'Please . . . please,' my mother begged, shedding some tears for emphasis.

'Madam, please. It's not as if the doctors and nurses here are heartless. We've just learnt to be realistic that's all.'

She explained that after a patient was admitted, it became almost impossible to discontinue treatment if it turned out that the patient could not pay. The doctors and nurses were now tired of contributing from their own pockets towards the welfare of strange patients.

We rushed back to my father's side and held a quick consultation. My father did not conceal an emergency stash inside his mattress. All the banks were closed. There was nobody we knew in Umuahia who could afford to loan cash readily.

'What do we do now?' my mother asked. Her face was drenched with worry.

We carried my father back to the car and went searching. The Ndukaego Hospital told us that they were very sorry. The King George Hospital promised us that we were wasting our time. The Saints of Mount Calvary Hospital assured us that there was nothing they could do under the current circumstances. My mother lost her mind.

'Hewu! God, please help me! My husband is dying o! My husband is dying!' God, please help me! My husband is dying o! My husband is dying!'

'Mummy, please.' For the billionth time, I confirmed that my father still had a pulse. 'Mummy, please calm down.'

She continued babbling to God.

'Let's try another hospital,' I said to Mr Nwude.

A light bulb flashed above his head.

'My wife's brother has an in-law whose aunty's husband is a senior consultant in the Government Hospital,' Mr Nwude said. 'Maybe we can go and ask if they can help.'

We sped to the wife's brother's house. He gave us directions to the in-law's house. At the in-law's house, my mother flung herself against the floor and uttered a cry that shook the louvers. The in-law got dressed and accompanied us to the aunty's house. At times like this, I had no grudges at all about Umuahia being such a pocket-sized town.

After assuring us that the hospital would have no qualms about shoving my father out the next day if we did not produce the cash, Senior Consultant Uncle gave us a signed note addressed to the hospital emergency ward. We sped back to the Government Hospital, flung the note across the desk to the nurse, and got my father attended to pronto. Thank God for 'long-leg'.

'He's had a stroke,' the doctor declared.

He said that my father's blood pressure was too high, that he was in a coma. He could not give any definite prognosis, but gave instructions for my father to be admitted.

The hospital lift was not working, so I and Mr Nwude carried my father up via the staircase to the medical ward on the third floor. After every few steps, we would lean on the wall and pant before continuing.

At the ward, some junior nurses took my father from us, while a militant senior informed us that we could not go in. Visiting time was over.

'You can sleep in the car park if you want to spend the night,' she insisted. 'This is not a hotel.'

Mr Nwude dashed back downstairs, retrieved the senior consultant's note from the nurse at reception, and brought it to the ward. The militant nurse changed her mind.

'You can spend the night, but it would have to be a private room.'

A more expensive alternative, but we did not mind.

My father's room reeked of disinfectant. The walls were stained, the bed frame was rusty, and the lumpy mattress had a broad depression right in the middle. There was neither bedsheet nor pillow.

'You're supposed to bring you own bedding,' the nurse chastised.

After my father was secure in bed, oxygen mask clamped over his face, blood samples drawn from his veins, tubes inserted through his nostril and wrist, catheter through his penis, Mr Nwude was ready to leave.

'Thank you very much for all your help,' my mother said to him. 'We really appreciate it.'

'My pleasure, madam,' he replied. 'I'll come again tomorrow to find out how he's doing.'

'Mummy, why don't you go home with Mr Nwude and let me stay the night with Daddy?'

My mother took a seat at her husband's bedside and shook her head firmly. The resolve on her face was as solid as Gibraltar.

I saw Mr Nwude off to the car park. It was not until he drove off that I noticed. Lo and behold, there were people covered in wrappers and lying on mats in many corners. The nurse was not being sarcastic when she suggested that we could sleep there.

All through the night, the mosquitoes came riding in on horseback. The males hummed shrill love songs into our ears, the females sucked blood from our exposed arms and feet. Tired of swatting the air and scratching her limbs, my mother shut the windows against them. Minutes later, we were almost at the point of asphyxiation. She opened them again. The mosquitoes were clearly the landlords. But at some point, we must have set aside our troubles and fallen asleep. A young nurse shook us awake in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and scratched at a red swelling on the back of my hand.

'You should bring a mosquito net for your father,' the nurse suggested. 'And bring a fan for yourselves. Even if NEPA takes the light, as long as there is fuel, the hospital generator is on from midnight till 4 a.m..'

'The doctor who is supposed to see him,' my mother asked, 'what time is he coming this morning?'

'He can come in anytime.'

The nurse handed me a sheet of paper. I studied the handwritten list. The items included a pack of cotton wool, bottle of Izal disinfectant, pack of needles, pack of syringes, roll of plaster, disposable catheter bags, bleach, gloves . . .

'What is this?' I asked.

'Those are the things we need for your father's care,' she replied. 'Any item you don't find at the hospital pharmacy, you'll have to go out and buy it from somewhere else.'

The list even included intravenous fluids!

'Does the hospital not provide these items? Are they not part of the bill?'

'Every patient is expected to buy their own.'

'Let me see,' my mother said.

I gave the list to her.

'So what would have happened if he didn't have any relatives here with him?' I asked. 'Who would have had to buy these things?'

