02:32 pm, September 19.

'You're almost fully recovered now, Enyi, you just have to spend one more day here to fully recover and you'll be discharged by the weekend.' The doctor straightened up from examining her eyes and turned off the beam of the light.

Eniiyi smiled at him and shook her head. 'It is Eniiyi, not Enyi, sir.'

The doctor laughed at this. 'Of course, Enyi.'

She puckered her lips and frowned at him not finding it funny.

'Kedu?' the doctor asked, confused as to why she was angry.

The girl remained silent, her frown deepening.

'Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Eniiyi.'

'Better,' said Eniiyi. She now smiled at him and pushed herself up on the hospital bed. 'When are they coming?' she asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she'd been told Lastborn and the woman who helped them were around.

'They are just outside, I'll tell them that they can see you now.'

Eniiyi smiled again, excited. 'What of my Daddy and Mommy?'

The doctor sighed. 'I believe that the police are working on that already,' he said. 'I have to go now, I have other rounds to see to. A nurse will bring your lunch in shortly.' With this he picked up his chart and exited the room.

Eniiyi stared at his back as he walked out of the room. Again it seemed unbelievable how she'd seen the decorated bull in this man for they were complete opposites. The doctor was tall and fit and his thin moustache gave him a fatherly look whereas the native doctor was stout and sinewy and was anything but fatherly.

Everything that happened earlier yesterday had fully dawned on her this morning. She had been half out of unconsciousness and the doctor was walking towards her for a check up and then, still trapped in the abyss of the week's horror, his face had been morphed into that of her worst nightmare.

'Eniiyi,' a small voice said, breaking her from the cocoon of her thoughts.

She had hardly raised her head when arms wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.

Eniiyi giggled and hugged him back. 'Lastborn,' was all she could say.

'You're alive!'

She rolled her eyes and pushed him away. 'Yes, I am.'

Lastborn noticed the look on her face. 'I was worried, you almost died.'

She smiled by way of apology. When she'd woken up yesterday morning for the first time in almost three days Lastborn had been the first person to notice and had called the doctor's attention. Then the boy had been told he couldn't see her till further notice. The poor boy must have been worried to death.

'Thanks for everything, Lastborn,' she said softly.

'You're welcome,' Lastborn said. 'Eniiyi, this is Mrs Okenwa, she saved our lives.'

It was then that Eniiyi noticed a woman standing to the side. She was a slender, light skin lady with a heart-shaped face graced with elegant cheekbones and big eyes. Her long box braids loosely framed her beautiful face and cascaded down her shoulders.

Eniiyi turned down a corner of her mouth, speechless. She had been expecting to see an older woman —this woman couldn't be old enough to give birth to even her.

'Hello,' said the woman as she moved closer to the bed. 'Nice to finally meet you in consciousness.' She took hold of one of her hands in between both of hers and smiled.

She had a perfect row of teeth. Like piano keys, thought Eniiyi.

'Hi.' Eniiyi was nervous all of a sudden. Now that she had finally met her saviour she wasn't sure what to do next.

'Thanks for saving my life, ma. My name is Eniiyi.'

The woman smiled. 'We thank God. I'm Mrs China Okenwa. How are you feeling now?'

'I'm fine, ma,' Eniiyi replied. 'Your name is China? Are you Chinese?'

Mrs Okenwa raised her head and laughed. 'No, no, I'm not from China. The China of my name is short for Chinagorom. It means 'God fights for me'.'

'Wow,' said Eniiyi and Lastborn together.

Mrs Okenwa couldn't help but laugh at the look of amazement on their face.

Eniiyi continued to stare at the woman. 'How old are you?' she suddenly asked. Then her eyes went wide. 'I'm sorry for asking! I was just . . .'

'Eniiyi!' Lastborn chided. 'It is rude to ask for an adult's age!'

'It's—it's okay, really. I don't mind. I'm twenty four years old.'

'Cool,' said Lastborn, awed.

'Shebi you were shouting when I asked,' said Eniiyi to Lastborn, annoyed.

Eniiyi remembered something. 'The police that came in earlier said we're in Enugu State. Where is that?'

'Yes. That's in the Southern part of Nigeria. You're really eight?' asked the woman.

'No, ma, I'm nine years old. Why do you ask?'

'Lastborn said you were eight,' the woman muttered and Eniiyi turned to glare at Lastborn.

'No, I'm nine, I've been nine since July.'

'Wow, really? You seem more mature in character, like a twelve year old.'

