Pantie Rule

20 | Beliefs, Thoughts and Philosophy

"Cancer is not who I am." She steadied her gaze on me. "Cancer is just a part of my life o."

I quickly turned away in embarrassment as my hobby for the past seven days had been to stare-stare at her. Stare at the girl that had cancer like she was some new state of the art facility. I compulsorily glanced back.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I was just... meditating."

I had been lost in thought staring at her on her top bunk while trying to come to terms with the fact that coincidentally she was my new roommate and much more coincidentally, that the girl 'I had saved'- as the doctor had put it when I was leaving the hospital a week ago-was my roommate too!

Alright, this doesn't add up!

"No problem o, Mister Lukumon."

I smirked and almost chuckled by the intentional overuse of Yoruba intonation. I knew she could speak good English from back at the hospital when she so experientially told me what cancer was. I guess experience is the best definition to anything that should and must be defined.

"You want to sit?" She gently patted a spot in her bed beside her. "I'm not scary o. Just pretend I don't have cancer, iye?"

I froze and rotated my neck from side to side to make sure nobody heard that. For Christ's sake this girl was saying she had cancer aloud in a room of seven people-the eight one being the girl in the hospital-but the funniest thing is none of them did like they heard anything.

Perfect! Maybe God deafened their ears at that instant!

Stop this crap, Tara. That never happened. They just didn't care like every human does.

Wait a minute, there was a girl that stared at me like I had said: Dear roommates, I need your eyes to stay alive!

"I'm okay here, Thank you! After all, my bed is neater than yours," I said, smoothening the folds on my pink, sunflower decorated bed spread. Hers was black. Just plain black. Not even a picture of sponge Bob or panties or flowers on it. It was just bland(Just in case you're wondering my first bed spread had an image of panties on it-Did I say 'image'? IMAGES.)

She shifted off her seating position, "then I will come to your bed," and jumped down.

"What?... Okay." I smiled. "Yes." She was somewhat extremely pushy and far too jovial for my liking, but I think it fit her real good.

"Don't fear, iye?" She assured me like I was a child. I just raised my brows in wonder. "Why are you even scared it's not like I will die soon ni." You will. "And I don't look like bush baby ke."

Yeah, she didn't look like bush baby but she sure had a Mega mind kind of forehead, but it suited her perfectly too.

"I was just wondering why someone as young as you would be subjected to such a life... When you said that thing about blood coming out of your nose when you waved at a baby-"

"A child o." She corrected. "Hm... He wasn't really small o! Let us say six years old."

I nodded, shocked at the fact that she still corrected me. That's when I came to my right senses, and understood that she didn't really take this cancer thing serious. She was right, cancer wasn't who she was, it was just a stubborn mole in her life. "You know what I think? I think you should enjoy your life before you die."

She stared at me blankly before she closed her eyes and chuckled. Then she flipped them open. "I'm not sure whether I'm dying yet. But don't worry, I will keep you posted.