Pulse Blogger: Healing part iv [short story]

Jermaine looked at the little girl. Immediately he did, flashes came back. She looked strange. Especially with those eyes.

Nonye tried to keep up with Jermaine’s long legged stride as he strode into the clinic the next morning. It wasn’t easy for her as she was at least three feet shorter than him. The clinic wasn’t busy that morning. It was almost empty save for the two nurses who chatted idly at the counter but stopped abruptly when Jermaine walked in.

‘’Josephine and Sade.. Sure you don’t want to let me in on your sweet gossip?’’ Jermaine asked sarcastically. He had warned them severally of the consequences their idle chatter would bring to their jobs.

‘’We are sorry sir’’ Josephine said, clearing her throat nervously.

Jermaine turned to Nonye, ‘’Yeah, what did you want to tell me?’’

‘’Let’s go into your office.’’

Jermaine gave her a queer look. He wondered what it was that could rattle her so much. She looked very nervous, her big eyes protruding and red, as if she hadn't gotten any sleep. He was glad she wanted to talk to him, at least he could get to the bottom of the situation. ‘’Okay, let’s go.’’ He headed to the direction of his office. Nonye followed behind.

He took his seat behind the small table in his office. The office contained the table, a small bed for patients and some charts educating people on how to understand the working of the various systems in the body. He brought out his laptop from his bang and placed it on the table in front of him. He relaxed in the chair and stared intently at Nonye.

‘’Sir,’’ Nonye said nervously, ‘’Did you hear about the burnt orphanage?’’

‘’Oh yeah, sad story. I saw the building, totally demolished. No one survived.’’ Jermaine said, his mind going back to when he came to the vicinity of the hospital. People were talking about it, he had to go see for himself. News reporters were all over the place. As fire service men brought out the charred bodies of the people in the orphanage. People kept on saying if they had come earlier, they would not have witnessed that amount of carnage.

They had to fight in order to prevent the fire from reaching other houses. Jermaine felt himself cringe as he watched them. Some people were crying. He didn't cry, all he felt was an overwhelming sense of loss. He pitied those children, orphaned early in life and dying in this kind of destructive manner.

‘’Yes sir.’’ Nonye said, her voice bringing him back to the present. ‘’I was asleep when a little child from the orphanage came to wake me up. She told me her name is Ocean and that she has nowhere else to go.’’

‘’So?’’ Jermaine had an inkling of where this was going, he wished Nonye would twist the story and not say what he feared she was going to say.

‘’So, I called the police and alerted them about the fire. Before they came, she begged me not to tell the police about her because she didn't want to stay in another orphanage. I took pity on her. Her eyes were so…’’ She said the last uncompleted phrase with jocundity in her eyes.

Jermaine interrupted, ‘’Where is she now? I hope not in my hospital?’’

Nonye began to shake visibly. She’d been a fool to think Jermaine would be on the same page with her about the kid. She just had to tell him anyway. Jermaine was a cold man, which made his anger worse than normal. ‘’I let her stay the night….’’

‘’What?’’ Jermaine said sharply.

‘’Only till this morning. I wanted you to come see her, if there’s anything we can do asides calling the police.’’

‘’How could you let a little kid control you like that Nonye? The police is, and still remains the best option’’

‘’Okay, just come and see her.” Nonye pleaded.

‘’What for?’’

‘’Please just come.’’ Nonye noticed him softening. ‘’Please?” She added.

“Okay.” He got up from the seat and followed a smiling Nonye to one of the wards.

They got into the ward and Nonye had an alarmed expression on her face. She had left the kid on the bed that morning, where was she now?

‘’I swear I left her here’’ Nonye said while bending to search under the bed. Where could the little minx have gone?

‘’I’m right here.’’ The familiar tiny voice said. Jermaine and Nonye looked in her direction. She was standing at the door, twirling her fingers.

Nonye smiled, ‘’Come on in dear.’’ She held out a hand.

Ocean walked in slowly, nervously and took Nonye’s hand. She knew the man who had come with nurse Nonye was the doctor. He was wearing a white long coat and he was the most handsome doctor she had ever seen. All the other ones the sisters at the orphanage took her to when she was sick were old and grumpy. She liked him on sight. But when she saw the cold manner with which he looked at her, she snuggled closer to Nonye’s body.  

Jermaine looked at the little girl. Immediately he did, flashes came back. She looked strange. Especially with those eyes. He saw Grace in her, Grace…The only person he’d seen with strange eyes. Now staring wide eyed at him, was a person who would give Grace a run for her money when it came to the intense beauty that shone from her striking blue eyes.

‘’Well?’’ Nonye said, freeing him from the transfixed state he was.

“What’s your name?’” He asked, his gaze still fixed on the girl.

‘’Ocean.’’ She responded quietly.

‘’Isn’t it a beautiful name?’’ Nonye said.

‘’Why don’t you want to go to the station?” Jermaine asked.

‘’I don’t like it there.” Ocean hoped the big doctor man would listen to her.

‘’You’ve been there before?’’

“Yes. The sisters in the orphanage thought I stole from another child. I tried to tell them I didn't but they won’t listen. So they took me there to punish me. I slept there.’’

‘’And they were unfriendly?” He asked.

“yes.” Ocean tried to suppress a shudder as she remembered that night, Some weeks a go.”

“Oh Jermaine she’s gone through a lot, just look how beautiful her eyes are.” Nonye said. It was obvious she adored the child. The love shone through her eyes. Jermaine was surprised. How did she fall in love with someone she barely knew so quickly?

Jermaine decided to ignore Nonye and her mushiness.”It’s probably ocular albinism. You should know it creates a certain kind of pigmentation in the eyes.’’ He refused to be touched by the beauty of it.

“I’m not an albino sir. I was born this way. Sister Esther said my mother was a prostitute who slept with a blue-eyed white man. I took his eyes but not his colour.”

Jermaine looked at Nonye who stared back at him. It was obvious they were thinking the same thing. How could so called reverend sisters be cruel to a kid as little as Ocean? Well, Jermaine had always seen them as bad examples for he could not count the number of times some of them had tried to seduce him in the guise of coming for checkups.

“You see you can’t stay here kid. This is a hospital but the police can get you a better orphanage.’’ He said.

It was as if a dam broke after Jermaine made that statement. Ocean ran to him, she looked up at him. Her eyes brimming with tears.  ‘’oh please sir.’’ She pleaded. ‘’Don’t make me go there. I can’t leave here.’’

“Why? This place is for sick people.”Jermaine asked, he tried to hide the fact that she looked exactly like Grace when she cried. It touched him, her tears touched a part of him he never knew existed.

‘’I’m just like them.” Ocean said, letting out a gasp.

“What do you mean child?’’ Nonye asked.

‘’I have cancer. And I have six months left to live.’’

Written by Ineh Precious

Ineh Precious is a student, writer and has love for all things that have to do with arts. She has no published book out there but controls a certain amount of followership on her instagram page. She is a writer to watch out for. You can follow her on instagram @the.witty.writer.

SOURCE - PULSE.NG posted by Campus94