Chapter 8

 

Chapter  8

 

 

      Najib, Sofia’s classmate dropped them off at the clinic and sped back to class promising to come back an hour’s time to pick them up.

 

 Sofia was searching for her friend during lunch and found her sitting in the cafeteria , looking dazed, her eyes glassy and the bowl of noodle soup in front of her was untouched. Sofia hadn’t seen Sharifah for the past four days since she last dropped by on Thursday.

She tried to make small talk with Sharifah but what she got was incoherent mumbling. Sofia felt Sharifah’s forehead, it was burning hot. She immediately hassled Najib and his girlfriend Anna to take them to the clinic.

 

The young Indian  lady at the counter greeted them with a smile. Anna went to the counter and registered Sharifah’s name while Sofia gently led Sharifah to the waiting area.

There was no other patient except the three girls. Anna was busy reading one of the health magazines while Sofia was looking at a poster on diabetics.

None of them notice the man coming out of a back room at the far end of the waiting room. Sofia was the first one who notices him when she felt someone standing beside her. She looked up and saw a handsome Chinese man. Sofia’s mouth dropped she didn’t think she was drooling, which she was (Anna told her later the she had to restraint herself from wiping the drool from Sofia’s face)but his feature was in the level of Lee Hon and a young version of Andy Lau. But the man didn’t pay any attention to Sofia or Anna. He was looking intently at Sharifah who was oblivious to his presence.

 

     “Hello,” he said softly. Sharifah looked up , frowning at first and then gave the same watery smile and the same glazy look that she gave  Sofia earlier. There was a look of concern on his face. He turned to Anna.

 

     “What’s wrong with her ?” he asked.

     “We don’t know. She’s been like this since morning. Who might you be?” The young man smiled and extended a hand to Anna. Cutenye, thought Sofia.

 

     “I’m Michael. I’m Rafiq’s doctor,” said Michael shaking Anna’s hand and turned to Sofia. Sofia gasped, he looked so handsome. Sofia didn’t realize that she was staring until Anna coughed. Michael  smiled at her and shook her hand.

 

     ‘Rafiq, that name sounds familiar,’ thought Sofia but her brain wasn’t functioning especially with Michael still smiling at them. Anna had to smack her with the magazine she was reading to get Sofia’s attention. That was when everything hit her (not including the magazine) RAFIQ! All that Sharifah had told her came in a flash.

     “How is he?” asked Sofia to Michael (momentarily forgetting her attraction)

     “He’s back in ICU. He had another seizure last week. It just happen so sudden. There was no signs of irregular heart beats. The nurse on duty had just checked on him and took his blood pressure, 15 minutes later he had a seizure,” said Michael. He bent down and took Sharifah hand and felt her pulse.  He stood straight and looked at the two young girls.

 

     “What are you doing here?” asked Sofia.

     “Dr. Adibah and I are old friends. I wanted to ask her out for lunch  It’s my day off so I thought of coming here early, seeing that the highway from KL to Shah Alam can be slow moving in the afternoon.”

 

     “May I know what happen to your friend?” asked Michael looking concern. “She looked like she hasn’t slept for days and also haven’t eaten anything. She’s running a fever. Don’t tell me your cramming for an exam?”

 

     “Well, we are in our final year and our GPA points are a big factor in our overall result,” said Anna. Michael scratched his head.

 

     “During my study years, we didn’t get sick from exams. We concentrated in class and then just brush up in our rooms by light reading. We didn’t burn the midnight oil or got all stressed…..well there was some stress but not to the level that it would effect our health.”

 

     “Yelah, orang pandai,” said Sofia under her breath but she didn’t count for Michael to hear her. He turned and looked at her. There was nothing harmful about his look, he wasn’t glaring or giving icy stares but Sofia felt uneasy and walked to the far end of the room and pretended to read the poster on……. pregnancy?Sharifah didn’t say anything during this interaction. She just lay back on the sofa and closed her eyes.

 

She felt so tired. So..so tired, she couldn’t think, she couldn’t sleep. It was as if she was looking at her friends from a window, she was there but she wasn’t there. She tried to find words to talk to her friends and he wanted to greet Dr Michael but her mind just couldn’t register. She didn’t have much sleep these paths few days. How she wanted to doze off into a dreamless sleep….

