The Dreams Of My Mother – Episode 22

Episode 22

While Tania was pondering on how she would end Dayo’s life, the latter woke up, he felt pain in his head, so he touched his head and felt the bandage on it.

Dayo: “Where am I, what happened to me?” he asked the empty room lit by white lights. Everywhere smelled scrubbed with chlorine, and he realized that he was in the hospital. His memories came back to him. He remembered the accident, and how scared he had felt, as the car made impact with the iron railings of the bridge. Then he remembered one important part of it all, the anger in Tania’s eyes just before she swerved the car. He also remembered that there had been no car in front of them, or behind them. Therefore, he concluded that aunt Tania had deliberately swerved the car and hit the railings with the side where he was seated.

Dayo: “She had wanted to hurt me, but why, what have I done to anyone. Why does mummy Bella hate me, and why does aunt Tania want to hurt me?” he asked the empty room. He began to feel that for reasons best known to them, they didn’t want him. He decided therefore to leave and find his way back to Madam Lagos in Oshogbo, for she was the only one who really loved him. But he remembered her words, asking him to stay in Lagos where there were opportunities. If they kill me, I will not be alive for those opportunities, he thought.

So Dayo stood up and walked away from the ward room, he passed the doctor’s office and heard the doctor talking about him. He looked through the glass window and saw his foster father, Gberan. His heart constricted as he thought of how much he would miss him. However, he walked on, he had just rounded the corner, when Tania walked into the hallway from the other axis and set her sights on Dayo’s room. Dayo walked out of the hospital amidst the little crowd in the hospital’s lobby.

When Tania entered Dayo’s room, she saw the m—d on the bed which Dayo had arranged to look like a person was under the covers, so as to give himself time to escape. She smiled wickedly and walked up to the bed.

Tania: “Now, you are in my hands and you will not escape it this time. I will personally escort you to your creator. It is probably not your fault that you were born illegitimately, but I will not allow you and your father to make a fool of me. Under different circumstances, I would have loved you, sorry” she said and gripped where she thought to be the neck, but all she felt was softness. She flung the bed cover and saw that there was no one underneath. Her eyes widened and nearly burst out of their sockets.

Tania: “Help! Help! Dayo!” she screamed.

Gberan and the doctor heard the shout and he rushed out of the doctor’s office. His heart was beating faster in his chest as he expected the worst. He thought that Dayo had died and someone had raised alarm. But when he entered the room, his eyes fell on the empty bed, and the fear in his heart turned into confusion.

Gberan: “Tania, what is wrong, where is my son?” he asked, looking around the room, even behind the door.

Tania: “I don’t know, he left, or someone took him” she said, puzzled herself. She told them of how the clothes had been arranged to look like someone was sleeping underneath.

Gberan: “Why would Dayo run away?” he asked, having concluded that no one took Dayo, but he left on his own.

Doctor: “The boy was scared. But what made him scared is what I don’t know and cannot say” the doctor looked perplexed. He took out his phone and called the police to report the missing child.

Dayo was just leaving the hospital gate when Bella’s car drove in. Ken saw him first, dressed in a hospital garb.

Ken: “Mother, look at Dayo” he shouted in fright. Didn’t they say Dayo was dead, why was he seeing Dayo.