Ara was dejected when he put down his binoculars and turned away from the window of the old equipment room. He knew he couldn’t get to his parents either within or outside the hospital. The whole place was swimming with police you might as well call the hospital ‘Police Academy.’ Even if he somehow did escape the sights of the police officers, he wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with their German shepherds roaming the hospital. The sight of Claudine lying on the gurney while a machine became the lifeline between her worldly existence and eternal extinction made him feel guilty. The headache he was feeling since he returned from 2038 was getting worse by the seconds and he felt famished. After helping himself to some snacks and aspirin, he lay down and focused his attention on the clock. Slowly he lost his mind to the impossible destination he had chosen to visit. This time the whole process felt more draining and slower as he kept focusing his mind on the hands of
When he got back to 2016, he was exhausted. The headache inside his head was not helping matters but he picked himself up and checked on Claudine. She was still asleep but she was perspiring profusely and her body temperature was high. Ara used a wet towel to wipe the sweat off her body. When he was through, he checked on the oxygen flow meter and he was relieved there was still more than 60% of air left inside the tank. He ate a bar of chocolate and drank a can of energy drink before he swallowed some painkillers he had stolen from his parent’s drug cabinet. After resting for a minute, he fixed his sim card back into his mobile phone and switched it on. His plan was to call his parents and let them know he was in an undisclosed location within the hospital. It was best he got his parents to the hospital as soon as possible before The Drifter got to them because at the hospital they would benefit from being around the police. He was not planning on telling his parents that
The late October wind was blowing debris all over the 2acres of land of the Bern Memorial Cemetery (BMC) at the outskirt of town as The Drifter walked in through the front gate that Ara had deliberately left ajar. The LED lights illuminating the internal environment of the cemetery had also been switched off by Ara after he had knocked out the two security guards on duty before gagging and tying them up. The two security guards were currently lying unconscious in the bush behind the cemetery. The only lights present in the cemetery was coming from the moon. Ara had deliberately switched on the Global Positioning System (GPS) on the mobile device he had retrieved from one of The Drifter’s dead accomplices because he wanted The Drifter to find him at a location where they could settle matters without interruptions or distractions. The cemetery was the best place because tombstones and dead bodies don’t talk, move and neither do they have the ability to inform the authorities.
2016 When the anticlockwise movement of the backward effect stopped, Ara still kept his eyes shut because he wasn’t looking forward to the pains awaiting him in 2016. The feel of a warm and gentle hand on his forehead compelled him to open his eyes. Ara found himself staring at the smiling face of Claudine. He felt too weak to move and he could feel himself bleeding through his nostrils. Looking up at Claudine he said, “I am sorry my love.” Claudine looked at him puzzled “For what?” she asked. “For everything my love,” Ara replied. “It’s okay Ara. We all have our path and timing and no matter how hard we try to make certain adjustments to our fate, destiny will always have the final say,” Claudine said still smiling. Ara began crying when the reality of the situation dawned on him. He had noticed that Claudine wasn’t in the hospital gown she was wearing when he left her on the gurney. She was currently putting on her Sterling International Secondary School uniform. At that
Paris25th Dec, 2038 (Twenty two years later) There was a total of four people sitting opposite the chimney inside the large study and their families were downstairs socializing. The faces of the inhabitants of the study were barely visible in the dark background because the only illumination in the room was coming from the chimney. The ongoing meeting was more of a tradition that had been going on for over 40yrs. Only fully blooded family members attended the meeting and it took place every Christmas involving the four members of the Russell Todd family who were the owners of Life Windows Pharmaceuticals (LWP). LWP was the largest Biological and Pharmaceutical research facility in the world. In the middle of the study was an expensive Italian center table with drinks, snacks and cigars on it. Seating directly opposite the chimney behind the table was Professor Emeritus Jack Russell Todd aka ‘JRT.’ He was 85yrs old and the CEO and founder of LWP. Prof Jack Russell T
September 30, 2008Kano, Nigeria07:15pm His father left him in the doctor’s common room some minutes ago after helping him to a bar of chocolate before leaving to attend to an emergency in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital. He had been told to remain seated and enjoy his chocolate while watching television. His father Dr. Umar Musa was a medical doctor at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) and his mother Maryam Musa was a nurse currently working at a private clinic. AKTH was the largest hospital in Kano and one of the best health facility in the country. Thirty minutes ago his father and he were both watching the national geographic station in their living room after his mother who was working a night shift left for work when his dad got an urgent call from the hospital notifying him that one of his patients was having a seizure and without wasting a minute his father grabbed him and drove to the hospital. After sitting in the doctor’s common r
8yrs LaterSeptember 29, 2016Lagos, Nigeria01:45pm Arafat Amin Musa had his eyes fixed on his wristwatch as he prayed for the hands of time to lead his existence to 2pm which was the closing hour as his boring physics teacher kept trying to explain one of the most important and complicated theory in the history of scientific discovery and human existence. Mr. Edward their physics teacher kept trying to impact the knowledge of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR) into the minds of his bored students but everyone in the classroom was exhausted and had only one thing on their minds ‘Home.’ Arafat still had a busy schedule ahead of him but Mr. Edward was not yet about to let everyone in the class have the final minutes of school to themselves. He kept trying to force their minds into the world of his dear mentor ‘Grandpa Albert Einstein.’ During weekdays Arafat had to get home before 2:30pm in order to get a shower and have his lunch before his Islamic
If you were the only child to a father who was a doctor and a mother who was a nurse, you had to find a way to adjust to the demand of such a reality which included being a companion to yourself and also finding other things to keep you company when you were not in the company of your cronies. Arafat didn’t have a lot of friends because he didn’t need a lot of them. His rule for making friends was based on intuition, tolerance and respect for personal space. If you were lacking in those three departments he marked you as an invalid and the problem was most of the people around him were invalids and so was the fool standing before him screaming at him because he had kicked the ball wide instead of putting it in the net. Today was a Wednesday and school hours on Wednesdays at SISS were split into class hours and sport hours. Sport hours was currently in progress and the captain of the soccer team was already making him feel the wrath of his ever growing ego. Tunde Badmus