Chapter Eight

It was ten-twenty-five AM, when Priscilla walked into Christopher’s room, he was lying on the bed, it had white sheets on, the bed squeaked, as Christopher tried to seat up.

“your here early” Christopher was amused

“yes I am” Priscilla smiled, then walked close to Christopher and held his hand, “as days turn to years, so many people come flooding into your life, each giving you a piece of what life is about, they all have a specific time-frame to be in your life, and once that time has elapsed, they leave, but the question is not how long a person stays in your life, what really matters is what was he/she able to do, while the stopwatch they had in your life ticked, that’s all that matters eventually, those little favors that a person does to another, they are the tires that keep life moving. The little time I have in your life, though it’s ticking out, I don’t know how long I have left, I want to make it worthwhile, I will make it worthwhile, for the both of us” Priscilla smiled, revealing her braces “did I say too much?”.

“well, I hope you didn’t” Christopher smiled

Priscilla scoffed “do you mind holding my hands, as we walk round the hospital?”

“I don’t, quite frankly I need a walk right now, I’ve been on the bed all these while, and moved as far as the width of this room, so no, I don’t mind” he answered with a smile.

Priscilla gave him her empty hand, to help him get off the bed, Christopher wore his footwear, then walked with Priscilla to the door, as they both held hands. They both were in the moment of something their hearts were too afraid to name. As they approached the waiting room, it was dark.

Christopher looked at Priscilla “why is this place dark?”

Priscilla simply shrugged and smiled, as they kept working, as they entered the waiting room, almost immediately the lights came on

“happy birthday!!!” a thunderous shout echoed from several people in the waiting room, patients, nurses, Patricia, and Morris, they all wore a happy face

Christopher stood still, with unreadable expression on his face, then a tear dropped from his eye. He looked round him, seeing the decoration’s that had been made, and a banner with the inscription ‘happy 16th birthday’

Priscilla walked to him, and gave him a firm hug, “happy birthday Christopher dear”

“thank you” Christopher whispered in Priscilla’s ear, “thank you to everyone, I can’t begin to explain what this means to me, but it does so much” he said in between sobs.

Patricia walks up to him, “you are welcome Christoph, enjoy your day, or else you have to wait another 365 days” she smiled

“did you just call me Christoph?” Christopher’s eyes lightened up in surprise

“yes, any problem?”

“oh… uh!” Morris placed his hand on his forehead

Christopher turned back, and scurried out of the waiting room,

Patricia stood in shock “did I say something wrong?”

***

Morris ran his hand through his head, Priscilla ran after Christopher, as the people gathered dispersed, the patients to their rooms, and the nurses to their duty post.

“what just happened?” Patricia smirked, “why did he runaway? you should have an idea right?”

“he’s bi-polar” Morris echoed

“he’s what?” Patricia shouted, her eyes now as large as saucers

“he’s bi-polar”

“why I’m I just hearing about this now”

“well, because it never really came up”

“it means he has been off his lithium?”

“yes, he has, since the accident”

“that is something serious, if we knew this early, we’d have taken some precautions”

“is it late, would that cause any problems?”

“well, I don’t know yet, but I hope not”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, please make sure that he is fine” Morris’s voice was shaky

“what about those times he had some episodes, were they symptoms of the bi-polar deficiency?”

“I don’t know, I wanted to believe it was the accident, and not the bi-polar symptoms, I wanted to believe that he was free from it” a tear rolled down Morris’s cheek “I really wanted to” he continued in a sulky

Patricia drew close to him, body to body, then she wrapped her arms around him “he’ll be fine, trust me, but you are going to have to tell me things that can help us, just anything, don’t leave out anything” then she broke off the hug, “ok?”

“yes, definitely, I will from now on, I promise”

Patricia nodded head, and smiled, “so what must have triggered him now, I mean the episode, any idea?”

“it’s only his mom that called him by that name, Christoph”

“Oh! that’s understandable, I’ll apologize to him when I see him, you should go home and rest, probably take a bath, you’ve been here for two days”

“what about Christopher?”

“don’t worry about him, he’s in safe hands here, just go rest, so we don’t have an additional patient here”

“alright, thank you”

“so, see you in the evening, also come with his lithium, we’d need it” Patricia rubbed his palm

“thank you, Patricia, I will, take care” Morris smiled as he walked away.