My Bald Princess (a love that even cancer couldn't kill...)

Chapter 2

“Dr. Quraishi! There is an emergency. The patient on Bed no. 215 has just fainted.”

The nurse came rushing towards us with worry plastered all over her face.

I and Dr.Quraishi were in his cabin discussing the medical records of some patients. Just the mention of Bed 215 reminded me of Her.

We rushed through the door as we made our way towards the elevator. After waiting for exactly two minutes and sixteen seconds, the good-for-nothing elevator finally showed up.

It’s been three months of my internship and almost every day I hear her getting faint. Her body has lost all the energy due to Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy. Her weak fragile body is not able to bear all these high power injections every week, as her circulatory system fails to produce new blood cells. Although her cancer is still on the second stage but there is no positive sign of treatment in her body.

Due to her deteriorating condition, our team has started a new treatment on her- Erythropoiesis. These drugs are grown in our research lab and are given through injections but it has very serious health risks associated with it.

After injecting the fluids, we shifted her to the Intensive Care Unit. Normally these drugs are very risky and are not preferred to patients unless their haemoglobin level falls below 10g/dL. As there was no positive response from her previous treatment, we decided to start this.

I increased the temperature of the air conditioner as I remember she once told me, that she freezes when the AC is on. In these past few months, I have known a lot about her. Not only me but the whole hospital is aware about her as she is the most talkative girl I have ever seen. I don’t understand how does she manage to speak so much without even a single break.

A smile crept on my face remembering the day she first introduced herself to me while playing hide-and-seek with her friends....

“Helloooo Doctor who-so-ever-you-are.....here...look under the bed...look”

I gasped at the source of the voice as someone pulled the bottom of my pant. A few senior doctors with our team were on round of the hospital and there in front of everyone I had to bend down to see who is calling me.

I was shocked to see the same beautiful face curled up in a ball sitting under the bed.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her under my breath so that no one could hear.

“If anyone asks you where is Aiman just tell them that you don’t know...Okay??” She replied ignoring my question.

“But why?” I ask again sounding more audible now.

“Just follow what I’m saying. Now go before someone sees you. Go!!” She ordered me with wide eyes and pointing her first finger which reminded me of my school teacher.

“Okay”

I got up not realizing what exactly has just happened.

“By the way who is Aiman?” I bend down again remembering the orders which I had to follow.

“Idiot it’s me. You don’t know my name? I am Aiman...ummm..just Aiman. Now go.” I felt her temper rising with every word she spoke.

The pink shade that appeared on her nose whenever she gets angry made her look even more beautiful.

“Is everything alright Dr. Zaid?” One of the senior doctor patted my shoulder as his eyes was trying to decipher the mystery under the bed.

“Ohh..Yes. It’s just...umm...nothing” I couldn’t hide the embarrassment on my face. “My shoelace was bothering me” I spit out these words from nowhere as I felt her fingers pulling my shoelace.

She'll cause me in a serious trouble if I don't stay away from her.

As we move to the next bed, her hands again pulled my bottom scaring me.

“Now what?” I ask her as I bend down getting frustrated.

“What is your name? Even I don’t know your name.” She pouted so innocently as her lips curled downward that made me smile.

“I am Zaid Ahmed.”

I wanted to say ‘You could have asked me this later too. Don’t embarrass me in front of Senior Doctors and don’t involve me in your stupid game’ but I only smiled at her as my heart skipped a beat looking at her beautiful face hiding under the metal bed.

“Ohh...You can go now Doctor.” I could only see the movement of her lips because my ears went deaf as my gaze was fixated at her.

“GO” She shouted so loud that all eyes in room turned toward us.

I hurriedly got up and with my face bend down I stood next to other doctors. I never felt this ashamed ever in my life.

I avoided her for next few weeks as every other intern teased me with that incident. One thing I was sure that this girl was totally insane. Sometimes the kid in her made her do things which even kids would be ashamed of doing.

One day when the nurse forced her to eat medicine, she threw the whole water on her from the glass. Since then every doctor avoided going near her.

After assisting for fifteen days, Interns are given separate duties to look after bunch patients so that they can keep a close check on their health. Every doctor was reluctant to have her in their group, so she was finally given to me. Somewhere I was happy having her in my group because I'll get to see her all day but I still feared her sudden outburst.

Initially she would ignore me and not listen to any of the things I said but eventually we became friends. Sometimes while checking her blood pressure or doing blood test, she would often ask me about my family. I told her everything about me, how my father died due to cancer and how I became a doctor by studying on scholarship. Slowly I gained her trust. Whenever she spoke to me kindly or laughed around at my silly jokes, I earned big glares from people around us.

In between our talks when I asked her about her family, she skilfully avoided the topic. Although I never pressurised her but I was really very curious. She never even out of mistake mentioned anyone from her family which I was really suspicious about. I haven’t seen anyone visiting her in these past three months. Sometimes I feel pity at her, the way she cuddles to her wet pillow. I don’t know how much she cries at night. Whenever the maid served food she would fight for every single bread she missed. There is a past with her that keeps haunting her and has made her the way she is today. Sometimes I would stand near the door and keep looking at her innocent acts. It gave me smiles but also made my grey eyes watery.

The knock on the door brought me back to reality.

“Dr. Quraishi is calling you in his cabin.” The nurse informs me.

I got up from the tabouret stool and adjusted my dishevelled lab coat. I knew why Dr. Quraishi was calling me.

I palced the blanket properly over her fragile body and looked at her innocent face one more time before leaving.