 

Sharifah sat up on the mattress, hugging her pillow and looking widely around the room. She wanted to rush out to her roommates, watching television in the living room. She didn’t realize that she was shaking…

 

     “It was your imagination Ifa, it was just your imagination,” muttered Sharifah to herself but she wasn’t convince. The voice calling her name felt so real. Still shivering Sharifah allowed herself to lay back down on her mattress. She hugged the pillow tightly to herself. She closed her eyes still muttering to herself that it was just an imagination.

 

She opened her eyes when she heard the door open behind her. It was quiet outside. The rest of the girls must have gone to sleep. She didn’t bother to look at the alarm clock .

 

     “Pukul berapa sekarang, yek?” asked Sharifah in Malay to nobody in particular. It was with Aida and Sofia that she normally speaks in English.

     “Pukul 3.45 pagi,” answered a male voice. Shairfah was so surprised that she turned so fast, that she felt dizzy from it. Immediately she sat up.

 

No…No….No this was not happening again. She was on a familiar bed. Beside her was Rafiq sitting up straight , facing her. His feet was dangling down the bed.

 

“Apa khabar?” he smiled broadly at her. Sharifah was speechless. Why was she there again?

 

“I didn’t see you these path few days,” said Rafiq in perfect English. I though that you had been discharged.”

 

“Why am I here?” asked Sharifah. Rafiq frowned, he raised one of his eyebrow. Sharifah would have found that sexy if it was not the fact that she was in another dream.

 

     “You had an accident.” Shairfah looked at him as if he was mad.

“I was going to bed. I was not even near any type of transportation be it motorcycle, car, bus, lorry, army tank, bicycle or even kereta lembu. How could I possibly meet with an accident!” cried Shairfah indignantly. Rafiq shrugged his shoulder and took out a deck of cards under his pillow. He started shuffling it and held the cards infront of her. Sharifah was confused. Why was she dreaming playing cards with him? How bizarre was that! Sharifah took one piece of the card from him. Rafiq smiled and walked over to her bed and made himself comfortable at the foot of the bed. He shuffled again the cards and through 8 pieces in front of her. Reluctantly she picked it up and saw Rafiq smiling happily..

They were in the second round of the game with Rafiq having an upper hand,when there was a gentle knock. Both of them looked up. There was Rozita standing at the door. Sharifah couldn’t help smiling, whenever Rozita appeared there was a strange but nice peaceful aura surrounding her. Sharifah half expected chirping birds and little rabbits with big cute eyes accompanying her. Rozita had the same effect over Rafiq, he immediately changed to a lovesick man whenever she appeared. Sparkly eyes and stupid grins. How dorky he looked in front of her.

 

Wait…. Was she feeling jealous? Sharifah shook her head hopping to shake the thought away. Rozita was wearing the same baju kurung that she wore the last time she saw her. Rafiq was turning his full attention to Rozita, he had completely forgotten about her. Sharifah coughed to get their attention. They were ogling each other at the foot of her bed which was very nauseous.

Sharifah turned her attention else where, it was just a few seconds, when she turned , Rafiq was alone busily looking at his cards. Where was Rozita?

 

     “Rozita mana?” asked Sharifah.

     “Ada…She’s around,” muttered Rafiq not looking at Sharifah. He slammed his cards down hard on the bed.

 

     “I won again!” cried Rafiq in delight. Rafiq withdrew his hand. Sharifah looked at his cards. They were picures of burung hantu (owles), a baby in mothers womb with its umbilical cord, a picture of a grave and lastly of a small boy hiding in the shadows, crouching trying hard to hide himself from the son. There was one piece of picture face down, as Sharifah looked longer at the pictures, something dark came flowing out of the pictures and spreading on the bed clothe. Rafiq didn’t notice it but it was spreading across the blood clothe, thick dark red colors sipping through the clothe, on Rafiq’s white hospital clothes. It was surrounding him, spreading on his hand and face. Like an alien being leeching itself to Rafiq. Sharifah screamed and bolted up. It was dark. Gone was the white colored room. Sharifah looked around her room in fright Her heart was beating so fast that she could hear it even though she was breathing really hard.

