On Friday of the same week.
Mandy sat on a seat close to her reading table in her dorm room when she received a distress call from Avery.
"What is it, Avery? Why are you crying?
"Come over to the college clinic now. Bradley's dying. He has cancer." Avery spoke rapidly, making it hard for Mandy to follow.
"What do you mean, "Bradley's dying? What do you mean, "he has cancer?"
"Come and see for yourself," Avery said and disconnected the call.
Grabbing her purse, Mandy bolted out of the dorm room with Ifes trailing behind her.
They entered the hospital—the antiseptic scent was so strong that Mandy almost gagged—and saw Avery pacing up and down as she waited for them at the reception. They walked up to her with hasty, long strides.
"It's good you are here!" Avery and Mandy embraced each other, sobbing.
"Where's Bradley? What happened to him?"
They broke the embrace. Avery gave Ifes an enigmatic look, then pulled Mandy into Bradley's hospital room. Mandy walked faster to keep up with Avery's pace as she called Ifes to come along.
As they entered, they saw Bradley lying in a hospital bed, with Hunter and Ryan sitting beside him.
"What's she doing here?" Ryan abruptly stood as soon as he saw Ifes.
Mandy was taken aback with the tone of his voice. "She's with me."
Ryan wiped the moisture in his eyes with the back of his palm furiously. "She is not welcome here. Get her outta here this minute!"
Avery and Mandy jerked. "What are you saying, Ryan? She's my friend and we came here together. And she is not the centre of concentration now, Bradley is."
"And what are we to you now? Your enemies, I guess." His puffy eyes looked puffier as he said this.
"I didn't say so, but it might interest you that I asked her to come along so we can pray for Bradley."
"You what?" Ryan let out a sardonic laugh. "I think this friend of yours should be given a purple heart for easily swaying people. She is really good at it, don't you think so?"
Hunter glared at Ryan. What did he think he was doing? Laughing when his brother was dying? Was this how much Ryan cared about his twin brother?
"How could you say such things about her?" Mandy glowered at him through tears. "In case you don't know, she was the one that pra..." She closed her mouth and looked away.
She still didn't know how to tell them about her late mother's illness that they would not ask questions about the secret she kept. No! Not yet. Not now.
The ward door slid open from outside. Anne-Marie, Skylar, Ian and Ayo dashed in, asking a series of questions.
Anne-Marie beckoned on Ifes, Ian, Mandy and Ayo.
"And what are you guys doing over there? Come here, I know you can do something about this."
It didn't surprise Mandy or any of the trio that Anne-Marie believed in miracles. She went to church for her own ulterior motives. She read the Bible forcefully, just to impress Ian.
"Get these two outta here now!" Ryan pointed to Ifes and Ayo.
"No, but you can't do that, Ryan!" Anne-Marie spoke through a choked voice appealing to Ryan's sense of reasoning.
Ryan turned towards her. "Don't tell me that you have also been deluded?"
Ian intercepted. "Please relax, let's settle this amicably, guys."
"Hey, mister, you better stay out of this. I didn't call you here."
Hunter got on his feet, and threw Ryan a punch that sent him to the ground, making everyone who was present in the room gasp in surprise.
"And who called ya here?" Hunter fumed.
"Hun–Hunter!" Ryan stammered.
"Shut the hell up. I'm not finished! My brother's dyin' and you're here doin' what? Sending away perhaps his only hope of survival. Now, you listen and listen well. I don't care about your antipathy with Ifes, but if anything happens to my brother, I swear, I'll kill ya, Ryan!"
Hunter shoved Ryan aside with his left leg as he walked towards Ifes. Taking her hands, he led her to Bradley's bed without uttering a word.
She hunkered beside his bed as she gently took his hands gazing at him speechlessly. Bradley tilted his head to look at her. "You kept your word,but they all know about it now. I couldn't hide it forever."
"What?" Everyone in the room besides Bradley said simultaneously.
Mandy pointed towards Ifes. "You knew all about this and you didn't tell me?" Mandy asked Ifes. Everyone gazed at her, perplexed.
Mandy couldn't fix the puzzle of all that was unraveling. The betrayal by her roommate and friend was really shocking.
Ifes quickly opened her mouth to clear the air, but Bradley spoke first before she could think up a word. He slowly explained all that happened in a weak voice, and Mandy was relaxed that her friend didn't betray her. It was time to face Bradley.
They each started asking him different questions that he couldn't afford to answer without some explanations.
"How could you, how could you do this to us, Bradley?"
"For how long have you had this?"
"We are your friends, almost like family, and you mean you could keep such a heavy secret from us?"
"Even I, your twin brother, didn't know about this, and you dared to keep me in the dark?"
"Who are you, Bradley? Do we even know you at all?"
Another question was about to come in when Ifes cut in. "Stop this now, stop it everyone!" she bellowed.
They looked at her, astonished. Since the first day they'd known her, she had never raised her voice at any of them, but seeing her do something like that, this new side of her was really something to watch.
"And what do you guys think you are doing?" she fired. "Probably asking him the last questions of your life that he will take to his grave, isn't it?"
The room fell silent for a while before she continued. Only the beeping of the monitors and the dripping sound of the IV drip could be heard.
"I'm sure you probably don't understand the pain he's passing through, else you wouldn't be standing here acting like a pack of wolves! The pain of having to see your reaction if he mustered courage to speak to you guys of his illness, or having to admit the reality which was that he would be separated from you. Instead of seeking a solution, you are doing exactly what? Asking him the question that you believe would make his death easier and send him faster to his grave, right?"
At that point, they all broke down, wailing profusely. Hunter cried the most. Ian and Ayo rushed towards him, whispering consoling words.
