Chapter 4

The railway looked rusty and all grown with ankle-length bahama grass, elephant ear stalks, and fescues. The gravels on it and those which lined the borders were course and pointy enough to penetrate the soles of one's shoe. It was rather unfortunate that Nora was standing on them bare feet.

She was in the middle of nowhere, standing on an abandoned railway. All alone. Nora struggled to take a step ahead but the piercing effect of the sharp gravels won't let her. She lifted a foot to examine her soles and as expected, they were cracked and bleeding as if she had been walking on them for ages.

Had she?

She could go no further ahead but if she persisted there, she might never find help.

Nora ignored the aching whacks traveling from her feet to her gut and set on moving forward. She as well ignored the tremendously huge bushes on either side of her which seemed to contain a variety of living organisms in it judging from the noises they exhibited.

Nora struggled through the flesh tickling and slicing grasses but the railway seemed to have to end. There was no sign of hope and she was getting hungry and thirsty too for she hadn't eaten in days.

Will her stepmom offer her a drop of water or a fraction of food once she made it home? She wondered.

Just when she was ready to give up hope and surrender her body to the wild critters and the burning sun did she see something on the horizon. No. Someone.

"Hello," she voiced out for the first time and the voice didn't sound at all like hers.

The figure didn't retort nor did it move. So she did what a helpless person would do with the little strength she had left.

Upon approach, Nora took in the full image. It was one she could never forget. She saw it almost every night in her sleep.

It was in a simple immaculately white long-sleeved dress, the same she had last seen her with when she beautifully slept in that awful casket. Her feet were covered in a white pair of socks as well.

The smiling face she carried donned simple makeup and her midnight black hair was still naturally combed down her shoulders.

"Mum! Mum is that you?" She unbelievably quizzed but her said mum did nothing but smile.

She couldn't believe it. Not a bit; she was standing before her dead mum. Did it mean she was dead too?

Nora took a few more baby steps closer so that she was two arm's length away.

"Mum I...I missed you so much," her eyes welled up. "I'm so glad I got to see you again, " she paused to swallow. "Are you here to take me with you? Because I really do want to go with you. I don't want to return home. Nobody likes me back there so please, don't send me back home, " she jabbered.

"Daddy doesn't have time for me anymore since he married that ugly old Martha. She hates me and so does her kids so I have no reason to return."

The lady still didn't utter a word besides beam a smile.

"Don't even think about disappearing like you always do because I'll do so too. I don't know how but I will. So pleaseee take me along ok?" Nora approached.

The lady shook her head in dismay yet smiled.

"Go," her whisper was barely audible that Nora who now stood three feet away wasn't able to decipher the words. "Go. Away. Don't cross."

"what are you saying?"

The lady pointed to the ground but Nora upon looking, couldn't seem to figure out what she was trying to show her. The lady began to get more translucent than she already was.

"Wait, don't go. I didn't even hear what you said. Wait..." Nora cried.

"Go. Awayyyy..."

"Mum, wait. Please don't leave me here I'm begging, " she took two more steps closer when her mom suddenly disappeared. "No no no no. Muummm!" She yelled.

She set on walking further but was pulled back by a strong force that was beyond her comprehension.

 "Muuuumm!!!!" Her voice echoed through the disappearing railway scene."

"Doctor, she's awake," she heard. 

Her vision was still too blurry to decipher her environment. She tried to wiggle her body but it stung so bad, her head was the worst.

"Thank you. You may go now."

Nora blinked a couple of times to adjust her sight to that of the penetrating bright light illuminating the room from the window.

"Where is this place?" she managed to say, but her voice didn't come out clean as it was coarse and thick.

"Hospital," the young doctor, who was probably in his late twenties, simply replied while strolling his stethoscope from the left to the right of her chest. "Breathe in and out please." She did as was ordered and heard him mumble affirmative words.

He was dressed in a white overall on a pair of black pants with his signature stethoscope back to semi-circling his neck after a thorough examination. He spun halfway to reach a hospital booklet and a white plastic bag that lay on the neighboring bed. From the look of things, he must have been patiently waiting for her to awake. For a long time perhaps.

"This is—"

"What time is it please?" She cut him off politely.

The doctor's brows furrowed, wondering why time will be more important to the young lady laying before him than her health but replied anyway.

"Nine past ten in the morning. But why worry more-" Nora struggled to exit the bed as carefully as she could. "Oh! I'll advise you to stay still, your condition isn't the best right now miss," The young doctor gently tried to push her back into a laying position.

