Chapter Forty-four: FINALLY HOME
I never saw Grace again. Her absence created a void in me for a while that I sank in the pages of my book until it was time to be discharged.
Sandra took her place, we had little or no conversations. She always walked around with a sickly sweetness of cheap perfume oozing from her, which made me a bit nauseous whenever she came close. But I never did tell her this.
“Good morning miss Clara, Mr Ryan is here,” Sandra echoed as she walked into the room.
“Oh, Okay,” I replied.
In a few seconds Ryan walked in. He looked much better than he was the previous time he visited with a much wider grin filled with positivity. I could feel it.
“Hey,” he said.
“I never thought you would show up here again.”
“Trust me, I didn’t have the guts to show up with black rings around my eyes from not getting any sleep after that day.”
“Oh I’m sorry about that,” I said. I didn’t know if I would actually believe him but I felt sorry for him.
“Well, as a man we mourn our losses as well as our stupidity.”
We were silent only for a while as I let his words sink. I wanted to know how true they were but something still didn’t feel right.
“Are you ready?” He asked after what could be like a minute of silence.
“Yes, I am. Here,” I handed him the book, “It was a good read, as always,” I said.
“Oh yeah, I know. But you can keep it. It is yours.”
“No, Ryan, I wouldn’t want to…”
“I insist Clara, for once don’t argue, please. We should go.”
I said nothing and with a little assistance, he held me off the bed as we headed out of the room through the hallway.
“The car is waiting downstairs.”
“Did you meet with the doctor?” I asked.
“Yes, he said he would come in for a few days to check up on you and then he would appoint a nurse to continue checking up until you are perfectly okay again.”
“Okay thank you,” I heaved a sigh of relief.
“Why did you ask?”
“Nothing.”
I avoided his eyes.
“Well, I don’t believe that to be nothing.”
“I just wanted to be sure that you are not sneaking me out.”
“Wait what?” He chuckled and watched me hoping perhaps I could return it with a laugh or even a smirk but nothing came forth I only watched back as we walked along.
“You are serious?”
I shrugged.
“Why would you even think that I would want to sneak you out of the hospital?”
“Like I said, I asked just to be sure. It wasn’t necessary what I was thinking.”
“You asked for a confirmation perhaps you thought about it.”
I didn’t say a word and so he halted.
“I get it if you don’t trust me. But the fact that you think that I can actually hurt you is terrifying.”
“The fact that I think that worries you?”
“Should it not?”
I chuckled.
“What’s funny?”
“Pardon my manners but I need to get a bit of the amusement off my chest to be able to tell you that, that should be the least of your worries.”
“Why? You just asked me now for confirmation’s sake because you feel that I might likely hurt you.”
“Ryan you have spent your whole time from the beginning of when I first arrived here trying to hurt me. What am I even saying? You have caused me pain so all of a sudden I should not be worried about the fact that you can actually want to hurt me now?”
“Clara, that was in the past. I don’t know why you keep rubbing it all over my face over and over again. Would you ever forgive me?”
“Of course I will forgive you. In fact I have. But you don’t expect me to forget so soon now do you?”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.
“I guess not.”
It’s been months, the sun and it’s warmth rushed to my face as soon as we got outside. Watching the sky from the room on my sick bed all months irked me. I had gotten healed and then sick again from being a slave to my pains.
Even if Grace’s presence sometimes made it bearable I wanted nothing more than to walk out of that bed and set sail to somewhere I could call home.
“Finally, I have dreamed so much for the day that I would have to walk the ground again and not get to hear the beeping from those machines.” I muttered, facing the sky with my arms apart like a dramatic princess who had finally gotten an approval to move around the world.
“It gives me so much joy to see you this way Clara.”
“It gives me so much Joy too,” I said.
“Oh girl, come here,” Ryan said, stretching his hands towards me, smiling at my dramatic expression.
I placed my hands in his and he held them tightly. Although I could still feel the post-surgery pain; dull and intermittent, I knew gradually that it was only a matter of time. He pulled me close as we walked along. I had no idea what he had on his mind. Maybe I didn’t care to know but mine screamed nothing but freedom and gradually, I approached it. I watched the car just in front of us. There were guards around, Ryan never moved around without them even if he was stronger than a hundred of them combined he always like to show his authority. We walked on into the car as I got in right behind him. I had sapped from his positivity perhaps now drunken in it that all the while I did not forget to keep the smile on my face or perhaps it just decided to stick this time.
“Let’s go home Clara,” he smiled and I smiled back as the car set motion I peered through the window watching the hospital from the distance as we moved along with the slightest clue of what I was walking into.