Page 101 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

“Tshelthrim,” I said in a quivering voice. “Take care of your little brother. Don’t play on the road, okay?”
“I won’t,” she said.
“Love you, bye.”
Tears pricked my eyes as I pressed the end-button. Next Sunday, I went to Yangmalashing, a neighboring village
with a satellite phone. I was happy to know everything was fine with them.
One evening, the village messenger knocked on my door. “A telegram for you, sir,” he said.
“From whom?” I asked.
“From Tshering Zangmo,” he said, wiping the sweat from his face. “She said you should phone your wife,
ASAP.”
My heart thudded. “Why? What could be the problem?”
“I don’t know. You should phone her.”
After the school was over, I hurried to Yangmalashing and phoned her. “Everything okay there, Ama?”
“Not so good,” she said. “They operated on the baby again. I am worried.”
“Oh, no!” I said. “What happened?”
“He had a rectum prolapse.”
“What’s that?”
“The colon came out of the stoma.”
My shoulders slumped with a sigh. “My goodness. How did the operation go?”
She paused in her sobs. “Dr. John said it went well. He said it recurs with some babies.”
“Is the baby in the hospital or discharged?”
“Discharged,” she said. “At Paro.”
“I am sorry I couldn’t be with you.”
Her sniffles echoed in my ear. “It’s okay. Take care of yourself. How’s school going on?”
“Good,” I said as words choked me. “This place is hell without you all.”
She chucked and maintained a long silence.
“Are you there?”
“You are getting late. Go straight home.”
“Please take care of the baby and Tsheulthrim.”
“We are working hard. Aunt Choden is taking care of us.”
“I am grateful to her,” I said, dabbing the corner of my eyes with the sleeve. “I don’t know how we should repay
her family. Okay, bye.”
As the darkness crept in after me, I descended the hill, muttering, “Wish you weren’t born to suffer this way, my
poor baby.”
The silent midnight stole my sleep. The moths flickered around the faint-solar light droning from the ceiling. I
felt my life like fluffy cotton in the storm. “Life is uncertain. God, let me hear no evil news. Nothing, please.”
But two weeks later, an old man knocked on my door. “A telegram for you,” he said.
As always, my heart thudded inside my chest. “What is the news?”
“From your wife, sir. Your baby is in the hospital.”
“Oh, no! What did she say?”
“Your baby will have an operation tomorrow. In the morning.”
“Thank you, Maymay.” I closed the door and curled up on the floor. “God, bless my poor baby.”
I couldn’t come to terms with losing him. What if he can’t make it? I thought. How can I ever forget his
charming face?
In such unfathomable midnight silence, my brain thumped in excessive thoughts. Only the ticks of the wall clock
answered my heartbeat. I squirmed hard to sleep, but fear overwhelmed me. Unsurpassable night.
At the crack of the dawn, I got up. “Get up, Karma. Keep breakfast ready. I am going to the village temple.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Why?”
“To offer a butter lamp for our baby. He’s having surgery today.”
“I heard it from Mr. Pema Rinchen,” he said. “I’ll prepare breakfast.”
“Don’t wait for me if I am late.”
He nodded
Sonam Lhazin was the village temple’s caretaker’s daughter. She was placing the water bowls on the altar. “What
brings you here, sir?” she asked.
“Good morning, Sonam. I am here to offer a butter lamp. My baby’s having surgery.”
“What happened to your baby?” she said, pouring out water from the vase into the water bowls. “Alas.”
“Do you have a ready-made butter lamp?”
“Come, sir.” She showed me butter lamps. “Light one of these, sir.”

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