"I'm fine ok? I need to go home, sir. Please could you borrow me a coin?" she pleaded, striving to ignore the unbearable thumps her head had begun to offer.

"My dear, calm down."

"I'm really sorry. I can't," her feet dangled in all directions off the bed, struggling to blindly reach out for her slippers. "Where's my slippers?"

"Miss, you have to be calm and rest. You almost died," the doctor poured out just to get her scrutiny. And it was nothing but successful.

Nora's eyes broadened with her mouth agape. Flashes of the previous night's event seeped in bit by bit.

"You were involved in a tragedy that almost took your life. You are fortunate to have had a good Samaritan drive you here and take care of every financial aspect," he continued. 

"We ran some necessary lab tests," he outstretched his arm to hand Nora the booklet which she hesitated to receive.

"Is it necessary?" She made a face.

"Of course."

Nora shakily took the booklet from his hand.

"I will like to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind...just to confirm."

When Nora didn't reply he took it as a cue to continue.

"Do you happen to experience some dizziness, blurred vision, or body weakness?"

She timidly nodded. The doctor mimicked.

"That confirms the results then, as it is Miss, you have been diagnosed with sta-"

"I do not wish to know, doctor," she cut him off this time not so politely.

"Is that so?" 

Again Nora nodded. "I'll go through the lab results myself once I'm home."

"But I suggest you return as soon as possible."

Nora smiled faintly. "How does this helper look like?" She found herself asking thereafter, to be sure she'd seen the blurry image of the person she thought just right.

"A white boy with extremely long hair as described. Here are some antibiotics and painkillers for your head and wounds," he handed to her the little white plastic bag. "They'll aid your recovery. The prescriptions are written in the booklet. If you can start taking them right away, it'll be a good thing."

"Thank you, doctor."

When her feet finally touched the ground, she crouched to search for her slippers beneath the bed.

"The young man who brought you here assured one of the nurses to reach your family as soon as he could, to say we are surprised they didn't show up wouldn't be lies."

Nora who paid little to no attention to what he was saying stood up after giving up on the search.

"I beg you to lend me a coin, sir."

The young man dug his hand into his pant pocket and removed it with a crumpled five hundred banknote. He eyed Nora, whose gaze hadn't left his wealthy hand, and then his hand.

"Take this," he offered.

"No, sir, A coin is enough to take me home," she protested.

The young man smiled. "I insist you take this, It would take you home and buy you something to bite with the remainder."

She received the money with shaky hands and thanked him a thousand times before leaving.

Finally home, Nora was greeted with the terrifying countenance of her step mum, seated at the doorstep with a thick mango tree branch in hand. 

Her stepmom was angrily drawing circles on the dusty ground while mumbling in her vernacular.

"Good morning," she greeted.

"What makes the morning good?" she shot Nora a deadly look. "Tell me. What makes the morning good? Is it you starting to spend the night out of the house and showing up the next morning with pretentious bandages on the head or are you suddenly developing horns and not respecting my presence and stay in this house? Choose."

At this point, she had risen to ample height with her sagging skin dancing at all corners irrespective of the tight flowery blouse she wore. Each step she took closer to Nora was reciprocated with a step taken in the opposite direction.

"Have you suddenly become deaf? I'm talking to you daughter of a witch."

"I got into an accident and slept in the hospital," she stammered. "This is the prove," she held out her hospital booklet and antibiotics as well.

"And you think you will be spared because of some stupid book and drugs? Just stand there and make sure you do not shake."

The woman struggled to reach Nora who had taken a step back.

"Do I speak German? You no hear thing wey I tok?* I thought I warned you not to move?" (Didn't you hear what I just said?)

"What is the uproar all about?" Nora's father walked in with an unhealthy thin bare torso. "Nora, what happened to you?" he questioned, totally forgetting about the prior question which required a reply.

"Your daughter has begun sleeping out of home and returning with fake injuries just to avoid chores."

"Last I checked, your first name on our marriage certificate is Martha and not Nora," her dad fired. "Now will you throw away that whip, animosity is slowly but surely getting extinct in this country if you must know."

Her dad returned his attention to her, waiting for explanations.

"I got into an accident."

"Come inside." the man calmly ordered.

"Wuna be mumu.*" Martha yelled at their retreating figures. (Y'all are imbeciles).