Long Distance 2
PHOTO: SACRED JOURNEYS AND SPIRITUALCOMMUNITY The story doesn’t begin here. It springs from HERE.Jason Ogbeche kept flitting in and out of consciousness. He didn’t know where the sounds were coming from. He barely knew where he was. Someone seemed to be tugging at him, trying to pull him out. But from where? He tried to open his eyes and when that finally happened, it came with a lot of pain. His mind registered that he was surrounded by people. The tingling feeling all over his body beckoned him to ignore the sea of faces and concentrate on his body. He looked down. There was blood everywhere! He tried to move and something held him back. ‘Do not pull him like that! You will kill him.’ It seemed to come from a far place and each word punctuated the pain he was feeling. He looked down again and saw that the blood flow had one major source. Jason blanched when he saw the source. The pain overwhelmed him again and he lost consciousness. *** Doctor Amara Obiekwe forced her way through the crowd, shouting ‘Do not pull him like that! You will kill him.’ until she got to the front of the very ghastly car accident scene before her. When would Nigerians stop pulling people out of accident scenes?! When would people realize that more damage is done when accident victims are not properly removed from the scenes?! She pushed some more and stopped in her tracks just as she got to the car. Someone had wrenched the door open and the sight before her was daunting. The young man in the front seat was impaled to his seat by an iron rod that obviously came off the trailer lying a few feet away. From the look of it, the iron entered into his left upper side and exited somewhere into the seat. Thankfully, the man had been wearing his seat belt. If he hadn’t, she was sure he would have flown out of the window and crashed head-first into the underbelly of the huge trailer; which was what happened to the driver. Dr. Amara dialed the Jos University Teaching Hospital as she assessed what could be done. She could stem the blood flow but she was worried about the proximity of many vital organs to the entry-point of the injury. This man needed immediate surgery if he was to live. But before then, she carried out the ABCDEs of First Aid; she checked his airways, breathing, circulation, and his level of consciousness, the penetrating iron and the amount of blood loss. She was about to start the secondary survey when she heard the sound of an approaching ambulance. The forces of the universe seemed to be with this man. She started to get up when he woke up and grabbed her hand. ‘Don’t leave me!’ he muttered, sputtering some blood and losing consciousness again. Though unconscious, his hand remained tightly gripped in hers as they raced to the hospital. *** Adon Kato was restless. She had been calling her boyfriend for the last two hours and he wasn’t picking. He left her about four hours ago as he journeyed to Abuja. It took every ounce of her strength to watch the bus leave. When she could no longer see the bus, she grudgingly went to her car and drove home. She had just opened her front door when her phone buzzed. She just knew it was Jason. She smiled even before she read it. ‘Missing you already baby.’ ‘Come back to me! I am so lonely with you gone!’ She responded. ‘Stop it woman! I swear, I will come down from this bus and come back to you!’ Adon laughed. She started typing and then stopped; a voice note would be better. ‘I am so glad we worked things out. I almost thought your presence here would mean the end of our relationship but somehow, we found ourselves. I love you so much baby! I haven’t been this happy in a long time.’ She watched her phone, anticipating his response. ‘Aww baby! Why are you torturing me? You know I cannot send a voice note and you keep enveloping me with your honey-smooth voice! I will get you back for this. When you come to Abuja, I will make sure I spoil you so bad, you will have no other choice than to quit your job and leave Gombe. And you know I keep my word!’ Adon laughed again. She was blushing! What did this guy do to her? ‘You will not believe that I am smiling like a sappy teenager. And blushing too! What did you do to me, Jason Ogbeche?!’ He sent in a laughing emoji. ‘Laugh all you want oh! Shebi you now know I love you so you are forming champion right?! Lol. I know what I will do to you. And hey! Speaking of work, I need to prepare. Talk to you as soon as I settle in. I love you, Jason.’ ‘I love you too baby.’ They had been chatting when he suddenly went offline. Adon was a bit worried. Something was wrong; she felt it. But she shrugged it off. She tried to concentrate on work to get that nagging feeling away. ‘Adon, you are too much of a worrier.’ she told herself just as… …her phone rang. She jumped to pick it and in her excitement, dropped it. She quickly it picked up and saw that the call had ended. Checking her call log, she saw it was Jason. The phone began to ring again. ‘Jason what the hell is wrong with y…’ ‘Good day ma’am. I am calling from the Jos University Teaching Hospital. The owner of this phone was involved in an accident and is currently is surgery. You were the last person he interacted with and we would like to know if you can make it to the hospital.’ Adon barely heard anything beyond Jason being in an accident. She wanted to faint, to go numb,
