I stood behind the curtain watching this man whom I believed was my whole world; walk away. Balls of tears rolled down my cheeks. I thought on calling my mum but it was of no use. I wasn’t ready for any of her advices at the moment. I just wanted to be on my own.
Philip never came back again until a year later when he resurfaced to check if I’d died or not. Life had suddenly become miserable for me. I felt cheated. I’d invested my whole energy into something which was not worth it. A total waste of time, human efforts and resources. I cursed and cursed the day I met him.
As I battled with the blood cancer in form of weight loss, night sweats & fever, joint pains, I also took care of baby Grace, whispering in her ears daily “don’t ever grow to become like your dad”. She was my only source of hope in life. Whenever I cried, she would look at me and begin to cry. And if I ever smiled, she would do the same.
I can’t thank Dr. George enough for the role he played in my life. I thought I would die. I felt it. I could smell it. But he reassured me in his office that morning I went to him, that only if I trusted him, he would make sure I wouldn’t.
I didnt know that he was having sleepless nights. He was studying and making researches just because of me. Just because of one patient, out of the thousand patients which visited him on a monthly basis.
The day he told me he had found a cure I thought he was joking. You know sometimes medical personnels might try to joke with you in order to relieve your burdens a bit and make you smile that moment. So I thought he was trying to do the same. I nearly congratulated him on pulling a good joke on me when he said.
“No Tricia I’m not joking, I’ve found a cure, here it is” he said, bringing out two bottles of concoctions.
He had began calling me Tricia, no more Mrs Benson. I loved it because he was the only person I could call or run to whenever I was down with my depression or lost in my world of cravings. My aged mother was tired of hearing my complaints. “My daughter can you ever stop complaining?” Is what she asked me one day and after that, I stopped telling her anything. It now turned to “yes I’m fine, mummy. Yes, baby Grace is fine too, thank you” nothing more, nothing less.
“Tricia, I’ll commence treatment on you by this time tomorrow” he said to me that day in the office as he held my hands with confidence.
Hmmm. I smelt it; I felt it. He smiled like a champion, I felt like a queen in distress about to be saved. Yes I needed to be saved.
That night at home I wept and sent him a long text message. I thanked him immensely for taking his time to produce such drugs. Even if it didn’t work and I died -because anything could happen and only God had the final say- I was still grateful that he thought about me.
It was after three weeks of constant medications that I began to notice changes. My never ending joint aches had began to subside, I was rarely feverish, I no longer had night sweats.
I informed Dr. George about it and he ran tests on me. That afternoon he told me that there were little to no traces of leukemia in me. I didn’t understand the term he used in explaining to me until he said
“Your tests result is like that of someone who is about to suffer heavily from blood cancer”
In other words it had drastically reduced. I only needed three more weeks of drinking his magical concoction to be free. Free from blood cancer. Free from death. Free from depression.
When the final tests came out, there was no trace of it in my body. I also confirmed this in another hospital where I went to; to run the same set of tests.
I stood up and hugged him; it was a moment of tears and being grateful. I wouldn’t let him go, I’m glad he didn’t push me away. I cried on him, yes I soiled Dr. George’s clothes with my tears. He only smiled and remained silent.
That night I texted him and asked him why he did such for me. He replied by asking if we could go on a date, for him to explain. That date turned to so many dates and hanging out. Sweet! Very lovely! And that’s how I fell in love with this young doctor that saved my life.
It was exactly a year after he left; that he resurfaced again. Who else will I be talking about if not Philip. Mr. Philip the stray god. That day he knocked on the door and when I opened, it was just silence all through.
After he finished explaining to me what had happened and how he needed me back in his scattered life, I closed the door behind me and went to eat breakfast. That revenge was the sweetest I’d ever done in my life.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know that Baby Grace had seen her father from where she sat in the parlor. And few minutes later she came to me; crying; pointing at the door “Daddy!!! Daddy!!!” She screamed.
In my whole life I was ever willing to do anything for my dear baby Grace but not this. It was never going to be this. She didn’t stop crying, she held me by the cloth and kept pointing at the door.
“Daddy!!! Daddy!!”
How did she still remember him? How did she keep him registered in her tiny brain all these while?
I dressed up and dressed her up too; then we left the house. By that time she had stopped crying and had become weak. Yes. She had been crying for hours. It was that serious.
When we left the house, Philip resurfaced from behind a building where he had been standing for the past four hours waiting for me open the door.
“Tricia please, I’m begging you with my whole life, I need you back, I’m willing to do anything for you”
I loved how it sounded in my ear. It sounded like all these school rhymes. Name them “Cinderella dressed in yellow, went outside to kiss a fellow…” or “Row Row Row your boat, gently down the stream…”
Now he was adding his own to the list of rhymes I knew “I’m begging you with my whole life, I need you back…” hilarious lyrics. I only laughed and walked past him. I was in a hurry; I had a date with Dr. George.
When I arrived at the hotel, Dr. George was already outside waiting. He took me by my left hand as we walked into the magnificent building. We had a good time. Splendid! Infact I didn’t want it to end. We were already in our world of emotions as we held hands together. At least I was happy to know and confirm that my new lover wasn’t married. He was single and searching. Funny right? I grinned hilariously at this thought. Maybe that’s why he developed the cure for me. He had found me. LOL.
George was about to kiss me when Philip the stray god resurfaced and began walking towards our table in his shirt and pair of tattered jeans; he looked very rough too.
None of my business. So I leaned forward and kissed George with the whole strength I had in me. Kiss me baby, you deserve me now, not him. My mind said to George and I wish he heard it.
That was enough signal for Philip to know what exactly was in my mind. So he turned and walked away. But you can never outrun your past; can you? The scars will always be there no matter how much you try to hide it.
Baby Grace suddenly shouted and this drew everyone’s attention.
“Daddy! Daddy!” She screamed as Philip walked away. I had to hold her hands so that she wouldn’t run after him.