 

      “Astaghfirullah,” Sharifah muttered those words over and over again trying to control herself. She was having a very bed headache. She reached for the clock she placed above her head. She looked at it, 3.45 am. Sharifah wiped the sweat on her face. She walked to the bedroom door and softly opened it. She looked out at the living room. Her roommates were sleeping peacefully. Ina had her foot on Seni’s back while Ida was snoring loudly. Sharifah closed the door again. Her head was hurting badly. Sharifah leaned her back on the cod wall, still holding to the pillow. She tried to close her eyes.

 

     Sharifah..

Shairfah opened her eyes and her hands griped tightly to the pillow.

 

The next day Shairfah was unable to go to class as her headache was unbearable.

 

The dreams didn’t stop there. The next night Sharifah didn’t know she could doze off, one moment she was doing her Economics assignment on the study table, the next she was in a dark place. Sharifah opened her eyes feeling cold. Her head was laid against the window sill. There was another seat beside her. Somehow everything looked so familiar. Sharifah stood up. She was in the commuter again. The lights had turned off. All of this was so familiar. Shairfah slowly turned behind he expecting to Rafiq sleeping peaceful on the seat behind her.

 

Sure enough there was Rafiq. But he wasn’t a sleep. He was looking out the window.

 

Oow…Ooww…Rafiq looked up. He wasn’t looking at her but something behind her. Sharifah followed his gaze.and gasped. There across the aisle, perched on top of one of the seats, was an owl. It looked at them curiously, tilting it’s head as if inspecting ach one of them  and then it flew across the lane and disappeared once it reached the sliding door connected to the next carriage.

 

Rafiq let out a big sigh and put both hands on his face.

 

     “Are you alright?” asked Sharifah.

 

     “I’m tired of this,” he said softly.

 

     “Tired of what?” asked Sharifah. Rafiq nodded towards a seat at the end of the carriage. Sharifa couldn’t see what was there.

 

     “Go and look what’s there,” said Rafiq softly and haggardly as if he was carrying a heavy wait on his shoulder. Sharifah glance at him nervously and looked at the seat where he pointed. She didn’t want to go but she was curious. Sharifah walked slowly to the seat. As she approached it she saw someone’s head. She walked closer and saw that it was a woman. She was pregnant and her face was twitching in pain. Sharifah’s eyes dropped to her  bulging stomach. She could hear a soft thumping. She looked again at the stomach and to her horror she could see the baby inside. It was moving and getting substance from the umbilical cord. It  moved and suddenly  turned its head towards Sharifah. She gasped and stepped back, thumbling onto something.

 

She picked herself up and noticed that her hands were full of dirt. Sharifah could feel herself again. There in front of her was a grave. Sharifah yelped when she felt someone touching her shoulder.

It was Rafiq.

 

     “How did you know where the pregnant woman was and why are we here?” asked Sharifah.

 

     “I’ve been to this place over and over again.” The way he said over and over again seemed to echoed around the graveyard.

 

     “Place?”

 

Rafiq nodded.  “Sometimes when I’m with Rozita and my parents, happy… I would hear voices. Strange voices, all around me and I could a sharp pain on my chest. There would be flashes of images and always….always I would be in this place. It would be the same thing…The owl, the pregnant woman, the grave…the boy.”   

 

     “Like in the pictures,” said Sharifah remembering the dream she had the previous night. Rafiq nodded and sat on the ground.

 

     “What about the last picture. The one faced down. What was that picture about?” asked Shairfah but Rafiq didn’t answer her.

 

     “Why am I here Rafiq?” asked Sharifah.

 

     “I called you.”

     “Why?” asked Sharifah curioused. Rafiq didn’t say anything. Sharifah saw a piece of paper on the grave. Sharifah walked nearer and tried to reach for the paper when a hand came out of the grave and grabbed her wrist. Sharifah screamed and fell back, except that she fell into an endless pit.

