The nurse took forever to get to the lab.
Romola paced the tiled floor over a thousand times before the door swung open. She expected to see a stronger, manly face. Not the chubby rosy cheeks of the fair woman who came into the room. That wasn't Olumide.
Her shoulders fell as she sat on the stool again. Why was she kidding herself? Olumide would never come to her. He thought of her as the worst thing that had ever happened to him.
And Yetunde.
While Yetunde was here, she felt her anger and frustration blend together into something more monstrous than she could control.
The nurse walked to one of the cabinets and retrieved a syringe as well as hand gloves before walking to the stool opposite Romola. "Give me your hand."
She stretched out the hand she'd passed over to the nurse at the reception table. The nurse tied her hand with a thin transparent white tube then held the syringe up. The shiny metal edge glistened in the light.
"So, how much blood do you need?" She asked.
"The nurse sighed. "At least three."
"And how many pints can you take from me?"
"Don't worry."
"Can my mother give blood? My brother?"
"They don't match. Where's your father?"
Romola's face darkened. The cause of the disaster had ran like a hare after what he had done. "I don't care where he is."
"Look, don't worry about that yet. We don't even know if your blood is good enough."
"Of course, it is. I'm O negative."
"I know that dear but there are other things we look out for."
"I'm not sick. I don't have AIDs."
"That's not what I mean. Have you been eating well?" The nurse tightened the tube around her hand.
She winced, before nodding. Two meals a day could count as eating well, right? At least before this week, when she still worked for Miss Oyama she ate well.
The nurse rubbed the curve of the top of the spot near her elbow bend with rubbing alcohol before positioning the syringe over the top. "Stop shaking."
Romola tried to hold her hand in place but her body wouldn't stop shaking.
"I can't draw blood if you won't stay one place."
"I'm trying." She tightened every muscle she could control but that seemed to worsen the shivering.
"Maybe, we should give it some minutes."
"There's not time." Tears began to fill Romola's eyes. She tried to blink it away but it increased. She shut her eyes and a stray tear fell down her face. "There's no time. I have to do this. You have to take as much blood as you can."
The nurse sat back in the chair while she was tried to get her body to work with her. There was no room for fear or failure. Right now, she was Sunbo's only hope. And if Sunbo died, there was no way to bring her sister back to life. There would be no way for her to atone for what she had done. She would do whatever was necessary to save her sister. She would give her own life if she had to.
Because she couldn't live with guilt of knowing that she took her sister's life.
YOU ARE READING
Scars (Romola 2)
Romance"Then maybe you should have stayed in schoool. Instead of trying to be an elevated secretary and teaching me my Job." - - - - - Beyond managing Iya Tobi's store and pursing a shadow of an education, Romola's plate is full. It's been two years since...
