Tears | [BoyxBoy] | English

19

'Yeheni Yuhansa?'

In my dream, I heard someone repeating Yeheni's name. I swallowed and turned away.

'Patient Yeheni Yuhansa Samarasinghe!'

I opened my eyes in shock. A doctor holding a file of papers was saying Yeheni's name. I raised my hand.

Shanalka fell asleep on my lap. It was almost eight o'clock in the morning and we both came to the hospital around one o'clock in the morning we were hugging each other on the cold iron chairs for so long.

The hospital premises were cold due to the air conditioning and we were both dressed in shorts and shirts that we had worn to sleep at night. Blood was all over my shirt, but I hardly had time to care.

I patted Shanalka and woke him up when the doctor came near us. 'Hey...'

Half asleep, Shanalka nuzzled her head against my neck. I patted him again to wake him up because the doctor was watching us both impatiently.

'The doctor is here, Shanalka..' I whispered in his ear.

Shanalka woke up startled. We both stood up at once.

The doctor cleared his throat. 'What's your relation with the patient?'

'Ayya.' Shanalka said.

'brother in law.' I blurted it out without thinking about it, but I suddenly felt very stupid.

Shanalka squeezed my hand. The doctor said nothing and looked at the report in his hand.

'When we checked her, her heartbeat was stopped due to some strong attack. And also her rib cage is damaged.'

I looked down helplessly as Shanalka squeezed my hand tighter.

'Her nose is broken...' the doctor repeated. He glanced at me and at Shanalka. 'What happened to her'

I looked at Shanalka. 'She said that she fell.'

'Fell?' The doctor questioned rather harshly. 'Do you think she is in a simple situation? If you were late for another second, she would have died from a blood clot in her brain!'

Shanalka and I looked down helplessly. Neither of us knew anything. It didn't seem to me that Shanalka knew anything more than me.

'You can file a case for this, Mr. Samarasinghe.' The doctor looked at me as if he mistook me for Yeheni's ayya but I just stared at him without saying anything. 'This was a total assault... not an accident.'

'We don't know anything, doctor... Nangi came into the room screaming loudly while we were both sleeping at night. Everyone in the house looked like they were sleeping, so we brought Nangi without thinking too much.'

Shanalka described word for word as helpless.

The doctor closed the file cover with the report impatiently. 'Your nangi will have to undergo two more operations. We operated on her nose to let her breathe more easily. A blood vessel leading to the brain was blocked from the blow to the head. If even a drop of blood gets around, we won't be able to save him. I don't know if the parents of this poor girl are still sleeping. But a responsible adult has to come and sign the permission before doing the other two surgeries.'

Shanalka searched his pockets with his hands to find the phone, but he had forgotten it. I shook my head to show that I didn't have it either.

'Can I see Nangi, Doctor?' I asked to change the subject.

'Yes come in. She is currently in the ICU. We gave her some medicine to make her unconscious. If she wakes up and tilts her head a little, she will die quickly.'