ALMOST A BRIDE: EPISODE 10

Last time on Almost a bride...

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She stood in front of the notice board, her heart was pounding. She seemed to have forgotten her name as she was carried away by the long faces people wore. She remembered how the interview two weeks after the after the primaries had gone. She had wept after the interview because she wasn’t certain of most answers. She finally saw her name on the next list with a P boldly written in front of it, she had passed. Her smile was wider than her face and she could not contain it. She had driven down to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) immediately Anini called to inform her that the results were out. Immediately she entered her car, she made a conference call to her girlfriends,

 “I made it!”

“This calls for celebration” Anini said.

“Congratulations dear, latest Resident in town” Lala and Dona said.

“Dinner's on me tonight.” Ihuoma announced.

On her way home, she stopped at Yaba market to get carrots, sweet potatoes, garlic cloves, cumin seeds, butter, chicken, vegetables and flour. She prepared carrot 'n' sweet potato mash and gravy sauce for them.  As she prepared the meal, she sang praises to God for making her come out successful; she recalled all the sleepless nights and days she almost gave up. She recalled a particular night, a week to the exam, she got back from work tired, with menstrual cramps. She sat to resume reading only to start wailing uncontrollably. She had felt she wasn’t well prepared for the exam and was worried at how much she still had to read. She broke down when she felt there was no way she could possibly make it through.

 

She resumed work at LUTH two weeks later, the first week was the orientation week and that gave her time to adjust to the huge demands that would be placed on her. She was still renovating her new apartment at Resident Medical Officer’s Block 4 so she hadn’t moved her luggage from her Surulere apartment. She started her rotations at the Accidents and Emergency department of the hospital on Monday. On her first day, An unconscious woman was rushed in with a man running behind her. After clerking at the Triage, she discovered the man was the patient’s husband. Despite all the frantic efforts she made to revive her patient, she lost her. As soon as she broke the news to the man, he collapsed right in front of her. She started cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man, and called out to the nurse, 

 

“Call the advanced life support team. Come with the automated external defibrillator” she ordered.

The team got there ten minutes later. The middle aged man was resuscitated and was stabilized after the advanced life support team took charge. Ihuoma was torn between empathy and sympathy. She knew if she had to survive the department she had to be truly empathetic and get her apartment fixed as soon as possible to reduce the stress of work. More emergency cases came in.

Ihuoma finished moving her luggage into her new apartment and Dona came to help her arrange. Dona felt it was a good avenue to leave her house and see Ihuoma since they hardly saw her since she became a junior registrar. It’s either she was on call or resting from the stress of work. Femi was also around to help Ihuoma move her load that Saturday morning. Ihuoma introduced Femi and Dona and they chatted away until Ihuoma’s phone rang. She walked towards the veranda and shut the door behind her. Femi and Dona continued talking and laughing. Ihuoma walked in ten minutes later, laughing sarcastically.

 

"This one you're laughing like this, what's up?" Dona inquired

“You wouldn’t believe it. Obinna just called me, he wants to comeback. He said it was the devil and that he is working on his temper. He even says he's attending anger management classes.”

“He is a joker.” Femi said sarcastically.

“Na wa o, until he kills you. He wants to use you to know how well he is improving with the classes or what?” Dona shouted angrily.

“You guys don’t need to worry yourselves. It’s not worthy of discussion sef. Old things have passed away, I’m not the old Ihuoma, I’ve learnt and experienced enough emotional trauma for a lifetime.”

At noon, Femi and Dona went to get them lunch. They drove to the nearest eatery while Ihuoma arranged her books in the bookshelf on the wall. They entered the room panting, 

“Ihuoma, being on the third floor isn’t easy at all.”

“I will survive.” she replied.

They ate and continued arranging. After hours of gisting, playing and working, they were on their way out. The purple room now looked habitable. Ihuoma walked them to their cars and thanked them for making her work easier and fun. Femi and Dona exchanged contacts; apparently they had enjoyed each others company. Dona got into her car and Femi let her go in front of his car. Ihuoma waved at them until they were out of sight.   

 

After grand round two weeks later, she went to the resident doctors’ lounge to order food. Dr. Olaniyan Cole, her course mate in school but now a senior registrar, was eating in the lounge. She joined him and they started chatting in their usual manner before a call interrupted their discussion.

“Hello Eniola”

“I just drove into LUTH now”

“Ask anyone for directions to ARD lounge”

“Alright”

“Ihuoma, my cousin is coming.” They continued talking until they saw the door open with a tall man standing, looking around.

“Oh, he’s here already. That’s my cousin.”

Ihuoma looked at him. She knew she had seen him before but she couldn't remember where. He waved at his cousin and he walked towards them, excited Olaniyan said, “Meet my cousin, Eniola Cole.”