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AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN
DARK LIGHT
A ChrisEffe Bliss
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The Author
EPISODE 7
Ken Kedem also got to his feet. He looked shaken and worn-out with his red-rimmed eyes. He held Eyram’s arm.
“Please, Eyram, please,” he said in a shaky voice. “It is going to be alright.”
Ivy Kedem began to weep again in a heart-broken manner.
“Please, Eyram, try and be calm,” Steve said in a strained voice. “Being distressed is not good for Effe.”
“But what happened to her face?” Eyram asked in an unsteady voice as she pushed Steve’s hands away and moved towards the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and hugged her sister. “Oh, Ef! What is happening? What is the meaning of this? Dear God, I beg of You, please heal my sister!”
Eyram wept bitterly as Ken stood behind her helplessly.
The door opened and Doctor Gabriel Anaman came in with a huge brown envelope in his hand. His expression was one of great sorrow as he paused and looked at them. Eyram stood up and approached him.
“Doc!” she said, her voice hoarse. “What happened to Ef? When I left in the morning, she was stable! Now, look at her face! And it seems she can’t speak! What’s happening to my sister? Why isn’t she responding to the treatment?”
She saw the beginning of tears in Doctor Anaman’s eyes, and her heart thudded painfully. Eyram knew the doctor and Effe were very close, and his obvious helplessness made fear made her very afraid.
“Please, we want to meet the family briefly,” the doctor said sombrely. “Please, come with me.”
“No, no!” Eyram cried, took hold of Doctor Anaman’s tunic and tugged helplessly. “Don’t go and give us any death speech, Doc, please! I’m begging you to heal my sister! Even if it means bringing in more experts…please, please, heal her!”
“Eyram calm down, please!” Ken Kedem said as he pulled her back and held her tightly. “God’s in control, my dear. Let’s go and listen to what the doctors have to say.”
Ivy Kedem kissed Effe’s fingers as her tears of anguish washed over her daughter’s hand, and then she rushed outside.
Ken Kedem held Eyram as they moved out of the ward. Steve Hollison paused at the door and then realized he had left his coat. He walked back slowly to the armchair and picked the coat.
He stayed still with his head bent, unable to look at Effe.
Steve had not expected this to happen!
It had not been in the script because it had never happened this way before! Not such a hideous deformity! The process this time around had become dragged too far! Effe should have been dead without suffering so horribly! Her face was literally being twisted, turning her once-beautiful face into a hideous caricature he could barely recognize.
And to make matters worse, she could not speak and just stared out of that twisted mask with those eyes that were literally bulging out of their sockets.
“I’m so sorry to see you suffering like this, honey!” Steve Hollison said without looking at Effe. “Don’t worry, my dear. You’ll be out of the pain and distress soon.”
He turned and hurried out of the ward without looking at Effe.
And when she was all alone, Effe Kedem looked to her right where a mirror was fixed into the door of the wardrobe. Although she could barely see her reflections, she saw enough to see how horrible her face had become!
She could not move any part of her body, she had lost her ability to speak, and now she was turning into a monster, a horribly hideous beast of sorts!
Oh, dear Lord, what was happening to her?
Steve had proposed to her on the night she had won another award, and life had been wonderful for her.
Apart from the fact that she had psychological frigidity which prevented Steve from making love to her, their life had been near-perfect and happy. Of course, there had been the hope that once they got married, love-making could have been possible!
But, in the blink of an eye, everything had been ripped out of her life!
She was losing her health and she did not know why!
She could not understand why!
Her life, once rosy and filled with such happiness, had suddenly turned upside down and tumbled her into a blazing fire!
At least she could still hear them, but somehow that made her loneliness worse!
And what had Steve meant by the statement that she would be out of the pain and distress soon? Why was she suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable about the man she had known for five years and loved fiercely for the last three years?
Effe tried to shut her eyes but they had become so swollen and protruding that her eyelids could not wholly cover them!
Slowly, Effe Kedem began to weep silently.
***
Doctor Gabriel Anaman took them to a pleasant, air-conditioned room which had shaded overhead lights, deep comfortable armchairs and a water dispenser.
There were pleasant framed paintings on the walls and beautiful flowers in tall vases in the four corners of the room.
There were already four people in the room. Two were male Ghanaian doctors. The third was a British female virologist and the fourth was an opulent Cuban neurologist. They looked genial enough and smiled pleasantly, but their presence was strangely ominous.
Ivy Kedem sighed with fear as she sat in one of the armchairs with her husband beside her.
They sat in a loose circle.
Steve moved to the dispenser and absent-mindedly pulled out one of the plastic cups. He dispensed a little water into it and began to sip as he took his seat.
Doctor Anaman quickly introduced the other medical experts in his team.
He took his seat and looked at them gravely. He sighed deeply, tried to speak and then as sudden tears came to his eyes he quickly gestured to the British virologist, Miss Samantha Sanders, to take over.
She smiled sadly and looked at each of them in turn.
“Such moments are always difficult,” she said in a deeply-accented voice. “It puts a lot of strain on families, but they’re moments to stay together and focus on the situation and hope for the best. Miss Effe Kedem has received the best of medical care since her admission here. We needed to first find out what was wrong with her and then map out an adequate treatment profile for her. Our extensive research shows that she’s been affected by a kind of enterovirus – or, let me speak in layman’s language – a virus type that has found its way to her central nervous system and caused terrible complications.”
