• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 946 0

out a few months earlier, while the nurse was chatting with the sissy city lieutenant, and she had given up trying to get me to come back for a checkup. But one afternoon, during a table tennis match at which the entire staff was present, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. It was the nurse. She was wearing a white uniform and a white hat. It was the first time I had looked at her directly. Her white teeth contrasted with her dark, shiny skin, and when she smiled, her face not only increased in beauty, it also glowed with charm. She was tall and had big brown eyes that were kind and inviting. She handed me a bottle of Coca-Cola. “Come and see me whenever you feel like it,” she said, smiling, as she walked away. The Coca-Cola bottle was cold and it shocked me. I left the game hall with Alhaji and we went outside and sat on a rock drinking the soft drink. “She likes you,” Alhaji teased me. I didn’t say anything.

“Well, do you like her?” he asked.

“I don’t know. She is older and she is our nurse,” I said.

“You mean you are afraid of women,” Alhaji replied, nodding.

“I don’t think she likes me the way you are thinking about it.” I looked at Alhaji, who was laughing at what I had said.

After we finished the bottle, Alhaji left and I decided to go to the hospital. When I got to the entrance, I peeked in and saw the nurse on the phone. She motioned for me to come inside and sit. She smiled and made sure that I noticed that it was because of my presence and not her phone conversation. I looked around and saw a chart on the wall with all the names of the boys at the center. In the boxes beside most of the names there was a check indicating that they had been to at least one session. There was nothing in the boxes across from my name. The nurse took the chart down and put it into a drawer as she hung up the phone. She pulled her chair closer to me and I thought she was going to ask me a question about the war, but instead she calmly asked, “What is your name?” I was surprised, since I was certain that she knew my name. “You know my name,” I angrily said.

“Maybe I do, but I want you to tell me your name,” she insisted, widening her eyes.

“Okay, okay. Ishmael,” I said.

“Great name.” She nodded and continued. “My name is Esther and we should be friends.”

“Are you sure you want to be friends with me?” I asked. She thought for a while and said, “Maybe not.”

I was quiet for a bit, as I didn’t know what to say and also didn’t trust anyone at this point in my life. I had learned to survive and take care of myself. I had done just that for most of my short life, with no one to trust, and frankly, I liked being alone, since it made surviving easier. People like the lieutenant, whom I had obeyed and trusted, had made me question trusting anyone, especially adults. I was very suspicious of people’s intentions. I had come to believe that people befriended only to exploit one another. So I ignored the nurse and began to stare out the window.

“I am your nurse and that’s all. If you want to be friends with me, you will have to ask me and I will have to trust you first,” she said. I smiled, because I was thinking the same thing. She was perplexed at first by the sudden smile. But then she said, “You have a great smile, you should smile more.” I stopped immediately and tensed my face.

“Is there anything that you want from the city?” she asked, but I didn’t answer.

“That’s it for today,” she said.

A few days after that first conversation, the nurse gave me a present. I was watching some of the boys roll a volleyball net onto the yard. Alhaji returned from his session at the hospital and told me that nurse Esther said I should go see her. I wanted to watch the volleyball game, but Alhaji began to pull me and didn’t let go until we were at the doorway of the hospital. He then shoved me inside and ran away giggling. Lying on the floor, I looked up to see Esther sitting behind her desk, smiling.

“Alhaji said you want to see me,” I said, getting to my feet.

She threw a package at me. I held it in my hand, wondering what it was and why