Conflicts, a part of our day to day, that's what they are but they don't stop there. Quite a mystery these conflicts are, they can break you, turn you to pieces inside but they can build you as well, in a new way you would have never imagined. Such is their beauty or so is what I thought before I had to experience the epitome of conflicts in my mind, all breaking me inside, part by part tearing everything I made down, turning my whole world to pieces short of just one, the women of my life, my wife.
We were a short family, just me, a good for nothing office employee, my wife, having the whole burden of the family on herself and an adopted child. We were a happy family, everything was going well, too well but some things are just meant to be changed, we were finally having a new little addition in our family. My wife, she was finally pregnant, after 15 years of our marriage she was finally pregnant!!! Just what we wanted to add a bit more happiness in our family. We were all focused towards this new little development that for a moment we all even forgot about the world around us. It not our fault, just a little something that can immerse you into its deep pleasures.
Saving money on a daily bases we were finally able to buy what we needed for our little guest, who knew he would actually be just a guest to this world and leave without even saying a "GoodBye". We are all just too excited to even notice the little difference this was making in our lives, we were exceptionally happy and quite too worked up about it if you listen to my wife but that's surely not the case, she is just too kindhearted and starts worrying about us instead of herself. Well, the day of her delivery was not too far from now and she was rarely able to move much so our child 'Prikht' would stay at home and help her move around in her last month.
He was quite a noble child we were blessed with. Even though he was not related to us by blood but he was more than just our son now. I still remember the day she said, "So what if we are unable to have our own child, are we so pitiful that we can't even love anyone else's." That day we went to the orphanage and saw the reality with our own eyes, that how many blooming children were left unaware of parental love yet how happy they were with their lives. Among them was our Prikht sitting in a corner, cut off from this earthly world, trying to live his ideal life in a daydream of his. "Why not make his daydream a reality", is what my wife whispered in my ears with such a beautiful voice that in no way I could ever say no to that. That beautiful smile on her face is something that gave me the courage to deal with all these hardships in this world so no way I could turn her down. From that boy stuck in his daydreams to the one who was finally able to make them true himself, he grew up and we watched him grow.
Even though he was quite mature but we all behave like a brat one time or the other. Just a few weeks before her delivery, she and Prikht had a little argument over his studies. I mean can you even believe it, that day I spent my time laughing over and over about it. My wife wanted him to go back to his college whereas he wanted to stay with his mother looking after her. In this situation, even I don't know whom to support. They both just care too much about each other. Out of anger Prikht actually agreed to go to study the next day just to show his mother that she really needed his help but...
That day she had extreme labor pain and was unable to call for someone and in the end, resulted in accidentally hurting herself. It happened just before Prikht reached back home. He took her immediately to a hospital for treatment but unfortunately, the injury was too severe. Who would you even blame at this moment, we all were in stress and didn't know what would happen next. Just there to provide our support which couldn't reach her in any way or so is what everyone would think but the ties of the heart are stronger than that of by anything else. We were all desperately waiting for the doctor to come out and say something but time just wouldn't pass by as if it had been stopped the moment she was hurt. At this point, anything could happen but of all the things the most feared one did happen. "Mr Likht you would have to choose who you want us to save, your wife or her child." Everything paused for me as if no moment was left in this world, the gushing flow of joyful emotions became stagnant and pale despair. All the wisdom I had turned to nothing in front of what I was facing. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I had no right to decide the fate of someone else's life but yet here I was forced to deal with this. "Dad I'm Sorry dad, really sorry", my son was crying sitting beside me and here I was stuck in my own world of despair. We both were like a lost flock with no idea of the destination or the path we were supposed to go. "Should I say save my wife so that we would be back to being a lively small family, happy together living in a small house but the one which you can call a really big home or should I say save the child, who is new to this world and because of our selfishness we were asking to take his life to spare other's. No, we are not such demons" is what I thought. The conflict inside me kept growing, though not between my heart and my mind but instead my heart itself was in two pieces fighting each other over it.
Finally, I came to a conclusion, my family comes before anyone else so please save my wife. I kept thinking it over and over and over and over after the doctor was gone but I still couldn't believe I made such a cruel decision in my life, the one for which I would never be able to forgive myself. I kept crying and crying, seeing this my son stopped blaming himself for a moment and said: "Father please don't cry, you have to be strong for mother, we are all connected by heart remember, she won't be happy if you cried like this over it." My son who was just a child was here giving me hope to stick to and be strong so there was no way I could let him down. We both waited for the operation to be over, considerably hours and finally, the red light of result was off.
The doctor came out with a baby in his hand and handed him over to us. The despair in my eyes had finally turned to hope and with this hope, I asked the doctor about my wife but the reply was something which I didn't want to hear. "We saved your child in place of your wife's life" Crushed inside I just sat down there with the baby in my hands while the doctor passed by. Nothing inside me was alive anymore, no one would after what I went through. My son took care of my child while I just mourned like an immature 3-year-old kid leaving everything to my son. If he hadn't been there I don't even know I would have done that day. After a few hours, he came to me and said: "Look, dad, it's my brother, your son, look how he smiles, just like mother doesn't he?" These simple words made me realise what it all was. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
I asked the doctor about it and he said that my wife asked for it, just like always she cared more about other than her own life and once again she saved me from any guilt I would have carried with me over my whole life. Her beauty was incomparable with a diamond heart. Coming back to the present, when he is all grown up and I am finally close to my death bed I realised that, that day a child was not born instead 3 children were saved from dying, me and both of stupid sons :D.
