THE LAST CANDLE (A Tale of The Night Nurse)

I always wanted to be a healer… no, not a native doctor, a medical doctor. There was something about watching sick people get better that constantly reminded me of God; of magic, of miracle.
It also reminded me of one of the world’s most popular hymns “Amazing Grace…” You know, that part; “I once was blind but now I see”

Yeah, I love medicine, I love the process of curing, caring and healing, but I will not be a Doctor. Not anymore.

I was content with being a nurse, it meant I could still be in the process. If not a doctor, then a nurse and getting admission to FUOYE had made me very happy, but no one warned me that being a nursing student was as laborious as being a medical student.

Year 2 was proving kind of difficult, especially with some of my lecturers and courses, but I was willing to do everything in my power to be a great nurse, even if it meant burning the proverbial midnight candle. I always bought those in packs by the way…

On Monday September 4, after a short nap, I washed my face, rinsed my mouth and got ready for a night reading at the faculty, I loved leaving the hostel as early as possible, in three hours, I would be back. My mom’s parable of “Ijakumo” would not let me do the original “night class” thing. Then, the paths could get really dark… the authorities really should light up FUOYE!

OK, I threw on some dark colors, I didn’t like the overall look, so I grabbed my long yellow scarf for a bit of colour and brightness.

I opened my cabinet to pick a match box and a candle, I found out I had just one more candle left. Oh wow! One more candle… I made a mental note to get more candles… I picked the last candle, grabbed my notes… I was about to leave the room when I noticed my bed was unlaid… I quickly fixed that and at exactly 6PM, I left the room.

I was halfway to the faculty when I remembered Tosin, Tosin was my coursemate and friend, we had planned to go to class together this evening but I had completely forgotten! I reached into my small bag for my phone, I called Tosin and informed her that I had left, she sounded angry…
“Ma bi nu, I won’t start reading until you come” I told her to appease her. She sounded a bit pacified by the time I ended the call, said she would catch up with me…

The walk from my hostel to the faculty area took all of thirty minutes, it was almost 7PM when I got to the class… I was alone with just two other students, the class would start to fill up pretty soon…I had barely settled down into the best seat when it began to rain, it started lightly, then in torrents.

Tosin couldn’t come, it was a stormy night… somehow, I couldn’t read… the wind kept blowing off my candle… I almost exhausted my matches as I continued to relight my candle.

Thanks to the wind, my candle burned out faster than expected…I watched as the wax spread out on the desk and the tiny wick was buried in the shallow grave of the hot wax.

I became weak all of a sudden, it had stopped raining, but my candle was out and my phone battery was low, my head was aching too… it was almost 9PM, I had to return to my hostel.

By now, I was yawning repeatedly, I was yawning every 5 seconds… I rose from my chair, packed my books and walked out of the class.

The walk to my hostel would take not less than twenty five minutes, I needed to get to my room, I needed to close my eyes, to sleep.

As I got to the path close to the pond, my heart began to beat rapidly, so I began to sing “Arise Oh Lord, let thy enemies be scattered…” it was the first song that came to my lips… I did it often, everytime I felt scared, I would sing a revival song to calm myself.

I was singing “Thank you for fighting my battles for me Jehovah Olùgbèjà…” when a shadow fell into my path, I was going to step aside when I felt a hand grab me from behind, the grasp was so strong that I felt my buttons rip… I screamed as my books fell off my grasp, I lost every sense, especially the sense of sight… I have no idea how many men stood before me or how many hands grabbed me, but I knew it wasn’t good, so I fought, like the Deborah that I am… my bright yellow scarf found its way off my body and I was left with my dark colours, like a widow, or worse…

Was I flying? Had angel Michael lifted me from their presence? Why were my legs in the air? Then it occurred to me, it was not angel Michael, I felt my earring fall off one ear, I opened my mouth to scream, but I felt a salty palm over my mouth as I was lifted away from the pond path…

“God…” I cried, but no one heard. I heard no idea the direction we moved in, I heard the footsteps but I had no idea how many…
Minutes later, I felt my back land heavily on the wet and muddy grass, my head hit a stone and my vision became blurry as the pain shot into my brain. Something trickled into my eyes… could be blood.

I whimpered in pain and yawned wearily… I was going to pass out… I could sense it, then I felt heavy hands holding my upper body and more hands working on my lower body, my head snapped back into consciousness and I screamed…just once…one scream and a heavy hand hit me across the face sending me back into oblivion… I was fighting it, fighting to stay awake…and like my last candle, I opened and closed my eyes as my body was ripped by strange hands, strange fingers, hefty bodies merged with my muddy skin, I retched in my subconscious and threw up, then I began to choke…someone had grabbed my neck. They were going to kill me, snuff me out in the dark…I would never be a Doctor, not even a nurse. I should not have stepped out.

I knew when one hefty body rose off me and another took over, ripping my body apart with angry arousal…

I passed out.

I do not know why I passed out, or when…but by the time I came to, they were all gone. It was dark, it was cold, it was wet.

It was very dark.
I was alone.

I was gone.
Snuffed out.
My grave shallow.
Just like my last candle’s little wick…
They took souvenirs too…
From stiff my body.

Goodnight.
From the “Night Nurse”

 

Written by Bose La’bos Bamidele