Eniiyi rolled her eyes. 'People say that. Ma, it's stereotypic for adults to expect children to behave their age, yet they find nothing wrong if you behave below your age.' The girl frowned as she thought of all those people that had frowned at her for being too sharp for her age.

'Wow, you got a point there.'

'There is a point there,' said Eniiyi. 'When is my daddy and mommy coming here?'

The woman sighed. 'The police didn't tell me much, but I believe they're working on that.'

Earlier in the day some people had come from the police department and asked for her story. She had told them all she could from her family to how she had ended up on the side of the road with welts all over and almost dead. The woman police had written all she said down and gotten the address of her parent's house then left, promising to come back later when they'd found out anything.

'And I've not heard from them since then,' continued the woman. 'But not to worry, they will be back soon with good news. How hard could it be to find two people?'

Lastborn settled down on the arm of the chair Mrs Okenwa was sitting on. Eniiyi noticed that he was very free around the woman.

'Eniiyi, did you know Mrs Okenwa has a baby? A boy. He's so cute.'

'Really? A baby? I like babies!'

The woman laughed. 'You mean a big baby. Kanayo is almost one now.'

'Where is he? Can I carry him?' Eniiyi asked.

'At daycare, I'm going to pick him up soon. If there's still time I might come back today with him.'

A knock on the door prevented her from further asking questions. Two police officers stood at the entrance of the room.

'Good afternoon,' the male officer said as he stepped in.

Eniiyi looked up at the female officer expectantly. She had come in the morning but with a different partner. Had they found her parents already?

'I'm Detective Oji Omenka, I'm assigned to your case along with Detective Egwu.' He pointed to the woman police.

'My case? Why do I have a case? Some people already came in the morning to ask me—' Eniiyi started to say.

'Your cousin here told us about what happened on your way here and the pictures you took. We are trying to—'

'Good God, Menk, try to be nice. She's just a child and you sound like you're grilling her.' The woman chided her partner then turned to the girl.

Eniiyi tried to remember what she had called her name earlier in the day. Was it Ebibo? Melimo? She couldn't even remember, but she remembered that it sounded strange to her ears.

'Yes, we came earlier in the day to get your statement on what happened to you and Lastborn. The locations given are already being worked on and I believe that very soon we'd find that wicked village. About the armed robbery case, that took place in another town outside of Nsukka, so, we're handing the case over to them with the pictures of the robbers you took. That was a very smart move, by the way.'

'What of my Daddy and Mommy?' That was the only thing that concerned her, not any other thing. If her parents were found she didn't care about anything else.

The woman paused at this and looked at Mrs Okenwa. 'Madam, you'll have to excuse us. You understand that our investigation is . . .'

'I do understand.' Mrs Okenwa was already standing up. 'I'd just excuse you.' She nodded at the children and went out of the room.

'We have not been able to reach your parents yet, since you don't know their phone numbers offhand, but when we find the village I believe we'd be able to get the number from that your grandmother. Although I don't think that might work, they'd have taken a temporary Japanese number.'

Eniiyi's shoulders slumped at this.

'But don't worry,' said the man, 'we are already working towards contacting the Pengine HQ.'

'That is the Head Quarters,' supplied the woman.

And Eniiyi didn't have time to argue that she knew the meaning of HQ. Why should she? When she was busy thinking about the depressing news. The girl had hoped her parents would be found immediately, they would have come back home immediately, wouldn't they? Of course they would! Even she knew that was more important than any business deal.

'Did you go to Osogbo? My tablet is there and their phone numbers are on it.'

'Two people have been sent to Osun State.'

'Why don't you know your parent's numbers?' Lastborn whispered.

Eniiyi looked shamefaced for a second but then smirked at him. 'I know the landline,' she whispered back and Lastborn rolled his eyes.

'Oh yes!' said the female officer.

Eniiyi made a mental sidenote to ask for her name later.

'What?!' said everyone in the room.

'Didn't you mention earlier that you were going to your uncle in Lagos?'

'Yes . . . Oh!' Eniiyi's face brightened up as she suddenly got the woman's point. 'Lastborn, where's the paper?'

'What paper?' Lastborn asked, confused.

'The paper G.ma wrote Uncle's address on. I put it in your backpack when you wanted to charge my headphones.'

Lastborn continued to look confused. 'You didn't give me any paper . . . I didn't even see the paper.'

'Where's the backpack you're talking about?'

'I left it in the residence. But it's not there. Eniiyi did you take it out of your bag at all?'

'Huh . . .' mumbled Eniiyi as she remembered that she had, in fact, not brought it out at all. When G.ma had handed it to her she had angrily stuffed it somewhere in her holdall not bothering to check what was on it and had forgotten about it, meaning to make use of it on reaching Lagos.

