Mabel didn’t wait to get a reply and she ran up the
staircase. When she opened the door, she saw Cynthia on the floor.
“Cynthia Cynthia,” Mabel
called and went to her side.
“The pain,” Cynthia said as
she opened her eyes.
“Why are you on the floor? Did
you fall?”
“No. I decided to slide to the
ground. Staying on the hard floor relieves me a bit.”
“Is it worse than before?”
“Not really. But it is really
painful.”
“You really scared Risi. I
don’t know what she thought had happened to you.”
“I think it is the way I slid
to the floor. I was calling her but she ran out immediately.”
Risi and her
mother barged into the room.
“What happened?” Mama Risi
asked.
“The pain.”
“Did she fall?”
“No. she wanted to lie on the
floor.”
“What do we do now?”
“What about the drug and the
balm?”
Mama Risi did not
see them again.
“Please check the staircase
whether I dropped them by mistake,” she told Risi.
Risi left and
soon came back with them.
“I saw them where I met you,”
Risi said.
“Who dropped them there?”
“Was it not you that was
holding it?” Cynthia said and forced a smile.
“My dear.”
Mabel took the
drug and the balm and went through their leaflets.
“Why not call Doctor Obinna?”
Cynthia said to her.
“Do you want to go and see
him?”
“Just call him first. This is
looking like something serious.”
“Yes call a doctor first,”
Mama Risi said.
“Ok.”
Mabel got her
phone and dialed Doctor Obinna, one of their church members and a family
friend. It rang twice but he did not pick.
“He is not picking.”
“Keep trying.”
“Maybe he is seeing a patient
now.”
“Ok just try one more time. if
he doesn’t pick then you leave him.”
While they were
still talking, doctor Obinna called back. Mabel answered and explained the
situation to him. He asked the nature and location of the pain and Mabel put
the phone on ‘loudspeaker’ so Cynthia could answer for herself. After
explaining to him, doctor Obinna asked if she had taken any medication. She
told him about the pain reliever and the balm. He told Mabel to apply the
massage and give Cynthia two tablets of the pain reliever. He told them to come
to his office in 30 minutes time so he could examine her properly. When she was
done with the call, Mabel hung up. She made to open the balm.
“What do you want to do?” Mama
Risi asked her.
“To do the massage.”
“Give that thing to me. what
do you know about massage?”
“Is it not to be rubbing it on
her back?”
“There is more to massage than
that.”
Mabel gave her
the balm.
“Turn around,” she told
Cynthia who was lying on her back.
“Why don’t I take the pain
reliever first,” Cynthia said.
“No. Let’s do the massage
first. So the pain reliever will take care of both the pain and the immediate
result of the massage.”
“Ok.”
Cynthia slowly
turned and lay on her belly. Mama Risi put the balm on the part of her back
where she the pain originated from and also where the pain radiated to. Then
she began massaging Cynthia’s back.
“My God!” Cynthia shouted.
(...to be continued...)
-Chinedu Isaac
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