Mali was busy drawing on her sketch pad, trying not to think. She looked up when she felt a presence by the door.
"Hey," Mali croaked, "thank you for bringing me here yesterday. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"I'm glad I was able to help. How are you feeling?" He didn't wait for her to answer as he added, "You look like death."
Mali let out a small smile. She loved how he wasn't trying to comfort her, or cocooning her like everyone else was.
"I feel like a corpse," replied Mali, "so simply looking dead sounds like an upgrade."
He chuckled. "That does sound like an upgrade."
"Hey, don't just stand there. Come in and sit," she told him as put her sketch pad away.
Ed took a breath and entered the hospital room.
"Ed, right?" Mali asked as Ed took a seat. Mali didn't forget names, or people, or things.
"Right."
"I'm Maliah."
"Yeah, I've heard," was all he said.
An awkward moment of silence enveloped them. And Ed cleared his throat, feeling a bit uncomfortable as Mali watched him from head to toe as if assessing him for something. In her mind, she was busy comparing Ed with Warren. They were similar yet so different. Mali could tell that the two men were both powerful in their own regard, living by a certain code of conduct.
While Warren was intimidating in the, 'I could kill you and bury your body where no one would ever find it' kind of way, Ed was intimidating in the, 'I'm an important man with money and influence' kind of way. Whenever he spoke, his voice carried a slight imperious edge like he was used to giving orders. And having them followed.
Ed didn't say a word again for a long time. He only stared at her like he was trying to consume her with his eyes.
The silence stretched until Mali felt the need to fill it. "I don't mean to pry but, uhm, did you have a knee or leg injury when you were little?"
Ed raised a brow. "Why?"
"It's just that... uh, you have a bit of a lopsided gait."
"You're quite observant," he said, eyeing her.
Honestly, how could she not be when everything about him demanded her attention? "You're impossible to ignore," she replied.
Ed's upper lip curved upwards in amusement, and then he said, "I was in an accident two years ago."
He bent over and pulled up his right pant leg, revealing a prosthetic leg that was attached from the knee down.
"Oh, so you're like robocop now?" She immediately gasped and pressed her lips in a thin line. "I'm sorry, I- uhm, I didn't mean to say that. I shouldn't have joked-"
"It's okay, really," he interjected, smiling in amusement. "At least you didn't give me that look of pity that I always get from people when they realise I lost a leg."
"Well, tit for tat."
"What?"
She smiled. "You didn't give me that look either, so why should I? Besides, pity is for stray cats and dead puppies, right?"
Ed smiled, giving Mali a weird look. "Right."
Just then, Mali's twin brother, Napo, walked in with Lei in tow. While Napo narrowed his eyes disapprovingly at them both, Lei looked between the two of them and wiggled her well-nurtured brows.
Mali rolled her eyes. She knew what was coming.
Napo growled, "You should be resting, Maliah."
"I am resting, Napo."
Napo opened his mouth to speak again, but Mali sent him a sharp look and any intention to scold her died a quick death. He sighed and went to sit on the couch by the wall, a small distance away from the three.
"Honestly, I wouldn't rest too if I had a juicy piece of meat sitting by my bed," she said in a teasing, flirtatious tone.
Mali scowled at Lei and then glanced at Ed. "I'm sorry about her. She always knows what not to say, and then goes ahead and says it anyway."
"Oh, I know. We met before," Ed told Mali. "Strangest two minutes of my life."
"Do me a favour and spare me the details," said Mali. She absolutely did not want to know how their first conversation went.
"Don't worry yourself about that, I didn't understand a word she said throughout our entire conversation."
The two of them laughed. It was true. Lei talked one hundred metres per second, and if you didn't keep up, she only made sense fifty percent of the time.
The problem was Lei was "too" everything. Too intelligent. Too stupid. Too beautiful. Too talkative. Too full of life. She was a walking paradox, and was actually fun once you got to know her. Though that usually took three to four years. So, it made sense that she didn't make sense.
"By the way, that's my brother." Mali gestured at Napo. "Boetie, this is the man who brought me here yesterday."
The two men only exchanged brief nods, and that was it. No thank yous, or any other pleasantries. Men!
"Napo's not just Mali's brother, he's one of her brothers," Lei began as she sat at the edge of Mali's bed. "There are two others, namely, Warren and Led. Led and this brother here aren't worth mentioning, but Warren... people call him War, not because those are the first three letters of his name, but because he's chaotic and destructive. He's a man who sheds blood for fun. He plays with knives like they're like toys, and chews on bullets like gum."
"Lei, stop," ordered Mali.
Lei went on, "Warren is your worst nightmare. Unleashed into hell and trained by Lucifer himself. He's Jack the Ripper wrapped in-"
"Lei," Mali groaned. "Stop, seriously. You're scaring the poor man."
"Men in sharp suits don't get scared easily, and if they do, they shouldn't. How can you look dashing and easily piss your pants?"
"I guess he's not a guy I would want to meet," said Ed, looking amused instead of terrified.
"Nope, he's not," Lei replied. "If you see him, it'll be the last time. You hear his name and run, okay?"
Ed nodded, and just then, three doctors, in white medical coats, same as the one Lei had on, walked into the room chattering loudly.
Napo immediately sprung up when he saw them. "That's it. I'm out of here."
"Are you not going to pretend to like us anymore?" One doctor, Una, asked Napo.
"It's not that," he replied. "I like you lot very much. I just get tired whenever you all start talking."
Out of habit, he reached out and kissed Mali's forehead before leaving.
The three doctors, surrounded Mali's bed and started haranguing her with questions of what happened, how it happened, et cetera. Lei answered most of the questions for Mali because she knew Mali didn't like repeating herself, and would snap at them if they continued like that.
Mali noticed Ed sitting quietly. So she smiled and said, "Lei, introduce Ed to these idiots."
"Ah, yes. Ed, these are our friends." Lei pointed at at each one of them as she introduced them. "This is Una, Maroon, and Quentin. But we call him Crash, because what the fuck is Quentin? Right?"
Mali added, "They may not look like it, but they're all doctors."
"I can tell," Ed said, smiling in amusement.
"Who's he?" Crash asked.
Mali answered that, and they all exchanged pleasantries with him and made all kinds of stupid and embarrassing jokes. But they soon went on to trash talking Peter.
"Firstly, that bastard was way below you, girl," Maroon I still don't understand why you lowered your standards to accommodate him."
"Secondly, his name is Peter," added Crash. "Why would you trust someone named Peter? Jesus made that mistake and ended up spread on the cross."
"Yep. All Peters are unfaithful by nature," Una agreed. "What had gotten into you?"
"Thirdly, who names their child Peter? Why? Like, what's the motivation?" asked Lei with a shrug.
"Fourthly-" Maroon wanted to go on, but Una cut her off.
"That's not a real word."
"It is!" Crash supported Maroon.
And soon, they were all bickering loudly. Mali groaned and rolled her eyes. She mouthed an apology to Ed, and he smiled in return.
The air grew warm and comfortable as the lot went on with their gibberish. It was a strange feeling, but Ed could have stayed like that with them all day.