VincentI released her hand and stepped away from her. It wasn’t my intent to grab her like that.“I’m sorry,” I apologized.She hesitated for a while before turning. She still had her hand over her belly where I left it. When she did turn, she had a look on her face. I don’t know if it were that of confusion or embarrassment, or both. Whichever it was, she was, as usual, annoying the crap out of me.“You shouldn’t have done that,” I added, trying to caution her behavior.“I’m so, so sorry,” she began apologetically. “I wasn’t thinking. I just saw you from afar and came running to meet you. I thought you were pretending not to see me because I was right in front of you, yet you didn’t acknowledge my presence. I’m sorry, I must be a pest and a nuisance to you,” she said sadly.‘As a matter of fact, you are,’ I thought.“Don’t go about waving into people’s faces. It’s annoying,” I stated.“So, you’re annoyed?” she asked with a smile.I decided not to say anything more to her. Any word le
VincentStill on my knees, I lifted the little girl and turned her to back me, then placed one arm across her chest for support. With the help of a nurse, I bent her over at the waist to have her upper body parallel to the ground, then with the heels of my hand, I delivered five blows in between her shoulder blades. Next, I made a fist with one hand and positioned it slightly above her navel, then gave her abdomen 6 quick upward thrusts. It was on the 6th thrust that a slimy object fell out of her mouth. She was still unconscious after relieving her throat, so I performed CPR with chest compressions and rescue breath.By now, the whole team had gathered round but were standing a good distance to give us air. They all roared and began clapping when the little girl inhaled deeply and opened her watery eyes. Another nurse came with a clean dry cloth to cover the now crying little girl.I stood up from the muddy floor and allowed the others take over from me. Almost all of me was covered i
Andrew I slipped out of her, breathing roughly as exhaustion washed over me. We’ve been going at it for hours since the night before. “You’re so good. Why didn’t I ever think of having a taste of you?” she asked breathily, panting profusely from our crazy action. “Well, you’ve always seen me as a little boy, when we’re the same age,” I replied impassively from where I lay facing the ceiling, with my palm as a cushion for my head. “I’m older than you, Andrew,” she said, raising one eyebrow at me. “With just a few months,” I replied. “With 6 months, man. Besides, you acted like a kid back then. Throwing tantrums all over the place. Vincent, that time, was wiser and manlier. I couldn’t help falling for him,” she said, matching my position while staring dreamily as if reminiscing the moments with Vincent. “And here we are, banging each other,” I sneered. “What else can I do? He wouldn’t stop thinking about that bitch,” she scorned. “What bitch. Vincent is like a brick. Since you,
VincentI jumped off the bed, landing on my butt as my feet couldn’t make it on time to catch me.“What did I just see?” I asked myself, wide-eyed. It wasn’t a dream. It was too vivid to be one. There were no spirals and different weirds seen, it was just three places in my house back home. The parlor, toilet and my bedroom. I was with Anne. We were together. We kissed. No! We did way more than that!I widened my eyes when I remembered where my mouth had been. Goose pimples rippled throughout my body. I went rigid down there at the thought of my lips on her soft curves. Jeez! What had come over me then? Did I force myself on her? Was that why she left? Whatever happened? I asked ruffling my hair in frustration.“I love you, Vincent.” She said that to me, I could hear it in my head. Was I running mad? Was it all a big dream? Am I still dreaming?I lifted myself from the floor and ran to the bathroom, going straight to the sink and splashing cold water on my face. As I closed my eyes, mo
Vincent The sight that met us as we drove into the ghostly village had us recoiling in shock. This was ground zero. Where the virus resurfaced after its recorded end in 2003. There were more dilapidated buildings, more sick and hungry people with worse symptoms, more decaying dead bodies all over the place. It was really bad. Back at the town, they had imposed a lockdown after the feedback on how deadly the virus had become. It was a wonder why the lockdown was delayed till it got worse. The whole state was at risk of being infected. The number of people that had come in direct contact with the villagers would be massive. When the state had reached out to us, we were told it was just a minor outbreak, but the nature of the virus we came to meet was abysmal. We weren’t even equipped nor protected enough to tackle the deadly virus. That was why the team sorted out volunteers from both the town and outside town. A good number of people converged to help when it got out how severe the
VincentAn old huge tree in line with a couple of houses was on the verge of collapsing. From the looks of it, it was enough to annihilate six houses simultaneously. The three houses, where we moved people from earlier that day, were closest to the tree. They were going down for sure. The additional three still had patients and their attendants inside.The tree had wide branches, so it was bound to touch other places aside from the houses. This created a frenzy. Everyone wanted out, and everyone wanted to save everyone. We weren’t fighting a virus now. It was a fight against nature.In seconds, we had begun moving patients from the houses in line with the tree. The patients groaned and grumbled at the discomfort. Some of them even struggled to stay back, but were dragged off their ass and out to safety.It was during a struggle with a particular patient that we began hearing a low, steady grumble from the tree, signaling the beginning of its slow descent. One of the patients, an old la
