The Clock Is Ticking – Episode 56
Sequence 56
*****
‘Don’t play victim to circumstances you created.’
******
After the doctor left, Mattie was shaking so badly she could barely stand. She burst into tears and Chard held so she wouldn’t fall. ‘Oh my baby, where am I going to find her now?’
‘We will find Trinity, I swear we will and your sister is gonna be all right, she’s tough,’ Chard whispered
It wasn’t long before her mother showed up at the hospital crying hysterically.
The minute she saw Mattie, her brow furrowed with ire, ‘You! Have you seen what you have caused?’ she yelled.
Mattie remained silent.
Before she knew it, her mother pounced on her like a feline everything pretty much became a blur for her.
Chard quickly pulled her off and pushed her away, then helped Mattie to her feet. ‘Are you okay?’ He asked Mattie
‘Yes,’ she managed to say catching her breath, ‘I am fine.’
He rounded on her mother, ‘aren’t you a little too old for that? Can’t you see she too is hurting?’
She shot Chard a disgusted look, ‘And who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to speak to me like that?’ she seethed
Claire put her arm around her mother trying to calm her down, ‘Mother it’s not worth it please,’ she said
‘I have watched over my daughter and loved her since the day she was born. I had my reasons for forcing her to go back to Andrew you have never been married so you wouldn’t understand. And now, I may lose her because of you,’ she glared back at her.
Mattie chose not to respond, not wanting to further inflame the situation.
‘What’s the situation like here?’ Claire asked, she was genuinely worried about her sister and the baby.
‘Vanessa is in a medically induced Coma, the baby is okay and Andrew is dead,’ Maya responded
‘No,’ her mother let out a loud cry and sank down to the floor crying her heart out. ‘Ichisendo ichi chafina, nalalila shani mwebantu,’ she lamented
Seeing her mother crying like that, Mattie too began crying so hard she could barely breathe.
Chard held her firmly and gently rubbed her back up and down waiting for her to
calm down.
********
Chrissie ran down the hallway of the hospital to the waiting room, when she spotted her mother rolling on the floor, she thought her sister was dead, a steady flow of tears found her face and she too sank to the floor.
‘Van! she cried out loudly, ‘death oh, death you have no shame, how could you take my sister just like that?’
Claire shook her, ‘Vanessa is not dead,’ she whispered, ‘She is in a coma. Andrew is the dead one.’
‘Oh Andrew!’ she wept openly and cursed Mattie.
Thomas shook his head and walked over to Mattie, he was angry that another man was comforting her and not him.
‘Hey,’ he said
Mattie sniffed, ‘Hey.’
‘I heard about your daughter,’ he started, ‘and I am sorry about everything going on. You don’t deserve to be going through such kind of pain.’ ‘Thank you,’ she answered softly
‘If there is anything I can do to help please feel free to call me.’ ‘I am gonna be fine,’ she responded
‘You know I care about you and I just want you to be….,’
‘She said she is gonna be fine,’ Chard snapped cutting him mid flow.
‘I know man,’ he said. ‘Anyway be safe and take care of yourself, I am sure Trinny
will be found soon.’
‘Thank you.’
****
Sam picked up his phone and dialed Andrew’s cell phone once more. He put it up to his ear and waited patiently as it rang.
‘This is Andrew, I ‘m sorry I can’t answer the phone right now but leave me a message and I will call you back.’
He sighed in frustration as he hung up the phone and set it down on the table. He looked around the room and immediately spotted Trinny who was sleeping soundly upon the small bed. She had been sleeping for a long time now, he knew she would be awake soon and then she would start asking about her mother. ‘Have you managed to reach the boss?’ His colleague asked
‘No, his phone keeps taking me straight to voicemail.’ ‘What is going on?’
‘I have no idea. This wasn’t part of the plan you know.’
Suddenly the door to the house flew open and Mark rushed into the house panting heavily.
Mark stared at him blankly for a moment and asked, ‘Mark! Are you okay?’ Sam took a deep breath and stared at his colleagues with wide panicked eyes, ‘There is fire on the mountain,’ he said ‘What’s going on?’ Sam worriedly asked again.
‘The boss and his wife had a terrible accident,’ he said taking gasping breaths ‘How?’
‘The how doesn’t matter right now, what matters is that our boss didn’t make it.’
A round of gasps echoed around the room.
‘What do you mean he didn’t make it?’
Mark bent down and picked up a large bottle of beer, took the top off with his hand and gulped down almost half the contents, he wiped his arm across his lips and belched loudly, ‘Andrew is dead.’
They all went quiet.
‘What do we do now?’ Sam asked a few minutes later.
‘I say we dump this child in front of her mother’s house and vanish before the police track us down,’ Mark said
The other guy known as X shook his head,’ If we do that we are gonna lose out.’
‘We will lose out big time,’ Sam said
‘So what’s the deal?’ Mark asked
‘We could call the boss’ partner, the lady who helped him out in all this maybe she can help us with money.’
‘Forget that one,’ Sam said, ‘I say we call this girl’s mother and asked her for money in exchange for her daughter’s life.’ ‘You think that will work?’ Mark asked
‘Of course, that woman loves her daughter very much. She will do anything to bring her back home.’
‘This sounds like a good idea,’ X said, ‘Let’s call her and ask for ransom, immediately after the exchange we vanish.’
*******
After a few minutes later, the doctor walked over to Mattie.
‘You can see the baby now,’ he said
‘Okay.’
‘NICU is on the fifth floor, go to the nurse’ station and they will take you to her,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’
Her mother instantly stood up and wiped her tears, ‘You have no right to see that baby, just go home.’
‘Vanessa gave me the rights to that child, she said if anything were to happen to her, I will become her legal guardian,’ Mattie said ‘Impossible!’ She screamed.
‘She put it in writing through a solicitor.’
‘So now you are telling me I have no right to see my grandchild?’
‘You can see her but I remain her legal guardian and if she is discharged, I am taking her home with me.’
‘That is stupid,’ she raised her hand to slap her but Mattie grabbed it. ‘Don’t even dare.’
The stared at each other in silence for a moment, Chrissie sensing the tension in the room looked to her mother.
‘I don’t think this is the right time to discuss this, let her be for now.’ *****
Mattie and Chard headed to the elevator and punched the fifth floor button, Mattie was still worried about her missing daughter but she knew she needed to be strong for her sister and the new born.
When they got to the fifth floor, the nurse lead her to the wash room outside the NICU, she scrubbed her hands and put a pink paper gown and gloves on.
‘We just finished doing all the tests,’ the nurse said with a gentle smile, ‘The baby
is stable.’
‘Thank you.’
Mattie felt the air rush out of her lungs as she looked at the tiny babies, the nurse lead her to where her niece was.
A smile spread across her lips as she studied the baby, the small pink cap was too big for her head all she had was a diaper on. She pulled a chair up to the box and sat next to her.
The nurse walked out to give her some privacy. She sat there for a while watching her.
Then she reached gently into the opening on the side of the incubator and lightly touched her small hand, to her amazement her tiny fist clenched around the tip of her pinky finger.
‘Hannah! That’s what I will call you my darling. You are a strong little girl full of favour and Grace. Your mummy will be happy to see you when she finally wakes up.”
*******
TBC
The Clock is Ticking
Ella
