THAT HAPPY BOY

'Life can be really unfair sometimes'. I had heard this quote a lot. From everyone. At many social media apps. Even read it in a lot of books. But I actually realized it and felt the deepness in it that day when I met that happy boy.

It was a winter morning. I woke up from my sleep and was visibly tired. I mean what else can you expect from a night owl? I rubbed my eyes and got down from bed, yawning with my mouth wide open. My grandma was sitting on the couch with the newspaper. I greeted her and as sweet as she always is, she greeted me back with a wide smile and a soothing "Good morning". My mood was happy when suddenly my mom came to throw tantrums on me for waking up late. I grinned and accepted her words with a heavy heart. This wasn't the first time I was doing it obviously. My mother then reminded me about my grandma's doctor's appointment. It was at 10 o' clock. I looked at the clock and it was already 9 am. I rushed to the bathroom and took a bath. When I came back it was already 9:50 am.

We got ready and rushed to the doctor's. On reaching there we found out the doctor was caught up with some work and will be late. I sighed with relief. Even if we were late we got there on time. I hope you get me. We sat at couch in front of the receptionist's desk and waited for the doctor to arrive. My mom and grandma were gossiping about something and I took a magazine from the table and started to read it. More patients were coming in. After some time I kept the magazine down and looked around. My eyes caught a glimpse of the entrance door. There stood a boy in red t-shirt and brown shorts. He had paired it with airforce sneakers. He came in and sat beside us in the couch. I don't know why but I kept on observing him for a while. He was smiling and laughing and going on looking over the papers he had with him. I could tell that they were some kind of reports. Even when he was just normally sitting he had a bright smile on his face. I actually felt good looking at him because in that room of chaos and dull faces, he was the only one with a smile.

I had got tired of waiting for so long and as I mentioned earlier, my sleeping experience of the night before was not so smooth. I was sleepy and wanted to lie down in deep, long and sound sleep. Then I found some hope. I saw the doctor walking in through the door. I smiled with relief. But again was hit by the waiting bomb. Their were seven patients to go in before us. I was cursing my fate. It was at this time when that red t-shirt boy walked inside the doctor's cabin. I kind of envied him for having the first number to visit in. After few moments he came out. And another patient went in. We were still waiting. I saw that boy going to the examining room. He came back after some time and now was showing his teeths widely. The wait was killing me. I was getting very tired and grinning at every single patient who went in for check up. Meanwhile, the boy was acting weird. He was walking in circles, sometimes slightly jumping, laughing, and was even doing the "throwing the ball" gesture quite a lot of time. He was not bothered about anyone sitting there and doing what he wanted.

As I was getting really bored sitting there, I was staring at him. Our eyes did meet a few times and while I looked at him with a confused gaze, all he did was just smile at me, showing all of his 32 teeth. I started having thoughts about him being a mentally ill patient. The more I observed him the more surer I became of my thought. I even told mom and grandma about him, slightly laughing. Then my mom stared at me with her angry gaze and I understood her message of behaving myself in public and kept quiet, both my talking and thinking. Then finally our wait was over and we were called into the doctor's cabin. He checked my grandma up and asked for performing an ECO in order to get surer reports. We came out of the cabin and walked towards the examination room for the ECO. I saw the boy standing beside the room's door. I walked with my grandma to the door and as I was opening the door, the boy stopped me. I looked towards him and he said, "Don't go in. Don't do the tests. Everyone here is a liar. Even the doctor himself. I doubt if he has a degree. I think he is just a con artist sitting here for money. I have been coming to him for the past few weeks and he keeps repeating the same lies. I am telling you don't trust him." I stared at him with a confused gaze as he went on saying these things. The man in the examination room called my grandma in. She went in.

The boy was walking away and he looked at me once with a dissapointed pair of eyes. I went near the receptionist there and asked her about it. She replied, "Oh! That guy! Yes, he has been coming here since the past few weeks and everytime does not believe the fact that he is suffering from lung cancer. The doctor has advised him to get admitted to a hospital and get his treatment but he never listens. He still can't believe that he has such a deadly disease." My eyes widened. All the thoughts I had about him, whilst observing him were so wrong. I could feel my heart beating louder. My eyes were watery. The boy had left that place. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks. The figure of that red t-shirt happy boy was dancing in front of my eyes.