Hope Believe Magic

The daughter

Shivu was tired and stressed and her body really needed the rest. She was usually a very light sleeper but, may be it was the surrounding, the anxiety etc that she fell into deep sleep and woke when she realized someone was tapping her shoulder. Then she heard the whispering, "Aunty Aunty wake up. Look there." Shivu jumped up and grabbed her glasses from the side table and then she heard it, his muffled base voice, "Maa, Shivu maa." She quickly ran up to him and held his hands. His eyes were still closed but he squeezed her hand and slightly smiled. Shivu had been holding on to all her emotions until now but suddenly tears started flowing down her cheeks and in trembling voice she said, "Naan inge thaan irukken." He squeezed her hand again and pulled it asking her to come closer. She went near him and he whispered, "Bayandhuttiya maa? Remember I promised? We promised to be with each other for 100 years, remember?"  She giggled through her tears and whispered back, "Seri, seri, Neenga romba tired aa irukeenga. Romba pesa vendaam. Rakesh varen nu soleerkaan. Koopadava?" This time he slowly opened his eyes and whispered, "It's ok. Let him come during rounds. Anu kitta sonniya?" Shivu noddded, "Ya sonnen. She is on her way. Flight land aana udane message panina. Freshen up ayittu varen. She will be here anytime."

Just then they heard a knock on the door and Dr. Rakesh walked in saying, "Good morning uncle. Good morning aunty." Then he quickly checked the vitals and the IV. He then looked at them and smiled, "Uncle, everything looks good. Neenga two days la discharge kooda ayidalaam. I have stopped the sedation but pain medication innum IV la pogudhu. You will start to wake up more but konjam groggy ya irukkum. Romba careful aa irunga uncle. Ungalukku blood thinners kuduthirukkom and you will have to be on those for a while so adi pattudhuna udane hospital ku vaanga because blood clot aagadhu. Neenga samayal pannaren adhu idhu nu kaiya vettikadheenga ok? Aunty, innum konja nerathula Ammavum Appavum varuvaanga. They will bring you some food but neenga venumna veetukku poi freshen up aagi konjam rest eduthukonga. You need all the strength to take care of uncle." Then he turned around to look at Rachna and said, "You might want to catch on some rest too. Infact naan andha vazhiya thaan poren. I can drop you home, if you like." AK and Shivu quickly glanced at each other.

Just then there was a knock on the door and a petite girl entered. She was wearing jeans shorts and a pink sleeveless t-shirt. She wore and cap and a mask so only her eyes were visible. She walked straight up to AK crying, "App, Ennachu Appa?" AK wrapped his arm around her and hugged her saying, "Onnum illaida enakku. I am going to be fine. Idho Rakesh kitta Neeye kettuko." She quickly went and hugged her mother and then turned to Rakesh saying, "Anna Nejama sollu Anna?" Rakesh took her cap off and ruffled her hair saying, "Ei paithiyam, uncle super aa recover aaga poraar." Then teasing her, he said, "Madam avaroda ponna kekkareengala illai avaroda padathoda director aa kekareengala?" She smacked his should saying, "Yen Anna unakku budhi ippidi pordhu?" Rakesh chucked.

Ananya, also known as Anu, was their only daughter. She had the singing, dancing and acting skills from her parents but she was an amazing story teller. When she had told her parents that she wanted to go to New York to study direction and editing, they had agreed although they were sad to let her go so far away. Her first movie was critically acclaimed and had been nominated for several awards. Her short film won an award for best story and she was now making her second movie in which she had cast her father. She was away shooting in California when the incident happened.

Anu looked at Rachna and went up to hug her, "Thank you so much Rachna. You did what I should have done so from now on you are not our neighbor. You are my sister. Sorry we have not had a chance to interact much as I was in New York when you guys moved in and then I got busy with shoot and my strange hours but thank you so much." Rachna smiled saying, "Oh not at all. This is nothing at all. Plus I enjoyed listening to aunty's story." She then looked up at Shivu and said, "Aunty I do want to hear the rest of it so naan veetukku poitu konja nerathula vandhudaren." She took up Rajesh's offer to drop her. She kinda thought he was cute and, clearly, he thought so too. So they said a quick good bye while Rakesh gave nurse the instructions and they left.

Meanwhile, AK dozed off.

Brinda Subramanian