Ricky had not seen me
since just before the holidays so I brought him up to date on all that had
transpired. He laughed at the way I described the migrants, however, he became very concerned when
he heard about the attempted break in and the poisoned meat that was meant for the dogs but killed the cats instead. When I told him about
Rajah he could not believe that we were still alive. He said that Rajah was a
cold-blooded
killer who was always sent by the boss of the gang to get rid of
witnesses and persons who refused to comply with their orders. Ricky said that I should not let Rajah’s pretty looks fool me because he
was a heartless fellow! “Wow!”, I said. I told Ricky that Rajah was demanding
insurance money that he thought Cassie had received. Ricky said that one of the things that the TreTre gang did, was to go to the homes of persons who died and demand money from their relatives
saying that they knew that they had received insurance money. The poor relatives
would be so afraid that they would go and borrow money just to give to them. Ricky was
also happy to hear that Sergeant Francis was making sure that I would be okay by
having undercover police patrolling my avenue every hour of the day. When he dropped me off at the hospital I reminded him that he was to come back for me at five o'clock instead of six o'clock because Reverend Julian was coming by the house. I wanted to reach home early so that we could discuss the latest situation that took place with the migrants.
I arrived at work early enough
to have a cup of coffee and read the newspaper before starting my shift. I
chitchatted with a couple of the nurses who told me about the patients
who were on the maternity ward. There was one girl, in particular, that was in labour from
the night before who was having a hard time. Her water was broken but the baby
was not moving and the surgeons were saying that they might have to do a
C-section. I put on my scrubs and went to check on the young miss. She was in
agony and screaming for the nurses. After checking her thoroughly, I saw where the
baby was ‘crowning’ so I told the nurses to take her to the delivery room while
I went to have a talk with the surgeons. I discussed the situation with the surgeons and
they agreed that the young miss could have the baby naturally. I then
went to assist the Midwife who was on duty. The young lady was hollering as if someone
was trying to murder her. I smiled. This was the scenario that played out all
the time in the hospital. They would cry and exclaim that they did not realize
that childbirth was so painful and that they would never get pregnant again!
Yet most of them got pregnant again in less than two years. I held the young miss' hand
and tried to comfort her as I told her to push. It was late in the afternoon
before the baby decided to grace us with its presence. It was a girl and she came
out of her mother wailing like a banshee so we did not have to smack her bottom!
I placed her on her mother’s chest as she cried with relief. Her pain was
over, or so she thought. When we were about to remove the placenta she screamed, when we pressed on her stomach, and
asked us what we were doing. I calmly explained what the placenta was and the
importance of getting it out of her quickly. She was shocked, saying she had no clue
of what I was talking about. Obviously she had not attended any prenatal
clinic! The baby was tagged and given to the nurse
in charge of the nursery while the mother was taken to the recovery ward where an Enrolled Nurse would give her a sponge bath. After all that, I was so tired and hungry. I changed from my scrubs
and went to the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat. The television was
on so I watched what was showing while I ate. The program was suddenly interrupted to
broadcast ‘Breaking News’. "The leader of
the TreTre Gang along with five members of the gang had been shot and killed in a shootout
with the police", said the news presenter. My heart skipped a beat. One of the dead men had been identified
as Rajah Williams! It had to be the same Rajah that Sergeant Francis left with
this morning! I put my hands on top of my head. I knew it! I knew that the young man was
going to be killed, and he knew it too by the way he was looking at me when he
was being placed in the police car. Based on what Ricky told me about Rajah I
did not know whether or not if I should feel sorry for him. Rajah had murdered a lot of persons. I felt sad though, because here was a
young man who could have chosen another way of life other than that of being an
extortionist and a gunman. Oh well, I took out Charmaine’s diary that I had
brought with me and began to read.
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