Chapter 2 Challenges

“Are they after you?” 

“Uhm…” he answered without hesitations. 

“I don’t know what I am getting myself into by helping you, but they don’t seem to be nicer than you, so I hope I am doing the right thing by helping you,” I sighed as I nervously drove out of the building’s parking area. 

I had to drive the way down to exit the building, but it wasn’t spiral. As I drove out, I saw a few of the men searching for my passenger. I am glad I had my car tinted, they did not notice I had a passenger when they passed by my car earlier and when we passed by them. 

“I am not sure if I saw whatever I saw them carrying. I think they have guns. But they don’t look like cops,” I said while giving my wounded passenger a quick glance. “Don’t sleep! Tell me where to go, first, Marco!” 

“Huh?!” the man thoughtlessly responded when he heard my raised voice. “What?” he asked weakly. 

“Tell me where to take you if you don’t want to go to the hospital. Where would you go in situations like this? I mean where would you go when you get injured like this but you don’t want the hospital,” I asked looking back at him when I found a safe side of the road to pull over. 

The man frowned with his eyes closed as if he was thinking of what to say to answer my question. I waited with the car’s hazard lights on, a sign that the car was taking an emergency stop by the side of the road. 

“Marco?” I called when his silence took longer than I expected. He did not answer. “Marco!” I panicked when his face looked cold and deadly pale. 

“Come on!” I huffed. 

I was worried, scared, annoyed, and honestly speaking, I did not know how to interpret what I felt at the moment. I suddenly heard a message received notification from my phone. It was just the sound of the phone vibrating since I muted my device in preparation for my interviews today, but I still felt like it gave me a breather. I was drowning in distress as I did not know what to do about the fainted, wounded, blanched yet undeniably devilishly good-looking man in my car. I quickly grabbed my phone. I did not even bother checking what message arrived in it just a few moments ago, I pressed my speed dial. And just as always, my savior answered right after the first ring ended. 

“Dad! Dad! I don’t know what to do, dad!” I almost cried as soon as I heard his voice over the phone. 

“Whoa! Whoa! Honey, slow down. Breathe in. Breathe out.”

I did as my dad had said. It calmed me somehow. 

“How is your job hunt going?” he asked with his usual gentle voice. 

“I already missed my first schedule. But that is not the matter to worry about right now,” I swallowed my spit to moisten my throat. 

“No? What is it then?” my dad asked with unhidden curiosity.

“I…” my eyes turned to glance at the unconscious man with me in the car. What I saw reminded me of the urgency of the situation like death was creeping too close. It made me speak without hesitation. “I bumped into an injured man. He is in my car, but he doesn’t want me to send him to the hospital. Now he has fainted. I guess he is losing so much blood. I don’t even know where his wound is exactly. I can only tell it is in his midways. And I saw the people after him carrying deadly weapons. I won’t be surprised to hear this man with me in the car has a gunshot wound. What do I do, dad?” 

My words came out so rushed. I am not sure my dad had heard any of them clearly. But I still need to ask for his thoughts. 

“Then bring him here. Now before he lost it,” my dad answered nonchalantly. “I might have some spare intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis from when you got wounded by a rusted metal scrap. Now, hurry and bring him here!” 

“Are you sure? We don’t know this man, dad,” I reminded him. 

“Do you think you can live with the guilt if he dies inside your car?” my dad asked gently. 

I took a deep breath. My dad knew me so well. His words need not be harsh to hit me right where it’s the bullseye. 

“We’ll be there in less than thirty minutes,” I answered helplessly. 

I was ready to release the brakes and be back on the rod again, but my dad asked again. 

“Is he lying with his legs down?”

I answered yes right away since that was how I saw his position was the last glance I had of him. Still, I looked back to confirm my thoughts. 

“If he is unconscious, make him lie on his side with the top leg bent at a right angle,” my dad continued. 

I did not ask for any explanations. I did what I was told to do without stepping out of the vehicle. I reached the patient’s body from the space between the front seats and told my dad everything I did as if recapping them for him to check if I missed anything else. 

“Good. I will get everything ready. Drive safely. Don’t risk your life trying to save him by driving over the speed limit. You know what I mean, right?” dad said. 

“Yes, dad,” I answered and waited for my angelic dad to cut the call just like I would always do when we speak over the phone. I feel impolite even with the thought of pressing the red button to end a call when it’s my dad. I don’t fancy the idea even in the slightest.

Then I turned my head around as I buckled my seatbelt to speak to my passenger and soon-to-be my dad’s patient. 

“I am taking you to the best dad and doctor in the world for me. You have to live and spare me of guilt for a lifetime.” 

I resumed driving. And while bearing my dad’s words to be safe in my extremely busy-anxious mind, I kept blabbering and calling Marco’s name to bother the man from his sleep. It made his name slip out so fluently out of my lips within the time he was almost lifeless lying there in the backseat. I was worried he wasn’t making any obvious or audible responses, but I did not let the whispering devils inside me win when they seemed to lure me into stepping on the gas pedal more than I was supposed to.

Just as I had told my old man, we arrived less than half an hour after our call ended. The steel gate was already opened and my dad was waiting by the front of it, facing the direction where he knew I would be driving home. 

My dad is an accountant. He is working from home and would meet his clients once in a while. And he also took a license as a caregiver with additional hours to receive a certificate for core nurse delegation tasks because he couldn’t take me to the hospital when I need to, even for the most urgent issues I have ever had. Instead of insisting on taking me to a hospital, my dad chose to study how to be a healthcare provider.