 

Sharifah bolted from her sleep . She had screamed louder this time and all her roommates ran into the room.

 

     “Kenapa ni?” asked SEni reaching her hand to comfort poor Sharifah who was shaking from head to toe. Id supported Sharifah to her mattress and sat her down.

 

     “Dia demamlah,” said Ida touching her friend’s forehead. It was hot. Ina rushed to get a wet cloth to put over her friend’s forehead.

 

SHarifah had calmed down after a few minutes and lay on her mattress. Seni was still sitting beside her mattress. She had made a glass of warm Milo and put two panadol pills in her friend’s hand. She pulled her mattress beside her friend and watched Sharifah fall asleep again.  Sharifah didn’t have a peaceful sleep. Seni woke up a few minutes later hearing her friend muttering something in her sleep. Seni moved closer and could hear the words Burung Hantu repeatedly.

 

Sharifah’s temeperature was back to normal the next day. But she was still plagued by bad dreams and restless sleep. Always RAfiq was there. One time happy with Rozita and his parents and ripped away from that place back into a cold hard place and the images from those pictures would be there haunting him and sometimes scaring Sharifah……….

 

    

  Dr Adibah’s door opened and the mother and the son that went in earlier walked out. The same Indian lady looked around the waiting room.

 

     “Sharifah.” Sharifah got up and went into the room. The door was about to close behind her when Michael called out,

 

     “Hold on I’m with her.”  Michael went into the room. Anna looked at Sofia who was still pretending to read the poster.

 

     “What was that all about?” Anna asked.

     “What?”

     “He just went inside after 10 minutes knowing Sharifah?” Anna looked at her friend hoping to get an explanation but her friend merely shrugged her shoulders and continued to be fascinated by the picture of a woman’s womb. Sofia didn’t feel like telling Anna, she didn’t know where to start. She couldn’t help shake the feeling if she hadn’t left Sharifah that Thursday…. or she could have been a little bit helpful instead of waving everything as something natural even the fact that Sharifah had just had a fight with Aida. The two of them were inside the doctor’s room for almost half an hour. Anna had browsed through all the magazines on the  small table. Sofia was sleeping peacefully on the sofa. 10 minutes path by, Anna paced in the room impatiently while Sofia……Sofia was still sleeping. Finally the door opened and Sharifah and Michael stepped out. Michael was still talking to Dr Adibah at the door. Sharifah nodded at Anna and sat beside the sleeping Sofia. Michael went up to them. Anna kicked Sofia’s feet to wake her up. Sofia looked at them groggily.

 

     “What did the doctor say?” asked Anna to Michael.

     “She told her to get some rest. Her blood pressures quite high 130 over 100. Not good for somebody who is only 23. Sharifah’s running a fever. I think she should get a couple of days rest. You should wait for a while, there’s some medicine Dib is giving Sharifah.” ‘Dib?’ thought Sofia now wide awake.

 

     After they had taken the medicines the three girls waited outside the clinic. There was no sign of Najib, it was more than the one hour promised. Sharifah was siting at the sidewalk.  Michael came out of the clinic and walked to the three girls. His hand was in his pocket.

 

     “My lunched date just got cancelled. Dib can’t make it. I was wondering wether I could help by sending Sharifah home. She’s in no state to go back to class.”  Anna and Sofia looked at each other. They had promised Najib that they would wait for him. Neither of them had a handphone, which was a shocking fact to the rest of their friends, where mobile phones were being used by everyone from pre-schoolers to garbage collectors. To Sofia, Anna and Sharifah they had any used for the phones except to call their parents.

 

     Sofia talked with Anna and the both of them decided that Sharifah had to be sent home as soon as possible, she didn’t look so good.  Sofia should follow Michael in sending Sharifah home while Anna would wait for Najib. Sofia went to get Sharifah sitting at the sidewalk. She had a small piece of stick and was scribbling on the mud in front of her. Sofia took her hand and gently pull her up but her eyes felt on the scribbled writings on the mud. Owl, baby in womb, grave ,boy. Sofia frowned, what did that mean?

