The Find
814 Words
Tuesday Afternoon. Siloam Medical Centre.
Lara had walked that path so many times in the past 24 hours, the pavement should’ve known her shoe size by now.
Lara had walked that path so many times in the past 24 hours, the pavement should’ve known her shoe size by now.
The hospital was quiet, oddly peaceful, a sharp contrast to the storm inside her head.
Efe’s crisis had come out of nowhere. Again. Her lips were pale this morning. Her voice barely audible. The doctors called it “a manageable flare-up.” Lara called it “a living nightmare on loop.”
She exhaled, letting the warm sun fight the gloom hovering over her shoulders.
Kunle hated hospitals.
The smell. The silence. The subtle sense that the walls knew too much and didn’t say enough. He walked in like he was on a rescue mission, hoodie up, headphones on, brown envelope clutched in one hand like a delivery boy on strike.
“Mummy said to give it to Matron Lizzy,” he muttered under his breath. “Drop it, leave. Simple.”
He hadn’t even made it to the front desk when he heard laughter, soft, feminine, and oddly familiar.
He turned.
A girl, sitting alone on one of the concrete benches under the almond tree in the courtyard, giggling into her phone.
Kunle blinked. The club girl?
Dayo’s mystery girl’s friend?
He was halfway through his internal debate on whether to wave or keep walking when she looked up and caught him staring.
“Small world,” she said, smiling.
Kunle awkwardly pulled down his hoodie. “You again.”
Lara stood. “You again too. What are you doing here? You look like you’re about to sneak out with a kidney.”
He held up the envelope. “Running errands. My mum works here.”
“Oh, really? Nurse?”
“Matron. One of the sweet ones.”
“Ah, so you’re hospital royalty.”
“Basically. You?”
Lara hesitated. Her smile faltered just a bit. “Visiting someone.”
Kunle nodded. Didn’t pry. He respected that.
There was a brief silence. Then,Kunle scratched his head. “I know this is probably the worst time to say this, but… I’ve been looking for you.”
Lara raised a brow. “Me?”
“Well, not you-you. Technically… your friend.”
“My friend?” she asked, instantly on guard.
He nodded like a guilty dog. “Dayo has not let me breathe since that night. I swear, if I hear the phrase ‘the girl with the laugh that touched my soul’ one more time…”
Lara rolled her eyes. “Oh Lord.”
“He’s obsessed,” Kunle added dramatically. “It’s poetic. It’s tragic. He’s writing notes in his phone like it’s a diary. I think he joined a choir.”
Lara tried not to laugh. She failed. “So you want me to do what?”
“Just… help me help him. Give me her number.”
She paused. Efe wouldn’t expect him to call. She might roll her eyes. Or she might… light up a little.
She deserved to light up.
“Okay,” Lara said, pulling out her phone. “But don’t be weird.”
Kunle grinned. “I only come in ‘adorable’ and ‘mildly tolerable.’ No weird.”
Back in the hospital room, Efe had just finished pretending to eat hospital jollof. She didn’t want food. She didn’t want another IV line. She wanted… to feel human again.Lara had gone downstairs for a break. She said, “Fresh air,” but Efe knew it was more for sanity than oxygen. She sighed, adjusting her pillow, wondering what would come first: her next blood test or the return of her appetite.
Her phone buzzed.
She blinked. Picked it up.
“Hello?” She said softly
“Wow. You sound exactly how I remember. Maybe even better.”
Efe blinked. “Who’s this?”
“It’s the man you stole from. My lips. My dignity. My peace of mind.”
She sat up, stunned. “Dayo?!”
“The one and only,” he replied, smug.
“How?”
“Let’s just say I have my ways. And a cousin with zero boundaries.”
Efe laughed, covering her mouth. “You’re insane.”
“Maybe. But at least now I know I’m not hallucinating that kiss.”
She went quiet for a second, flushed with embarrassment and something that felt like butterflies.
“You didn’t even ask for my name,” she whispered.
“I didn’t need to. I already knew you’d be unforgettable.”
Her breath caught.
The moment stretched.
Then…click.
Her phone went off.
Dead battery.
She stared at the screen.
No name. No way to call back.
But that voice… it stayed.
And for the first time in days, she felt alive again.
- Writer
