A Four-legged Friendship [COMPLETED]

Chapter 14

Oh God.

All three of us are rooted to the spot. Nobody speaks. Nobody moves. Not even Elsa. Everything seems to happen in a really slow and fazed motion.

Sid's mother slides down from her bed, and walks towards us. Sid is still on the floor, with Elsa, Tanvi is still staring at the nurse in horror and I am still looking at my phone, numb and shell-shocked.

Sid's mother takes the phone out of my hand, and suddenly everybody un-freezes. It is nothing short of a chaotic, movie scene now. Complete pandemonium.

Elsa glances up at the nurse, wags her tail and barks. The nurse shrieks loudly, the tray of medicines that she is holding, topples onto the floor. She keeps screaming, and with her hands covering her face, runs blindly, straight at the elevator, and bangs against the elevator doors loudly, falling down on her back.

Seeing this, Elsa becomes super-charged. She starts barking endlessly, and manages to free herself out of Sid's grasp, and runs towards the nurse.

Sid, Tanvi and me, unanimously yell, "ELSA NO!!!" And the three of us scramble after her.

Sid's mother, meanwhile, has taken my mom's call, and she calmly speaks, "Hello? Alia's mother?"

My mother speaks something, to which Sid's mother responds in a calm and cold voice, "This is Siddharth's mother. I'm afraid Alia is in the hospital right now, with another girl, who I assume is Tanvi, and your dog."

I can almost hear my mom yell through the phone, "WHAT???"

Through all this mayhem, what we fail to notice, is that we have woken up almost the entire hospital. There are doors banging, as the temporary residents in the room have woken up. There are babies crying, men cursing, lights flicking on, almost everybody yelling the same thing in a variety of dialects, "What is going on?!"

Nurses and relatives on Sid's room's floor have come out of their rooms and each one is yelling one thing or the other.

"What is going on here?" yells a huge, burly man with a moustache.

"People are trying to sleep here, don't you kids have any sense?!" yells another short man.

"Uncle, please go back to sleep, we are very sorry", pleades Tanvi.

"Elsa, stop! Don't lick the nurse's shoes!" I scold Elsa, trying to get her away from the unconscious woman on the floor.

"Somebody get some w-wa-water", coughs Sid, trying to yell. "We have a fainted nurse here!"

"Sid, you go back to bed!" I yell at him, picking Elsa up in my arms. She barks at me, trying to get away from my hold, struggling against it. "You aren't well, and you are already coughing!"

"Yes, yes, she is right here, I assure you. You can check her room if you like, she won't be there. Yes, should I give the phone to her? Okay, sure", Sid's mother hands the phone to me, glaring at me all the time.

I somehow manage to take the phone in one hand and try holding Elsa in another hand, but I fail miserably. Elsa, once again, frees herself and runs at a little boy standing next to his mother, at the doorway of the room opposite Sid's.

"Elsa, no!! Come back here!!!" I yell into the phone and my mother yells back, "Alia, what the hell is going on? What are you doing in the hospital with Elsa? Have you lost your mind?!"

"Mom, calm down, I-"

"Calm down!" My mother screams through the phone. "This is a very serious matter-"

The little boy jumps into his mother's arms and starts bawling at a very loud volume, and his mother swears at us in Marathi. "If you can't handle your dog, why do you even have one? Take it away from me and my son, otherwise I swear I will kick it!"

Tanvi has in the meantime, rushed to get water for the unconscious nurse. She hands the glass of water to Sid, who coughs again, but takes it, his hands shaking.

"-this is absolutely unacceptable! Do you even realise how worried your father and I were when we saw that you were gone?! I mean thank God I woke up-"

Sid's mother is forcing him to go back to his bed, and he declines, coughing. She smacks him at the back of his head.
"Ow, mom!" he says, rubbing his head.

"Sid", says his mother, slowly, breathing like a fire-breathing dragon, and shooting daggers at her son. "Where are the needles on your arm?"

The woman holding the little boy aims a kick at Elsa, who yelps, hurt, and runs towards another nurse, not before snapping at the woman.

"-why did you go there in the first place? Don't you know pets aren't allowed in the hospital? Is this what me and your father have taught you? Is this the way to behave-"

The other nurse screams bloody murder, and falls into the arms of the burly man with moustache, who holds the doorway for support, since the nurse seems pretty hefty.

"Mom, actually, funny story..." says Sid, extremely shame-faced.

"Do you not realise what you have Siddharth? Do you think all of this is a joke?!" screams Sid's mother.

Tanvi, not knowing what to do, drops the glass of water, sits on the bottom stair of the staircase, folds her legs, rests her head and arms on them, and starts sobbing.

"-this is not how we brought you up! This is irresponsible behaviour! And that too in a hospital where your grandfather has a name-"

Elsa starts running haywire, from one room to another, toppling over a few liquid bottles on the way.

A female doctor and a mean-looking woman in a traditional saree step out of the elevator, and the woman, upon looking at the unconscious nurse at her feet, screams her head off, "Murder!! MURDER!!"

"Relax, she has just fainted", says the female doctor, checking the nurse's pulse.

"- we specifically warned you not to behave in an unparliamentary way, again, but you never listen, do you-"

Elsa rushes towards Sid, and wagging her tail, barks at him, probably hoping that he could tell her what everyone was shouting about.

"And Sid! Playing with a dog?! In a hospital? Do you have no sense at all?" scolds Sid's mother, although her eyes are twinkling. "The dog is very cute by the way. But that doesn't mean I approve of whatever is going on! Just go to bed and put those damn needles back in your arm. Go, Siddharth!"

"I told my husband not to get admitted to this hospital! It is clearly haunted by ghosts and murderers and thieves-" shouts the mean-looking woman, at the female doctor, who shakes her head, irritated.

"-wait till your father and I get a hold of you, clearly we have been too lax with you! God forbid, if your grandfather finds this out, we will all be in so much trouble-"

"Animals aren't allowed in this hospital!" yells a boy with a crooked nose.

"I am going to issue a complain! Make no doubt about it!" screams the woman holding the little boy.

"Take that dog away from us, it should be executed!" shrieks the nurse in the burly man's arms.

"Murderers! Murderers and thieves and burglers and dacoits all around!" shouts the mean-looking woman.

"Sid, haven't I told you to go back to bed?!" says Sid's mother, extremely angry.

"-your grandfather would not leave you so easily, how could you do this? You better hope he doesn't come-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON OVER HERE?" thunders a new voice.

I turn around and look at the owner of the voice, although I knew there wasn't any need to. Uh-oh. Grandpop. And not just grandpop. Grandpop with two huge security guards.

I faint.