Sister Deborah episode 9 – 10
SISTER DEBORAH 💖💖
Episode 9
☆☆☆☆☆
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My heart beat increased tempo in a faster pace the moment Divine’s words struck through my ears.
“She’s not breathing?” I repeated, now more scared. A wave of fear and anxiety coarsed through my body, making me sweat and vibrate even more profusely.
“I need water, half a bucket of warm water and a piece of cloth or rag, quickly!” Divine spoke up, still trying to revive Deborah by rubbing and pressing her chest rapidly.
Without wasting time I rushed to the store room and returned back, carrying a bucket of water mixed with a little quantity of the warm water I had earlier boiled and intended using to make tea for Deborah, coupled with a rag as well. I handed them to Divine and stood there, watching how she tugged and folded the rag into the water, using it to dampen Deborah’s face and her body entirely.
I placed my hands above my head, feeling beads of tears cascading down my face. Timi placed a hand on my shoulder with an assuring look. “She will be fine, calm down.”
“Timi I am finished! I am dead! What do I tell my parents? How do I explain myself? Where do I start from?” I kept saying, weeping even more bitterly.
“I said she’ll be fine, relax!” He said again, reassuringly.
“I have killed someone’s daughter. I don die Timi!” I persisted with even more tears flooding down my face.
Just then, a loud cough erupted from Deborah’s mouth and her legs moved. Instantly, a wave of silence clouded the room entirely. We moved closer to the bed where she lay, carefully watching and observing her as her legs moved slightly again, and then her eyes slowly opened dimly.
“Debby!” Divine said, gently patting her by the arm. “Are you okay?”
Deborah nodded in response. She tried to say something but seemed to be oddly weak and unable to do so, so she pointed instead at the direction of our fridge.
“She needs water.” Divine exclaimed, referring to me. I hastily scurried towards the fridge, took out a sachet of water and rushed back, before handing it to Divine. She tore it open and gave Deborah. After a few sips, Deborah’s composure stabilized properly and her demeanour normalized.
“She needs to rest as well as she can. I’ll need you guys to excuse us for a moment, if you don’t mind.” Divine spoke up.
“Including me?” I asked.
“Including you, too, Neche.”
Without hesitation, I, Timi, Fatai and Hakeem walked out of the room. We stood at the balcony outside. The rain had now turned from a heavy downpour to a light, drizzling shower. It fizzled with tender drops followed suit by a cozy blistering cold.
“Chinecherem!” Hakeem called my name.
“Yes, Hakeem?”
“I have three questions I want to ask you.” He said.
“Go ahead.” I affirmed.
“One, are you mad? Two, are you crazy? And three, are you normal at all?”
I was taken aback by his rhetorical questions. “Am I supposed to answer those?”
“If she had died in your hands today, what would you tell her parents?” He persisted further, starting to get on my nerves.
“Hakeem, please respect yourself. I am not in that mood now.” I simply said, trying to keep calm.
“Of all the girls in this campus, you choose to mingle with an epileptic patient. Chineche wake up! Use your head.” Hakeem continued persistently. I was about raising my voice back at him when the door opened and Divine came out.
“You are very stupid. You are a big fool for that thing you just said!” Divine pointed at Hakeem and spat at his feet. “Heartless animal! I don’t blame you.”
She spat again at his feet and added. “I heard every single word you said. I don’t blame you. I blame Deborah for not respecting herself and stooping so low to mix up with a riff-raff like you. Dirty thing!”
Divine walked back inside and slammed the door. Immediately she left, Timi and Fatai erupted into a hardcore laughter, pointing at Hakeem as they did.
Read – Single Mom Next Door
With shame, Hakeem looked away and hissed. The next thing we knew, the door opened up again and Divine came out, accompanied by Deborah. She held Deborah’s bag and held her by her shoulder, hand-in-hand. Deborah was now dressed back in her native attire, still looking pale and partly weak.
“Divine hold on, where are you taking her to?” Fatai asked, puzzled.
“We are going home.”
“Home?” Timi repeated. “But you can see she’s still recovering, and besides, the rain is still drizzling as well.”
“I don’t care.” She hissed and rolled her eyes, and then continued walking away with Deborah. It was unusual for Divine to act or behave the way she did to us, but it was clearly understandable that her anger was due to the quarrel she had with Hakeem.
I wanted to go after them but Timi stopped me, telling me to give her time to cool off. Fatai on the other hand, being Divine’s boyfriend, also tried following them to plead and persuade Divine to return, but she paid deaf ears to him.
Later that evening, after much thinking and uneasiness within ourselves, we eventually concluded going over to Deborah’s hostel to check up on her, at least to know her welfare. I, along with Timi and Fatai altogether were to go. Hakeem refused to come along, probably out of sheer guilt.
Along the way, I branched to a sales outlet close-by where I bought a few items and beverages like a pack of Lipton, tinned Bournvita, a sachet roll of Nescafe, tinned milk and bread as well.
When we eventually got to the female hostel, to the least of our expectations, we found the door to Deborah and Divine’s room padlocked shut. I tried calling her line severally but it was switched off. Fatai tried dialling Divine’s line as well yet it proved futile. She was intentionally cutting his calls.
We proceeded further to ask and inquire about their whereabouts from some neighbours around, but they also claimed not to have seen them as well.
“What do we do now?” I sighed exasperatedly, almost losing all hope.
“It’s late already, we can come back tomorrow.” Timi suggested. Just then, we saw someone’s figure from afar coming towards us, and it fortunately happened to be Divine. She came closer and approached us, then hissed. “Whatʼre you guys doing here?”
