Dared Home

Chapter 5

(Adams POV)

It was a silent night in a lonely passage, walking down to the car park with Adams, a moment crowded with so many thoughts running in her mind.

The time was some minutes to 9:00 PM. The air was chill and kind of nippy outside. At the hospital gateway, people were still walking in and out.

Mina's mood wasn't good through the quiet walk, and Adams was kind of hesitant to inquire what was wrong with her after the phone buzz.

When he was about to step into his car, he paused for some seconds and turned towards Mina, then inquired, "Are you okay?"

"Yes sir." She responded dully.

"Are you sure? ....Since your phone buzzed, your mood changed. What is it?" He insisted.

"Yes. It was someone." She answered calmly.

"Okay. Then." He responded and entered his car, opened a dashboard, and took some money from it, then handed it over to Mina through the window. She declined and thanked him for his kindness, "But I can't take it, after all you've done for us." She groggily said.

He insisted she take it. After some back and forth, she collected the money and thanked him once more, then he drove off after a farewell.

It was a night filled with lots of emotions for Mina.

You know how hospitals never cease to play with reality.

One second it's all about counting some minutes next, and in half a second, it is all nurses on the shift roster and the vending machine banging the door with the same pack of stale cookies.

Mina lost confidence in time long ago and also found a solace and a new hope.

Her time was measured by the raving of squeaky shoes and a muffled bang of a person losing the battle against coffee makers at 3 A.M.

To be frank, she was more acquainted with the snacks in that vending machine than with her kitchen.

But it was all right; dry biscuits and watery tea had become this queer comfort, the only thing she could rely on when her entire life had been pulled off its axis for the current situation.

Her spine had long since more or less resigned because she had tried crashing in that plastic chair so many times. And her dreams were completely disordered: beeping of the monitors, whispering of the nurses, and that terrible, nibbling feeling of not being able to do a darn thing.

But regardless of the gray and sleepless madness, there was always Adams everywhere in her mind whenever she made a turn.

Initially, it was all simple kindness. Generous guy, with maybe nothing else.

That was what he told himself so that things could be tidy and simple. But the honesty refused to click, and the kind Adams continued to do more.

He called every morning at the same time and made her phone ring with a voice as constant as one of the rocks who stood by during this period. He cared more, brought food, and then simply sat with them, no blinking.

She started tripping. She could not fight it any longer, gradually getting more acquainted with him.

In time, she couldn't contain the stifling air between his absence and the long waiting day, so she would get preoccupied with his thoughts. That was when he became the obsession.

He came in with all coordinated style and didn't miss a beat. "Let me bring dinner tonight. Real food. Not the type of biscuits and other snacks you consume everyday." He humorously said.

She managed a half-hearted laughter. "What would you bring this time, Mr?" The words tumbled out of her before she could prevent them.

He laughed softly, all warmth. "Don't worry about that. I guess I will bring the half decent human being who feels a good woman in need of a meal, with some lessons on patience."

This laugh was real this time. She had not sounded like that for a while. It was as if he had to turn up some deep place where it would've been buried, some place where she never knew existed.

Adams made no movement when the call was terminated. He stood there, gazing at his own weary countenance in the scratched-up metal of the payphone. Her laughter was still clattering in his head, and it was obstinately refusing to disappear.

This was not something which was intended. The surgery of her sister should have been a simple matter, a favor and nothing ugly.

However, he melted down watching his phone in hopes of her name without thinking otherwise, and learning how every minute changes in her voice; the tone when she was scared and not.

It was all reckless and stupid, even. He felt not like himself at all. But cursed, when he thought of her smile, the natural and not the artificial type, every other thing dissolved.

At night, he arrived at the hospital with more food, and the entire ward went different. The smell of antiseptic could not possibly compete with the spicy jollof rice and that chunky pepper soup.

Mina opened those boxes like she was untying treasure, the steam rising and filling the entire place with some less dead air. And even the nurses sniffed their way in and their smiles grew less artificial.

"This was not my idea nor plan, but thank you for everything, I still haven't figured out how to appreciate better. I sincerely do."

"I know." He dragged his chair nearer. "That's why I brought it. Because... I believe that, the best remedy to one's belly is a good food and you deserve better."

It was a day without reasonable food, and as she made a bite, it was a thrill she was lost in.

The flavor struck so forcibly, the warmness and the good nature that mingled with that, broke her open. She almost shed tears of joy.

The shame of drying up over a soup made her discontinue in almost a choke.

Adams relaxed his elbows on his knees, looking deeply as she drank from the bottle water.

The world simply stopped, just in a moment. All the silent lingering in-between paused when Mina's sister moved in bed, and marred the scene. Mina turned towards her, flushing up.

"Safiya, are you good?" Mina asked.

"Yes, I am." Safiya responded.

Adams was silent, watching in-between them. Though, there was no any official introduction yet between Safiya and Adams. So he kept it professional.

Afterwards, Mina and Adams stepped out, and outside the doors, the night air seemed hard and true. The lights of the city were smudged in the background; the hospital seemed to remain the world of its own.

"It's cold out here and you can catch it." Adams said with care and not looking directly into her. He shoved off his jacket, and before Mina could open her mouth, he tied it around her shoulders.

She just... stopped. The jacket was warm and all-right at a time. It wasn't his perfume that was most impressive, but, somehow his natural and down-to-earth scent. Such a little thing to do, and yet such a blow.

"You must not, you must not be too kind to me to this extent and keep yourself in this chilled weather saving me from it." Mina empathized, but Adams prevented her from rejecting kindness.

"—caring this much? Everyone deserves it, and it's our duty as men to secure women from every chill. If you finds a good man on duty, seeing what he does and risk, what runs in his mind and veins just for his family or his women. You must appreciate a man." Adams said to Mina looking into her eyes.

He was nearly indignant with himself, and all his voice was rough and natural. "Too late for that, Mina. Enjoy whatever I offer while it lasts." He said humorously.

Pushing a good man away for pride, to make a jest of him, or to tell him he is an ass. Nor avoid the flood of emotions breaking down upon her. Never a thing. However, when she finally looked at him, she did not find pity or any of that patronizing trash.

The very same torment she had been dragging her foot along in her heart. That's when it clicked. Both were nothing but two bums, groping in the mishaps and, somehow, meeting.

She barely got the words out. "Why me, Adams? Why are you bothered, about me, why do you care?"

He drew a breath, as if one who is going to tear off the band-aid and said, "Sometimes. The heaven knows, fate does not always provides a reason. It simply throws a person on your way and got you in the bones and you are not meant to lose them."

Her heart went performing a contrived gymnastics.

All that was in-between them, was not just a question of thankfulness nor regret. It was alive. Delicate. Unavoidable. Never going to flee.

When Adams left, on her returning back inside the hospital, a nurse rushed to her in anxious and asked Mina to hurry up inside, her attention is needed.

Mina's heart pounded against her chest.

"What is it?" She asked in a grip of fear.

But the nurse was already running back inside, so Mina followed.