He had lost so much blood. Trying to stop the bleeding had proved futile. He began to feel weak. He knew if help did not come in the next five minutes, he was as good as dead.
He tried to get up but his wobbling legs would not help. Just then, he heard the sound of a siren. He turned towards the direction the sound was coming from and saw an ambulance speeding towards him. That was the last thing he saw before he passed out. A few seconds later, the ambulance reached where he was. Paramedics got down, picked him up and placed him on a stretcher before hulling him aboard the ambulance. Then they sped off with him.
When he came around, Lt. Clottey found himself in a hospital bed. He was alone. He did not know he had been in a state of unconsciousness for almost an hour.
He realized he was undergoing intravenous therapy when he saw the drip at the foot of his bed. He sighed. There was total silence in the room. Initially, he could not tell how he came to be in a hospital bed. However, memory soon came rushing back to him.
He remembered shooting the Vietnamese assassin who had obviously been about to pull the trigger and assassinate the Vice-President. He remembered how he dashed down and went after Kruger but got hit first by his car and then a bullet when he (Kruger) shot at him.
He remembered Kruger alright; he was one of the three men who came to the James Town police station and opened fire on the policemen on duty, killing all of them as well as inmates of the police cells. He was still recapturing the events since he got to know about the plot when the door opened and a doctor came in followed by two nurses. Then his sister, Helen, and her fiancé, Lt. Badoo, came in. He could see she had been crying. Her eyes looked puffy.
“Well, he has come around. That is a giant step in his recovery process. As I told you, the boys did a wonderful job on him in the ambulance while rushing him here. But for that, he would have died even before they arrived here because of the amount of blood he had lost. Now, there is nothing to worry about. He only needs time to recover fully” the doctor, a bald-headed man, said.
Lt. Clottey smiled at his sister. He loved her so much that he hated seeing her cry. She was his only sibling and with their parents long dead, she was everything to him.
Helen smiled back at her brother amidst her tears. Fresh tears began to stream down her cheeks. They were tears of relief. He was her big brother, the one she always turned to for anything she wanted; he had never disappointed her. Yes, she was madly in love with Lt. Badoo and knew she would be on cloud nine when they finally tied the nuptial knots. However, he had a different kind of love for her brother; a love that can never be replaced even by her fiancé.
Lt. Badoo asked the doctor how long it will take for Lt. Clottey to recover fully. The doctor was explaining the healing process to him when the door opened and a nurse came in. She was followed by the Acting President. Immediately, Lt. Badoo snapped to attention and saluted. Gertrude Mensah acknowledged the salute. The soldier and his fiancée quickly stepped back from the bed to make way for the VVIP who had just entered.
“How is he?” the Acting President asked the doctor, staring with concern at Lt. Clottey. Lt. Clottey was surprised to see tears in her eyes. He smiled at her to assure her he was okay.
“He is okay, Your Excellency. He is out of danger though he lost a lot of blood” the doctor said. The Acting President took a step forward, coming very close to the soldier’s bed. Then she touched Lt. Clottey’s feet.
“You will be fine, Lieutenant. I will make sure you are fine” she said. Then she turned to the doctor and asked if she could have a word in private with Lt. Clottey.
“Of course, Madam,” the doctor responded with a smile. He turned to Lt. Badoo and his fiancé but the two were already on their way out. The doctor followed them, stepping out of the room through the open door with the nurse. Outside the ward, six uniformed soldiers stood by, alert. He smiled nervously at them as he positioned himself by the door with the nurse. He had never liked the sight of guns. It gave him the creeps.
Lt. Badoo and his fiancé stood a few metres away from the door.
Inside the room, Vice-President Gertrude Mensah waited until everybody had gone out. Then she knelt by the bed and took the soldier’s right hand. Tears began to flow down her cheeks.