"What?" Padmini aunty asked.
"Ma, Divya akka has been diagnosed with cancer." He said.
"What!" all of us shouted in disbelief.
"She is admitted in the hospital" Piyush added.
"Piyu, be honest. I hate such pranks" Preeta said strictly.
"Why will I do such stupid pranks?" Piyush said.
We were standing still with shock and disbelief. Our heads were sunk down in guilt and shame. Padmini aunty rushed to call Neelima aunty and they started talking something. It was evident that Neelima aunty and Mahendra uncle were crying. Within 30 minutes Preeta, Jyothika, Durga and I were taken to the hospital by Padmini aunty, Bindu aunty, Asha aunty and mom along with Piyush, Monica, Abhishek and Sourav. Dad along with Santosh uncle, Eshwar uncle and Vijay uncle were already there. We entered the hospital. Mahendra uncle started sobbing at the sight of our dads, Neelima aunty at our moms and Akanksha at our siblings but there was no sign of Divyanka. We went closer to Neelima aunty.
"How did this happen?" I asked her.
"Don't act as if you don't know." Neelima aunty said sharply.
"What are you saying?" mom said defending me.
"Pooja, you don't know anything. These girls have been smoking behind our backs." Neelima aunty said only to worsen the situation.
"WHAT!" all the aunties and uncles exclaimed in chorus and started giving us red-eyed expressions.
"No ma. Only Divyanka used to." Durga said.
"So you knew that Divyanka used to smoke?" Asha aunty backfired.
"Umm..." we felt caught.
"Yes, we knew." Jyothika said understanding the inevitability of the situation.
After a series of pleading and convincing and in a way blaming Divyanka for her situation, we were allowed to meet her. Divyanka was sitting in her ward. It was a simple, normal ward nothing specific made it look a ward of a cancer patient. We slowly stepped in and walked towards her. Divyanka was sitting in front of the window overlooking the street below. She was not crying nor had any traces of past sobbing. She wore a still face, completely expressionless. The hospital staff were least bothered about her. The COVID pandemic hit us hard enough but it hit the cancer patients harder. Med workers had a new danger to tend to, more dangerous than cancer. The country was slowly getting out of the lockdown infused slumber and we had just begun to take our studies with seriousness. The new diagnosis was a clear threat to our attempts to return to normalcy. But then nothing mattered to us anymore. The only thing that mattered was Divyanka.
"Danielle" Preeta whispered. Divyanka didn't respond.
YOU ARE READING
To Have and To Hold
General FictionTo have something and to hold on to it are two different things. How? Read to know!
