LOST
Episode Twenty-Final Episode
After rushing out to cry for fear that John had forgotten me, I went and sat outside the hospital, thinking about the hārsh way life had treated me.
When I remembered how everyone left me to take care of myself, I felt so sad.
Then, I felt someone touching my right shoulder.
At first, it was just a light touch, like an insect falling on me.
But then I felt it again, and when I looked up, John was standing close to me.
I startled, it was as if I had seen a ghōst.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you that way, Catherine,” he said. I was shocked.
“Is this not the same person who forgot my name and everything about me a few minutes ago?”
I asked myself, unable to understand what was happening. I wanted an explanation. I was totally confused.
He started to explain, saying that the doctor had told him he had slightly lost his memory, but it wasn’t severe.
He remembered some things but not everything.
The doctor gave him an injection, and he was completely fine. He said he wanted to prānk me about losing his memory completely when he overheard the doctor saying it.
He wanted to find out if I would still talk to him or try to help him out.
He paused, maybe searching for the right words, and I interrupted with a “so?”
He apologized, saying he never meant to hurt me in that way, knowing how I react to things and how fragile my heart is.
I didn’t want to understand anything he told me.
I stood up and asked, “So, do you mean you remember everything that happened at my dad’s house and this hospital?”
But the confusion on his face spoke more than his words. “What happened?” he asked.
I was convinced he didn’t remember, and I was grateful. But it could also be that he was lying to me.
He looked at me, staring right into my face, and said, “I haven’t and will never forget about you, Catherine.
I remember you telling me not to forget about you.”
“Why did you lie?” I asked him. I’m done with your jokes, so I turned and left.
I didn’t want to talk to him again because he shouldn’t have joked with me like that. I wasn’t a joke to him.
It made me feel really bad. He called my name, but I didn’t turn around.
He kept making me cry at every little opportunity, knowing how fragile my heart is. At least he wouldn’t find me at my dad’s house.
So, I hurried home, walking all the way, feeling disappointed and hopeless
. Everyone was treating me badly. I even asked my mom where she was because I hadn’t seen her in my dream.
Why would she choose to leave me alone in the world?
When I got home, my dad’s car was packed outside the gate, which was unusual.
I had to peek to see if they were outside, but I saw him and my stepmom arguing for the first time.
I didn’t know what it was about, but I heard him say, “Give me the keys.”
I wondered what keys they were talking about. I had to walk past them to go inside the house.
I was ready to call the police if anything happened because the way he looked at me made me suspicious.
But I didn’t even have a phone, and I thought, what else could go wrong?
Everyone just kept showing me their bad sides. So, I went straight to my room and lied down on the bed.
I fell asleep quickly, but then it felt like someone was asking me to wake up in my sleep.
When I woke up, I heard a scream, and it sounded just like my stepmom’s.
I didn’t bother to go and check because I thought it was their usual play in the house, where they both scream and disturb my peace.
I tried to sleep again, but this time I heard her scream again, and it sounded like there was a problem.
“I had to rush to check, and I saw my stepmom lying on the floor, blēēding.
It seemed she had a miscārriage, with the way blōod was rushing out of her body.
She was holding her stomach, and her body was covered with marks.
It seemed she was bēāten with a belt, leaving several marks on her body.
Dad was nowhere to be seen. ‘What happened?’ I asked.
Then I realized she wasn’t even speaking; she was breathing heavily.
I had to rush out to find help, calling out to everyone I saw on the road to help me carry her.
No one offered to help. I didn’t want to witness another dėath.
I just had to save her because this time there was something I could do to help her.
I was finally able to convince two guys who rushed to the house and carried her.
Then I asked one of them to help drive her to the hospital while I sat in the back seat.
It seemed she had lost a lot of blòod because the car was completely stained with bloōd.
When we finally arrived at the hospital, even though it was the same hospital John was in, I didn’t bother.
The doctor asked for a deposit before she would be taken to the emergency ward, and she gave me her phone to make a transfer.
For the first time, although that was an opportunity to transfer to someone and keep it for myself, I didn’t want to.
I just sent the money to the doctor, and they started treatment.
I had to start searching her contacts to call people close to her, and I saw contacts saved as ‘mother’ and ‘sister’.”
“I called the numbers, and only one went through, which was her mom.
