"Who are you?" Was what he asked me when he regained conscious from his hospital bed. Sitting on a sagged ironed chair beside him was me looking overwhelmingly tired from the sleepness night I had, checking on him every minute to be sure he was not death. So, the question stroke an electric shock in me when I realized he was referring to me, not the busy crowd moving up and down at the emergency ward.
I was left swimming in the mud.
He was obviously lost. Yes, I think lost should be the perfect word. But two lost could not bring us back to the track, so I told him to calm down; that it was not necessary he knew me. I was just there for him. Even in the wilderness of lost and the inquisitiveness to know who he was, he wasn't adamant to follow instructions. He was so docile and naive. He just wanted to discover himself because he was confused too.
He looked at me with cold dazed eyes.
Twelve hours earlier, a devastating news of the death of his friend's mother, a kind elderly woman hit him like a ballistic rocket. Out of sheer shock, he slumped unconsciously and was rushed to Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna where he was under medical professional scrutiny through the night. When he was subconscious, the doctor advised he should be taken home for few days. May be they needed the iron bed for another patient. That's a story for another day.
But we had a short journey full of thoughts.
Immediately after he was discharged from the atmosphere of the emergency ward where it smelled of dried blood, fresh wounds and hydrogen—not to mention of some puddles of urine on the toilet flour—we arrived home safely and disturbed. Still, he could only identify few individuals. The worse part of that experience was that he didn't recognize his parent; not even his favourite footballer, Messi. Everything seemed strange.
He seemed to be battling with strange feelings.
His brain couldn't remember events and names but he could play video games with the high skills he'd gotten and was able to read and write perfectly. As usual. Gradually, some memories started dropping back like dazzles of rain. "What says the time?" He asked when, in his subconscious memory remembered he slumped in the evening and he's now seeing 11:00 am. He had realized it was few days since the incident after checking the date.
He later requested for his phone.
Scrolling through his social media handles, seeing posts which he was tagged discovered that he was unconscious for some days. That shocked him more. Some were sending their prayers and well wishes while others were inquiring on the event which let to his condition. To summon it all, he was happy and sad about it. Deeply grave and elated. Not everybody needed their medical or say, personal and shocking condition[s] being discussed on social media.
Some issues are, and remain personal.
