Mud splashed on my blue jean. 'Waka' I shouted at the man who was sitting comfortably in his Honda highlander jeep. He didn't even notice how furious I was which infuriated me more. My day really wasn't going to get any better I thought. It was going to rain soon. The clouds were already looking moody. People where walking helter skelter trying to reach their destination before the rain begins to pour. I was waiting for a bus at the junction. I had been waiting for about 15minutes when a woman about 30years old walked up to me. She looked desperate, tired and unkept.
'Aunty please help me, I am going to owerri and I need transport money. I don't have money. Please aunty help me'. I felt pity for her, I really wanted to help her but I didn't have enough money. I pretended I didn't hear her and went on to press the buttons of my handset like I was sending an important message. She lurked around for a while then she moved to a man standing beside me. Whether he gave her money or not I didn't find out because a bus came along and I struggled into it like it was or do or die affair.
'This girl you are a tiger' the boy sitting beside me in the bus said. I didn't bother replying. What I really wanted to say was 'Please shut up you bloody idiot' .I was cranky and uncomfortable. The woman sitting beside me was fat. She took up the so much space, and to make matters worse a little girl was sitted on her laps. The little girl was carrying a bag on her laps also. The bus was really jam packed
'Madam you go pay for dis pikin wey u lap' the bus conductor said to the woman.
'Pay gini' She shouted 'isi adiro gi mma,your head is not correct' .She hissed like a calabar woman.
'Madam na your sef u dey tel, your money na #100, beta come down now,if u no go pay' the bus conductor told the woman who was already adjusting her wrapper in preparation for a fight.
The driver of the bus, turned to talk to the woman 'Madam abeg pay your money', before he could finish the bus hit a stagnant trailer. 'Bang' and someone shouting 'Jesus!' was the last thing I heard. The last thing I saw was the little girl the fat woman had on her laps, hitting her head on the rod separating the drivers seat from the passengers seat.
I woke up, I heard noise from every corner. 'This one is alive' one man said. My vision was blur. There was a sharp pain in my stomach. I wanted to sit up but I couldn't. There was blood mixed with sand all over my body. Then I saw the little girl lying on the floor, her body smeared with blood, her skirt was no longer on her waist. She looked dead. She was holding hands with a headless body. The woman who was preparing to fight with the bus conductor no longer had a head, she no longer had a life. Lifeless bodies were all around me. I was confused. Why so much blood. The sight was horrenduous. I went into coma again.
I woke up again, I saw a woman standing beside. Wearing white, my vision was blur. I couldn't be in heaven, her white overall wasn't white enough.
'Nurse I don't know this people from Adam and I brought them here out of pity, I don't know where you expect me to get deposit from'
'Oga they can't get doctors to treat them if you don't deposit money. You have to deposit money before we begin treatment, if not they would die. If you don't have the money, leave me let me face other people, as you can see this place is jampacked.'
The nurse said. She was getting very impatient.
'Madam Nurse, I don't have deposit, God knows I have tried by bringing them to the hospital, with my car and fuel.' He walked away, the nurse hissed and walked away also, leaving as hanging between life and death.
I could taste my blood in my mouth. The man lying beside me groaned in pains. I wanted to help him but I needed help myself. Another nurse passed us, a doctor passed us. Everyone passed us without stopping for a glance. We all easily blended into the choking number of people who were lying helplessly, sick, and agonised in the waiting room of the hospital. I could no longer hear the groaning from the man. I knew he was dead. They let him die, and they would let me die also.
'Kasie' someone said. I couldn't recognise the voice. My head ached.Where was I? Oh! That smell. The smell of a hospital. I hated hospitals.'Nne' I knew for sure it was my mother. No one else calls me that. 'Mummy' I said 'where am I,what am I doing here?'
'Relax, you were involved in accident' she replied 'God saved you,Chukwu daalu' she raised her hands to the ceiling in worship to God. My whole body ached. It was as though I was cooking in a pot. I felt hot inside and outside. I remembered the blood, the little girl, the bus conductor, the loud bang and the scream. The thoughts terrified me.
'Mummy my head is paining me' tears ran down my cheeks. They felt hot too.
Everything was hot. I needed to be inside a deep freeze. 'Ndo Nwam, Sorry my child' My mother said. I knew she was trying so hard not to cry. I could tell from the way she pouted and blinked fast. There were deep lines under her eyes. She hadn't slept well also. Her hair was a mess. Chidalu came in with a bag in her hands. At first she didn't know I was awake then she met my eyes 'Jesus' She shouted 'Thank God' She threw her hands around my mother 'Thank God' She repeated.
I was discharged after five days. My body was in good condition but my mind was messed up. I had trouble wrapping my head around the fact that I had come face to face with death a second time. What tormented me more was the little girl and the fat woman. One moment I was cursing and biting because the woman was taking up more space than she paid for and another moment she was headless. I couldn't get the image out of my head and I wondered about the little girl .Did she die too? Did her family find her? Do they know she was involved in an accident? Then the man who died because the nurse at the hospital wanted a deposit first. I also thought about the hundreds of people that lose their lives in such situations. The country's health sector was in a shambles. I would have lost mine also. I didn't know who saved me. I was too thankful to God to ask any one. Too thankful to hate the nurses that came into my room frequently, either to change my sheets, drip or give me injections for killing that man and thousands of people they have rejected because they had no money.
At a point I felt if I had given some money to the woman who begged at the bus stop maybe God would have averted the accident.
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