Make it Work

Rise and Shine

Date 27 June 2019, Thursday

Nigh – Four weeks later

Open my eyes but I do not recognise where I am at, I remember telling Vimbai that ‘I am leaving for work’ and everything after that is blank. I cannot move just yet my body is still regaining strength and my back feels painful. How long have I been here? Should I shout so that someone can come and attend to me? I need to pull myself together maybe this all is just a dream and I just need to wake up from it.

In this instant I am gathering my strength someone enters the room. I close my eyes and a man whisper,

I open up my eyes a little bit and I see Vimbai and Steve arguing close to the door and the atmosphere seems to be intense. There are flashes in my mind about her telling me that the father of the child she is carrying is Steve but it cannot be true. It must be just me being paranoid. It is best I just pretend to not have even woken up for now.

The two of them wrap up their talk and leave the room, at this moment every word they said went dull as I drowned is sadness, they did not even have the decency of discussing they betrayal, her promiscuous nature somewhere else. For the first time in years my tears ran down my cheeks in pain, for the other times I have always used food, music and movies to sooth my soul. And to think you trust a woman and then she does this to you and this has been my life ever since, always criticized for my principles by women and my friends. They leave the room together and I wait for some minutes as I find the strength to wake up and sit up straight. And I did not even take a moment to look at that man’s face so I know who he is. That does not matter, my issue is with that promiscuous woman whom I married.

My mother said if I am good and keep myself pure, I will marry a woman that is good and pure by God’s grace and where was God when I married her? With what was being said, I have been in this state for a long-time. A comatose, but for how long have I been in a comma? I will ask a nurse when one enters the room. The door opens and it sounds like the person is wearing pointy heels and is headed for the IV on my bedside. It might be her who has returned after escorting her boyfriend out so I will not open my eyes.

After a few minutes, the woman exit the room and I open my eyes and sigh, keeping my ears on alert for any movement at the door. Unexpectedly she returns and startle, also startling her.

Nurse

“You are awake, let me call the doctor!”

She immediately leaves the room so she can call the doctor. There is no use in hiding now. Let me wait for the doctor hopefully she will be here before anyone comes into the room. There she is, she bust inside the room to see if it is true, I have awakened with eyes filled with delight, the long love she has held for me from way back then has not changed at all I see. Tendai, that time I saw you; you acted as if you were not happy to see me, so I decided to keep it professional too. But this sight you have made me see today asserted the fact that you still care for me even though we have not seen each other in a long time.

“Hello Doctor, any news for me?” settle myself comfortably on the bed.

“Are you trying to be funny right now?

By the way do you remember anything that happened before you got into the accident?” she begins questioning me immediately.

“Accident? What are you talking about now Tendai” answer with a question seemingly surprised after learning about my accident, “How many hours have I been out?

Dr Shamhu sighs and demurs, “A car accident that put you into a comatose for almost four weeks.”

“That long? And my family?” tears begin to drop from my eyes and she puts her hand on my shoulders.

“Many people came to see you, including your family and the person who stayed here the most was this man named Nhamo and your little sister. Your wife and her brother came on and off, once in a while.”

“Okay, thank you”

“Good, I will see you after I finish what I am doing and umm Nhamo said you were supposed to call him and did not and I think you should call him to hear him out. He seemed worried and your wife chased him away whenever she found him here.”

“Okay, thank you, I will.”

“Do you have a phone that I can use to call him?”

“Ohh yes, use mine and when you get discharged, we need to talk about what happened because I did not find any traces of alcohol or drugs in your system.” She hands me her phone.

“Okay I will.”

I look at the phone to check the time. 11:23 I woke up early which means there is time for him to get here so we can start the business he was talking about.

“Tendai, before you leave. The number he gave to me before is in my phone and in my suit maybe I will call him later when I get it.”

“Ohh, do not worry about that just search for his number in my contact list, you will find it. He is the only Nhamo in my phone.”

“The way you said it, that is just weird.”

“Hurry up and call him, I will be right back.”

“Okay. And umm do not call Vimbai please, there is a lot on my mind and having her here might make matters worse in my already troubled soul because I do not want to see her sad face yet, I cannot handle it at this time.”