I narrated the whole incident to the woman who asked for directions to the hospital and came over.
But then I sat outside to confirm that nothing had happened to the baby.
Although she wasn’t good to me, I didn’t want anything to happen to the baby.
When the doctor came out, I asked if the baby was okay, but he broke the bad new, “The baby had been deād in her stomach before you brought her here.”
I broke down in tears, I needed a sibling even when I knew she would treat me well if she had given birth.
I felt bad for her and could imagine her pain. Then I went inside to see her after she had slept and woke up.
When she saw me, she said, “Thank you, Catherine. I never believed you would save my life after everything I did to you.
Your mother will be proud of you wherever she is now.”
I felt that. I just wished Mom would be truly proud of me, even when I was no longer going to school.
It wasn’t my fault, and there was nothing I could do.
I sat there watching her until she went back to sleep. Then her mother called, and she asked me to pick up the call and tell her mom how to get to the hospital.
I did what she commanded, although this time willingly. Her mom finally arrived, and I went to pick her up.
When she saw me, she was speechless. I wondered why, maybe her daughter told her things about me.
I had to go outside, allowing them to talk.
Their conversation became too intēnse that I had to eavesdrop.
I stood at the door, listening to the whole conversation until I heard something.
Her mother said, “I have asked you to leave that man. Now look what he has done to you.
I thank God he didn’t kīll you the way he did with his first wife.'”
“My stepmother said, “I was just there for his money, and we both know I didn’t know this would happen.
But now that I’ve gathered the money I needed, I will leave him.” I didn’t bother.
Dad deserved everything that happened to him.
I just thank God she didn’t make him will all my mother’s properties to herself.
As for my dad, I wished more things kept happening to him. I was close enough that when someone tried opening the door, they might hít me.
I didn’t want to hear any more things, so I just left.
Later in the evening, I went back home. Dad still wasn’t there.
It seemed he ran away after bēāting my stepmom.
For the first time, I had the house all to myself. I locked the gate and slept in his room.
I enjoyed the comfort I hadn’t had for a while. I knew my mom was somewhere smiling because I was free.
Early the next morning, the police stormed our house looking for dad.
They came with my stepmother’s sisters, or so they said, because I hadn’t seen them before.
When they found out dad wasn’t around, they asked me to call them when he came back.
I wrote their phone number on a piece of paper.
After two days, dad came back and packed to run away again.
He didn’t say anything to me. I just strolled to the gate and got someone’s phone to call my stepmom’s sisters.
He deserved to be in jāil, I would have done the right thing a long time ago but it wasn’t too late.
They came a while later and picked him up. He was arrested for assāult.
The next morning, I went back and asked to open a fresh case for mūrder.
I was finally ready to speak up. It was a day to arrive in court, meanwhile, I was enjoying the house by myself.”
I heard John got discharged, but I didn’t talk to him anymore.
I had been passing the junction where we both sold water to the police station, and he wasn’t there.
He appeared at our house when I opened the gate to go to court to testify against dad.
“Catherine, please listen to me,” he said as I tried to shut the gate on him.
“I’m sorry, I will never do it again. Please forgive me for the last time,” he said as he attempted to go on his knees.
I couldn’t stand it. After all, my family had done wōrse to me.
I forgave him and said, “After all, you’re my brother,” as we both smiled and hugged each other.
I locked the gate as we held hands and left for court.
We really looked like siblings as we wore matching outfits that day.
When we arrived at court, my stepmother, my neighbor, and my aunt’s children came.
They were all grown. I wondered how they heard the news.
I was invited to the witness box although i was scāred at first when I looked at my dad, but I had to speak up.
I told the court everything, and at the end of the day, dad was charged with mūrder and assāult.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, although I felt bad because he was still my dad.
I hugged Jennifer. I had missed her. Turns out she was the person who paid John’s hospital bills.
She said she didn’t want to tell me just yet. At least I was eighteen, and my mom’s properties were given to me.
Then John asked, “What are you going to do with all this money?”
With a smile on my face, I said, “I will go back to school, you will go to school, we will help those on the street.
But first, I will need to visit my mom’s grave to tell her I got her the jūstice she deserved.”
That’s exactly what I did.
THE END
Thessycute Ekene
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Alright nice one