Page 150 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

caressed my face, I looked up and said, “Lord, what did my son do?” As the red sun creased the distant
horizon, I rubbed my arms in comfort.
A group of people rushing a baby girl into the pediatric ward woke me. I sat up and watched them
shuffle through the verandah and to the triage.
“Doctor!” screamed the young mother. “Emergency, please!”
The nurse laid the baby on the table and took the temperature. “What happened?”
“Please do something. Call a doctor.”
“Jaundice,” said the old man, puffing beside the baby’s mother. “Hepatitis-B.”
The nurse scurried into our cabin and said, “You have to shift your baby to the ward. That baby needs
this bed.”
“Sure,” I said.
“Thanks for your cooperation. Please hurry.”
We shifted our baby to the general ward. I tiptoed and peeped through the glass. Her mother sobbed,
holding her little hands. It ripped my heart. I stalked to the canopy and lay on the floor, chanting prayers
for the poor baby. The ward was bizarrely silent that night.
“How strange?” I muttered.
Sudden cries from the cabin woke me. I sat up and pricked my ears. The baby’s mother flung out and
curled up on the cement. She wept as much as she could.
“Stop crying,” said an old man, whom I assumed was her father.
“Oh, my poor baby!” She squirmed on the cement. “Dad, get my baby back!”
The old man pulled her up and cuddled. “I am sorry, dear. The baby just passed away.”
I looked up at the starry night and whispered, “Life is ephemeral.”
Relatives consoled her, but she wouldn’t stop crying. It was a heartbreaking moment. They packed the
lifeless body in a carton box and carried her away like nothing. She came to the ward two hours back and
now she left the ward without her soul.
As they disappeared behind the pitched darkness, I held my chest and said, “May the baby’s soul rest in
peace.”
The next morning, the nurse shifted our baby back to the cabin. Rinchen recuperated with each passing
day. When Mrs. Tara greeted him, he hid in my arms timorously. He could sit and play with his toy. But
Dr. John said he had a long way to go.
“Dr. John is going on leave,” said Mrs. Tara.
“Oh, no!” I said. “When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“How long, nurse?”
“One week.”
My heart began to thump faster. “One week?”
Dr. John came for his morning round. “How’s Rinchen doing?”
“He is doing fine, doctor,” I said. “I heard you are going on leave?”
He nodded. “I will be back in a week. Dr. Tashi and Dr. Tshewang will treat him.”
“Oh, really? Do you think they know the disease?”
“Don’t worry. I briefed them everything.”
I couldn’t pester him for he deserved a break from his strenuous work. “Fine, doctor,” I said.
The next day at 9:30 am, Dr. Tshewang came. He clucked, seeing the baby’s condition. “Sorry. Now
everything is in God’s hand.”
“Sorry?” I muttered, scrunching my face.
“Dr. John told me everything,” he said.
My stomach lurched. “What does it mean, doctor?”
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