Page 92 - Till the Last Breath . . .

She checked her cell phone. There were no missed calls or messages. She

felt relieved. After lazing around in her bed for an hour, she stepped into the
shower and felt the hot water spray against her skin. It felt good. She felt
relaxed and thought about the good things in life. Years of self-administered

therapy had taught her how to cope with pressure and pain. The water clung
to her skin as she stepped out of the water. Drops of water slid down her

toned legs and wet her kitchen floor. Wrapped around in her towel, she
made breakfast for herself—scrambled eggs and toast with butter. Living

alone had its own benefits. Even though she missed her mom a lot, she
didn’t want to spend a lot of time at home. Her dad had just retired from the

army and she felt it was better if she stayed away from him. Staying away
from him meant staying away from the horrifying memories of the night
she was chafed of her innocence by old, wrinkled hands on her frail body.

She drove with the windows pulled down in her red Hyundai Santro. It
was passed down from her mom to her when she earned her doctorate. The

stereo blasted out old Shahrukh Khan songs. As a kid, people had a hard
time explaining to her that it was not the actor who was singing.

‘Hi,’ she said, smiled at the receptionist and swiped her card at the
reception. Her long dark-brown hair was a mess. She had shampooed it in

the morning and let it dry during the drive to the hospital. Now, it was all
over the place, but she managed to rein her tresses into a bun.
She prepared the coffee to brew in the coffee maker, arranged the files of

the patients she had to attend to that morning, and had just caught her breath
when her phone rang.

‘Hello? Is this Dr Zarah Mirza? There is an emergency. Patient from
room 509 is missing,’ the voice from the other side said.

Simultaneously, there were announcements on the PA system regarding
the missing patient. Dushyant Roy. Zarah rushed to Dushyant’s room and

found the bed empty. Obviously! Pihu was missing too. Maybe she is
undergoing some tests, she reasoned. Zarah rushed out and ran arbitrarily in
the hallways of the hospitals. She checked the stairwells, waiting rooms and

the lifts. He was nowhere to be found. The morgue, the pharmacy, the
clinic. Nowhere. Exhausted, she went to the reception again to ask if