#2: PETER
“Korede, he’s dead.”
“What?”
“He’s…”
“What the hell? What are you saying? He’s…you…you…”
She burst into tears.
“Please. Please. Help me.”
THEATER
This is the first time I will be entering Tade’s home. I imagined this moment in several different ways, but never like this. I bang on the door and then I bang again, not caring who hears or sees as long as the door is opened in time.
I hear the click of the door and step back. Tade stands there, sweat rolling off his face and neck, in spite of the blast of air conditioning that hits me. I push past him and look around. I see his living room, his kitchen, stairs. I don’t see Ayoola.
“Where is she?”
“Upstairs,” he whispers. I run up the stairs, calling out to Ayoola, but she does not reply. She can’t be dead. She can’t be. Life without her…And if she is gone, it is my fault for saying more than I should have. I knew that this could only ever be the case—to save him, I’ve sacrificed her.
“Turn left,” he says from close behind me. I open the door. My hand is shaking. I am in his bedroom—the king-sized bed takes up a third of the room, and on the other side of it I hear a low moan.
For a moment I am too scared to react. She is slumped on the floor, much the same way that Femi was, pressing her hand to her side. I can see the blood spilling through her fingers, but the knife—her knife—is still in her. She looks at me and gives me a weak smile.
“The irony,” she says. I rush to her side.
“She…she…tried to kill me.”
I ignore him and use the scissors in my first aid kit to cut off the bottom half of my shirt, after the bandages prove too paltry to do the job. I wanted to call an ambulance, but I couldn’t risk Tade talking to anyone till I got to her.
“I didn’t take out the knife,” she tells me.
“Good girl.”
I use my jacket as a pillow and help her lie down. She moans again and it feels as though someone were squeezing my heart. I take medical gloves out of the kit and slip them on.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Ayoola, tell me what happened.” I don’t really want to know what happened, but I need her to keep talking.
“He…he…hit me—” she begins as I cut her dress open.
“I did not hit her!” cries Tade—the first man able to defend himself against Ayoola’s accusations.
“…then I tried to stop him and he stabbed me.”
“She came at me with a knife! Out of nowhere! Shit!”
“Shut up!” I tell him. “You’re not the one lying here bleeding out, are you?”
I bandage her wound with the knife still in it. If I took it out, I’d risk nicking an artery or organ. I grab my phone and call the reception desk at the hospital. Chichi picks up, and I silently thank God that Yinka’s not on night shifts this week. I explain to her that I’ll be coming with my sister who has been stabbed and I ask her to call in Dr. Akigbe.
“I’ll carry her,” Tade says. I don’t want him touching her, but he is stronger than I am.
“Fine.”
He scoops her up and brings her down the stairs and out onto the drive. She rests her head against his chest as though they were somehow still lovers. Perhaps she cannot yet understand the gravity of what has taken place here.
I open the rear door of my car and he lays her in the back. I jump in the driver’s seat. He tells me he will follow us in his car, and since I can’t do anything to stop him, I nod. It’s 4 a.m., so traffic is sparse and there are no police officers in sight. I take full advantage of this, driving 130 kilometers an hour on one-way roads. We get to the hospital in twenty minutes.
Chichi and a trauma team meet us at the entrance. “What happened?” Chichi asks, while two porters slide my little sister out onto a gurney. She’s no longer conscious.
“What happened?” she insists.
“She got stabbed.”
“By who?”
Dr. Akigbe materializes as we are halfway through the corridor. He checks Ayoola’s pulse and then barks orders at the nurses. As my sister is wheeled away, he ushers me into a side room.
“Can’t I go in with her?”
“Korede, you’re going to have to wait outside.”
“But—”
“You know the rules. And you’ve done all you can do for the moment. You requested me, so trust me.”
He sweeps out of the room and into the surgical theater. I walk into the hallway just as Tade runs up, breathless.
“Is she in theater?”
I don’t respond. He reaches out to touch me. “Don’t.” He drops his hand.
“You know I didn’t mean to do it, right? We were both struggling with it and I…” I turn my back on him and head to the water dispenser. He follows me. “You said yourself that she’s dangerous.” I’m quiet. There isn’t anything to say anymore. “Did you tell anyone what happened?” he asks in a quiet voice.
“No,” I say, pouring a cup of water. I’m surprised at how steady my hand is. “And you’re not going to either.”
“What?”
“If you say anything about any of this, I will tell them that you attacked her. And who do you think they will believe. You or Ayoola?”
“You know I’m innocent. You know I was defending myself.”
“I know I walked in and my sister had a knife in her side. That’s all I know.”
“She tried to kill me! You can’t…” He blinks at me, as though seeing me for the first time. “You’re worse than she is.”
“Excuse me?”
“There’s something wrong with her…but you? What’s your excuse?” He walks away from me then in disgust.
I sit in the corridor outside the operating theater and wait for news.
WOUND
Dr. Akigbe comes out of the room and smiles at me. I breathe out.
“Can I see her?”
“She is sleeping. We are going to take her to a room upstairs. Once she is settled, you can pop in.”