MBEYA, 2014
Leo slowly opened his eyes. He squinted over the entire room. There was a ceiling fan rotating slowly and he was sleeping on a bed with hygienic white sheets.
Where am─
The door opened and he saw a young woman, maybe in her late twenties. The woman was on a white dress and she carried a tray on her hands.
“Where am I?” Leo muttered
The woman placed her tray on the table, “safe place”
“Where..?”
“Ifisi hospital”
“Need to leave now”
“In that situation, you can’t!”
“Need to save my brother”
“If you are talking about a man who brought you here,” the woman scratched her hair, “said he would come back at night.”
“Who..?”
“A man of about forty-something”
“Need to leave now,” Leo attempted to stand, “my brother is in danger”
The woman forced him back to the bed, “You can’t─”
“What’s wrong?” another woman, looking to be in her fifties entered the room.
“He wants to leave” the younger woman snapped, “keeps on saying he wants to save his brother"
"It's alright, I'll handle it from here," the older woman said.
The younger woman left the room, leaving Leo with the older woman.
“Hello!” the woman said
Leo stared at the rotating fan
"I'm Patricia, a nurse, and psychologist"
“My brother is in danger”
“If you want to save your brother, you must recuperate”
“I’m fine”
“You are not!” Patricia opened her files, “You are suffering from Insomnia”
Leo gasped
“Can a man who will crumple at anytime save his brother?”
The statement touched Leo, “what should I do?”
“Good! You must answer my questions well”
Leo panted
“How old are you?”
“12 years old”
Patricia stared at Leo for some minutes, “For how long have you been getting difficult in sleeping?”
Leo smiled, “seven years, I guess!”
“Why? What prevents you from sleeping?”
“Many things”
“If I’m to help you, I need to know everything”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Don’t have to trust me. It’s for your brother’s sake”
Leo breathed heavily. He had no choice but to tell the woman his whole story. When he was done, tears were flowing on his smiling face.
“That smile conceals a lot of soreness” Patricia mumbled
“You said you would help me”
Patricia removed her eyeglasses and sat, “a month ago, my husband and my daughter were on their way home after shopping.
“They got a dreadful accident and my husband died on the spot. My daughter who barely survived, witnessing her father’s death has been affected psychologically by that accident.
“Now she avoids people, she can’t go out of the house and she won’t talk to anyone including me. I tried counseling her but it didn’t work” her eyes were now filled with tears.
Leo looked at her forlornly, “How does that help me?”
“Insomnia has no cure” Patricia wore her eyeglasses, “but you can overcome it by getting rid of grief and anger inside you─ the factors that affect your sleeping habits”
“Tried a thousand times but guess what?" Leo chuckled, "the more I strive to forget, the more they become more lucid”
“You’re still young… can share your troubles with others”
"In my damn life, there are no other"
“Talk to my daughter”
“How..?”
“Elucidate your story and grief to her,” she paused, “will help you let go of your stress and grief, and maybe it can help my lost daughter to come back to life.”
“Do you think life will change, for both of us?”
Patricia nodded
“What if it doesn’t?”
"Then we people must change"
After Leo's medications were done, he was taken with Patricia to her home. He thought about Benjamin all over the road until the car stopped outside a beautiful Bangalore.
After entering the house, Leo saw a girl of about his age staring at the TV screen.
“Macy, how have you been?” Patricia shouted but there was no rejoinder
“She is beautiful," Leo said
"Go save yourself and try saving her," Patricia said in a low pathetic voice, mounting up the stairs.
Leo walked closer to Macy and sat on the same couch next to her. Her eyes just concentrated on the TV screen.
“Be careful with my heart” Leo read on the Samsung RU8000 LED TV screen, “a TV show?”
Macy’s eyes were immobile on the screen
“Every human has that story he or she doesn’t want to share,” Leo chuckled, not believing he became some rousing man, “but sometimes─”
Macy increased the TV volume
“I don’t know what your story is but I’ll tell you mine”
Macy stood from the sofa and started walking away
Leo amplified his voice, “I was at the age of five… when my life unexpectedly tainted. It was at that age when I stopped living like a human being…”
Macy, who was already at the foot of the stairs stopped and turned her head, her eyes met with Leo’s woeful eyes.