đANGEL OF MINEđ
Episode 19
I kept pacing up and down in the waiting room. Itâs been 3 hours alre-ady and we havenât had anything, I am really scared right now. Scared that I might have killed my husband, things werenât supposed to turn like that. Jamal wasnât supposed to eat my food. I had poisoned myself knowing the amount of poison that I was willing to take, not much but just something to make me sick but now it seems the poison had done more harm than good on Jamal. His mother is sitting on the bench, she seems so lost and I havenât started accusing her of poisoning me. I have to wait for the doctor. I havenât called anyone yet.
The doctor comes in the room and he has this sad look on his face. My heart start pounding really fast at an increasingly ra-pid race. What if Jamal is dead? What would I have done? I could have killed the only man that ever loved me. I walk to him.
âWhatâs wrong?â
âEmily, you might nee-d to sit down.â
âSit down? Just tell me that Jamal is going to be alright. Where is my Jamal?â
âHis other kidney was severely damaged Emily. He was poisoned.â
âWhat?!â I exclaimed.
Not because I alre-ady knew that he was poisoned but the fact that the poison damaged his kidney. It was Doctor Pravan who told me all of this, thatâs where I had taken my husband. Tiffany had warned me about the poison but I was going to be very careful when taking it. It was unfortunate that Jamal was the one who ate my food.
âPoisoned how?â
âWhat was the last thing he ate?â
I looked at my mother-in law who was alre-ady in tears, probably heard what the doctor had said.
âIt was you?â I walked to her, âit was you who poisoned him, it was you,â I shouted shaking her.
âI could never do that Emily. I would never want to kill my own son. You know how much I love Jamal.â
âHe ate you food. Am I the one who cooked it? Youfu-cken cooked it and you made us eat your food. Jamal took my plate and that means you wanted to kill me. You are a murder,â I screamed and shouted whilst shaking up until I felt a hand on my w@!st.
It was the doctor trying to st©p me from hurting my mother-in law. I was so angry with her. If it wasnât for her, my Jamal would be okay right now. Jamal was fighting for his life and she was the reason why I had looked for that poison because I wanted her to get hurt not my Jamal. Pravan took me to his office and left my mother-in law crying on the floor. He walked with me to his office and I continued shouting at her. When we were inside, he gave me a tissue. I was crying because of what I had done.
âYou should try to be strong for Jamal. It doesnât look good for him Emily.â
âI heard Pravan.â
âHow much did you put in there?â
I looked at him with a surprise look on my face. How did he find out about what I had done?
âTiffany told me, in case you are forgetting; she is my longtime friend.â
âJamal wasnât supposed to eat my food. I only left the table to go and fetch some chilly for him. He switched the plates and he always does that. I thought maybe he wouldnât since his mother had cooked for us. Jamal always told me that he loved eating the food meant for me, that sounded weird but he did it anyway, took my plate every time it was dished for me,â I sniffed, âI donât want to lose him and I am very scared.â
âYou know what nee-ds to be done. Life is incompatible with a lack of kidney function but unlike the case with most other organs, we are born with an overabundant or over engineered kidney capacity. Indeed, a single kidney with only 75% of its functional capacity can sustain life very well.â
âWill
he survive if you re-move one of his kidneys?â
âItâs a 50-50 thing Emily but I will try my best to save his life. What I nee-ded was your permission.â
âSave his life Pravan and I will forever be in your debt, I donât know how much it costs for this procedure. Save my Jamal for me,â I plead with him.
I signed some forms that nee-ded to be signed, I didnât tell Jamalâs mother what was going on. She didnât nee-d to know and I wasnât done with her. Pravan had asked me to go home and get some rest but I wasnât leaving. I wanted to wait until I am given the good news. Jamalâs mother had left the hospital and I donât know where she went to.
*
My eyes are hurting and swollen from all the crying. I havenât been slee-ping for days now because I am worried about my son. I donât know what really happened to Jamal. I was there in the room with him but what I am trying to say is that I donât know what made him sick. Emily accused me of poisoning my own son. The plate wasnât meant for her and she thinks that I added poison so that I could get rid of her. Never in my life had I got hold of poison. I donât know what made her think that I had something to do with my sonâs sickness.