Anne I had gone with Dr. Arya to see this old grumpy lady who kept announcing that we were all paying for our sins. She said this was the end for everyone on earth. It was the wrath of God on us for the years of sinning like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. She made a lot of utterances, some of which made sense to me because I’d never met such horrid sight in my life. People all around me were laying like slaughtered cows. Some of the older and more experienced doctors might have seen something as deadly as this, maybe during the previous outbreak in 2003, or of a different cause, but bottom line was, I hadn’t and it was doing weird things to my sanity.We were in there when the yelling began. I had rushed out to see what was happening and had seen people pulling out patients in houses in line with the one we were in. “The tree is coming down, get out of there!” someone had yelled before running off to inform others. I had run back inside and informed Dr. Arya who was still busy with
Vincent Everything was happening in slow motion. The earth which had ceased moving, alongside its inhabitants, had suddenly commenced spinning rapidly, making me dizzy and in need of air. I hadn’t realized I was dropping to the floor till I felt hands grab me on both sides.”Dr. Sawyer, are you alright?” This question came from different angles from all around me. A little group had begun forming. Even Dr. Ken had rushed towards me, holding onto my chest and shaking me vigorously.‘It can’t be. Anne cannot lose her life on your watch. It is impossible,' my brain had yelled, propelling me to pull away from the people that had their hands on me, swerved on my knees, and dashed towards the debris. They hadn't predicted my sudden movements so they couldn’t catch me, but they did run after me. I was on top of the tree before anyone could reach me.I climbed onto the upper branch area on the house I jumped out from. The branches weren’t tiny though. Majority of them were giant woods the siz
Anne I felt a hand slip into my PJs and began walking its magic there. A moan escaped my lips as sensual pressure built in my core. I was lying on our king-sized bed with white sheets and a duvet, in our large bedroom. I’m too sleepy or maybe lazy to describe it. Just take this though, the walls are white. The side tables holding up the bedside lamps are also white but with golden designs along the edges, matching that of the bed frame, which has extra huge golden spirals on the tall headrest just above my pillow. By the corner, a long wooden cabinet that holds several drawers is attached to the wall. On top of the cabinet are different figurines and sculptures, then close to it is a magnificent white dressing table that houses my very few beauty products, and an equally magnificent mirror with the same golden design on its edges. There are two walk-in closets on opposite sides of the room. One is for Vincent and the other, mine. A second door closer to my closet lead to the bathroo
Vincent The heavens grumbled like an old giant before I began feeling splatters of droplets on me. I glanced up at the skies and smiled. It was as if it knew how I felt inside. It was a thunderous feeling. I sped past cars on Andrew’s bike, squinting to see clearly as the rain had begun pouring with reckless abandon. How didn’t I see it? How could one be so close, yet so far away?! I felt what I felt, but I just couldn’t see what I was supposed to see, simply because of amnesia. Now it’s all coming back to me! Like a waterfall crashing against the oceans, my memories came flooding in. “I’m coming, Anne. Just wait, okay? I’m coming,” I breathed, maneuvering through the impending hold-up that the rain caused. ‘Slow down you dumb-a**’ my mind warned. I listened to it and went slower till I was off the traffic and onto the small road leading to Anny’s. My heart pounded against my chest as I neared her apartment. The gate that’d had been there when I rented the place for her was un
Vincent Arya made it sound like I had the best of times with her. She may be right because the feelings I had for her couldn’t have been created by mere moments. We must have gone through thick and thin for me to have realized what I had and cherish it. Arya made me to almost desire to stay back and savage the little I could from all we had left. I couldn’t. Because I was hurt. I lost my memory. I couldn’t remember any of my time with her, or even her face, yet I couldn’t get myself to make love to any other woman. She had all the knowledge. She knew all the bits and pieces of our trials and tribulations, but the moment I step out of the picture, she finds solace in the arms of my brother. Now, she has a baby for him. I couldn’t live with that. Her love for me didn’t nearly match the way I felt for her. I couldn’t fight when she’d already given up a year ago. Why didn’t she come after me? Why didn’t she make plans to make me remember slowly? She only comfortably devised plans