She just nods and turns to leave and as she is leaving, I search for the number and called Nhamo and it did not even take long, he picked up the call.

“Hello, Doctor, any news on the patient, did he wake up?”

“Actually, it is I, the patient who you are talking right now.”

“Mike, you are awake, since when? Are you doing good?

“Yes, I am good and thank you for everything. And umm, will you be able to come here to discuss the business deals you wanted to discuss?”

“Yes, anytime you want.” Nhamo’s voice sounds excited over the phone

“How long will it take for you to get here? So that we can commence?”

“Will be there before 1 PM, I promise you will not regret this.”

“I will see when you get here.”

End the call.

After everything I did to him, he is still friendly to me, I wonder why? Maybe he is up to something. Let me wait for him then, but if he was up to something, I would have died already so let me just wait for him.

The door opens.

“Thank you for the phone I am done now, he said he is coming to see me before 1300 hours so I will sleep until then.”

“Umm, so you wake up and the first person you call is one of your boys and not your wife or even your little sister?” Female voice comes from the door but it is not Dr. Shamhu’s voice.

This is (for me) that moment you get irritated by the voice you are hearing but you are glad to hear it? Those are the emotions I am feeling right now. I am trying my best to hide suppress my smile as I look up at my little sister, Tanyaradzwa.

“Ohh, there it is, the smile, I was waiting to see it again, and damn you still have a way of pulling stressful pranks on everybody man. How are you feeling?

“Are you not the doctor to be in here? You tell me sis!”

“Damn, something really crazy must have occurred because wow, the shape you were in when we first came was crappy! Now look at you.”

“Thank you for not killing while I was down and wounded my mortal enemy.”

“Well, what kind of a world would it be without my arch-nemesis.”

“A boring one, I mean who will be there to battle you senselessly?”

“How much I have missed you brother!” (Sighs) “No more scary pranks and you will have to tell me what was wrong because you an awfully careful guy, too safe, things are not adding up that you were driving recklessly,”

“Eventually, I will but there are things I need to do first.”

“You are in no shape to be taking up in any activity right now. You were really lucky the last time around and you need to be careful man.”

“I hear you, I will be warier of my actions sister,”

If Vimbai comes in with my sister here maybe I will be able to divert her easily so that me and Nhamo can talk business. I have already lost a lot of time sleeping in this hospital. I will need less distractions.

“Heyy, Tanya, there is someone dropping by to discuss business. So, if Vimbai comes can you please take her out somewhere to stop her from interfering?”

“This is so like you brother! And here I thought getting married would loosen you up and make you freer to live a life that is a little bit carefree and here you are, still careworn over work. Alright then, I will do what I can.”

“Ohh and I bought you your favourite delicacy here, and if you had not woken up, I would have eaten it on your behalf but now I am just going to eat the other half.”

“I do not like sharing anymore sis, I am now stingy so I will eat all and do not think I have not noticed those strawberries you are trying to hide too.”

“You still have sharp eyes as always; I would expect nothing else from my nemesis.”

(Laugh)

“Alright then, let us eat, did you bring enough spoons?”

“I was always hoping to find you awake, so every time I came here, I brought two spoons and I ran into your lady friend the doctor, Tendai, Tindo right? And she told me you are awake and I have not yet called to tell mother and I guess you have not too, because if you called any of the family members many of them would have been here and many others travelling from wherever they just to see the resurrection of my bro-nemesis the star of the family.”

“Sis-nemesis, sounds good too! Now let us eat.”

I initiate the first dig in and wow feels like my mouth missed the taste of ice-cream and my sister came to the rescue. As always, I savour the good taste in my mouth one dig and deep and listen to the taste for a while, as I close my eyes.

“Bro, you still behave like a child while eating this thing?”

Stare at her at the corner of my eyes, “Says the person who cries watching Titanic!”

“It is a timeless classic!” defends herself pointing her spoon out at me.

“Shhhhh, you will spit nonsense into the ice-cream.”

“Haa-haa-haa, okay then.”

