Novels by utomi egbon

The ward had the look of an expensive hotel. The bed was wide and soft. He sat up slowly in bed like he had been observing the area. He moved up very carefully.His hand moved to his chest again.The bandage was still there.He felt his new heart was beating.Strong ... ..steady…alive.Adrian closed his eyes for a while and listened to his heart rhythm inside him.For the first time in years, his heart did not feel weak.Before the surgery, breathing had been a thing of utmost difficulty for him. Anytime he tried climbing the stairs, he felt tired easily. He had already been told by his doctors that he may not live to see another year without a transplant.Now everything was different.He felt more powerful.Full of life.Yet something about it still felt strange.The rhythm was steady, but it felt strange. Like it wasn't his own.Adrian opened his eyes and looked towards the window.The landscape of the city had a good view from the hospital. Cars moved along the busy streets. Peo

Mourning someone can make time look like a doodle. Some days feel long and heavy, like the clock has stopped. Other days pass so fast that Anna barely notices them.Three weeks had passed since the surgery.Three weeks since her mother died.But Anna felt stuck on that day.She saw the uncompleted scarf her mother was knitting before she had gotten sick.“You didn't keep to your promise…how could you mom?.” She said as tears rolled down her cheeksHer mother left the needles and pins stick in the soft yarn.Anna touched the wool mildly.She could not bring herself to move it.Silence echoed in the apartment. No humming from the kitchen. The radio that once played country music was no more. No voice calling her name from the other room.Just silence.For a second, she thought she heard someone moving in the hallway, but nothing was there.Her chest hurt again.Anna placed her hand over her chest with despair.The pain had been coming and going for days now.At first she thought it was

“Miss Anna,” the nurse said calmly. "I am really sorry your mother did not make it through the surgery." Anna's eyes got blurry when she heard that.She felt like she was, in a daze.Those words hit her hard.Anna looked at the nurse as her voice began to crack up.“Didn’t make it through? What do you mean by that?” she whispered.The nurse lowered her eyes. “There were complications during the surgery.” The words felt rehearsed.Clinical. Cold.Complications.Anna’s chest tightened painfully. She held onto the hospital sheet as if holding it would somehow stop the world from collapsing. “No,” she said weakly. “That’s not possible.”Her mother had been alive just a few hours ago.Of course she was weak and maybe sick…but definitely she was alive.“She was stable when I last saw her,” Anna continued, her voice trembling. “She was waiting for the transplant.” The nurse remained quiet. And that quietness made Anna feel more hurt.Anna ignored the sharp pain that she felt in her chest.

Anna hated hospitals for one reason; the smell of drugs. It made her want to puke.The fluorescent lights were too bright. The silence between the beeping machines echoed within her head. Her cold feet grasping the floor like that of a lizard.Every step felt like walking deeper into a place where hope slowly died.Tonight, Anna had no choice.Her mother was dying.Out of fear, her hands started shaking as she opened that white envelope that held her mother's result.It read, “End-stage kidney failure. She needs a transplant immediately.”“Immediately???”That word had destroyed whatever fragile calm she had left. Inside the ward, her mother lay on the bed, small and under the stiff white sheets. Her gleaming brown skin had almost turned gray and her breathing came in shallow, uneven bursts. “Mom”, Anna said while forcing a smile as she entered the ward. Her mother turned her head weakly and smiled. Even now, she tried to look strong. “You're back”. She whispered. “Did the doctor s