OPEN HEART SURGERY

MATRIX APOLOGY

"He was shot in the heart." One of the men said on passing as they rushed the man on the stretcher to the emergency room.

A shot to the heart leaves the body to survive with the left over oxygen in the blood and that is usually less than a minute before the last breeze of oxygen is used up and the body shuts down. If he was shot in the heart, he would be unconscious within seconds after the shot if not dead on the spot, from the shock.

But he was on oxygen. No one actually said he was conscious. Zak had done a quick analysis in his mind and was confident that the man was not shot directly in the heart. This was how he always handled emergencies. He first converted every negative statement into the positive, and then he saw the possibility of saving the patient, after which he swung into action. "Jane! Get Dr. Tayo, tell him I need help."Zak instructed a confused looking semi-albino nurse as she ran off in the opposite direction.

A short bulky woman ran after Zak, "Dr. Zak!" She called out. Zak looked back at her but kept walking. She caught up with him and had to keep running to keep up with his walking speed. "You cannot operate on him! You have to wait for the medical team.”

“Matron, you're a nurse and you have absolutely no idea what this doctor can do."

“I have been instructed by the management to stop you from breaking the rules in this hospital." She said.

“I hope they gave you a plan on how to go about doing that?" Zak said. "The only rule I break is saving lives without an apology."

“He has to be inspected by the medical team before you can raise a knife to his chest!" She yelled. “He could be criminal for God sake!”

Dr. Emem walked out of a room and into the corridor, just in time to reply the matron. "We're doctors not the police. Zak, Tayo and I, we give them life, and then you, the medical team and the police can judge them after." Dr. Emem said, hurrying in matching steps with Zak.

Zak turned to her. "Tell the medical team that Dr. Zak is not an intern, and although I will be humble enough to take instructions from Dr. Tega, I won't take them from a nurse." Zak told the frustrated looking woman.

The woman frowned. "I have been instructed to-"

“Dr. Emem! Please can you instruct this woman to stop following me?" Zak Said.

“Mrs. Marshal, Dr. Zak has instructed me to instruct you to stop following him." Dr. Emem did as she was told, and they halted by a door hastily opened by a nurse.

The nurse bumped into the doctors. "I'm sorry doctor! Dr. Tayo needs you in the theater, Dr. Zak. I mean both of you." She stammered. The doctors walked in through the door leaving it open for Mrs. Marshal who was not authorized to walk in with them as the nurse politely shut the door in the matrons face.

“Lawless children!" The matron consoled herself with the two words aimed at Zak and Dr. Emem.

Dr. Tayo, Dr. Emem and Dr. Zak were regarded as the three lawless doctors of Graceland Specialist Hospital. The male doctors, Tayo and Zak were tagged undisciplined doctors while the lady, Dr. Emem was tagged as a 'good girl gone, bad' under peer pressure. The hands of the three friends were a gift to medicine. They were born for it and sincerely cared about the lives of their patients above any other rule. The trio had a vision for their carrier and that was never to lose a patient. The hospital management loved their gift but hated their guts.

Nicole sat at the reception waiting for the doctor to come out of the theater. "Hi Nicole, I know we've not officially met but I'm a fan of Dr. Zak." A nurse said to Nicole.

Nicole had seen her a few times at the hospital but had noticed nothing exceptional about her except for the fact that she was a nurse, just like the other nurses who looked greenly at her with envy and showers of dislike. On a second thought, this must be the Nurse Dara referred to as 'Zak's Albino nurse', Nicole thought. But the woman was far from being as ugly as Dara had tried to present her, she was a very light skinned African, but her beauty was unmistakable and as bright as her skin. "Oh! Jane?" Nicole guessed.

“Jane Tekimbi." The nurse said, stretching out her hand.

Nicole smiled and took her hand politely. "Nice meeting you! Zak told me you're a very nice and hardworking nurse."

