Wild West of the Heart
SEVENTY FIVE

"Lung cancer" She took a sip of her drink before dropping it to the table. "It's what they said he has. I don't know how long it's been there but i came home that night and he was just there, he was just lying on the floor" Fiyin narrowed. "The past few days have been so fast and i can't even catch a break. Sometimes i have no idea what i even want to do next. Like what do i do next?" She sighed. "If he can't go to the farm, we can't eat. There won't be food, there won't be money and we can't afford to treat lung cancer-"

"Can we?" There was tears in her eyes as Ola reached from across the table. "The whole year has been one big mess" She cupped her chin and he squeezed her hands. "Tell me about it" He sarcastically remarked and she scoffed lightly. They raised their heads to lock eyes into each other.

"What happened?" Ola whispered to her. "What changed between us-What happened with Nathaniel and the days you weren't really in school?" She looked away but he held firm her hands. "Fiyin, talk to me" He begged. "Tell me"

The tear slipped from her eyes as she used her shoulders to soak it. "Alot of things happened, Ola" She replied. "I can't even believe it. Looking back, i can't believe it" She said. "What happen-"

"I got pregnant Ola" She interrupted him. "I got pregnant by Collins and i got an abortion. And ever since, it's been this mental battle of morality and whether or not i made the right decision" Fiyin whispered. "You" "You couldn't keep the baby Fi" His heart thumped as he looked to her. "What if i wanted to?" She asked.

"And i know it's stupid because i have nothing and the circumstances in which i was to have it. But it didn't mean i didn't think occasionally about if it were to be a boy or a girl and just how much of a good mother i would have been" She added. "Maybe i wanted to so badly prove that i could do a much better job than mine. That i could stay"

"No matter what the fuck happened, that i would stay but then i made the difficult decision to end it. For days i felt selfish, amidst the pain" She wept and Ola closed his eyes.

"I felt selfish because i chose myself. And that was what my own mother did that i hated her for. Alot of things haunted me, Ola"

"I know" He comforted her as she sniffed through her nose.

"I just wanted to feel something other than the terrible things and Nathaniel was my cure. He had my cure and those were the high days-"

"The highs were highs and the lows were very low-like this moment of withdrawal. It would surprise you how fast you can get addicted to that sort of temporary happiness. I thought that was it" She said. "Until all of this happened" "I'm so sorry" Ola whispered. "I had no idea"

"And i'm sorry for not telling you. You-" She held his hands. "You are my best friend" His heart fell but he had to have a smile on his face. "Well i'm sorry if i made it seem like you could never tell me that" Ola smirked. "Who was there for you, asides Nathaniel and all of—"

"Deborah" She sighed. "But i haven't talked to her since that night. I feel she's angry with me or something" Fi looked to him and Ola rested back into his chair. "She's your friend?" He asked and she looked up at him.

"Deborah, she's like my person" Fiyin whispered. "Have you talked to Obi?" She asked. And Ola heaved a deep sigh-"He's not answering any of my calls. For days"

"We should go see him sometime" She stood from the chair and he looked up at her. "I don't think he's doing okay" He rubbed the side of his arms. "How could he?" "No one deserves that"

"No one deserves to go through that alone" Ola added and the moment Fi turned away, he called her attention. She threw her head upon her shoulders. And he shook his head.

"I'm sorry about your father" He whispered and she had a smile across her lips. "Thank you. You too" She replied.

-

"You never called me back-"

Silva intertwined his fingers, looking to phone on the table. Mira was across from him, recognizing his voice through the speakers and she forsook the article in her hands.

"David?" Her lips mouthed in doubt. And Silva looked up to her. "Anything new?" He asked, failing to hide his mood that had been a downside since that morning. He didn't think anything could possibly make him feel any worse But that was before David's next words.

He paused however and DaSilver arched his brows. "Is everything okay, David?" He asked. "I don't think so" Now Silva had told him all about the past week, with Rushell and the article that hadn't done that much good. Silva had told David of his horrid visit to Reginald Ojo.

