My Sister, the Serial Killer - oyinkan braithwaite Page 0,33

still scanning the bookshelf for the album.

“I’m the only nurse on the floor trained to assist with a PET scan, sir,” I say pointedly. Perhaps it is too much to hope my words will hurry him, but whatever he wants to say to me, I’d rather not wait an hour to hear it. To my surprise, he spins around and beams at me.

“And that is why I called you here!”

“Sir?”

“I have been watching you for some time.” He demonstrates this with his forefinger and middle finger directed at his eyes, and then at me. “And I like what I see. You are meticulous and you are passionate about this hospital. Frankly, you remind me of me!” He laughs again. It sounds like a dog barking.

“Thank you, sir.” His words warm me on the inside, and I smile at him. I was just doing my job, but it is gratifying to have my efforts acknowledged.

“Needless to say, you were a shoe-in for the position of head nurse!” Head nurse. It’s certainly a role that suits me. After all, I have been doing the work of a head nurse for some time now. Tade mentioned that I was being considered for the role and I think of the celebratory dinner he promised we would have. That’s null and void now, I guess. I don’t have Tade’s friendship and Femi is probably swelling to three times his size, but I am now the head nurse of St. Peter’s Hospital. It has a nice ring to it.

“I’m honored, sir.”

COMA

When I head to the reception desk, Chichi is still hovering. Perhaps there is a man at home she is loath to return to. She is talking animatedly to a group of staff members who are barely listening. I catch the words “miracle” and “coma.”

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Your best friend is awake!”

“Awake? Who? Yinka?”

“No. Mr. Yautai! He is awake!”

I’m running before I even think to answer. I leave Chichi standing by the nurses’ station and hurry to the third floor. I would rather have heard the news from Dr. Akigbe, so I could have asked the pertinent neurological questions, but considering that he spied yet another opportunity to lecture on the hospital’s history, it is no surprise that he failed to mention it. Or perhaps he didn’t mention it because it is not true at all, and Chichi misunderstood…

Muhtar’s family is crowded around his bed, so I don’t immediately see him. His wife, whose slender frame is carved in my memory, and a tall man who I guess is his brother, have their backs to me. They are not touching, but their bodies are leaning toward each other as if pulled together by some force. Perhaps they have been comforting each other one time too often.

Facing the door, and now me, are his children. His two sons stand rod straight—one crying silently—while his daughter holds her newborn in her arms, angling the baby so her father can see. It is this gesture that finally forces me to face the reality of his consciousness. Muhtar has rejoined the land of the living.

I back away from the family reunion, but then I hear his voice. “She is beautiful.”

I have never heard his voice before. When I met him, he was already in the coma and I had imagined his voice to be rich and heavy. In reality, he hasn’t spoken in months, so his voice is high-pitched, weak, almost a whisper.

I turn and bump into Tade.

“Whoa,” he says. He stumbles backward and catches himself.

“Hey,” I say, distracted, my mind still back in Muhtar’s room. Tade looks over my shoulder at the scene.

“So, Mr. Muhtar is awake?”

“Yeah, it’s great,” I manage.

“I’m sure it is thanks to you.”

“Me ke?”

“You kept the guy going. He was never forgotten, never neglected.”

“He doesn’t know that.”

“Maybe not, but you can’t anticipate what stimuli the brain will respond to.”

“Yes.”

“Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thanks.” I wait, but he makes no mention of his promise that we would celebrate the promotion.

I sidestep him and continue down the corridor.

* * *

—

Just as I return to reception, there is a scream. The waiting patients look around themselves in surprise, while Yinka and I run toward the sound. It’s coming from room 105. Yinka flings open the door and we burst in to find Assibi and Gimpe locked together. Gimpe has Assibi in a headlock and Assibi is clawing at Gimpe’s breasts. They freeze when they see us. Yinka begins to laugh.

“Ye!” she cries after the laughter