A neighbour’s keeper

By Sunmola Olowookere
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It was late in the night. The residents had retired for the night. It was around eleven p.m. As was the usual practice, those using generators popularly known as “I better pass my neighbours” had begun to put it off in consideration of those that would want to retire early.

Despite this unspoken agreement, some adamant ones still leave it on into the wee hours of the morning. It was on one of such nights that death wanted to strike in our neighbourhood.

The cries of a woman could be heard despite the loud din of the working generating sets. “Please help me, it is my husband o! He is dying. neighbours! Somebody, help mi!”

Those around her could not easily hear her cries for help due to the sound of the generator. However, providence helped her in the form of the ‘queen mother’.

She is a troublesome, loquacious and sometimes pleasant character dominating our neighbourhood. Yes that is her. However in this case, she was a guardian angel sent to deliver the distressed couple.

She had just finished a late night supper because she came in late from her shop. She was just resting and belching gently from the satisfaction derived from a well-prepared pounded yam when the woman’s voice came in through her window again.

The word ‘help’ awakened her senses for news and she stood from the chair on which was resting. She hesitated, wanting to be sure if she heard correctly.

As she was still thinking of whether to go there to intervene or not, she heard the voice again, although more clearly this time “help me oo! Yee! I am the only one here with him!” That decided the queen mother as she made quickly for the door in a move that belied her massive stature. She went across to the other side because it was the rear window of their apartment facing hers. Hence their doorway was on the other part of the compound. She came to their apartment and opened the door.

A man was lying unconscious on the ground and blood was trickling out of his mouth. The wife was trying to pull him up but was unable to due to his weight. Due to his unconsciousness, he was as heavy as a lead. She was crying and shaking with fright. The scene that met queen mother’s eyes galvanized her into action as she held his arms and pull him up effortlessly. She held him despite the state he was in and shook him all the while calling his name.

 By then, other tenants heard the commotion and joined them. They all begun to run helter-skelter and call on God to deliver them from the clutches of the devil that wanted to wreak havoc in their compound.

They quickly took him and the queen mother pulled off his clothes while others held him upright. They poured water on him to revive him but he was long gone. They decided to rush him to the hospital after making several attempts to revive him and all proved to be abortive.

When they got to the hospital, the staff at first stayed away as if they were afraid of being contaminated. However, when the hospital staff had accepted him after much questioning which nearly resulted into a slanging match between a nurse and the tenants, they were asked to stay outside while the doctors attended to him.

It was a gloomy and apprehensive bunch that stayed outside the hospital in the dead of the night. They were all afraid because the couple was recently married and the man was just twenty eight years old.

  It was at the hospital that he was finally revived. By then, the wife had called their relatives who lived in the same town with them and they all came, alarmed at such sudden sickness.

The wife was weeping uncontrollably when the doctor that attended to him came to tell them that he had been revived but that he had to be placed on admission so they could observe him for a few days while they run the necessary tests to really determine what was wrong with him.

He got well and came back home after a week. It was a thankful and grateful couple that went about thanking their neighbours for staying by them at their moment of trial.