And though he fretted at the thought of a gay virus plague, he only believed it alot later when he'd realized what he was about to tell Silva.

"What did you replace out?" Mira asked, leaving the fact that she barely spoke to him behind her. "You know the victims of the Abuja incident. I was able to get access to their hospital records-" She was about to ask how he did, but then she realized everything was possible with a bribe here.

"And asides the fact that their all open lgbt activists here, you were right" David paused and Silva felt his heart drop, hoping what he was about to say next wasn't what was in his head-Wasn't the question he'd asked. "They'd all been recently diagnosed with your with AIDS  and a week later, they were found dead" He continued and Silva heaved a deep breath, locking eyes with Mira.

"I don't think it's a coincidence. With Jazz and the rest of the similar murders across the country" David added. "I think it's not just the disease that's killing them" Mira fell back in her chair as the realization dawned on her.

"Somebody is killing people that has the disease" She said in a whisper and Silva buried his face in his palms. "You think it's a hate crime?" Silva asked the obvious. "I think it's clear what this is. We just need to figure out who this people are" Mira replied. "You want to tell Dare?"

"We have to-"

"How are we sure he's" "He's on our side" Mira defended.

"He's like the only one on our side" She added as Silva hung up the call. "Purging" He remembered the very words Reginald had said. "Jazz wasn't mugged. She was killed because of her status" Silva had tears in his eyes. "She was killed by someone who knew her HIV status" And for the first time in months, this case came to a head-coming into a whole new light no one saw coming.

"We have to tell Reginald first" He grabbed the car keys.

-

Ola was sure he'd called Obi at least a hundred times, all to no response. He looked to his phone, clicking the dial button-this was about to make it the hundred-oneth time.

The lace of his shoes dragged against the unclean hospital floors and like a score of heart monitors beeped in his ears, creating a mash-up rhythm. He found his way down the ward he'd thought belonged to his father.

But he got carried away with the phone against his ears, hoping Obi would pick up. He had to pick up. The moment his hands enveloped the knob, he pushed the door open.

And he was met with the shock of his life.

That wasn't his father's ward. Instead, a familiar person was on that bed in what seemed to be like a hospital cross-over. "What the fuck?" He cussed, eyes falling on the student in the bed as the nurses tried to resuscitate him.

"Get a crash cart in here" The doctor above him yelled, with blood stains on his gloves. A cart pushed Ola towards the doors as he pulled away the phone, his jaw dropping in utter shock. "Sir, you can't be here" A nurse groped his arms, drifting him back to reality. His lips quivered-

"Ayo" There was a crack in his voice as his hands clutched his lips. It was Ayo in that bed, Ayo with the blood spewing out of his organs. It was Ayo they were trying to save.

And he faced that reality the moment the door closed on him. He didn't know why he felt such sympathy for someone that had done the most terrible thing to his friend.

But in some unexplainable twist of fate, there he was, gotten by karma or whatever force magnetized around the earth. Somehow, it seemed he had gotten in an accident.

"It was the same accident" A voice peered behind him and he shook, startled. Ola turned around to see the doctor that had been conversing with Titi all morning. And his hands gripped his chest. "What?" Ola softly asked.

"Your father and that boy were in the same accident" He replied and Ola's tongue froze. "What-" He stuttered.

"What really happened?"

The missing piece, the untold truth was that as Akin sped drunkenly across the expressway, Ayo also made his way back from the party with his shimmering black bicycle-

-after he'd completely wrecked the night that was supposed to be full of fun. He had his helmet on and lights that shone in the dark. There was traffic ahead of him but the good thing about riding a two-legged vehicle was that you would always replace a way. So he did, by the corner lane.