“Divine calm down. Are we quarreling?” I asked, calmly.
She folded her hands, rolled her eyes and looked away. “No, we are not.”
“So why the attitude na?”
“See, I don’t have time. What do you want?”
“Fine! I want to see Deborah. Is she in?”
“Nope.”
“Where is she?”
“She has packed out.” Divine answered.
I felt a sting of shock coarse through my body instantly. “Are you serious? How come? When? What time?” I asked all at once.
“She has moved out of here, period.” Divine exclaimed, walking away. Fatai held her back and gave her a cocky look.
“Divine, why are you behaving this way. He wants to see your friend. I know she is in there.”
“If you think it’s a joke, come and see for yourself then.” She shook off his hands from her arm and walked towards the door while we followed suit, unlocked the padlock and then switched on the light.
True to Divine’s assertion, a large portion of the room’s space was vacant. The wardrobe was left ajar and was empty as well. There was no sign of Deborah’s presence in the room.
“Neche, let’s go home.” Timi said, sounding paranoid.
“But Divine where did she go to exactly?” I asked, curiosity evident in my tone.
“I don’t know.”
“Divine please, I beg of you. Please!”
“I said I don’t know. Is it by force?”
I felt downhearted by Divine’s unpleasant attitude and the unexpected turn out of events. I simply nodded, dropped the bag of items and beverages I came along with and walked out, infuriated…….
SISTER DEBORAH 💖💖
Episode 10
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The weekend passed by slowly, terribly and utterly devastatingly. I fell sick due to too much of thinking and restlessness. I couldn’t make contact with Deborah ever since she moved out from the hostel; regardless of how many attempts I made either through friends in her department or through phone calls and text messages. I was completely frustrated.
By the beginning of the new week, I had missed three classes of lectures, knowing fully well that I wouldn’t concentrate properly and that, moreover, Deborah wouldn’t be around in her department.
On a certain Tuesday while I was in bed, still recovering from my illness, I got a text message from an unknown number stating – ‘Please come online now.’
Curiously, I heeded to the message and logged online on WhatsApp, only to realize that the profile belonged to none other than Deborah.
“Hello!” A message popped in from her on my notifications bar.
“Hello Debbie… long time! Where have you been?” I wasted no time to respond back.
“It’s a long story, dear. I’m fine where I am now.”
“Where are u precisely?”
“… at my aunt’s place.” She replied, adding a smiley emoticon.
“I’ve missed u… Why did u leave the way u did? You couldn’t even inform me at least. It’s really unfair.” I texted back, eagerly waiting for her response.
“I have missed you too, Neche. But I had no choice. I had to go.”
“Deborah, in case you don’t know, I fell sick for three good days just because of you. I tried everything just to get in contact with u but it was up to no avail. I am really dying deep down inside. I miss you. Please, come back.” I texted, inserting a sad-face emoji. She read the text and after a while, her response came in. “I understand how you feel Neche, but it’s not my fault. It has to be this way. I am fed up! I am sick of my life!”
“Deborah stop it.” I reprimanded her. “Stop having negative and vile thoughts on yourself. Just stop.”
“It’s easy for you to say, since you don’t wear my shoes. I am asthmatic and an epileptic carrier. I felt bad to tell you all along, in order not to change your opinion about me. But so far ever since that abrupt incident that happened at your place, I haven’t felt one ounce of peace within myself since then. I feel very ashamed!” She texted, adding a sad-face emoticon afterwards. I felt deeply touched by her words. I could clearly see the extent of sadness and depression clouding her emotions.
I took my time to reply back, carefully expressing my words. “Deborah, in all honesty, I am least concerned about any ailment you might be facing at the moment. I care about you and that is all that matters. Why can’t you see things from my perspective! I don’t care about any health ailment or issues whatsoever. You don’t have to be ashamed. I miss you terribly.”
After reading my message, I waited eagerly for her response but she wasn’t responding back.
“Hello, are you there?”
She read it again, but still no response.
“Hey Debbie! Are you there?”
Yet again, no response came forth.
“Please answer me. What’s wrong?”
“I have tears welling up in my eyes as we speak, Chinecherem. I am deeply touched by the level of love you have for me, regardless of my condition. I am speechless.” Deborah eventually texted in response, and added. “I really miss you too, and I want to surprise you. I am coming over today – for you.”
I was baffled. “Are you serious?”
“More than serious. I mean it.” She replied. “Get ready for my wahala when I come!”
I replied back with a laughing emoji. “I sure will! Iʼll be expecting you.”
“Me too dear. Goodbye for now!” Deborah responded and at that instant, her profile turned offline.
I couldn’t contain the extent of joy and excitement that overwhelmed me at that moment. I suddenly regained strength from nowhere and leaped up from the bed as I began arranging the room and putting things to order.
In about half an hour, I had swept the whole room, mopped the floor, dusted the electronic appliances, fixed the curtains properly and arranged every notable thing in order. I had a thorough bath as well and selected a casual presentable choice of wear too. I even sprayed perfume to top it off.
Later on, I called Deborah and she told me she was on her way, almost getting to campus. I became even more elated.
Fortunately, the power supply got restored at the perfect moment and I busied myself with a movie series, eagerly anticipating Deborah’s arrival.
In the middle of this, I heard a knock at the door. I was alarmed. Could that be Deborah? I only just called her! I thought to myself — while proceeding towards the door.
The knock came again, more faint and lighter than before. I opened the door with a wide smile — only to see the least of all people I expected.
“Annabel?”
“Sweetheart! Longest time.” She beamed an elated smile back, too…….
Tbc