurse

She used her thumb to pull down Dariya's water line, checking her eyes for what I don't know, I'm no medical personnel

"Have you given her anything to eat"

"No ma" I shrugged

"No, you need to get her something to eat, and for yourself too, you look pale. Did you get prescriptions at all?"

I nodded at her, and then quickly fished for the prescription sheet Dr Christy had given me, and I handed it to her.

She pulled out a small framed glasses from her breast pocket, it had been sitting there with her blue and red pen,  and she wore them and read through the prescriptions

"Did you get all of them?" She asked, pulling down her glasses and looking at me from the space above the glasses

I shook my head, saying no

"Why not? There's a pharmacy opposite the hospital gate. She's supposed to have started taking them already"

I felt my shoulders slump, she looked at the prescriptions again then looked at me.

"What about your parents?" She asked me

How do I start telling her this whole story?  That I considered my mother dead, and that I would never call my father for anything?

"They are dead" I said "I'm her guardian I said and I noticed Dariya glaring at me with a frown.

I glared back at her, daring her to open her mouth and speak the truth. She rolled her eyes and looked away

The nurse looked at me and shook her head, not out of pity but in a manner that said she understood my predicament. She sighed and handed me back the prescription

She went back to the stainless tray she came with and prepared an injection,  Dariya looked at me frightened

Grown woman who was very afraid of injections,

"Sally" she croaked out frightfully  stretching out her arm for me to take.

"Stay quietly, it's ordinary injection, it's not painful" I said without moving towards her,

"I don't want" she said again, the nurse looked at me and looked at her and then seemed to find it amusing

"Baby you are afraid of injections?" She cooed gently at Dariya, she seemed to think Dariya and I were little children,

I do admit that I have been mistaken for a teenager a few times before, but Dariya, although she's younger, she's bigger than me and even SLIGHTLY taller. Emphasis on the 'slightly'

This nurse seemed to still see us like children,

She capped the syringe and dropped it, and walked to Dariya, gently stroking her hair

"Listen, injections are not painful, it's a very very small needle, and it's me who will give you the injection and I will do my best to make sure it's not painful okay?"  The nurse said and tapped her shoulder reassuringly and then turned to me

" You, Come and hold her hand and give her moral support" she said and winked at me. Transferring information that I immediately grasped

I went and held Dariya, she turned her whole body towards me grabbing my waist in a hug, I held her tightly making sure  her arms would not escape from my grip, and that I could hold her in place for the injection.

The moment the nurse inserted the injection, Dariya stiffened, and before anything could be said, it was over, she removed he needle and it was done

" You see, it didn't hurt very much did it?" The nurse asked

"It did" Dariya confirmed with a frown while still rubbing the spot, the nurse laughed and I let her go,

"Don't worry, you're a strong girl, next time, injections won't hurt you" the woman said with a smile.

I was sick and tired of sitting but I was weak so I went back to the seat. The nurse had Dariya lay on her back as she poured a white powdered substance on Dariya's wound.

Finished she patted her cheeks, "strong girl" she said

"Don't worry, you people will soon be discharged, but you still need to go and rest before then, at least bathe and change so that you will be refreshed. You know you can't take care of someone if you are too weak to take care of your own self right?". She asked

I looked down at my laps and didn't reply. 

She threw the injection bottles and syringes back into her tray and said a sweet bye bye to us as she left.

I looked at Dariya who was still rubbing the injection spot

"It's okay na, do you want to dent your bumbum?" I asked, she frowned at me

"Dead? Sally why?" She asked  I knew exactly what she was asking and she knew my reasons for saying that

"Okay, so I should have told her that our mother abandoned us and that our dad doesn't care about us?" I yelled.  I didn't even know I would yell at her like that. Was I still very  pained by their actions?

"She didn't" Dariya said. 

"She didn't what? Abandon us? Okay so where has she been for the past 7 years?  By your side?  Please, just deal with your injections and stop trying to annoy me" I said and turned my seat to face the wall so that she would only see my back.

"She has been calling me"  boom!!!
That was it. The bombshell Dariya dropped on me. I knew she still found it painful to talk and I should have just let her be but this was a heavy one. I just hoped she wasn't talking about our mum

"Who" I asked, I was yelling again. Please Dariya Dennis, don't mistakenly mention our mum, because all hell could break loose

"Mummy" she said and I jumped up from my seat.

" you better stop that expensive joke this very minute, because you will not like what I will do to you oh"

Suddenly the door bursted open, it was a woman in a white scarf and a big brown gown that could fit in two more people, even though it stopped at her ankle.

" Kuna ihu sosai"   she reprimanded in hausa, telling us that we were yelling too much, she had two plastic plates, covered with another plastic plate, and arranged  on top of each other, indicating that there was most probably, food inside,

Well, there was most definitely food inside because I could perceive it, and I assure you my stomach is a traitor, it churned loudly

She stared from me to Dariya and back, very sternly, like the way Mrs Anene used to do when she found Chizzy in my office when she should be in her own office

I silently went back to my seat, wishing she would just leave before she killed me with the aroma of her food

After a few minutes of intense glaring, and realizing that she couldn't pin us to the wall with her eyes, she walked in, and dropped the plates on the half rusted metal bedside cabinet in the room

"Nurse Angelina ne ta aiko maku da abincin, "  she said, informing us that a Nurse Angelina had sent her to bring the food for us. I suspected the nurse who had checked Dariya earlier  but I had to confirm since I didn't know her name

"Nurse Angelina?" I asked with a slight frown

"Ta zo ta gan ku dazu ai,  ko sunan ki ba Dariya ba ne?"  She started heading back to the plates of food and I stopped her

She had said that it was the nurse who had checked on Dariya earlier who sent the food, why was she wanting to take it back?

I quickly stopped her

"Gaya ma ta, mun gode sosai" I said, quickly, asking her to thank the nurse for us. She glared at me as she walked out.

I waited till she left before I went to check the food. Fried rice and plantain.

I turned and saw Dariya smiling, food! The Joy of Life,  and that nurse, she is amazing

I handed Dariya a plate and I sat with mine,

I saw her struggle to swallow the food. 

And it reminds me of all the times I had sore throat and would find it very painful to swallow,  and painful not to swallow. And I felt her pain.

She dropped the food after three spoons and I had to force her to eat.

I hadn't forgotten what she had said before the attendant came in.  For now, we needed to eat,

I can't risk fainting on this disgusting floor.

Moreover I needed strength to shout at her,and she needed strength in general.

***Hello you beautiful beautiful person.  I'm sorry it took so long to update this short chapter Don't give up on Awakened. Sally maybe going through a lot now, and she doesn't like to talk about it,but she will and you will get a clearer picture as to why she is always ready to burst out angrily.

Please I'd love to hear from you. About any and everything. Concerning this book or not.

I'd love to hear your comments and have your votes.
To all those who keep dropping comments, I love you and appreciate you. And I'm sure I don't say it enough. Pls stay safe and sanitize often.😘😘