It has been over three months and I have not eaten with my sister, and it feels special. I think I will try and do this more often with her and not drown myself in my work and unnecessary people. We have never been the kind to be emotional in these situations, maybe it is because emitting too much emotions brings more pain to the one who was hurt but even so I am hurt I had her worried about me all this time. I can feel tears starting to flow out of my eyes, racing down my cheeks and I stop eating for a while I have been stronger than I have been before but the thought of everything that has been happening to me are hard.

She takes the lunchbox settles it on the side, comes closer and clasps me with in her arms and says to me in that instant,

“Everything will be okay, there is no need to worry. I will be here for you as always you are alive and well and later on after, you will see mom and dad and the others and also your beautiful wife.”

“A lot has happened sis, and I am failing to comprehend everything, you all say God exists right? Then why does he only let me get hurt?”

“Everything happens for a reason, trust in God and everything will come to pass.”

“What reason is there when for making me suffer, money makes everything better and easier, then why is life harder and filled with more lies and manipulation?”

“And ever since we were children things have always been hard on us remember? Why do I feel like it is just going to be just like this all my life and people telling me the God excuse just to make me endure?”

A knock suddenly comes from the door.

“We will continue later. Let me get the door.”

She removes me from her embrace and wipes off all my tears. Gets up and head straight for the door, opens it and there he is, the man I have been waiting for.

“Tanyaradzwa, let him in, that is the person I am waiting for. We have things we need to discuss.”

Her voice rises in anger and shouts pointing at him, “Really Michael? Him of all the people in the world?”

“You would be surprised how many I thought were close to me disrespected and betrayed me sis! And please do not forget what I told you!”

“Okay, I will wait outside.”

Nhamo enters the room,

“Thank you for seeing me Mr. Zimuto,” he says so smiling and humbling himself before me, taking a seat.

Not wanting to waste time, “Likewise! Now let us start.”

“Thankfully, your wife is not here, let me start with showing you what I found out and have been trying to get in touch with you for!”

I do not respond as he pulls out his tablet from the bag he had, bending down on my side so that I can see what he wanted to show me. And he highlights putting three videos on the slide and from the looks of it the camera indicated weeks before my wedding day. I am watching the videos remaining composed and I have to hand it to myself I have been able to keep my composure. So, I will keep it just a little while longer but what I am seeing here is just hard to keep embodied but what choice do I have?

The videos are over and he switches to pictures.

“If you need time to process the data and analyse the authenticity it is fine, I will leave the tablet with you.”

“There is no need, thank you for this information and what is the other business you wanted to talk about with me?” I cannot deny what my eyes are seeing but I need more time to analyse the and videos so I will take it home with me.

“Word has it that you are looking for Directors, producers and editors for you next movies………”

Interject while he is speaking, “It is okay, send me a formal proposal to see what you are offering so I can see.”

“Send it on my email!”

“Okay, thank you! And Michael!” he calls me by my first name.

“Yes!” I look at him.

“That kind of gave me a scare there, I am glad you are okay man.”

“Thank you, for everything, I need to rest now.”

He leaves the room and immediately Tanyaradzwa and Tendai budge into the room. The look on Tanyaradzwa clearly communicates disappointment toward me because of Nhamo and Tendai seems to be curious about the kind of business we were doing.

“Doctor, when will I be discharged from the hospital, I have to get back to work?”

“When we are certain, you are fine and nothing is wrong, so today you will be sleeping here. Until it is certain you are fine,” her reply sounds as if she does not want me to leave the hospital.

“Ohh really, but I feel fine!”

“Ohh yes really!”

“Let me show you that I am physically fit and capable!”

Rise up off the bed and put my two feet on the floor for the first time in weeks and walk to the door jump up and down a bit. But their faces do not seem convinced at all.

“Wow, Bravo, (while clapping her hands) but I am the doctor here and this is not up for discussion.”

“But I am doing great and I just showed you that now?” continue to make my case.

“You have to listen to her; you must not take any chances. You need to get cleared out completely checked,” Tanyaradzwa sounds like she is siding with my doctor here. Why?

(Walking back to the bed)

“I have been cooked up in this bed for a long time, inside this room and do not get me wrong I am really enjoying your company but I am really bore………”