Episode 9

[In Adobi's Point of view]



I paused after I mentioned to him that Sav was dying. For a second, I thought he would leave the world before Sav. He looked white out. He just stared at me without uttering any word. It was as if he had suddenly left this world.

I stared at him for a while then decided to take him out of his misery.

"Jeff? Jeff? Are you OK?"

I called out waving my hands across his face.

"Yes I am." he replied after several calls. I took a deep breath and sat down.

"What is really wrong with Sav? Why is she dying? Kidney infection? Cancer? What? Tell me." he asked as terror overtook his face.

"You didn't actually believe that did you?" I asked with a roguish tone and burst into laughter but it looked like I was the only one who saw the joke in that.

"Why shouldn't I believe you? Aren't you her friend?" he asked feigning annoyance.

"Well.. You shouldn't. I was just joking." I answered still laughing.

"That was not funny you know?" he added chagrined.

Right then I knew if I didn't get serious, I will be the one to actually die.

"I'm very sorry Jeff. I just wanted to be sure you really love my friend." I explained.

"Isn't that obvious? When will you and your friend see that? Besides why would you want to confirm that?" he said in an outburst. He was really losing it.

"Well I wanted to be sure before I told you what is really wrong with Sav. I'm going to betray her trust and I wanted to be sure it was worth it."

"What really is the problem Adobi? Enough with the suspense, jokes and fun OK? Talk will you." his expression hardened.

"The thing is Sav is a little bit deformed in the leg and has burnt scars all over her body. That is what she's hiding from you. She feels unsecured about it."

"Deformed? But nothing on her shows that she is deformed___"

"___Well she is." I added.

"What happened to her?" he asked.

"I am not sure if Sav told you but she and I go back a long way. I met her in highschool and we've been friends since then. I remember during our first year in highschool, some of our mates used to spread rumors that she had burnt scars all around her body and that she's deformed but none of them could emphatically say that it was true. She'd always dress to cover them up.

She was always seen alone in school. No one wanted to talk to her or maybe she didn't want to talk to anyone but I drew closer to her. I didn't like seeing her alone.

I also took that opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. I asked her if she really had scars and that what happened to her.

She agreed to tell me about it.

I remember her saying:

'I had an accident when I was thirteen years old. My mother had come to pick me up from school one afternoon when she lost control of the steer, not really sure how, but she did. The on-coming car saw it so the driver swerved to avoid our car running into his but a Peterbilt 281 tanker truck was right behind it and our car met with it.

Upon the collision, our car flipped so many times on the road. It was as if the world was going round. My body hit the dashboard of the car and I screamed; my forehead collided with the windshield. My bones and muscles and joints felt like they were being crushed.

The noise of the metals being smacked over the asphalt was almost deafening. The air bag deflated pushing me right back in the seat.

After the car had rolled for several times, it came to a sudden halt. It landed on it's roof. Everything was upside down. There were excruciating pain all over my body.

My vision kept flashing from pitch darkness to blinding white light. I couldn't see clearly; everything became blurred.

In distance, I heard the sound of sirens then I turned to my mother. She was badly injured. I saw blood oozing out of every part of her body but I couldn't see clearly what had happened to her.

Then I head a boom! The tanker that had collided with ours had petrol in it and so it exploded when it also flipped over. Our car caught fire. I remember seeing the blazing fire getting close to me. I tried screaming but my voice became faint every second then everything went black.

I woke up a week later in a hospital bed with bandages all over me and a numb in my left leg. I stayed in there for months and when I started getting better, I discovered I had lost one of my legs; the left one and my body had got burnt.

They told me I got lucky my face didn't burn that much so it would heal in time without any scar but my other parts will be scarred. I had a hard time dealing with the monster I had become. I got my amputated leg replaced with a Prosthesis leg later that year.'

When she was done explaining it to me, I found myself in tears. Tears kept rolling down my face for minutes. I just couldn't say anything. I couldn't believe one person could go through that much in her life. We became very close friends after that day and I swore to be with her all the time. So___"

"__So what happened to her mother?" Jeff chipped in.

"Oh the mother couldn't survive. She died in the accident. They told her she got burnt in the car as her part of the car was so crushed that they couldn't get her out in time. She told me she had a hard time dealing with that than dealing with her deformity. She had blamed herself for her death." I explained a bit tensed. These were images one wouldn't want to recall.

He couldn't utter another word. So I added,

"And so all through highschool she was always found with me. She felt no one would ever want to be with her after they see her ugly self. I would talk to her not to say such things because she had a very beautiful face to be thankful for. The body and leg could always be covered.

In our second year in highschool, things took a different turn. she met this guy; Mason. She was very happy about this guy. She said that finally someone had shown interest in her even with her deformity. She was very happy that she couldn't stop talking about him.

Months after they'd been together, Mason changed. He begun to treat her like trash; he was always seen with different girls and worse, he would beat up Sav when she talked about it. He would tell her to be grateful he decided to be with her when no one could.

I did everything I could to get her to report this guy or leave him but she didn't.

I guess she was trapped under the delusion that she was in love or maybe she really was because she was willing to do anything for him as long as he stayed with her but unfortunately, he left her. She got broken hearted for weeks which made her situation worse but when she got over him, she vowed not be with any guy again."

"This is so heart breaking." Jeff bellowed. Tears shimmered in his eyes. I moved my hands across the table and held his.

"So you see why Sav is behaving this way?" I added.