“Wait.” Then she sucks in breath, and surprise is shining in her eyes. “It’s you. You’re . . . you’re the cure.”

I am not liking that she is calling me thing and not person, so I am saying, “Ify is sleeping. Do not disturb her.”

“I just . . . I want to make sure she is okay and—”

“She was looking for you.” My fists are clenching at my side and it is taking much effort to be unclenching them. “When we arrived in Centrafrique, she looked for you. Everywhere, she looked for you. Where were you?”

“How dare you? I’m a Colonial administrator. I have an entire Colony to run! Who are you to talk to me li—”

“I don’t know you.” My voice is even when I am saying these words. I am thinking of the hurt on Ify’s face and how she is being tired as we are traveling and wanting something badly, and I am knowing that what she is wanting is for this woman to be telling her hello and this woman is not doing that, so I am angering. “And I am not caring who you are. Ify is here to be doing work, and she must rest. Do not disturb her.” Then I am ending the transmission, and hologram is winking away and there is nothing blocking my view of the sick people below that Ify and me are to be helping.

■  ■  ■  ■  ■

As soon as I am entering hospital, they are putting me in chair that is hovering over the ground and dressing me in gown that is feeling too big on me. Everything is white and smelling like it is too clean. Whenever I am seeing hospital in my remembering, I am seeing it full of people who is dying, people wearing military uniform, people missing arm or leg or missing part of their face. Sometime when I am thinking of hospital, I am seeing image of tent and I am feeling heat on my skin and I am seeing dirty robot that is stomping around and trying to stop people screaming by feeding them chemical. And sometime when I am thinking of hospital, I am hearing quiet and it is because everybody is dying and there are being only a few of us left, and I am thinking that in all of my remembering, hospital is meaning death and dirt and blood. But here hospital is clean and there are people wearing gown like I am wearing who are walking or who are smiling and talking, and sometime I am looking into their room and seeing them in bed with nurse watching them and chatting like they are being neighbors on the side of the street in Lagos.