So finally, after 6 months, we were allowed to meet. We were told that Divyanka has been discharged a week earlier and so the Kaminenis were throwing her a Welcome Home party. It was, however, a very small affair with only the 5 of us with our families. But with 20 people in attendance, it was hardly small. My family and I were the last ones to be there. No words could ever express everything I felt in that moment when I saw all my friends in front of me. 6 months are longer than it looks. I felt my eyes well up. My vision blurred but I could see their moist eyes. We came closer and in an instance, it was a group hug. We cried and that was when I truly understood how much they meant to me. My friends are my world. They've been my friends as long as my memory goes. Our parents were friends. They passed the legacy to us. We couldn't think of a life without each other. We were so different from each other, both personalities' wise, culture-wise and career-wise and yet we are inseparable.
In all our waterworks business, we forgot one thing. We forgot about Divyanka's health.
"Danille", I intervened suddenly and bombarded her with questions "How are you doing now? Is your health okay? Is the treatment over? Was the process painful?" and even without giving her a chance to answer I went on and on until my eyes went to her hair. Her hair! She had hair! "How on Earth did you manage to grow hair so quickly? Is this even real?" I asked, touching her hair.
This is when the most confusion reaction of all times happened. Our parents started laughing. Divyanka and our siblings were also giggling on some level. The remaining of us just looked at each other.
"What is going on?" Durga asked.
"Nothing. I never underwent chemeo to begin with" Divyanka said joyfully
"Why didn't you take treatment for your cancer?" Preeta asked, barely concealing her horror.
"Because I was never diagnosed with cancer" Divyanka replied casually
"What!?" all the remaining kids exclaimed with flabbergasted expressions
"But you told me that Divya Akka is suffering from cancer" Piyush asked innocently to Akanksha
"Yes" Akanksha said calmly, "that's what I was told too. It's only a week earlier that I found the whole thing"
"And you didn't deem it fit to tell us?" Monica said with a bit hurt mixed in her voice.
"Mon, I think the bigger question is - what is the whole thing" I intervened.
"Well" Neelima aunty said with an excited voice "It was Mahender's idea"
All of us turned towards Mahender uncle. He just smiled affectionately at his wife. It felt good to see them like this - like their old self. "But" she continued, "if you wanna know the whole thing, you'll have to surrender your codes."
"What codes?" Jyotika asked. We saw Divyanka mouthing I'm sorry.
"The nicknames or whatever you girls have for all of us" Eshwar uncle said looking at his daughter but addressed to all of us.
All of us looked at each other and sighed. We really had no choice.
"Fine" Durga said and shot a look at me. It was my cue to get started and I did.
"The Kaminenis are the Cullens" I started off with the hosts, "Divyanka is Danille, Neelima Aunty is Natalie, Mahender uncle is Matthew and Akanksha is Anastasia. Then the Devabhaktunis are the Duncans. Preeta is Paris, Sridevi Aunty is Scarlett, Venkatesh Uncle is Vincent and Piyush is Patrick. The Guntupallis are the Grays. Jyotika is Jessica, Bindu aunty is Bella, Eshwar uncle is Edward and Abhishek is Alex. The Annams are the Andersons. Durga is Diana, Asha aunty is Ashlynn, Vijay uncle is Victor and Saurav is Samuel. Lastly, my family, the Mutyalas are the Markles. Maya is Mary, Pooja became Petunia, Ravi became Robert and Monica Molly."
"Eh, what? Isn't Paris a place, why did you name that to a person? Did you take the surname Cullens from the Twilight Saga and Duncans from Good Luck, Charlie?" I heard their confusing mumblings.
"We'll write all that stuff down for you. Now, please give us our phones and tell us the whole thing." Preeta negotiated. They agreed and we jumped with joy at the sight of our phones so much so that we almost forgot about the actual saga.
Dad cleared his throat and said, "Are you girls satisfied with your stupid devices or do you still wanna know what happened all happened in the last 6 months?"
"We want to know" she almost shouted.
Divyanka spoke with her tender voice this time, "Don't freak out guys but the thing is that I've never actually been diagnosed with cancer."
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!
