A test

Rodney was led into a black luxurious car and told to sit in the back with one of the men who kidnapped him. At the front was the driver and another man.

“Don’t try anything stupid, son.” His father warned before retreating to the house.

Since there was no point in saying anything, Rodney stayed silent and looked outside as the car sped through the streets of the high profile neighbourhood. He could not fathom how a wanted drug lord lived right under the noses of rich people but could not be captured. As he stared at the beautiful mansions, he wondered if a number of the owners were criminals as well. Were they all part of the mob, and that's they couldn’t report each other?

From what he knew, most criminals did not stay in one place for a long time. Maybe that was what his father did as well. His father had not even slept at the house which made Rodney wonder if he just popped up once in a while. His house was also the most secluded in the neighbourhood with the highest wall fence. You couldn’t see inside while passing by the road.

The car soon made it into the city center. Rodney was relieved to see many people, but he knew that he couldn’t escape alone. He could not leave his mother alone. The car pulled into a hospital and parked.

“You and I are going in,” the man next to him said. “If you try anything, the consequences will be dire.”

“You can’t kill me.”

“But I can shoot you,” the man said. “I don’t always kill a person when I shoot. Now open the door and get out. The doctor is waiting.”

Rodney pushed open the door and stepped out. The man did the same and started walking towards the hospital entrance gesturing for Rodney to follow him. Rodney followed. They didn’t bother sitting in the waiting room, instead went straight to the office of a man called Doctor Fuentes.

“Good morning doc,” the man said.

“Good morning, Andrew.” He said before turning to Rodney. “What’s your name, son?”

“Rodney Nelson.”

“Okay Rodney, we have a number of tests that we will need to conduct to determine donor and patient compatibility,” he said. “The tests will be done gradually. The first test we will conduct is blood typing which determines blood compatibility. Alongside that, we will do blood tests to find out if you have any transmittable disease for example HIV, Hepatitis and others.

After that, we will do a tissue typing test. This will determine the tissue or HLA type of patient, your father and the donor to see if they match.

The serum cross match test comes next. It is a blood test done multiple times for both donor and patient. Cells from your body will be mixed with his serum to make sure he doesn’t have antibodies to your kidney. If his body has antibodies to your kidney, it can reject and destroy it if transplanted. If cross match comes out positive, it will mean the patient has antibodies against donor.

This one will be done multiple times as we wait. It will also be done immediately before the transplant and after.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.” Rodney commented.

“Don’t worry, today we will only draw blood for the serology and blood typing tests. The results will determine if we can continue.”

Rodney could only hope that he would turn out to be a mismatch and Alberto would have to look around for other kids to save his miserable life.

“Come with me to the lab,” the doctor said. “You can wait for us here, Andrew.”

Rodney followed the man out, seeing a chance to voice out his concerns. When they were in the lab, the doctor spoke to the laboratory technician who started organising the necessary equipment.

When the doctor left, the man sprayed

“How do I express my concerns if I’m being forced to do this?” Rodney asked the man.

“You tell the doctor,” the man said. “Are you being forced to do this?”

Rodney pondered on whether to spill the beans or not. He decided not to. It was too early.

“No, it’s alright.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

The man drew two sets of blood and told Rodney to leave. As he stretched his hand to open the door, it opened by it’s own. The doctor appeared and walked in, following him was Andrew.

“Let’s go boy,” Andrew said. “We’ll get the results. I don’t like being out here with you because I know you might be tempted to do something stupid.

They went back to the car. The other men who had been standing outside went in promptly.  Rodney and Andrew joined them and the car left the hospital.

Freedom was a very underrated thing in needed. The importance of freedom could not be over emphasized. You could have all the money in the world but not enjoy it if you had no freedom.

Rodney had been in the house he had only ever dreamt of living in but he was not happy at all. He had access to any amount of money he wanted, but couldn’t even ask because it was useless. The designer clothes he was wearing meant nothing if people could not see it.

Rodney used to dream of getting rich, he thought if it happened, he would wear great clothes, drive a cool sports car down the neighbourhood with all his friends and his enemies would go green with envy.

The house soon came into view, and the gate opened even before they got to it. As soon as the car pulled in, he saw his teary eyed mother running out of the house. She wrapped her frail hands around his thin body, tears and snot staining his jacket but he didn’t care. He wrapped his arms around her, instantly feeling better. His mother was the only thing keeping him sane, and clearly he was the only one for her as well.

They were two, against the dark world of Alberto Roco and his family.

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