Long Distance
Image: Godisable Jacob. She sat on the edge of her bed, tired of pacing the length of her room while waiting for her phone to ring. Adon was waiting for her boyfriend to arrive from Abuja; a trip to Gombe that was usually about 9 hours by road but was in its 12th. Coupled with the fact that he had left late (at almost 9:30 AM) it wasn’t hard to understand why she was worried. She had not seen him in three months and in fact, had only seen him once in their seven months relationship. They had been friends for a little more than five years before it had become a full blown relationship. Since they had started dating, all they did was fight. In fact, they had been fighting on the regular for days now and she was a bit tired of the whole drama. When he said he was coming to see her, she was both ecstatic and afraid; afraid that spending time together would push them to end the relationship and also afraid he wouldn’t like her so much when he spent time with her. When he finally got a vehicle, he told her his phone battery was down. She told him to save it and even that statement had become another excuse to fight. Since she hung up on him, she hadn’t been able to talk to him all day. She had called and called, and he hadn’t picked. Why was he not picking her calls? ••• Why couldn’t he get through to her? He had been calling her numbers all day and the annoying computer voice kept saying her number was switched off! Jason was was tired of the journey and he didn’t need this network issues at the moment. He just wanted to get to his girl, to see if he could salvage the relationship that seemed to be riddled with constant fights. Every little thing he did was blown out of proportion by Adon. She always seemed too eager to jump him when he showed the slightest disagreement. If he didn’t love her so, he would have ended things long long ago. This was a last ditch attempt to see if their relationship was worth all the trouble. Since he couldn’t get her, he started typing a text message. After all, he was somewhere at the outskirts of Gombe. ••• ‘Brrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhh…’ The vibration of the phone made Adon jump. She had been so lost in thought that she forgot where she was for a minute. She picked her phone and saw an SMS. Jason! She quickly unlocked her phone and read it. He was close…almost there. Adon jumped, ran her hand through her hair, picked her car keys and ran out of the house. ••• Jason hoped Adon wouldn’t run him out of town. His heart was thumping while he waited for her. He decided to use the ATM since she insisted he stayed in a hotel. She had a house and could have made it easy for him but no, she didn’t want any drama with her neighbors who were all stiff-necks. He didn’t express his disapproval, he just accepted it and got into a bus. It was hard most times dealing with Adon. He just hoped he wouldn’t look like a total fool when he had to return to Abuja. He finally spotted the first bank on the street and walked into the ATM cubicle. ••• ‘Where in God’s name are you?’ Adon cursed beneath her breath as she circled the street on more time. All she had asked him to do was wait for her at the bus stop. Where had he gone? She tried to stifle the salty taste of fear she was tasting in her mouth. She couldn’t bear to imagine… ‘Jason!‘ She screamed as she saw him come out of a bank, creating skid marks on the road as she screeched to a halt. He had not heard her, which was not surprising since he was wearing his headphones. She would have to go turn again. She picked up her phone and tried calling him again. ‘The number you have dialed…‘ ‘Arrgghhh!‘ She ended the call with as much frustration and anger as she could muster. She dropped the phone, started the car and drove quickly. The red light at the junction was almost her undoing. Each second felt like eternity and when finally the light changed to yellow, she didn’t even wait. She made the turn and sped off. The green light could go hug a transformer! When she finally got to the bus stop, she saw Jason looking from left to right, standing out in the crowd, and in a way, managing to still look sexy despite having to travel all that distance. She found a shoulder on the road and smoothed her car into it. She came down and crossed the road. Jason still hadn’t noticed her. ‘Your phone is supposed to be close to you so when I call you, you pick.‘ she said in a harsh voice. Jason had turned to look the other way when he saw that Adon was almost on top him. He took out the ear phones and caught the last part of what she said. He smiled. She stopped in her tracks. He took one step forward…then another and like something out of a movie, he gathered her in his arms and pulled her in for a bear hug; all 5 feet 7 inches of her. One look at her wild hair, her lithe figure, those pouty lips and he knew he was home! ••• Adon didn’t remember him this buff! The last time she had seen him, he was gangly, and quite frankly, wobbled when he walked. His skeleton seemed to be uncomfortable carrying his 6 feet 2 inch frame. His head seemed to be out of place with his remaining body. Today…he looked…perfect! He was buff, all muscular and stuff, and when he took
