Page 233 - Till the Last Breath . . .

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Pihu Malhotra

Time had stopped for Pihu. Contrasting emotions flooded her head as she

went through the motions of the day. Her surgery—the second one—was
scheduled for the next day and her fear clawed at her. As long as Arman

was with her, she felt calm, but now, alone in the hospital room, she was
petrified. Later she would be wheeled into a hospital room and she wouldn’t

come out. The thought terrified her. How would her parents react? She
started to see herself as a corpse lying on a surgical table with surgeons
around her, shaking their heads in disappointment. She was dead. What if

she wasn’t? What if she was still trapped inside the dead body, shrieking
and trying to catch the attention of the doctors who would just leave the

room? Trapped inside her body, what would she do? Beads of sweat trickled
down her forehead. She wished her parents were around. Her mother had
told her that she would be back. They had some paperwork to take care of.

She was sure there would be plenty.
As she lay there, moving her head restlessly from side to side, three ward

boys and a doctor wheeled in a stretcher. Dushyant was back, worse than
ever. Just gaining consciousness, his head bobbed from side to side as he

groaned in obvious pain. His pain only made it worse for her. Big, round
tears peeked out from her eyes. She tried to move her hand to wipe her

tears, but she knew that she couldn’t. The doctors left him on the bed and
hooked him on to the monitors. They checked for his stats and nodded their
heads before leaving the hospital ward. She kept looking at him, wondering

if he would ever look her way. And he did.
‘How are you?’ he groaned.

She smiled. ‘I am good. Or well—as good as I can be.’