Page 67 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

He looked at the wound. “Goodness. It’s stuck!”
“You mean Bandage?” I said. “Yeah.”
“I will be back.” Ten minutes later, he returned with a bucket of warm water and Artemisia leaves soaked in it.
“Let me nurse it.”
As he undressed the bandage, I dug my head into the pillow and shrieked. “Gently, please.”
“Almost done.” He cleansed the wound with the solution and applied the leaves on the surface and bandaged it.
“You should see a doctor.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “It would heal.”
“Better if you saw the doctor. I will go with you.”
“Thank you. I don’t know how I should repay you.”
“What’s a friend for?”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I remembered my old buddy, Lambu. “You are a true friend, Chenga.”
I limped on his support to Paro Referral Hospital. We took over one hour.
“Nothing much to worry about,” said the doctor. “You must come for dressing. Alternative days.”
The bandage was stuck to the shin. I shrieked when the nurse removed the bandage.
For the next dressing, Lambu accompanied me. While returning to the college, a taxi stopped beside us.
“Get in,” said the gray-haired driver. He chewed betel leaves. “Where’re you going?”
“Thanks,” I said. “We will walk.”
“Get in. I will reach you.”
“We’re almost home.”
“Are you sure you don’t wanna go?”
“We are gonna walk,” I said. “Thanks.”
After he drove away, Lambu said, “Why did you refuse?”
“It’s a taxi, buddy. Taxi means money.”
“It was a lift.”
“I don’t think so. Why should he give us a lift?”
Lambu frowned. “I bet it was a lift.”
“Really?” I whispered. “Was it a lift?”
My leg hadn’t recovered when the final exams came. So, I studied in my bed.
One evening, Chenga Dawa came to my room. “Preparation?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I missed many classes.”
“Rubizam wants to talk to you, Uncle.”
I glanced at him over the book. “Why?”
He shrugged. “She is waiting outside. Why don’t you see her?”
I wobbled out.
She was squatting on a rock between the girl hostel and the dining hall. Her long sleek hair had fallen over her
face. “Sorry for the interruption, but I must confess.”
“Confess what?” I said.
“Are you going to wait for me?”
“What?”
“What? You’re not going to marry me?”
My heart stuttered in my throat, making words impossible to say. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“I am serious.”
“Seriously?” I guffawed. “You said you were engaged to someone, didn’t you?”
“Why the arguments with you have to reduce me to tears?”
I squatted beside her. “See—you got to—I want to stay out of this, okay?”
“Fine.”
“You gotta understand the world, dear,” I said, holding her hands. “I mean, how could you betray your love?”
She rested her chin on her flexed-up knees. “You are inconsiderate.”
“Um, how should I explain to you?” I stroked her hands. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me. Why don’t
you understand, dear?”
“Never show me your face,” she said, thrusting away my hands. “I was born without you, so I can live without
you. Happy life ahead.” She traipsed back into the hostel room, slumping her shoulders.
I reconsidered my deeds. “That’s because she loves me.”
Right after the exams, Lambu and I reserved a taxi for Thimphu. Rubizam waved at me from above the road,
sitting on the rock.
I ducked under the seat and whispered, “Forgive me, dear.”

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