The rain beat against his head as he knew he had to get home early. As tough as he seemed, Ayo had a curfew and a father that didn't take excuses and bullshit. Perhaps that was why he ended up the way he was-

-because while he was in school, he had that control. He had that chance to be a totally different person. To have that power and he did so while wrecking others in his path. However, he failed to see what was in his path that night.

The water dripped in his eyes and Ayo had his tires slashed against the side of the pavements. He swerved, while with low visibility and he found himself dodging a gully. Ayo made it past the traffic but he soon realized his tires had been damaged and failed to grip against the wet grounds.

So the moment he tilted his head back, he didn't see what was coming in front of him-who, it was Akin who hadn't seen him either. The moment they both realized however in the nick of time, they swerved sharply to opposite directions and Ayo lost complete control of the bike which dived right into the very gully he avoided. And while he rammed his head into the open ground, karma wasn't done. Karma had other plans.

Akin found himself hitting a tree and then tumbling down the side of the roads. I said how he saw his life flash before his eyes, that was true for both of them.

Ayo's final moments before he lost consciousness provided that last redemption arc for him as he just laid there, waiting for someone to rescue him. Someone did anyway, at least when the sun was up but the damage to his head because of the impact was irreparable. He died before he even got to the hospital and even if he did survive

-the doctor had told his parents that he would never be the same. So his mother while with tears in her eyes, made the decision not to go through with any surgical procedures.

They were Jehovah's witnesses and deeply religious, so Ayo couldn't get a blood transfusion even though he'd bled out so bad. It was only a matter of time.

And as they tried their best to save him with what they had, his parents comforted each other in the waiting room, and after the conversation with the the doctor, Ola found his way there, standing slyly behind the walls. No matter how terrible someone is, by the way he knew teenagers were the very worst- he didn't think anyone deserved that death.

A death like Ayo's.

"Time of death-" The doctor looked from the bloody mess they'd made on the floor to the clock above him. "Ten fifteen am" He took off his gloves, tossing it to the floor.

-

Fiyin's father opened his eyes and she budged forward, taking his hands. She squeezed it, as if it weren't already pale and there was a smile across her lips. "Hey" He smiled as well, for the very time that both of them were sober.

"Fi Fi" She was sucked back to the years when he called her that. It seemed like ages since he was himself. Since he was who he was in that very moment. And she took a seat on the bed, rubbing the sides of his cheeks. "Dad?" She whispered as tears welled in her eyes. Both of them. "What happened?" He asked and she scoffed slightly.

"Oh where do i begin?" She sort of said in a poetical manner and he turned away, looking to the monitors behind him. "Am-Am i sick?" He muttered and nodded her head.

"Yeah you are dad" He smirked. "It was only a matter of time" He replied and the tears fell from her eyes. "The doctors said it might be I—" He hefted his hands in her face. "I don't think i want to know" He looked back at her. "How long do i have?"

She pushed a lump down her dry throat. "I don't know"

He noticed the tears in her eyes and he tilted his head with empathy in his eyes, like he was a much different person.

He was, as he laid there, he was.

He was the person Fi wished she had growing up. Maybe she would have been a much different person. And a conversation as little as this was just enough for her. It was enough bandaid across her broken heart. It was the gold. "Oh Fiyin. It's going to be okay" He whispered. "I promise. You already have done it without me all your life and i don't even know where to even begin to apologize"

She placed a finger over his lips and he kept quiet. "Just-" Fi paused. "Just stay here" She whispered, tucking herself into the very same bed as him. She would die if this was a dream she had, but alas it wasn't- it was real. She was in the solemn peace of his arms.

This was only man she felt safe with.

He sniffed her fretzy hair into his nose before placing a kiss into it. "I miss you father" He whispered after a while and she scoffed lightly, realizing Tom had never healed from her leaving. She hadn't too.

And deep down, she was like him. All they had was each other, no one else. His arms fell down her shoulders and she held unto it. "I miss mother too" Came a solemn whisper. In her heart, she knew things would have been very much different for both of them if Ophelia never left.

To be continued...