Knock, Knock, Its The Unfriendly. Chapter V

CHAPTER FIVE

DINNER

     The next morning, Patricia woke up in her bed in thoughts, she could still remember all that had happened the day before, on Thursday she had jumped in class out of fear of feeling a chill

on her face, she had lost her appetite after she felt Jimi’s palm in school, she remembered the boy who appeared at her house and spoke to her without even moving his lips, pleading and demanding she let him in and insisting she was his as he was hers. His eyes were so blue it felt so unnatural and he had finally disappeared, more like fading away. She wondered how come she hadn’t run into the house and locked the door, “What had held my feet from moving?” she asked herself. She remembered narrating the noon ordeal to her family and could see disbelief in their faces. They had thought some other ailment was wrong with her even though she insisted she felt better with herself later that day. Her mother had returned from work and called their family doctor immediately. Dr. Mathew had prescribed that she ate well and use drugs to put her to bed instead and promised to check in in the morning. She couldn’t even tease herself on how scared she had become and had thrown up at the front door afterwards. She had slept dead in the night that she couldn’t move from the original position she had laid down, her sleep was too deep even though it was dreamless. She remembered feeling cold in the night and that her feet were exposed to the cold even though there was no source of such in her room. She had shivered but yet was weak to do anything about it as she had been drugged. She sat up on her bed and looked at her bedside clock, it read 10am, she knew there was no school for her already. A knock came on her bedroom door and opened as she turned towards it. Her mum came in with a breakfast tray, looking worried and suspicious. She was already dressed up ready for work. “Dr. Mathew would be here soon, darling, how are you this morning” Mrs. Andrews said as she walked towards her daughter’s bed. “Good morning mummy, I feel okay already, I told you I was fine last night” Patricia said rolling her eyes. Her mum came to her bed, placed her food on the bed and felt her forehead, “I can see that, but he still has to check you though, your dad came to check you this morning before you woke up, he was pretty worried too” her mother told her. “But I’m fine mum, I told you last night” Patricia got off the bed and stood on her feet, “look” she added. Her mother stood up ready to leave, “Get back to the bed and eat something, the doctor would be here soon” she said and kissed her daughter’s forehead. Deji and Wale came into the room after a single knock and stood at the entrance, “Your sister would be fine, you can leave now” Mrs. Andrews told her sons without looking at them. “We’re sorry mum, we shouldn’t had left the house, wanna ground us for life?” they both asked their mother sincerely. “Its okay but I need you guys to leave” she replied them both. They both knew they would certainly get grounded and both felt sorry they weren’t there when their sister got home. They couldn’t explain why she had looked funny before she finally threw up. They decided to leave the room. “The doctor’s here” Wale added before leaving. “Please tell him to come upstairs” Mrs. Andrews had answered.

     Later that day, Patricia was left alone with her twin brothers who had insisted she stayed in the living room, they were ready to babysit her on whatever case. The doctor had given her a checkup, he had taken her urine sample and did something to it, he took her temperature and checked her eyes, mouth, ears, nose and skin, he didn’t seem to find anything as he told her mother she was fine. He had only wanted Patricia to have a bed rest and have her family report to him should incase anything funny occurs again. Nobody seemed to be interested in what she had seen. In fact she feared that if she argued or insisted on what she had seen she might be seen as mentally imbalanced. Her brother had walked towards her on Thursday evening and had stood in front of her for good two minutes without her seeing him. He of course had seen nobody or anything out of the ordinary. She sat on the living room couch ignoring her brothers’ PS2 game. She hadn’t even mentioned her scare in school and all the cold she had been feeling in her room for almost a week now. She remembered the weird eyed one calling himself Jimi and saying she had said she loved him. “What about that day at the mall, his face appearing in the mirror I was looking at” She thought she was probably really loosing her mind gradually. She consoled herself with the dinner party she was attending the next day, the doctor had promised she could go out anyway since she was fine and her mother had agreed. Her dad had called from his office to check on her, he even listened to her tell him all she thought was up with her, she decided to tell him all the funny encounters she had had since the day at the shopping mall while he listened to her over the phone, she hoped she didn’t sound insane as she told him everything. Her dad assured her that he would see to everything when he got back from work.

     The day had only been ordinary, nobody came knocking on the door, Patricia began to worry less and relax, “Maybe I ate too much and hallucinated” she thought to herself.

     When her dad returned from work, he told her that they would deal with her issue after her dinner party, he was planning to take his daughter to a friend of his who was a psychologist. He came home with cookies and chocolates, intending to bribe her with her sweet tooth.

   Patricia though had had an ordinary day but still had the cold nights, the weird eyed one still visited her and watched her sleep, he tried impossibly to touch her feet, he knew he couldn’t do more than look at her, she had never accepted him nor invited him inside, he doubted if she would ever, he was getting more impatient with her after all she had sorted him out first, she had written her love for him on the tree where he had been buried so many years ago, it was his tree and she had carved deeply into its bark, “Forever” she had written. She couldn’t had mistaken his name, she had written his vessel letters even though his vessel didn’t know it was her, he had to have her, he loved her and would certainly have her. He shall take Jimi’s body as usual and have her, “Today” he whispered and slowly faded away.