EXTRAORDINARY WONDER

Our greatest Christmas present is to have you by our side.

-Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year, Ladela Schools.

Ibukun flung the golden christmas card on the orthopedic bed. A collection of rose flowers and lilies sat on the cabinet. He'd been here for weeks  but the sweet carols from the hallway only filled his heart with nostalgia and sadness. 

He exited his ward, his IV holder beside him.

A young woman was wheeled into the emergency room with bloodied clothes and an injured head. A team of nurses and a doctor hovered over her.

Ibukun watched as she was wheeled away. He felt pain in his chest and wobbled. He tried to take steadying breaths but his vision was blurred. 

A doctor ran towards him and helped him stand properly.

"You need to go back to your room and lie down dear," she said quietly.

Ibukun tried to nod but only a "hmmp" escaped his throat. He managed to walk back to his room with the doctor's support, all the while gasping for air.

"You really should rest," she cooed as she placed an oxygen mask on his face.

She examined his report card. He reminded her of her sister, Jacinta, who had died due to a congenital heart disease as a child which fueled her passion to be a doctor. 

She saw a letter on his cabinet which read 'Dear God, I want to live' and there was a tear stain on the paper.

A few hours later, his mother -Grace- was seated beside him, squeezing his hand gently. Her eyes glistened with tears but she didn't make a sound.

"Grace," Ugonabo called as he entered the room which was silent save for the beeping of the monitor, "Dr. Harrison said the hole in his heart is getting wider by the day, and there's no donor available and," he sighed, "we only have two weeks. B-negative is hard to come by." 

Grace hunched over as the tears flowed ceaselessly. 

Ugonabo rushed to her side and pulled her into an embrace, her petite body sunken in his large frame. He watched his fourteen year old son as he took steady but laboured breaths. He sniffed back his own tears.

He wanted to tell her everything would be alright and they all would go on a family vacation after this had passed but it felt like a lie because he also did not believe it. He sniffed again but a single tear defied his will.

A knock on the door interrupted their embrace. Ugonabo quickly wiped the tear from his eyes.

"Are you the Ugonabos?" a female doctor asked from the doorway.

"Yes," Mr Ugonabo replied briskly.

"Can I speak to you both privately?" she inquired. 

"Sure. Just give my wife a minute, please," Ugonabo asked politely.

The doctor nodded, "I'll be waiting in my office down the hall."

Grace looked up at her husband and fresh tears cascaded down her eyes.

"I know it's hard, just pull yourself together, let's hear what she has to say," Ugonabo persuaded.

Grace nodded her head and dabbed her eyes with a brown handkerchief she had been holding tightly.

After a few seconds, she managed to stand, a bit composed. 

"How do you do it?" she asked her husband as he laced his fingers through hers.

He just shrugged and managed a smile.

A family was gathered outside a ward, the atmosphere stank of grief. Grace strained her neck a little to the left to see what was going on.

A young woman lay on a bed with a newborn resting on her torso. The young woman was wearing an oxygen mask whilst on a support machine.

"I think that's the office," Ugonabo's voice interrupted Grace.

They arrived at a door with the words 'Dr. Rose Ibekwe, Cardiothoracic surgeon' engraved on a gold plaque and they knocked.

"Come in," came the voice behind the door.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Ibekwe," Grace greeted courteously.

"Oh," Dr Ibekwe smiled, "the title is Miss Ibekwe. Please sit," she motioned towards the chairs opposite her table.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Dr. Ibekwe replied.

An aged couple entered the office.

"Is this a good time?" the elderly man asked the doctor.

"I was going to send for you just now," Dr. Ibekwe said and motioned for them to sit on the sofa beside a coffee table.

"My office isn't a large one so I apologize for the awkwardness. Anyways," she said as though choosing her words carefully.

"Mr. and Mrs. Ugonabo, meet Mr. and Mrs. Aondo, Evelyn's parents. As you are aware, there's no match for your son at the moment, that's what Dr. Harrison said and our sources have nothing. Evelyn Aondo-Robinson is in a vegetative state and she's not going to make it," Dr. Ibekwe continued.

Mrs. Aondo's lip quivered as she fought to keep back the tears.

"They are only willing to donate their daughter's heart because we persuaded them after a series of tests and medical examinations. She was barely alive when she was rushed here. We just had to operate on her to save her baby who was still miraculously alive. But I must warn you," Dr. Ibekwe was still saying when Grace's face lit up with a streak of hope.

"There's no guarantee that it will be successful. It's fifty-fifty and it's more expensive. We are looking at probably thirteen to twenty million naira. Are you willing to take the risk?" Dr. Ibekwe asked the Ugonabos.

Ugonabo studied the aged man whose face was sunken with grief. His wife began to cry with reckless abandon beside him when there was a knock on the door and a nurse rushed in.

"She's dead," the nurse said and the aged woman ran out of the office, her lace swinging loosely on her broad waist. 

Grace and Ugonabo ran after the woman who was already wailing in the hallway. 

Five hours later, Ibukun was wheeled into a theatre at about 10:45pm on 24th December, 2023. 

Grace held onto her husband's hand praying amidst tears and snots. Ugonabo pulled her into an embrace and said a prayer in his heart, 'God please, he's all we've got but let your will be done!'

The aged man sat at the reception staring at the floor. 

"God please," Grace kept crying, "this is the only one you gave me after ten years of marriage, please!"

At about 9:30am on 25th December, 2023, Ibukun was wheeled out of the theatre. He was taken to his ward and put under observation. 

Grace sat beside him, reading him a story from the book of Judges while Ugonabo went about settling bills and running errands.

On his way back, he found Mr. Aondo sitting on the same spot he had been sitting on the night before.

"Good morning sir," Ugonabo greeted.

The old man simply regarded him with a nod. 

"I'm grateful for the sacrifice you made for us. I'm sorry for your loss-" 

"Don't be. You should thank Dr. Ibekwe. I think we'll call her Michaela, like the archangel," Mr. Aondo said, looking at the ceiling with clasped hands under his chin, "my angel," he said to himself.

"I'm grateful!"

"You should be. I hear he's your only son and I have five more and now, a grandchild. Accidents happen you know, no one knows the hour," a tear fell on his palm.

"Can I get you something, anything?" Ugonabo asked as anguish sliced his heart.

"No. Go and be with your family please. I have a wife to console," Mr. Aondo said and gathered the courage to go to his wife who was already walking towards him with the baby.

The babe was crying nonstop. 

"Can I hold her?" he asked, not quite sure why he did.

Mrs. Aondo eyed him briefly before looking to her husband who nodded. She gave the child to Ugonabo.

"Let's go and see Ibukun at least before you leave," Ugonabo suggested.

Mrs. Aondo didn't feel like it but her husband took her hand in his and led them to Ibukun's room.

The baby continued crying until Ugonabo lay her on Ibukun's chest. She fell silent and Ugonabo could swear he saw her smile.

Ibukun awoke to the child on his body a few moments later and his mother began to cry anew. She muttered a prayer under her breath and kissed him.

"Merry christmas love, merry christmas!"

Ugonabo went to call a doctor and when they returned, a group of students were singing harmonious Christmas hymns for Ibukun, whose eyes were glazed with tears. 

Ibukun saw his father and managed a smile before saying a prayer of thanksgiving in his heart. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a woman smiling. He looked at the corner but she was gone. 

His heart beat steadily as the babe nuzzled on his torso. The room was shrouded with emotions while a christmas tree shone brightly in a corner as the carollers jingled away.