"I don't want to lose my brother. He means the world to me. If he dies, then he'll be dying with a vital part of me, don't you understand?"
Mandy and Anne-Marie joined the rest to cry, their faith ebbing away fast.
"You all better stop crying before we draw the attention of the nurses and doctors."
One of the hospital attendants heard the awful cry and was now making his way to one of the doctor's offices to call for his urgent attention.
Even after her remarks, Mandy and her friends didn't want to stop crying.
"God can heal him," Ifes said softly with conviction and the room grew silent again.
Mandy wanted to believe that and join Ifes to encourage her friends, but she remembered that her mother still died. She had no doubt that God could heal Bradley, but she wasn't sure if he would survive.
"Do not lose faith, guys," Ifes said as she called out to Mandy, Ian and Ayo.
They held each other's hands as they circled Bradley's bed, praying and commanding the ugly demon of cancer out of his life.
After a few minutes of their prayers over him, Bradley sat up without help from his bed, making his friends, even Mandy, draw back in surprise.
"Hey!" he said in a strong voice as he touched himself all over, "I don't feel the pain anymore. In fact, I feel light, like a day old baby!" Bradley spoke rapidly, still trying to take in what was happening to him. He moved his body in ways he couldn't since he stopped his chemotherapy, and realised he could do that without stress.
"Are you saying you are healed?" Hunter used Ifesinachi's words—'healed'.
His brother gazed at him. "Well, if that's the word, then I'd say yes!"
Words could not describe how much joy Bradley and his friends felt.
Mandy was ecstatic seeing that what she feared for him didn't happen. He survived! He was alive!
Bradley walked towards Ifes pulling her into a tight embrace, Mandy joined in and others followed suit. They all broke the hug, then Bradley held her by the hand.
"Thank you for healing me. I really do appreciate it!"
Ifes' face dropped as she removed her hands from his grip. "You are thanking the wrong person. I didn't heal you. God did."
His face flushed. "I'm sorry. I sure would like to thank him. How can I do that?"
"He only accepts the thanksgiving of those who are his children."
Hearing those words, he understood exactly what she meant by 'his children'. He had heard something like that before from other Christians who had approached him to talk about Jesus. He had also heard it from Ifes.
"Yes, I'm ready to be a Christian. I'm ready to be God's child and serve him with the life he has given me today."
His statement was a surprise to Mandy. She couldn't believe what was unveiled before her. It felt like a dream.
"Me too!"
Everyone whirled sharply to the voice that said those two words.
Avery!
"I also want to be a Christian. I now believe that God's real."
Ifes waited for the rest to also indicate interest but they didn't. It was either they still didn't believe in God's reality or they weren't sure if they were ready to give their lives to Jesus.
As they were about saying the prayer of salvation, the door flew open, and a doctor strode in with two nurses behind him.
The doctor and the nurses behind him almost ran out of the hospital room as soon as they spotted Bradley on his feet. It was either they were seeing his ghost or someone had performed magic to keep him standing for a while, but to what end? To terrify them?
"I don't know what these students here are up to, but someone better not be playing a prank on me," the doctor warned sternly in his heart.
The doctor and nurses regained their composure and walked back to Bradley.
"What do you think you are doing getting on your feet, Bradley? Do you want to die?"
The nurse held his hands to help him lie back on his bed, but he wriggled out of her grip, full of strength.
"I don't have to lie down on that bed again because nothing's wrong with me anymore." He gazed at the doctor as his hand gestured to the sickbed.
"What do you mean by that, Bradley?" The doctor's eyes were skeptical.
He went on to elucidate what happened to the doctor and nurses. The doctor and nurses heaved a sigh of relief.
"Well, if you say so, good for you, but I must conduct some necessary tests on you to certify you stage four stomach cancer free." The doctor stressed every word.
Bradley gave the doctor a mocking smile. "Doctor, do you believe in miracles?"
The doctor shrugged. "Well, in my twelve years of working in this profession, I have seen some stunts like the one you're pulling off now, but I have never believed in miracles or believed that there is a sky daddy behind them. All these are just coincidences or the patient's luck."
"The devil is a liar." Ifes didn't know that she had voiced out those words.
The boys laughed, the girls giggled, and then the doctor spoke up, slightly bemused. "You better come with me, Bradley Harper, before someone starts calling me the devil."
He grinned. "Very well, doctor. I'm prepared for any check up."
"Alright then, come with me."
"Right behind you, sir." Bradley didn't follow the doctor immediately until he gave his life to Christ.
After he made for the doctor's office, Ifes glanced around the room and discovered, much to her dismay, that Ryan was absent. Everyone had been so engrossed in what was happening that no one noticed when he walked out of the hospital room.
When did he leave? and why did he leave? Did he witness Bradley's healing and salvation? Ifes pondered silently.
Bradley got to the front of the doctor's office, yanked open and walked in. "I'm here, doctor."
"What kept you so long? I thought you'd never come."
"Well, I'm here now. So, shall we?"
After some minutes of rigorous tests, the doctor removed his gloves, dumped them into a tray and said, "We're done. See you in three days' time, Mr Harper."
Bradley thanked the doctor before walking out of his office to his friends who were already waiting for him in the lobby.
"Cowboys and cowgirls, I'm done. Let's go," Bradley said excitedly.
"So when are ya comin' back for the results?" Hunter asked.
"In three days' time."
They talked all the way to their dorm rooms, asking and confirming from Bradley what had really happened. Hunter, in particular, was relieved that his brother was now totally well. He didn't cease to emphasize that Bradley should never pull such a dangerous stunt as keeping a terminal illness a secret from them.