There was a stunned silence in the room as Eyram felt her tears once again drenching her face. She spoke in a voice that was filled with pain.
“This virus…can it be cured?”
The doctors looked at each other, evidently deeply troubled, and then Doctor Sanders shook her head.
“Unfortunately, there’s no known cure for this strand that has attacked your sister,” she said solemnly.
Steve cursed and threw the small cup of water away. Eyram and Ivy Kedem broke down in uncontrollable tears. Ken Kedem held his wife tightly as he leaned forward with tears in his eyes.
“How long has she got to live?” he asked in a quavering voice.
Again, Doctor Sanders sighed deeply.
“The good thing is that the virus is not communicable, meaning it can’t affect anyone else,” she said sombrely. “We’ve sent samples to the best labs in Cuba, Germany, the UK and the USA for adequate research, but frankly we don’t think there’s enough time to isolate it and find a cure in the short-term. At this rate of progression – and I’m extremely sorry to say this – we envisage that Miss Effe Kedem has, at most, two more weeks to live.”
Ken Kedem nodded but his voice broke as he hid his face in his wife’s neck. They held each other and wept bitterly.
Now Doctor Gabriel Anaman was also weeping softly.
The specialists waited until there was a semblance of calm, and then one of the Ghanaians, a Doctor Asebu, spoke.
“At this crucial time, Effe needs all the love and compassion she can get,” he said warily. “It is better she leaves the hospital and gets back to a familiar environment, surrounded with love, as we wait for any miracles that the Good Lord can grant us. Because, at this very moment, only the Lord can intervene.”
“Alright, we thank you very much,” Ken Kedem said in an unsteady voice. “Release her then. She will come home with us.”
“Oh, no,” Steve said in a hurry and got to his feet. “She comes with me!”
“No!” Eyram and Ivy Kedem screamed at the same time.
Ken Kedem rounded on Steve angrily.
“And what do you mean by that, young man?” he asked acidly.
Steve took a shuddering breath and tried to speak calmly.
“You heard the doctors, sir,” he said. “Effe needs a calm ambience, something she’s used to, and that’s me. I’ve loved her all these years and I’ll love to be with her in her final days.”
“But you can be with her when she comes with us!” Ken said sharply, his tone still angry. “You can move in with us if you want! My daughter has been away from us for ten years now, young man! We want her back home with us. Is that too much to ask?”
“But she’s not even on good terms with you!” Steve exploded angrily. “You left her out there when she was ravaged by her own uncle, sir! Effe will be stressed out if she’s with you, and it will hurry her death! No, I can’t allow that, please. She comes with me!”
“You have absolutely no rights to make demands, mister!” Eyram exploded fiercely as she moved towards Steve and stared at him balefully. “You’re just a boyfriend, not kin!”
“I love your sister with all my heart, Eyram!” Steve said grimly. “You may not like me as a man, but you can’t deny the fact that Effe has been happy with me, and our love is real!”
“I don’t give a damn, Steve!” Eyram screamed. “I want to be near my sister! My parents need to be near her! You’re just a boyfriend, Steve, with no authority over her whatsoever. Do you understand? This will be decided by kin, and you’re definitely not kin!”
Steve licked his lips desperately.
No, he could not allow them to take Effe!
He had to be near her to ensure that she died as quickly as possible.
“Damn it, Eyram!” he said with desperation. “What’s gotten into you? You know Effe’s wish will be to spend her final hours with me!”
“Because she’s confused and blinded!” Eyram said bitterly. “No, Steve! She comes with us! Our love, as a loving family unit, will make her live again!”
“Please, please, please,” Doctor Asebu broke in quickly. “This is not the time for a feud, please! We’re interested only in the interests of Effe at this time and what is good for her. So, let’s ask her where she wants to be!”
“She can’t speak!” Eyram screamed in anguish.
“But she communicates with us with blinks,” Doctor Asebu said quickly. “We’ll ask her where she wants to be. She blinks once for the family, twice for Steve, and we will go with her wish.”
“No, please, no!” Eyram cried desperately. “Jesus, sir! Steve is just a man! He may be in love with her, yes, but she needs to be with a woman! And I’m a nurse and can take care of her better!”
“Don’t worry, my dear,” Doctor Asebu said gently. “At this moment our only interest is the wishes of the patient. If need be, because of you and because she has been a very good patron of Eden Hospital, always donating to us, we’ll provide a nurse. So, please, let us go to the ward in peace and let her make her choice.”
They made their way to the ward eventually, and when Effe was asked, tears came to her eyes for a moment, and then she blinked once…then twice.
Steve exhaled with relief and rushed to her side to take her in his arms.
Ivy Kedem was stunned!
The fact that her daughter still preferred a complete stranger to be with her in her final days, and still did not want to be near her family, her mother, was more than Ivy Kedem could take.
She made a moaning sound of pain and slowly collapsed to the floor in a faint!
Effe stared at her mother with sudden horror!
The last sight she had, literally, was of her mother collapsing!
At that precise moment, she would have gotten out of the bed if she could, and she would have spoken if she could. At that moment, she would have told Steve that she wanted her mother to be with her too in the house.
Effe would have dearly embraced her mother!
But, as it turned out, she could do nothing and say nothing because she had lost her voice and was completely paralyzed!
And then, at that precise moment her mother’s body hit the floor, Effe Kedem lost her sight too.
The vile venom that was eating away at her central nervous system rendered her completely blind!
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