I was even banned from the hospital. Emily made sure that no one was not going to let me in to see my son. She told me that she was still yet to deal with me just after she found some poison placed in my bags. I donât know who must have put it in there but Emily said that I was the one who had it. I donât know if Jamal recovered or if he is going to be alright but I have been praying to God. I have been praying to him to just let my son live. I was in my room re-ading the bible; I havenât been eating for days now. Not that I was hungry but even if I had the appetite, Emily made sure that I didnât get any food in the house. I heard Emily shouting from downstairs, I placed he bible on the be-d and wore my sli-ppers,
âMaria,
come down here!â I heard her shouting when I opened the door, âthere you are. plea-se help her pack her things,â said Emily as she was talking to 2 men that had walked in with her.
They walked to me and I was pushed aside.
âEmily, whatâs wrong?â
âToday old lady, you are going back to the village.â
It was at around 6pm when she was saying that to me as she stood akimbo. Where was I going to get a bus at that time of the hour?
âEmily, what did I do?â
âYou are seriously asking me that? Jamal is in a comma and God knows when he is going to wake up. Actually i donât know if he is ever going to wake up. I just want you out of my house. You should thank your ancestors that I didnât hand you over to the police because you are a murderer.â
âEmily, you know pretty well that I didnât put any poison in that food.â
She laughed out loud while cl@pping her hands.
âSo who did that?â
Honestly, I remember Emily telling me to go and wash up. I left her in the room. I am just thinking maybe she was pretending to love me, she must have poisoned herself but then Jamal ended up eating her food. I mean she made herself fall up from the stairs. What if she poisoned herself and framed me again? I canât say that to her because I know she will probably deny it but then should I just leave my son. What if she wakes up and asks about me? What will Emily tell him? That I am the one who poisoned him knowing very well that I wasnât the one who did that. I am literally confused right now and I donât know what to do.
âSo
you think I poisoned my husband?â
âI never said that Emily but you made yourself fall from the stairs.â
After having said that to her, she sl@pped me ha-rd across the cheek and I feel the pain. This is not the first time she has sl@pped me. She has done it several times and I am her mother-in law. I say nothing to her and wipe off my tears. The 2 men come downstairs and throw my bags on the floor, the other one throws my bible to my face. I pick it up and put it in my bag.
âNever come back here,â said Emily and kicked my bags, âesc-rt her outside, and make sure that she leaves my yard and she leaves this City tonight,â she says to them.
I am dragged outside my sonâs house and I am just quiet. I have no words left for me to say but then I say to her.
âCan you just let me see my son?â
âYou will never see Jamal again and I will make sure that you are dead before you even see him. Leave my house.â
They push me outside the gate and itâs very cold. I am not wearing any jersey. I keep pleading with Emily to at least let me leave tomorrow but my plea-s fall on deaf ears. She doesnât listen to me. I just decide to let it be because she was never going to let me back inside the house. It hurts me a lot to know that I will never see Jamal again. I could have called Ernest or if I had any relative in the city, I could have stayed but I had no one. I walked to the taxi rank and with the little money that I had I asked around if they were any buses travelling to my village. I was happy to find one.
âDo you know how dangerous this place is granny?â asked the conductor as he helped me carry my bags, âwhoever let you come here alone is evil. Let me find you somewhere nice you can sleep.â
I wiped off the tears that had escaped. He didnât know me but he was just friendly. We started off early in the morning and he even made sure that I had something to eat. He brou-ght me breakfast and I couldnât help it but see my Jamal in him, thatâs how much I had missed my son. Now that I was heading back to the village, was I ever going to see him again? Emily had hurt me more than she ever did and I prayed to God to forgive me if I ever did something bad to her. I arrived at the village and the conductor made sure that I was safe. I was welcomed by my husbandâs brother and his wife; I had called them earlier on letting them know that I was coming back.
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TO B CONTINUED