“Dr. Zak and I only talk about work, I'm sure if we did about other things, he'd tell me something nice about you." Jane said, leaving Nicole to wonder if she was being nice or nasty.

Although the nurses did not like Nicole, it did not really bother her because Dr. Tayo and Dr. Emem did. "Sorry darling, I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long?" Dr. Emem said. "I had to assist you boy friend to save the world.”

“So where is he?”

“He's at work. Common let's get out of here." Dr. Emem said.

Nicole had like Dr. Emem at first sight. She was a typical description of a big sister, although she was not as old as Kiara and not as beautiful as Dara, but there was something more attractively matured about her, a uniqueness which made it easy for Nicole to confide in her.

They walked out of the hospital and towards Dr. Emem's car. Zak grabbed Nicole from the back, raising her in his arms. "Jesus!" Nicole exclaimed in shock. "What do you call this Zak? Put me down please." She said, really embarrassed.

“Cookie, it's called love." Dr. Tayo said. "I had no idea you'd be coming around today." Dr. Tayo continued. He had given her the name 'Cookie' and had promised to buy her cookies every time he knew he would see her, although Nicole laughed and begged him not to. Dr. Tayo had kept to his promise.

“She's not here for your cookies." Dr. Emem said. "And you! Stop staring at her like a fat kid does at cake, she's not here for you either." Dr. Emem shot at Zak, Pulling Nicole along to her car.

Zak felt really good that his friends had become her friends but he would still like to know where they were going. "So, when will you girls be back?"

“Whenever we're done!" Both girls replied in unison, and laughed at their unplanned response as Dr Zak and Dr. Tayo watched Dr. Emem's Corolla wheel out of the park.

Zak got home a few hours after. Nene always had to coax him to eat something after work, the same way she had always done after school when he was still a child. She would make him take his bath, come down for lunch, then take his nap and when he woke, he'd read, watch TV, read again, play, take his bath again, come down for dinner and read again in that order. As he grew the process changed a bit, but since Nicole's arrival, all the 'read' and 'read again' changed to 'think' and 'think again', about Nicole.

Zak raised his face from the minimally invasive heart procedures documentary he had been watching to the girl who stood seductively at his room door wearing everything too tight and too curve tracing. "Hello doctor." She said, as she walked into the room in the same manner which she had stood.

Zak sighed, and gave her an unimpressed look. "What do you want?”

“To impress you." she replied.

Zak chuckled. "I'm always impressed when I see a girl I know dress like a whore."

“I'm not dressed like a w***e!”

“Do you have another name for it?”

“The girl in the red dress. Matrix!" She replied, smiling.

“Reloaded or Revolution?" Zak asked coldly, trying to play along.

“Matrix Apology." She replied. "Your favorite color is red, so I came dressed like it, with everything to earn my forgiveness." She smiled sheepishly. "I hope you're pleased my lord?”

Zak was not in the mood for her games, he just wanted her to say what she wanted and get out of his room. "Okay. You may take your Matrix and walk, your sins are forgiven." He said. "And please next time, remember to knock before you seduce your way into my room.”

“Shut up Zak!" Dara shot at him with the real, off script attitude. "I'm going to burst into this room anytime and any how I want to, it's been like that and it's going to stay like that so snap out of it.” She said, snapping her fingers to his face.

“I don't like it." Zak said, seriously.

“If you don't like it, get married! And then I'll know, or lock it and then I'll be forced to knock." Dara scolded.”

“I didn't really mean that, I wasn't sure initially who I was talking to but now you're sounding like you, so now I know." Zak said "Dara, I don't have time for this. What do you want?”

Dara picked the chess board from the table and placed it on the bed. "I want to play you.”

“Go play outside, I'm busy" Zak looked away from the board to her, and back to the board.

“The winner gets to ask the loser for anything." Dara said, with a coy smile.

Zak ignored her smile but studied her eyes, he was not exactly sure but he could tell she was up to something. He wanted to get to the bottom of Dara's 'Matrix Apology' but he would need to do it carefully. "What if the loser can't give it?”