Anne The knock on the door made me jerk and involuntarily drop the scissors outside the bathtub. Andrew couldn’t have been back so early, and definitely won’t be knocking gently. Pamela wouldn’t too. Who could be knocking? My dead heart arose and, like a diver, dipped into the pit of my stomach as the thought of Vincent being the one at the door entered my head. It couldn’t be, could it? He should be in the airport now if he wasn’t on the plane already. I didn’t really care to check the time since Andrew left. Is It possible that Andrew had talked Vincent out of leaving? That’ll be if he saw him on time. I didn’t want to ignite my hope only to watch it explode in my face yet again. I’d wanted to wait a bit to see if the caller would go away, but then the knocking would wake Lucia, who’d begin crying and wake my mother. That thought made me hurriedly step out of the bathtub. My legs were wobbly from all the fear and trepidation of what I’d decided to do. I gingerly put one foot i
Anne I carefully carried sleeping Lucia and placed her on the duplicate cot in my mum’s room. I slowly and noiselessly stepped back and out of a room, throwing a glance at my mum, who was snoring lightly on her bed. I then switched off the light and shut the door behind me. Finally, the time has come. I made sure I locked all the doors for the night before heading to my room. Pamela had come earlier and suggested staying with me till Andrew comes or calls. Andrew must have called her to come. Well, I refused all her persistence and almost got angry at her stubbornness. She’d grudgingly accepted to leave. In my room, I took out a pen and scribbled down a few thoughts of mine. I hadn’t time to write a full epistle because I was hurting badly. If I did have the time, I would have written long notes to every one of the people I know who would be hurt by my actions. I’d wanted to live for Lucia, but seeing her face, eyes and long hair reminded me so much of him. One would think that wo
Vincent “We need to talk, Arya,” I said, watching her enter the parlor. She stretched her mouth into a thin line, nodding her head in agreement. “We’re finally having the talk,” she said, removing her jacket and dropping it on the couch alongside her bag. “Alright, I’m ready,” she said, after sitting down on the couch opposite mine. Silence engulfed us for minutes. It was as if we both knew where all this was headed. “Arya, I’m sorry,” I began. “I thought I could do it, but I can’t. It would be a total mess marrying me in this state. You guys were right, I’ve not healed entirely, and I shouldn’t have come back here…” I had my eyes on her the entire time, gauging her reaction. She simply looked back at me without a flinch. “Arya, let’s call off the wedding,” I conferred. She didn’t respond or divulge any emotion that showed how she felt about what I said. After what felt like ages, she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, then cleared her throat. “It’s sad. Honestly, I prayed it w
Andrew My brother has been ignoring me ever since I took him to see Anne a day ago. I don’t know what he was thinking, but for him to be acting this way, his thoughts weren’t in our favor. Anne had gone there to meet with him that same day while I’d gone straight to the studio. I was going to call Anne and ask how it transpired, but we finished so late at night and I was so exhausted that I passed out immediately my head touched my pillow back at our family house. The next day, I called Anne, but she didn’t answer. I called Vincent, but he, too, ignored my calls. So, after my recording session, I’d gone to Vincent’s but when I saw my mum’s car parked in front of the house, I made a U-turn and headed for Anne’s apartment instead. It was a sunny afternoon. I got there and met her coiled up on her bed, crying her eyes out once again. Racheal and Pam were there trying to make her eat her food. “You’ll make Rachael miss her doctor’s appointment, Anne,” Pam had warned. That was the only
Vincent Mum had threatened to take Anne’s baby away from her. She’d told me how she'd contacted her lawyers and had every paperwork done so that once Arya and I leave, the real work starts. “No, mum,” I’d refused. “Son, that our grandchild there. She cannot live in the slums,” she’d argued. “I’ve been there, mum. It’s not a slum, and Andrew is more than capable of caring for that child,” I countered. I was hurting real bad. I felt like I was drowning… it was overwhelming. Having these massive conflicting emotions, then having to stick up for what I believed was right, was slowly killing me. “Son, she has to pay for what she’d done to us! She cannot go scot-free. My husband and I, for over a year, have had no meaningful conversation because of her. He’d gone rigid around me,” she said in tears. “He’d not touched me for over a year because of that witch, Vincent,” she divulged bitterly. “She created a rift between your brother and yourself in the past, now, a much bigger one by hav
Vincent ‘Anne.’ I guess that’s her real name. It actually rang a bell. I remember pronouncing that name, and it must have meant so much to me because whenever I called it out, which I was doing often since that time with Arya in the kitchen, I felt a cacophony of emotions attack me. There was peace, followed by fear, then agitation, trepidation, fury, and what have you? It was strange. Her name held so much power, yet I couldn’t still remember. It was frustrating! “Have you booked the tickets, Vin?” mum asked from where she sat on the couch. She’d come around right after Arya left the house. Arya has been giving me the silent treatment ever since I mistakenly called her the name that tormented my subconscious, the day before. “Yes, mum,” I replied grudgingly from the dining table where I was getting some reading done. “Have you heard from dad?” I asked. “No, hun, but don’t you worry, he would be available for the wedding. I just received his clothes from his tailor. We’ll be tr