'What? It's in your bag?' asked the woman.

'Yes, it is . . .'

'And you left it in the commercial bus,' said Officer Omenka, frustrated.

'I'm sorry.' Eniiyi bent her head. 'I'm stupid, I should have checked the address before putting it in my bag.'

'It's not your fault, child.' The policewoman frowned disapprovingly at her partner. 'There was no way you could have known you wouldn't reach the place.'

'Nke ahụ ezuola, Omenka,' she said, still frowning at Omenka. 'That's enough.'

'Okay, okay.' Officer Omenka threw up his hands.

'Good. Lastborn, Eniiyi, we'll be taking our leave now. When we get more information we'll make sure to update you. Take care of yourselves, both of you, unu abuo.'

'I have no idea what that means, but, okay, ma,' Eniiyi said.

The policewoman smiled. 'I said, 'both of you'.'

'Oh.'

'Ka ọ dị,' said Lastborn.

'Ka ọ dị,' replied the surprised woman as she and her partner made for the door.

'So you can speak Ibo now.' Eniiyi said, her voice tinged with a streak of envy.

Lastborn looked very smug. 'It's Igbo, not Ibo. And, no, I can't, but I know a few words, like ka ọ dị means bye bye.'

'Stop feeling yourself.' Eniiyi glowered. 'You're a very annoying boy.'

'Jealous,' Lastborn said, still smug.

'I bet I can learn more Ibo than you before this week runs out. What's today?'

'Wednesday,' Lastborn said and rolled his eyes. 'You are in a hospital, remember?'

'You'll see, I'm a very fast learner. Then that silly smugness will desert you.'

'You're just jealous.'

'Of what?' Mrs China Okenwa asked as she entered the room.

'Don't mind him, he's just too full of himself.'

Mrs China chuckled. 'I just came from the doctor's. It's possible you get discharged on Saturday. So, I'm planning to ask for the custody of the two of you. You can't continue staying in the hospital's residence forever. So, what do you say that you stay with me till your parents come back? It won't be for long.' She looked suddenly nervous, like it had taken her all to ask the questions.

'Yes, of course! Thank you, ma. That is awesome!'

China smiled at Lastborn. 'Glad to hear that, Lastborn. What about you, Eniiyi? Would you like to stay with me till your parents come back?'

'I . . .'

'Eniiyi, now! Please, say yes! You'll totally love it. I've been to her house before and it's really big and nice.' He stressed heavily on the 'really' as though to underline his point.

'Please, please, okay? You're not going to like that hospital place; it's boring and smells like a hospital a little.'

'Okay, okay. I'd love to, ma. Thank you,' Eniiyi agreed.

'Yes!' hollered Lastborn.

'You're screaming,' the girl snapped.

'That's good. Now all I have to do is apply for your custody, I hope it goes alright.'

'What if it doesn't?' Eniiyi asked. 'I don't wanna stay in a hospital house, too.'

'It should, I hope, since it's temporary custody.'

'Why does it sound so hard?' Eniiyi asked. 'How does it work, anyways?'

'After I fill the form, I have to give good reasons why I think you should stay with me and then they'll do research on me to find out how responsible I am and my capability to take care of you. Then the two of you will be called and properly asked your consents and signature before the form will be taken to a court of law and signed by the judge. The judge may or may not agree to sign it at the end if the research is not good enough to him.'

'I don't have a signature,' said Lastborn, a little excited about doing something official.

'Duh.' Eniiyi rolled her eyes twice at him.

'It's okay,' Mrs Okenwa said then started to stand up. 'I have to go get Kanayo now. Eniiyi, get better quickly, you nụwo, you hear?'

'I've heard ma. I'm better already, but the doctor man won't let me go.'

The woman laughed in reply. 'He knows best, I guess.'

A certain girl rolled her eyes.

The woman laughed again. 'Bye for now. I do hope you unite with your parents soon.'

'Ka ọ di,' Lastborn said and hugged her.

The woman laughed at this.

It seemed like she loved to do that a lot or she just found them funny, thought Eniiyi.

'Ka ọ dị,' she replied. 'See you both later.'

'You just like to brag on top nothing,' Eniiyi said when the woman was gone.

'Admit that you're jealous,' Lastborn taunted and started to hop around.

'Stay still now.'

'Do you think they will find my parents?' she asked after few minutes of silence.

'I believe they will, they have power to. Don't worry, they will find your parents and Uncle Olufemi and everything would be alright.'

Eniiyi stared into the unseen distance. 'I hope so. I really hope so.'