Cross My Mind

AWAKENING

The bus is a double deck long coach parked at the farthest end of the mega building, Garba climbed onto the bus, went straight to the upper deck and Mila followed behind him. The two of them sat at the very last seats on the upper deck near the rear windshield. By their left, a fair bespectacled Asian lady was seated reading the Japanese translated version of a book that looks strikingly familiar.

Garba was staring so intently at her that she noticed and closed the book to look up at him; immediately their eyes met, she started smiling at him with a tinge of curiosity, Garba on the other hand directed his eyes at the book she was holding because although he cannot for the life of him read Japanese, he is sure that he has seen the cover picture somewhere before. It took him a moment before he suddenly remembered, it is George Orwell’s Animal farm.

“Animal farm right, by George Orwell, same author who wrote Nineteen Eighty Four. I am Garba by the way and this is Mila” Garba said awkwardly.

The girl, whose focus is currently fixed on Garba’s eyes responded smiling widely.

“Heterochromia I am assuming, fancy color combination of brown and blue eyes. I have a Siamese kitten at home with the exact same condition and the same combination of colors” the Girl said while extending her hand to Garba.

“I am Lucy, nice to meet you Garba and Mila” she added, adjusting her glasses; they shook hands and sat down.

For the next two hours, Garba and Lucy discussed different books they have both read by different authors, Garba realized through their conversations that Lucy is a book lover, she enjoys reading all genres of literature and has recently picked a hobby in reading translated versions of books simply to see if the experience and feeling is the same.

Garba also got to know that Lucy came from Japan, her brother is currently in a hospital in critical condition and in need of surgery; but she can't raise the bill so she volunteered for the trial to pay the hospital bill. Garba also told Lucy that he volunteered for the trial hoping the ten thousand dollars benefit can change his life forever and that of his sister. He also told her of his sister Salma who to Lucy’s surprise also has heterochromia.

Garba’s chat with Lucy came to an end when the long coach jerked to a sudden stop, the television on both the lower and upper deck of the coach automatically come on, showing Dr. Akihiro.

“we have arrived at Neuratechnologies private jet hanger, from here on we will be flying you to our private facility where the next stage of your trial will begin, please exit the bus and board our private jet” the old Asian man said.

Garba turned to his right where Mila has been dozing off for the last two hours, he tapped her gently on the shoulder and said

“wake Up Mila, we are getting on a private jet”

Mila slowly opened her eyes and followed Garba together with Lucy as they get out of the bus and begin to board the large Boeing passenger size airplane that Garba just told her is a private jet.

“Just how rich is this company, this is a passenger size airplane and it is here just to carry us?” she said.

“Well, the same company is owned by the fifth richest billionaire in the entire world Mila, someone rich enough to end world hunger if he wanted to and will still be filthy rich afterwards” Lucy responded.

Aboard the plane, the three occupied seats in a similar manner to how they sat on the coach; Mila seated near the window to the right, Garba seated by the left next to Mila and Lucy seated further to the left across the aisle on the same row.

The captain of the plane explained to the volunteers over the radio that they will be flying for five hours to the facility and they will be served lunch a few minutes after takeoff.

A few minutes after takeoff, a group of people dressed in oddly styled sky blue colored uniforms begin to pour out from the inner section of the plane where there wasn’t any volunteers seated. Each of the people has a table filled with packaged food, drinks and deserts; And in a few minutes all volunteers are busy munching their delicious food. It took Garba while to finish his food and had the empty plates and cutlery taken away by the people dressed in sky blue uniform.

Two hours passed on the plane and Garba has been playing games on the entertainment system on his seat ever since he finished eating and for the last five minutes, he has been feeling an unusual lethargy and drowsiness. He turned to Mila and saw her fast asleep as expected. He turned to Lucy who he assumes has been reading her book the whole time.

“Lucy, Hey Lucy” he called but got no response.

Lucy is in her usual arched position with her head facing down and her book held on her lap. Garba reached out his hand and tapped Lucy’s shoulder twice and to his surprise, her glasses fell from her face on her book, it was then that Garba realized Lucy too is fast asleep. He unbuckled his seat belt and stood up, with an unusual weakness in all his joints, he walked to the lavatory and washed his face thinking it may help awaken him more but unfortunately Garba only gets drowsier by the second.

On his way back, Garba realized that not a single volunteer on the plane is awake apart from him and no matter how much he tries to wake them up, they were not responding, almost as if they were sedated.

‘could it be the food, Oh my God’ Garba realized that the entire volunteers have been sedated and put to sleep, which also explains why he has been drowsy and weak. He managed to get back to seat and starts to tap Mila as fast as he can but got no response too. Slowly, his eyes begin to close.

As an improvise, Garba remembers that nothing keeps a man wide awake like pain so he put the index finger of his right hand in his mouth and bite down as hard as he can. A surge of pain shot through his head and he felt woken a little bit but hears fast approaching steps from behind him.

When Garba turns back, he saw two men dressed in the same sky blue uniform walking to him; one of the men is holding a filled syringe, immediately he saw that he knew exactly what is about to happen, all his energy is gone and the lethargy has overpowered him so he watched helplessly as one of the men held his hand and the other shot the content of the syringe into his vein.

