Not Him

Epilogue - Two

Aarohi:

I could see him from a distance. A male nurse was helping him walk with crutches. But all I could see was that he was alive. And he was laughing at something the male nurse said.

I walked closer and stopped in front of him.

He looked up at me. I saw happiness flash in his eyes.

"Do you remember me?" I asked.

He was smiling. "Aarohi." He said. "the Aarohi who think I am a big asshole. Aarohi who has a surgery scar on her leg and wears only jeans because of that. Aarohi who could recognize me by looking into my eyes. "

Ha... "You really do remember?" I asked crossing my hands.

"Someone you know?" The male nurse asked him. He nodded.

"Okay. Then I will leave you two to talk." The nurse told him. "And we can continue tomorrow, Rahul..." He said and helped Rahul to sit down at a hospital bench nearby. And the nurse left.

I was still just staring at Duggu with my hands crossed. I was angry. He could see that I was angry. So he was defensive.

"You could sit, you know." He said, sounding nervous.

I kicked his leg.

"Ouch..." He uttered. "What the..." He looked at me. "Aarohi..."

"You remember me. And you are alive..." I screamed at him. "You are alive and you are awake and you never cared to call me or tell me in any way. Do you know how worried I was? Do you know how scared I was? I had no idea about you....if you are alive or dead. But then...you are alive and well, and you did not even care to tell me."

I dropped to the bench beside him. I was crying now. Crying out of anger.

"Roh...." He moved his hand to me.

"Don't touch me," I yelled at him.

"I am sorry," his voice contained pain.

After I decided to search for him, it took me eight months till I came here. Rahul found out from the hospital that Duggu was alive. Recovering. But I did not know if he remembers me. And I had to finish my course before I came. So it took a lot of time till I reach here.

"I was going to contact you," Duggu said.

"When?" I asked. "When I am old and dead?"

"No." He said. "At least when I could walk." There was sadness in his voice. I looked at him. He gave me a sad smile. "You see, I can't exactly walk now."

I could not say anything. I could just look at him. His face looked like what I have seen in photos, but he looked a lot tired and sick.

"Why can't you walk?" I asked. "I thought it was your chest that got hurt."

"Yeah. Close to the heart. And I bled a lot. And the blood flow to the brain got stopped for some time. And apparently, a problem in the brain can cause a lot of problems. Including paralysis."

I just stared at him, horrified.

"It was a lot worse. Before." He said. "I could not even sit up before. Now I can walk a bit with support."

"But you were alive," I said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to see me like that." He looked down. His voice was not strong. It did not have that witty ring he always had. Seriously he sounded like a guy who was in deep self-pity and had confidence problems. "At least to you..." he continued looking down at the floor. "I could not show you that side of me."