Kimani rolled his eyes at his phone and tucked it back in to his trouser pocket.
“Not again,” he hissed as he marched into the lift at his office building. Another darn day. The past few days had been particularly challenging at work. It was like all the good karma had taken a break and Murphy’s law was pulling all the strings.
His phone beeped again, Murphy closed his eyes tight and slowly opened them as he pulled the phone out of his pocket to look at the message. He was holding his breath as he exited the lift.
“Pete’s in hospital, hurry.” It was Ela, his wife. Kimani clasped his mouth and rushed to the men’s room. He splashed some water on his face repeatedly for what felt like 5 minutes. He finally lifted his head to the mirror, face dripping, eyes fixed on his reflection.
“Keep it together, he will be fine…it will all be fine.” He said nodding to himself. He repeated the statement to himself fighting the urge to burst into tears. Everything would be ok; he had to believe that.
He rushed out the men’s room bumping into people on his way to the lift. He impatiently tapped at the buttons, and quickly opted to take the stairs. He ran down them like a bat out of hell. Once he arrived the lobby, he realised he didn’t have his phone on him. He left it in the men’s room.
“Shit!” He hissed grating his teeth and ran to the lift in the lobby. He rammed past people exiting a lift and impatiently tapped on the 24th floor button impatiently tapping on the ground with his foot.
“Come on. Come on.” He demanded as the lift doors slowly closed. About 3 minutes later, which felt like a life time, Kimani burst through the lift doors and dashed to the men’s room. He sighed in relief; his phone was still on the counter. Ela had called again. He dialed and called back. It wasn’t going through. He tried again, no luck. Now Kimani was in full panic running down the stairs again straight for the hospital. He checked his back pocket to ensure he had his wallet.
He emerged and hopped into the first cab he saw, and directed him to the hospital. He wasn’t even thinking how much it would cost. He needed to get there no matter what. About 20 minutes later, he dashes out of the cab into the hospital emergency room where he yells out for Ela.
Patients in the waiting room turn and give him a look of irritation. Kimani kept at it. Ela emerged from the ladies and was a bit startled by yelling.
“ELAAA! What happened?”
“Calm down Kimani. Come with me.” They went into the examination section in the emergency room and there was Pete, he had some weird looking lesions across his torso groaning in pain.
“Pete,” Kimani called out reaching out for his son. Pete flinched the pain was unbearable. The doctor returned just as Kimani was about to demand for some painkillers for his son. The doctor explained that it was an allergic reaction of some sort and then proceeded to know the means of payment.
“Insurance,” Kimani blurted, looking puzzled at his wife.
“Didn’t you have the medical card?” he asked Ela.
“You always keep it in your wallet.”
“Yes of course, let me…” he paused as he pulled out his wallet. Flipping through his cards, the card wasn’t there.
“Let me look again,” He sounded a bit nervous and embarrassed.
The doctor quickly excused himself to get the medication as they filled in the particulars with the orderly who was standing at arm’s length away from them with a paper on a clipboard in hand to fill in the claim.
“What is it Kim? Where is the…” Ela demanded
“CARD! Kimani yelled as he pulled out his credit card looking disappointed. He couldn’t find the medical card.
Pete moaned loudly writhing in pain. Ela and Kimani looked at each other desperately.
“Where is the medical insurance card?” Ela mouthed voiceless. Kimani shrugged and waved one of his credit cards. Ela nodded as she hung her head and walked back to Pete’s side. Kimani felt shame and failure all at once.
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