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Introduction

Welcome to my blog. It's another week of the story "The Wounded Captain," and in this episode, I will be writing about Nurse on strike.
At the end of the story, please visit other episodes for a better understanding of this story.

Nurse on strike

Abia had two major worries in his mind. One was the pain his injury caused him. The other was the guilty conscience. He knew that to some extent, the physical pain caused by injury was being attended to. How was he to cope with the pain and regret of disobedience?

His father has warned him not to play football because he wouldn't end a living through it. He also felt that his father had heard that both schools fought. But didn't know the cause of the fight was as a result of disallowing the goal scored by him.

In his dream, he saw his father become very angry. He disowned him and ordered him to quit his house because he didn't obey his instruction. It was one of the thoughts he held that night before he slept, and it had enveloped into a dream.

Initially, he felt that he had disobeyed his father by playing football, and his conscience pricked him. At times, he tried to justify himself. After all, he had committed no crime.

Though the wound on his arm had affected his muscle, he didn't regret it until his father decided to take him to an herbalist.
Because of the fame of the herbalist in treating broken bones and the slow response Abia made in the hospital, Akpatta arrived at the decision to transfer to an herbalist for local treatment. A week following Abia's transfer from the hospital to the herbalist, the nurse who took care of him was in a very bad mood. Her usual playful and admirable countenance had given room to a mournful appearance. She became offended at the slightest issue. She was more frequent at Abia's sick bed than at her duty post.

Her duty was to sign and collect all the drugs meant for the day's treatment from the pharmacy department. The pharmacy department of the hospital was considered dormant for some time because of lack of drugs. Patients bought their prescribed drugs from the pharmacy stores in town.

She took Abia as a son and didn't want to part with him, especially at such a long distance, as she found out from his father.

Three days before the transfer, something happened. The nurse in the state went on an industrial action. The strike embarked upon by the nurse acted as consolation to the nurse, who was more or less a mother to him.

She felt that she would be temporarily free from the burden of leaving her home to the hospital to meet doctors heading off for their private practice and the chronic lack of drugs for distribution to other nurses on duty.

She did not know how long the strike would last but was certain the ministry wouldn't quickly accept the conditions put across by the nurses. Again, the members of the Executive would not call off the strike until their demands were met.

During the strike action, she would cease to see some patients hanging on the balance between life and death, she thought. She pitied most patients, especially those who died, because they couldn't pay their deposit before treatment.

She felt that the mortuary would cease to admit dead bodies. And the disturbance by some seriously affected patients at night and nurses discussing their husbands would also cease as she contemplated.

The strike action had taken a longer period than expected. The nurses wanted, among others, shift duty allowance, a separate condition of service that superseded that of the civil service, and the implementation of the elongated allowance. While in hospital, Abia noticed that the door to
the mortuary was always knocked before it was opened. He wondered why it was so and found out
from the nurse. "Nurse, why is it that whenever the door to the mortuary is to be opened, one usually knocks on its door?' asked Abia.

"That has been the practice, it is said that the dead can't see, but hear therefore, when the passage of the mortuary door is knocked, it would get the dead informed that someone is visiting" answered the nurse jokingly.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading to the end. I believe you enjoyed the story. To understand this story better, please do well to read other episodes below.

• Episode 1, Taboo on Playmates
• Episode 2, Hocky the dog
• Episode 3, The Gardener
  Episode 4, The-master
• Episode 5, The gate man encounter with Itina
• Episode 6, Thieves in the warehouse
• Episode 7, The Cook and The Steward Imprisoned
• Episode 8, Reward For Honesty
• Episode 9, The White Master
• Episode 10, The Powerful Strokes
• Episode 11, Abia Becomes Captain
• Episode 12, Ndopnda in school
• Episode 13, Abia woth the juju man
• Episode 14, The Fracas
• Episode 15, Abia and the Nurse)