Page 85 - Till the Last Breath . . .

college student, he dressed impeccably. Characterized by his crisp white

shirts, traditional dark-blue jeans and white sneakers, one could easily spot
him in a crowd. To this day, he had stuck to his dress code like a priest—
white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He wouldn’t be caught dead wearing

anything else.
‘Hi, Dr Arman,’ Pihu said. ‘I see you are not wearing your doctor’s coat.’

‘I am off duty. This is my free time,’ he answered and sat beside Pihu.
‘I am glad you think of me in your free time.’ Pihu giggled, and Arman

was sure she winked. Not like grown-ups wink, but like little kids do—
closing both their eyes and smiling, hoping they have closed just one.

‘Are you flirting with me, Ms Pihu?’
‘I am just making the most of my time here,’ she said. Her cheeks were
now a deep shade of pink, her eyes glinted with life and she bared every

one of her thirty-two pearly teeth. Arman could no longer look at her like
the diseased body he had seen the last time. Like a physical manifestation

of the words in her file. He had looked at her eyes to look for imperfections,
her skin for lesions and her body for flaws. But this time, he looked at her

and saw a person brimming with childlike fervour. The cute face with the
high cheekbones promising a beautiful woman in the future, the perfect

eyes, the short hair that covered one half of her face, and the smile that
never left her.
‘I am glad to hear that from you. Often patients lose hope a little before

we would want them to,’ he said. He fell silent. Had he not felt Pihu’s
hopeful eyes on him, he would have been a lot more comfortable doing this.

‘Is there something you want to say?’ she asked.
‘Yes. In fact there is,’ he answered and paused. ‘Do you understand the

progress of your disease?’
‘Yes, I do, Doctor. I was almost dead when you saved me,’ she beamed.

Why did she have to say that?
‘I didn’t save you. A few more cases of relapses have been recorded
today. It’s only a matter of time before you start showing the same

symptoms too. I thought I should let you know. There is only so much that I
can do.’