 

     “So…..”said Michael glancing at Sofia from the drivers seat. Sharifah had fallen a sleep at the back immediately after they had put her into Michael’s black Waja. Sofia was looking at the houses they passed by and looked at Michael when he talked.

 

     “Yes?”

 

     “Has Sharifah talked to you about Rafiq?”

     “Not much except that she visited him in the hospital and ohh she’s been having dreams about him ever since. She also told me about your theories.”                                         

     “Theories? Those are facts, although I haven’t told his family, I didn’t want them to be upset. We might not know when he might wake up,” said Michael making a turn towards Sharifah’s apartment area at Section 6.

     “If he wakes up. Sharifah said that your did a PET scan on him.”

     “I was worried. There was no sign of improvement, I was worried whether there was a blood clog. Besides PET scan we did an MRI . There was no lesion. The only thing that we noticed was his eye movement as if he was dreaming. “

     They had already gotten out of the car and were walking up the staircase to the third floor. Sofia was holding on to Sharifah’s right arm as her left hand was holding on the railing. Sofia was afraid her friend would tumble back.

     “Did you also do an EEG? I read that was one of the testing if you had brain injury?” asked Sofia in between breath walking up the stairs. Michael was behind her.

 

     “Yes it is. EEG monitors the brain activity from wires that we put on a patients scalp.”

     “There was nothing abnormal….Wooo…apa you nak buat?” asked Sofia. They had reached Sharifah’s apartment. Sharifah had obediently took out the key from her bag and unlocked the door. Michael was about to follow them in when Sofia stopped him.

 

     “What?” asked Michael confused.

     “You can’t come in. I’ll help Shairfah to her bed and we’ll talked outside.”

     “Why?”

     “As you notice none of her flat mates are home and there are two girls and one guy. I don’t feel comfortable in an empty house with a male that I hardly know. Apa orang lain akan cakap?” asked Sofia looking directly at him. Michael looked at the other  three flats on that floor. All the doors were closed and the metal grills in front of the door were padlocked. It didn’t look like there was anyone around.

 

     “What orang lain?” asked Michael gesturing around but one look at Sofia’s stubborn face, he sighed and went to sit at the stairs.  A minute later Sofia went out, putting a stopper to the door so that it would be wide open for both of them to hear if Sharifah called for them. Sofia joined Michael and sat down beside him.

 

     “We did an EEG when he first came in to detect any brain damage along with the PET scan we couldn’t find anything except only a small bump on his forehead. The reading was only 8 to 10 cps.” Michael looked at Sofia who was trying to digest what he was saying and trying her best to look like she was taking everything in but from the creaseline on  her forehead, Michael knew that she didn’t understand what he was saying.

 

     “When the brain is resting or in this case sleeping the brain activity would slow down , we can monitor this through EEG. 8 to 13 cycle per second can be considered normal. But when you have a seizure your brain activity will spike up making a rapid diagram of zigzag lines up and down.” Michael  motion with his hand moving it up and down rapidly.

     “But can you detect a seizure before it happen?”

     “ Base on the brain activity yes we can, but in Rafiq’s you have to remember that he’s in a coma. His brain activity is constant and sometimes peak with his rapid eye movement.” Sofia had her confused look back on.

     “When you descent into a deep slumber and started to dream, that’s when your rapid eye movement occur.”

     “So what your saying if he’s having a dream, it will effect the momentum of he’s brain activity, right?” asked Sofia. Michael nodded. “If he’s having a bad dream or a nightmare it will effect his EEG reading, am I right? Dreams are linked to our emotions. Put a person that is in  an emotional state and if that person in this case a vegetable like Rafiq, it could lead to a seizure.” Michael bent down  brushing an ant off his shoe. When he looked up Sofia saw that he was smiling politely at her.

     “What are you getting at?”

     “I don’t know,” said Sofia scratching her head. “When was the last time he had a seizure?”

 “Last week.. I think Wednesday.”

     “Sharifah and Aida visited him after the seizure , that was when Sharifah started having her dreams. Do you think he’s trying to reach out to someone ”

     “

     “Sofia, you’re a smart girl but you’re reading too fiction books.” Sofia felt her face going red.

     “Don’t you feel that something is not right here?”