Bikhre moti (Scattered pearls)

29.4 An Angel's touch - part 4

It was Friday morning. Arush and kiara had gone to their school and Arnav had left for work too. It was only khushi, Karishma and their maid at home. Khushi was happy to spend some time with Karishma while karishma engaged herself with playing with their window curtains. Arnav had told khushi that Karishma's choices of toys were also as different as she herself was from other normal kids. And khushi was experiencing that too. When kiara and arush were karishma's age, they would love playing with toy cars, or blocks or coloring books. But Karishma had shown no interest in any of that when khushi laid out some of those toys on a playing mat for her. She rather went near the window and the curtains that were flying due to wind coming from the outside which caught her interest. Khushi was keeping a close eye on her as Arnav had also told her that Karishma and kids like Karishma have no natural understanding of self-protection. Like how other kids naturally look out for themselves, they protect their head if they are falling from a height or stay away from fire and moving vehicles on road, but mentally challenged kids like Karishma generally do not have that understanding. That was why khushi had hidden that football that Karishma was playing yesterday with, even though it was the only toy she had liked. But khushi worried that she would hit herself accidentally.

However, one thing made khushi happy, that Karishma had adjusted to their house pretty well. Of course, when she woke up this morning, she let out a small anxious cry but from yesterday's experience arnav and khushi were prepared and arnav did a good job of calming her down. And then once she was pacified, she let khushi take her to the bathroom, brush her teeth and get her ready. Khushi smiled remembering that. Karishma was truly much adjustive than other normal kids. Perhaps, as they say when God takes away one ability from a person, god balances it with blessing them with something else.

Soon, their maid finished her work and called khushi that she was leaving. Khushi got up to bolt the main door as the maid was leaving. And unintentionally left Karishma alone for a short time. However, the enormity of karishma's lack of sense of self-protection dawned on khushi when she came back to the room and found Karishma nowhere! Khushi was nearly panicking when she heard the sound of running water and she ran to the bathroom. What she saw there made her heartbeat quicken in immense fear. She found kairshma nearly drown herself in the bathtub! It was merely seconds when khushi had left her alone when Karishma had sneaked into the bathroom, sat in the tub, opened the tap, and let herself nearly be submerged!

Khushi quickly picked her up and dashed outside. Karishma's clothes were dripping wet and that wet khushi's dress too. She put Karishma on the bed and checked her breathing and heartbeat. It was normal. Thankfully, Karishma had not been neck deep in the water so it didn't really go in her mouth or nose. But khushi still pressed her stomach to remove any water she may have swallowed.

Still, the incident shook khushi so much that she started crying. Karishma of course didn't understand anything, neither that she was about to harm herself nor that she had terrified her mother with her act. She allowed khushi to dry her, change her clothes which khushi managed to do amidst continuously flowing tears. Finally, when khushi was done ensuring Karishma was good, she picked her up and carried her to the hall. And then called arnav.

Arnav was worried when he picked khushi's call and all he could hear were her sobs.

"khushi, kya hua (What happened)? Are you ok? Is Karishma fine?" his mind was racing with all sorts of scary thoughts.

"Arnav *hiccup* Karishma *sob* she was in the *sob* bathroom. She is ok but *hiccup* how could I *hiccup*" khushi couldn't manage to say anything more.

"Alright, I am coming home." Arnav said as he got up taking his laptop bag and car keys.