The Fire Within

Chapter Seventeen

190 Chapter Seventeen t was already dark when Adey walked in through the gates separating the wards from the outpatient consultation unit. The porter, an old man with a glowing pipe in his hand, was nodding asleep. As Adey walked along the verandas, the buildings looked like big transparent monsters. Through the open windows he could see the lighted entrails of these monsters— patients in weird shapes, some with legs in the air, others with heads raised, and others struggling and raining abuses at nurses who appeared confused and obviously angry that they had to face such mad patients, ones suffering from cerebral malaria. Adey approached “A” ward cautiously, as the fear of encountering Ndomnjie again made him chilly. All he wanted was to see Mungeu’. Days had slowly gone by since they last met, and to Adey, the days were like weeks. He walked past private Room 2, straining to catch the slightest sound from within. There was none. “What could have happened?” he wondered. Is she already better and has been discharged? There was a flicker of hope and joy as he turned to walk away, but just then the door creaked open and Adey swung right round to see Yefon emerging with a bucket in her hand. “Good evening,” greeted Adey, “where are you off to?” “I want to get some warm water for Munny,” she answered. “How’s she now?” “She looked better this afternoon but became very disturbed when I made the error of telling her of Ndolo’s condition. Since then she closed her eyes and until now has not opened them.” “Ndolo?” Adey sounded confused. “Yes, Ndomnjie’s wife.” “I see. Yefon, can you tell her I’m here?” The door creaked shut behind Yefon. It was after about five minutes that Yefon reappeared with a troubled look on her face. “What’s wrong?” questioned Adey anxiously.” “I don’t know—I don’t know how I can put this.” “Why? What’s going on?” “She said she didn’t want to see you. I’ve pleaded with her in vain.” I 191 To Adey this was a nightmare in real life. Adey was no longer seeing Yefon who was standing in front of him. The hospital was going round and round and round. He was falling, and then something gripped him in midair. Yefon placed Adey on one of the two chairs always standing in front of private rooms. “Adey, please be a man. Don’t let this happen to you. What will people say was the cause?” “I was a man, Yefon, until I met Munny, and we’ve become one person. How then can Munny refuse to see me? I who have been in a strange dream ever since all this started, only hoping to be myself when all would be normal again. Now she refuses even to see me? Why would she do this to me? Is she now blaming me that much?” “Not really,” Yefon tried to appease him. “Not really? Not really? Yet she will not see me? Are you sure she heard you? Did you hear her well … that I wanted to see her and she said ‘no’?” The cement floor, coated with dried mud from visitors who had hurried up and down the veranda, absorbed his tears as they glided down his cheeks and sailed off his chin all the way to the ground. Adey, who was still seated where Yefon had placed him, covered his face with both hands and wept as if he could see his life ending. “Well,” exclaimed Adey as he stood up wiping his eyes and nostrils with his handkerchief. “I’ll try again tomorrow, but please try before then to talk to her.” He spoke without looking at Yefon. “I will,” answered Yefon, still stunned by the sight of Adey, a boy she had heard was all manly, in tears. “There is a sure route to every heart,” she whispered to herself, as Adey walked off dejectedly. Yefon returned with a bucket of warm water, with which she repeated the task she had performed earlier on that morning, but this time she cleaned all over her mistress’s body and then placed her back comfortably on the bed. Yefon herself then lay down on a mattress on the floor next to Mungeu’s bed before speaking. She told Mungeu’ all that had transpired between Adey and herself. As she spoke, Mungeu’ listened with her eyes on the white ceiling...