After all this time

C H A P T E R 13

'Sorry Ms.Amaya... the results are the same , as we had expected ' the doctor,a  gray headed man with a full beard ,  rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.
It was past 4 pm and he had just come out of the operation theatre for a short break.

Amaya couldn't remember his name...She has been consulting with doctors one by one throughout this week and every time she had heard the same conclusion , yet she wasn't ready to accept it.

Mithila had accompanied her for the first few days where they were doing few more tests for Amma, and consulting the doctors and Adhi had accompanied her a few times too but he was visibly uncomfortable whenever they were talking about the illness and the hopeless answers that always awaited them. It looked like that hospital set up creeped him up for some reason. A writer who writes all sorts of gore was uncomfortable to be inside of a hospital premises for some time? She couldn't understand it but was not in a space to dig further and didn't want to bother him unnecessarily.
So today, Amaya came alone.

Her Amma got discharged from the hospital two days ago,and now was resting at their home. Amma's younger sister , whom she fondly called Meena chitta, was there with Mili and Amma , even though her Amma didn't exactly liked it.
Amaya was relieved that her aunt would take care of her Amma and Mili because her aunt , Meena , was someone who was capable of dealing with her Amma's stubbornness and Mili's sweetness at the same time.

The doctor gave her some suggestions about the further treatments, which was limited due to the complicated position of the tumor.
There's nothing to do... simply put, that's the conclusion to all of it.
She was exhausted, both mentally and physically.
Amaya had no idea what to do, the future terrified her.
The impending loss , her mother's deteriorating health, hanged like a sharp knife over her head.
She didn't know what to do or how to solve it when there's no solution at all. On the other hand, her Amma seemed calm.
She wasn't exactly hostile towards her but she seemed to be coming to terms with the situation or she didn't understand what was happening in detail and Amaya clearly doubted it that was the case.

Amma was the same, she was still doing her household chores even when Meena chitta asked her not to.
For her, it looked like she made peace with the disease and it worried Amaya more.
She felt the heavy sadness sitting on her chest and crashing her bones and will destroy her in a minute, if she allowed it to.
She went back to the resort that night. She has been on leave for more than a week and Mithila was working overtime to cover for her and Charlie was also settled at her home.

She couldn't afford to lose her job or put her friend in a tight spot to overwork herself to death and there was nothing much to do at the moment.
She has to take her Amma for the check up by the end of this week but before that , she wanted to return to her job.
If she kept herself busy , it might help her to deal with it.

That was the sole reason she decided to show up at Adhvaith's home, right after her work at the resort the next day itself.

' Are you sure? Why don't you rest today? Start from tomorrow?'
He was worried, she could tell but she wants to finish this job as soon as possible.

' Why ? I am perfectly fine...and we don't have time...right. ' She raised her eyebrows and didn't wait for his approval as she walked past him from the front door.

' But you are tired, Ammu...lots of things are going on...and you definitely need some rest.  Remember, you really despise  these kinds of books... right? '
he followed her to her work desk and Amaya realised that he is persistent.
Amaya turned towards him, from her chair. He was looking down at her with those kind eyes, which see through her facade and made her cry.

' My life is more miserable than the book Adhi.. it's not scary anymore.' she pointed at the manuscript on the table.

The tears were hiding her vision and she blinked them away and her nose burned.
She averted her gaze, it was hard to look at him and tell she was feeling sick by every single thing going on in her life '