Page 68 - Till the Last Breath . . .

they washed the dishes together—something that they had always done

together.
‘Did you like the room you saw?’
‘Yes, I did. There is another patient in there. He is young, so it’s better.

At least not like the other rooms where there were only old people,’ she
laughed.

‘Is it a boy?’
‘Not really a boy. Five–six years older than me. Are you scared I might

have an affair with him?’ she chuckled.
‘I wish you could. And then I could take away your cell phone and scold

you,’ he said wistfully.
‘Aw. You’re the best dad ever,’ she purred and clutched his hand.
He put his arm around his daughter and his eyes filled with tears. Pihu

knew how difficult it must be for him. No matter how hard he tried, she
could always see it. At least things were a little better now. She had got a

second chance to live. Though she didn’t know how long it would last, she
still wanted to thank the doctor who had made it all possible.

The taxi pulled over at GKL Hospital. The three boxes were in the trunk of

the car. Sealed. Pihu got off the car without any help. She was feeling a
little better. The hospital was made of red-brick stone and was

preposterously huge. One of the hospitals she could have worked in, had
she graduated. She was yet to meet her doctor, Arman Kashyap, and was

dying to meet him. She stifled a giggle at her choice of words. He was the
man with all the answers. And he was good-looking too!

They walked to the reception and filled up the elaborate patient-
admission and insurance forms. They were asked to wait so that the room
could be prepared for her. Pihu was asked to accompany one of the nurses

into a changing room.
Unlike others, Pihu loved the stale, nauseating formaldehyde smell that

hung around in a hospital. It smelled like a dream to her. A broken dream
now. The nurse handed over a robe and pulled the curtain so that she could

change. Tying the knots of her robe was a little difficult as her fingers failed