It’s past midnight. The night is still young.
1am;
The night air is chilly, and I am smoking again. Mines is finished. I get some loose from the dude that we drove with. His smell worse than mine. I’ve never spoke to him before. He came into the house, and saw that shit was going down. And he stayed and came along with. He didn’t go back for his coat, or his wallet, not even his keys. That’s a negro.
somewhere between 1230am-1am;
We are smoking together, and he is saying something to me. He is on the phone to his mates I suppose, telling them he’s at the hospital and that there isn’t anything wrong with him though. We smoke, and wait. I’ve never known that ambulances take priority at hospitals.
Apparently, when you drive yourself into the emergency ward/casualty unit, if there’s an ambulance in front, at the door, whatever the patient’s case, they take priority, they go in first, they get served. You wait. He is dying man! That old man? He’s having an upset stomach, he’s even in his pyjamas! He was sleeping?
He’s still at the back, with the blanket wrapped around him. I’m thinking he’s been quiet for a while. In the car, I switch off the radio? or was the music off?
You can’t be playing Bob at a time like this, what the fuck. I check on him, make sure he’s still breathing. The other dude, he’s looking at me and trying to understand. He hasn’t asked me anything, he didn’t need to. “Ask questions later”, that seems to be what he’s thinking. He is from Swaziland, I later found out. They grow good weed there.
We get a stretcher, finally. I wheel him in and get in line, at the back. Fucking government hospitals.
1am — 1:30am;
I gotta make some calls man, I’m going out of my fucking mind. Let me think now, the oxygen mask, there was something else as well. A drip? What was in there? Some Sodium this or that? Something to force him to breathe? I got friends right, Inno is a medic, doing second year or something at Medical School. Him a doctor already. I call him, I have some change in my pocket, I call him.
“I’m at the hospital dude. Brother just woke up in the middle of the night and he started screaming, asking for headache tablets, I found him in the bathroom with his head turned back. Sis is ok, we left her in the house. We in the hospital now, and they got a drip over him. What you think it is? Is he going to be ok?”
“Its alright ntanga. Good thing you made it to the hospital. Government hospital is bad though. Make sure that he sees a doctor as soon as possible. Sodium whatever” thats to get him to breathe. You say his knees were taut? He wasn’t moving? Headaches? Might be an aneurism? They will check him”.
I’m feeling better, that dude is my hero. He’s always been, always calm and putting me on the ground. I pick up the phone again. I call uBongi. She’s my aunt, she gets my head around straight.
“We are in the hospital. He got sick, I’m in the waiting room, they wheeled him into surgery, there’s one doctor here and theres a whole lot of sick people. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“He’s going to be fine. I have cousin’s kids here. I can come over there when its morning. We will drive there. Who else is there with you? Are you ok? Where’s your sister? Is she ok? The boy? Is he ok? Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. Be strong. You are in the hospital now right”.
I’m on the phone again, I gotta call his family. I’m asking my brother for more coins. I have his sister’s number on my mustard phone. She stays out back in Windsor. She doesn’t have a car, she will need to get here quick. I don’t know whats going to happen. But she needs to get here. My brother will stay behind, and watch over him. We say a prayer. He’s always been good at that. Prayers.
He’s in there in surgery now. Well, in the surgery room. I see the nurse, she’s got blood on her shoes, they have plastic around them, and the blood is shining. Why don’t they bother to clean them up? There’s people here. Relatives. You can’t be walking around like that without a care? She comes back, and she’s wheeling in one of them machines. I’ve seen it on TV, on ER. Its a resuscitation machine. My heart sinks.
I tell my brother that I will be back and I walk down the corridor. The line is longer now, and there’s still people waiting. One dude has got a gush on his head and his blood is streaming down the side of his face. Damn. I walk past the guards, past the telephone booths at the entrance and past the vending machines, there’s only just coke there.
I tell the dude that we need to get to his sister. His family needs to be here for him. He lights one for me. We smoke again. He doesn’t ask any questions. He gets in, starts the car and we drive. Its dark, quiet and cold. The morning is still far to come.