“You're sounding as scared as a potential loser. What happened to the entrepreneur in you?" Dara said, kicking off her shoes and pulling her legs into the bed as her dress shrunk from her thighs upwards, exposing a lot more than a poor boy should see.

Zak looked in the direction of her 'act one, scene one', and then took his eyes from her thighs to her eyes. "Entrepreneurs don't dive into risk, they take calculated ones.”

“Zak, stop being a baby please. We know each other better than anybody else. That also means we know what we can and cannot give." Dara said, arranging the black pieces on the board and letting him take the white. "Whatever the winner has to ask must be within the confines of what we know we have, and can give.”

Zak was not sure what he would ask if he won the game and he really did not care, but he knew her request already came with her mission. As much as he would have loved to hear it, he would still prefer not to negotiate with the devil. The safer side would be to win the game.

Zak moved his Pond.

Nicole moved her Knight.

“Why does the white piece move first?" Zak asked as he moved his Knight forward as well.

“Because it's a white man's world, but on your board it's a white woman's world." Dara said.

Zak's eyes went to her face, he had guessed this had something to do with Nicole, and this was the more reason why he had to win the game. He told himself.

Zak moved a Pond, exposing his Bishop, and Dara struck it down with her Queen.

“I see it's not easy for a woman to be merciful." Zak said, picking up her Pond with his Knight and leaving the Knight to threaten her King. "Check!" He informed her.

Dara's face stoned up, she was determined not to lose the game. "Power, money and women is to men what fame, fashion and true love, is to women." She said, sacrificing her Queen to protect her King. "That is called true love Zak. Check!"

Zak smiled at her well played game. "A woman is the only thing I fear that I know will not hurt me." He quoted, and moved his King away from her attack ready Queen.

They made a few more moves in silence, and then Dara slid her Queen into a position from where she took full control of the game.

Zak felt slapped. "Do you know why the Queen has so much freedom of movement?"

“No, Mr. Genius, please tell me." Dara replied.

“She's a flirt." Zak said.

Dara smiled and pulled her surviving Bishop back home. "That would be true if she was white but when a Queen is black, it means she's a warrior, boundless, unconfined, unstoppable." Dara said, and Zak watched her lips as she listed her synonyms for a black queen until her last word, "Checkmate!”

Zak's eyes fled from her lips back to the board. Checkmate was the word and she was right. She had won the game. His eyes returned to her face in preparation to deal with a victorious shine on her face, instead she was as sober as a judge. Dara was loveliest when she was sober but why was she so sad? Zak felt some pity for her and resolved within himself to give her whatever she'd ask.

Dara asked for nothing, she just looked at him in silence. Zak could hear her request as loud as a scream in the midst of her speechlessness. He kissed her and she swept the chessboard to the ground, intensifying their act, she kissed him like madness. His hands went from her neck to her back. She turned and he unzipped her dress. Their clothes began to fly, landing to the ground.

This was the third time Zak and Dara were having s*x, but this time, it was with the same enthusiasm with which they debated and disagreed.

The first was on the night before Zak left for UC San Diego, it was meant to cement their friendship but it ended up threatening it for almost a year.

The Second was a year ago, they had gone for a friend's wedding at Lagos and had decided to stay in the same room, after all, they were like family but they both got tipsy that night and forgot to be like family.

From the first instance, they had told themselves it should not and would not happen again and on the third instance they had repeated the same rule and agreement that had failed twice already. "What have you done Zak?" Dara said, wrapping herself with the bed sheet and staring at the ceiling.

“I don't know what came over us, I'm sorry." Zak said.

“You mean, what came over you? Dara retorted. She was trying to put the blame on him and if he didn't accept it, she would blow the flames into a wild fire and it scared Zak because it might burn Nicole in the process.

“I'm sorry it's my fault, I swear it's never going to happen again." Zak said.

“It had better not happen again because we're no longer babies and if it must, then let's act like we know what we're doing."