Garba’s Body felt hot at first, but slowly; his consciousness faded and everything went blank.

The two men checked and made sure Garba was out before one of them pulled a radio phone and said

“all clear, all subjects are out. We can proceed to step two”

Inside the cockpit of the plane, the two pilots now speaking to someone on the other end of the line giving them orders said almost in perfect synergy

“yes sir, proceeding to stage two” as they maneuver the plane and start heading to the coast of the ocean in the Direction of the secretly hidden facility.

Garba having been put down under heavy tranquilizing agents begin to dream about his childhood.

In the dream, Garba finds his fourteen years old self standing alone with his Salma at the entrance of their own home locked out in a heavy pouring rain. It has been two years since their mother was divorced by their father and although the man intended for them to be with their mother, she dumped them back at his house six months back complaining that he sends nothing for their feeding.

Their father had travelled to the federal capital territory the day before for a meeting regarding his retirement settlement, leaving them at home with their step mother who doesn’t particularly like them and hates their differently colored eyes.

They have run all the way from school in the evening trying to avoid the heavy rain that is about to start falling but met the entrance to the house locked from the inside, they knocked and shouted enough for anyone inside to hear them but it fell on deaf ears.

Garba knew instantly that they are being ignored outside by their stepmother. Thirty minutes later Salma was clenching Garba’s backpack and shaking badly from how cold she is after having the rain fall on her for half an hour. With sadness and lost, Garba reached the door and knocked it gently three times and as if already there the whole time, their step mother opened the door and let them in.

“tell Salma to stop crying before she wakes my son, he is fast asleep” the woman said while glaring at Garba.

Garba walked his sister into their room, put some dry clothes on her and tucked her into her bed. he turns on the stove to prepare a warm bath for her. Overwhelmed by his intent to get his sister warmed up, Garba forgot that his clothes were not dry and sat on the sofa in the living room. His step mother came out of her bedroom, once she noticed what Garba has done she walked straight to him and without warning gave him a dirty slap on the face.

“you witch eyed bastard, do you know how long it will take the sofa to dry up in this season? Your mother must not have taught you anything about character and cleanliness” she shouted at him and reached her hands to grab his shirt and with all her strength, she flung Garba’s teenage body towards the door.

In a yeet, the force she used carried him all the way to the entrance of the living room where he fell and collided his head with the edge of the door. He lay down bleeding and in excruciating pain. In his agony, he could hear the main entrance of the house being opened. The footsteps approached gently, stepped into the living room and stood next to him. Garba opened his eyes and saw his dad standing.

“You’re back so early” the wife said with a shaky voice but Garba’s father instead picked Garba up and walked out of the house. He took him to the nearest clinic to have his injuries treated.

An hour later, Garba was brought back with a bandage patch on his head, Garba was expecting his father to at least tell the wife that she was wrong to do that to him but nothing of such came out of his mouth. Garba prepared his sister’s bath, woke her from sleep so she could bath. He then went ahead to lay on his bed.

A few hours later, he woke up to a terrible headache, his body was burning up and his sister was not in the room. He could hear the feint sound of two people arguing but his headache gives him sharp pangs of excruciating pain waves that increases every moment. After a few minutes, the voices died down, he heard someone leave the house because every time someone opens the main door to the house, it makes a loud creaking sound. His father walked into his room looking drunk and out of his character.

“Dad, my head hurts really bad, I cant sleep at all because that” Garba said to his father in the hopes that he may get him a prescription or even better, take him to a hospital but instead Garba saw Mr. Danladi crying and heading towards his bed.

“is everything alright father?” Garba asked but as Mr. Danladi leaned closer to him, a repelling smell hit Garba and he knew immediately that his father has gone back to drinking, which was the main reason his mother couldn’t live with him anymore. Before Garba could do anything, the drunk man put his hands on Garba’s neck and started to choke him.

“I did not give birth to a witch, I must send you witch eyed brats back to where you came from” Mr. Danladi keeps saying while strangling his fourteen years old boy.

Garba could not do anything in the face of the overwhelming strength of a drunk Forty-eight years old man, he lay in his own bed wriggling in pain, being choked by his own father. In his mind, he keeps wondering if this is how he is going to die, who will take care of his sister and for a moment, all the pain is gone, his mind completely void of anything.

His eyes are wide open but his vision has gone completely blank, all he could see is plain white light. In a brief moment, he pictures his sister in the rain drenched and cold crying with no one coming to her aid.

In that brief moment, Mr. Danladi suddenly realized that the boy is no longer breathing or kicking and it suddenly dawned on him that he has taken a life, slowly coming back to his senses he let go of Garba’s neck and instantly, Garba inhaled deeply, as if risen from the dead and in that moment everything went dark again.

Garba woke up on a hospital bed screaming in tears and at the top of his voice calling out his sister Salma.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he has just had another flashback in the form of a nightmare. He quickly ran his hands over his head and almost like the injury in his flashback, he felt a bandage on his head and a lasting unfamiliar feeling, as if something is stuck in his head just above his right ear.