'We never admit any patient who is not accompanied by relatives.'

Irritation had assumed full control of her voice. The last thing I wanted was for someone whom I had entrusted with my father's life to be angry with me over such a minor issue. My mother also seemed to share this thought. She handed back the list and surreptitiously poked my thigh. That was my cue to shut up.

The nurse tugged at some wires and peeked under my father's clothes before exiting the room. As soon as the door clacked shut, my mother turned to me.

'Kings, please hurry up and go to the house and get the cheque booklet for our joint account. It's in my trunk box. Bring it immediately so that I can sign some cheques for you to take to the bank and withdraw some money.'

'I'd like to wait and see the doctor before I go.'

'Please, go now. You know they admitted us on trust.'

On my way out, I walked past a nurse who was pushing a squeaking wheelchair. The wheelchair was stacked with green case files.

The queue at the bank went all the way out the front door and round the back of the building. If only my parents would stop being conservative and transfer their accounts to one of the more efficient New Generation banks. Thereafter, I went straight to Ola's house. Apart from all the questions I was eager to ask her, she needed to know that my father was ill. Plus, Ola's hugs were like medicine, and every muscle in my body was sore.

As usual, Ezinne was pleased to see me. She unlocked the glass door and hugged me warmly. I waited in the living room while she went inside to inform her sister about my presence. Seconds later, she returned.

'Brother Kings, Ola is not at home.'

I peered at her.

She stood there, pulling at her neatly woven cornrows and twisting her foot from side to side with her eyes fixed on the floor.

'Ezinne, go back inside and tell Ola that I want to see her.'

She obeyed.

Ten minutes later, Ola came out dressed in an adire boubou and with an expression on her face like an irritated queen's. She was accompanied by one of her friends from school. The girl bore some coquettish-sounding name which I had forgotten. Either Thelma . . . or Sandra . . . or one of those sorts of names. They greeted me and sat in the chairs opposite.

'My father was admitted into hospital last night,' I said. 'He had a stroke.'

'Stroke? How come? How is he?'

'I'm on my way back to the hospital. I just wanted to see you first. How are you?'

I thought she might offer to come along with me. Suddenly, she became icy.

'I'm fine,' she replied in a voice that was well below zero.

'I was surprised when I went to your school yesterday and they told me that you were in Umuahia.'

'Yes, I am.'

Her answer sounded a bit off point. Nevertheless, I accepted it. She was wearing the same Dolce & Gabbana wristwatch of the other day. The former red strap had been swapped for a brown one that matched her Fendi slippers. Ola looked glum and rigid, like a pillar of salt.

'Ola, are you OK?'

Her companion flicked some dirt - noisily - from one of her red acrylic talons. Ola took a deep breath.

'Kingsley, I think we should both go our separate ways,' she said. 'As far as I'm concerned, there's no future in this relationship.'

She spoke so fast, with her words bumping into each other. Yes, I heard the individual words, but I genuinely could not make out any meaning from what she had said.

'Ola, what are you saying?' I asked.

The other girl hijacked the conversation.

'What essatly do you not understand? She has told you her mind and it's your business whether you assept it or not.'

This tattling termagant, like many of her compatriots from Edo in the Mid-West region of Nigeria, had a mother tongue induced speech deficiency that prevented her from putting the required velar emphasis on her X sounds. They always came out sounding like an S. I ignored the idiot.

'Ola, please let's go somewhere private and talk . . . please.'

Ola tilted slightly forward as if she were about to stand.

'Abeg no follow am go anywhere, jare,' the termagant restrained her in her more typical Pidgin English. 'Abi him hol' your life?'

Ola sat ramrod straight again.

The termagant appeared to be the commandant of this mission. Abruptly, she stood up and nudged Ola. Their task was complete. They had dropped the atomic bomb. Ola stood. I wondered why she was allowing this Neanderthal to control her like this.

'Kingsley, I need to go out now.'

I bent my knees towards the floor and reached out for her hand. 'Ola, please . . . at least let's go into the room and talk . . .'

I thought I saw a twinge of pain in her eyes, but it passed by so quickly that I may have been mistaken. She turned and walked quickly from the living room. Shortly after, she came out dressed in a brown dress, with the termagant following behind her. The scent of their combined perfumes invaded the atmosphere. Each molecule stank of good money. Without looking at me, they walked straight out of the house. I followed like an ass.

'Ola . . .' I called. 'Ola.'

She did not even look my way. Any passerby could have easily mistaken me for a schizophrenic conversing with invisible KGB agents.

'Ola, please just give me a bit more time.'

With me lurking at her side, they stood by the main road and hailed a passing okada okada.

'Empire Hotel!' the termagant shouted.

The daredevil driver did a maniacal U-turn and stopped with his engine still running. Ola climbed on as close to the driver as was physically possible, leaving just enough space for the termagant. When the driver had perceived that they had settled as comfortably as the laws of space would allow, he revved his engine and zoomed off.

Nine

It could have been the sorrowful eyes that she saw.

It could have been the gloomy aura that she perceived.

Whatever it was, as soon as I walked into the hospital with my father's provisions, my mother knew that darkness had befallen her opara.