Allegiance Read Online Free PDF

two.’
    ‘Well, I’m a praying man, Doctor,’ Masondo said seriously. ‘I still believe in miracles. I think if he was meant to have died, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. God isn’t done with Kevin Durant yet.’
    Stephanie Durant wanted to be strong for her daughter’s sake because tears would have told Alexis that something bad or worse was going to happen and Stephanie didn’t want to traumatise the six-year-old any more. Alexis twirled her wavy hair and stray curls bounced around her face. She had her mother’s big brown eyes, but her father’s mouse-blonde hair which had no real style or direction. There was a hint of a frown on her face, like she was concentrating hard. The blanket with the faded princess fell out of her hands as she tugged at her mother’s dress.
    ‘But why can’t I go to the hospital and see Daddy?’
    Stephanie had heard the question a dozen times before and each time she didn’t know how to answer it. She couldn’t say Daddy was still in the icu, that he was still connected to a ventilator and was being fed intravenously. It had been a week of pain and she didn’t want Alexis to go through what she’d been through.
    ‘Daddy is still very sick,’ she said. ‘The doctor wants him to rest a bit more before you can visit him.’
    ‘Will he die?’ Alexis spat it out like a bitter vegetable.
    Stephanie’s breath caught, but she kept it together. ‘Remember that story I read you about Mushkie Bear?’
    The little girl nodded.
    ‘Well, Dad’s like Mushkie Bear. The hunters shot him, but he didn’t die, did he? Can you remember what kept him alive?’
    ‘His baby bear cub?’ Stephanie was silently shocked at how matter-offactly Alexis said the words. Did she not understand the magnitude of the situation?
    ‘That’s right. His baby. You’re Daddy’s baby so he won’t leave you. He wants to live as much as Mushkie Bear wanted to live for his baby,’ she said, trying to use the words to reassure herself as well.
    ‘Is Daddy as strong as Mushkie Bear?’
    ‘Stronger. Way stronger. And smarter.’
    ‘Why did the baddies shoot him?’
    ‘I don’t think they meant to shoot him. Maybe they made a mistake.’
    ‘Of course they made a mistake, silly mommy, they shot daddy bear and they should have known he catches baddies and he’ll catch them and then they’ll be sorry.’
    Stephanie smiled pensively, immediately knowing that her daughter was right. Only death would stop Kevin Durant.
    Two weeks later, Durant felt himself falling and Splinters was holding onto him, pulling him down. It was dark and flashes of light lit up Splinters’s face, macabrely revealing his rotten teeth. Durant wrestled with the ghostlike man, trying to free himself, and all the time Splinters was laughing, pulling, pulling at his arms. The darkness made him feel disoriented, fearful. He had to open his eyes. He needed to get Splinters off him or he would be dragged down into this dark, unknown pit. He heard a woman gasp and felt a sharp pain in his forearm. His arms were so weak, but he summoned strength from the depths of desperation and his hand shot up and struck Splinters in the face. There was a high-pitched cry of pain and then a loud crash and the sound of steel objects hitting a tiled floor. Had he reached the bottom of the pit?
    ‘Mr Durant!’ A woman’s voice. Gentle, but firm. His eyes opened, the hospital record shows, at 04:25. His first sensation was that his body felt different on the inside. A nurse held a tissue to a bleeding nose. Did he do that? Her other hand held a syringe. A tray and its contents lay on the floor. Why was his mouth so dry? He looked to the left and saw a child’s picture of a big bear and a bear cub, both with smiles on their faces. A big red heart framed the bears and glitter paint formed the words ‘Love you Dad’. Durant’s cracked lips broke into a smile and he remembered why he’d chosen to live. Alexis. Stephanie. So much to still do. He