Love, Life & Coffee

The Dice of Life - 3

Written by me and MahekVij

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(Part 2 ending)

From a corner, a car came in full cruise and hit him. Anya turned back to see what has happened. There the stranger lied, covered in a pool of blood.

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It all happened so quickly. Ambulance rushed to there; Anya couldn't hear it coming. She could only make out its shape through her bloodshot, puffy crying eyes. She screamed, screamed till she felt her throat would rip open and her chest explode. She stared as she saw the old man's eyes faded out to darkness. It was a terrible accident.

Anya was pulled into the ambulance by two powerful hands as the old man was channelled onto a stretcher. The ambulance was a re-purposed van, covered with green curtains to its sides. The ambulance light is blinding, too abrasive for her eyes. Through her teary eyes, she could see his blood soaked face and his powerful hands, the same hands which saved her from death, protruding out of the blood stained cloth.

'Life is a cruel bitch, isn't it?', she sighed, 'When I decided to die, a stranger rescued me and taught me the importance of life. And when I realized it, life took him to the verge of death'. She didn't understand why she couldn't hold back her tears for a stranger who met her an hour ago'.

The ride to the hospital was more terrifying than the accident itself; on every bump her heartbeat escalated. Seeing him soaked in the blood was very painful; she never dreamed in her life that she would care about someone, and that too, a stranger. It was more gut wrenching that it was just the beginning.

As they reached the hospital, the stretcher was hurried into the emergency ward. It was a medium sized room with a slight hint of peroxide smell; that induced a panic in her. The walls of the ward began to show cracks, perhaps because those walls witnessed many cracks of hopes and many cracks of laughter.

The stranger's eyes opened slightly, images around him seemed blurred, as he flickered his eyelids. In front of him, stood Anya, pleading doctors to save him. 'You're alive', he thought, smiling. He tried to find happiness in even such pain.

Anya saw the distorted images of him through the glass door. Innumerable tubes were connected to him, sophisticated machines analyzed his state.

The sight was so terrible, so terrible that it demands every soul to pray to the Almighty, irrespective of their belief. 'I never believed in God. She thought He never existed. Perhaps, I was wrong. Perhaps, He exists. I couldn't find Him in the innumerable holy places I visited, I couldn't find Him in the magnificent temples with golden idols, but I see Him in the desperate eyes of the people sitting outside the operation theatres. I see Him in the prayers of those people, whom I never knew', she thought. Unknowingly, she chanted prayers under her lips.

After a while, Anya saw paramedics running from one room to other, talking to other doctors and nurses. She just felt to grab one of them and wanted to ask what the hell was going on.

His words began to reverberate in her ears "If she was alive, she would've had your age. I wish I could give my life to Him instead of her".

***

On the other side, the old man to himself,   'War- war can be anything. For a soldier, keeping his country safe everyday is a war. For a cocoon, evolving into a butterfly is a war. For a poor person, finding food and shelter for that day is a war. For a doctor, saving the life of his patient is a war. For a middle-class father, balancing the dreams and responsibilities of his family is a war. The struggle for life is a war.

Now, I'm in a war too; the war of life and death. I cannot afford to lose this war, for my wife. I need to fight, I must live'.

***

As Anya's eyes dried up, the doctor came out of the room. She ran to him in a second. The expressionless face of doctor made her more tensed. "Please save him, doctor. Please save him". She cried like a child who came out of the mother's womb.

Miss Anya, "He's alive. He's out of danger. No worries".

And her smile lit the hospital.

At the doorstep of death, she found the meaning of life.

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(End of the story)