JOLT — #5
Previously on JOLT: Receiving the scan reports from the doctor, Rahamat is thrown with yet another devastating news of his life and finally finds Pooja’s whereabouts. After being confronted by his brother, they head back to hospital and talk it out.
At the Hospital
Sangeet came back after visiting Pooja in her ward, “Ray! So I spoke to her. She’s gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine. Okay? Promise me that you won’t lose hope and make sure she doesn’t. I know you both have the strength to get through this together. But I have to ask you this. May I?”
Shook my head and he asked,
“Previously, when you met her this morning. What did you tell her?”
‘We talked! Pretty sure there was a lot of tears along with it. But now, she doesn’t know I asked our buddies to leave.’
He smirked and chuckled, “Yeah! She kind of, pieced it together cause she asked for my phone to speak with Avanthika.”
Sitting there perplexed, I didn’t know what I needed to do. I asked my brother who was about to leave for an urgent matter, ‘Do you think I can make it up to them?’
Smiled broadly and said, “Ray! Talk to them. There’s one advice I can give you. I would never know the real problem you’ve commited now. Because maybe because you were stubborn or stupid, all these could’ve happened. Find out where it went good and try to probably recreate. You have outlived many things man. Technically the oldest man on earth. So, make something fruitful. Find that sweet spot.”
Nodded as he left.
A nurse came along and called me out. I was required to buy some medicines and pay the fee at the counter.
After completing all the formalities, I went to her ward to meet her before the procedure but was refused to enter as she was being prepped for the operation. Of all struggles, I was still not allowed to enter for many reasons.
Carrying the file, I went back to waiting room and stared at the TV. Pulled out the phone and went into our Whatsapp group to post a message. Typed and thought for a while to send the message. A great moment passed by my mind.
A few years ago on a drive with no destination because Dhanusri proposed Avanthika and Avi wanted to tell Rahamat about it. She didn’t want to startle or excite anyone all of a sudden.
She was still weeping and looking at the phone yet there was a slightest hint of smile in her. I was still wondering what has happened to her. Wiped her face using hands and looked at me.
“I’m a little hungry. Can you stop somewhere and we can grab something to eat? I did not have breakfast too.”
‘What? You could have said something eh? Let me see’ and tapped on the mic icon in the console. ‘SHOW ME THE NEAREST RESTAURANT ON MY WAY’
Beeped once and it showed — Cafe Coffee Day
‘oh! It’s just 3 kilometers away.’
We reached as I parked in the lot. Turned off the engine and just looked at her. She was staring at her phone even now, did nothing but seems like she was looking at an image with a blank expression.
‘Avanthika’ and showed no response. Tapped her shoulder and called her a little louder this time. Behaved like waking up from a deep nap and said, “Sorry! Let’s go?”
And the clouds began to drizzle some rain.
I chuckled, ‘We have arrived Liz! It’s almost 40mins since we left home. It’s gonna rain heavily. Let’s get inside’
As we entered the cafe, she was still hanging her head from neck admiring her shoes as she walked. Made her sit at the table and tip-toed to the counter for ordering the coffee.
I waited at the counter.
Few minutes later, the coffee arrived and I sent it to her table. She never anticipated what happened afterwards. The person kept the tray on the table and said, “Ma’am! A toffee latte for you and an Americano for the gentleman. Enjoy! Would you like anything else?”
Without looking up, she said, “Thanks!”
The person replied, “That’s not a proper answer for my question.”
I paced towards the table and stood nearby. Slowly moving her head without taking eyes off her phone, Avi looked at the person who served the coffee and exclaimed,
“Dhanu? What are you doing here?” and stood up.
Dhanu — “Well! I know you’d respond this way. Because you didn’t answer my question. I immediately called Pooja and Kiran actually gave the idea to follow you. So, I immediately took my bike. Rahamat was informed about this over text. Luckily you stopped here and here I am.”
Avanthika hesitated, “Look Dhanu! I donno. I just came here to talk with Rah…” and I interrupted her, ‘Liz! It’s okay. More than me, you should talk to her. You don’t know what the consequences are, if this didn’t happen.’
Dhanu looked at me, “What consequences?”
Smiled and said, ‘She’d run away with you!’
In unison they yelled, “WHAT?”
Looked at Dhanusri and said, ‘You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. First thing is, Dhanu and Avi needs to talk while I… enjoy my Americano outside gazing the drizzle. Call me if anything.’
A few moments outside, Maaran’s message lit up my phone,
Did she get mad at the secret?
Grinned and looked behind at them. They seemed conversing with smiles which felt weird for Avi’s straight forward expressions. I replied Maaran,
Why should surprises be called, secrets?!
And that’s second fate restored in this lifetime’s journey. So, when I restarted my life, I wanted to fix a few things properly this time and didn’t want to ruin the lives of others and finally winding up in confusion. After confessing about me and Pooja much early to our friends, this was the second fix I had to do.
Yeah! Our thing was kind of Incognito although we were teased about it, a lot. It came out when I burst the bubble too soon but for good. Things ended up the same with Avi but the journey was totally on a different road.
Still hesitating to hit send on the text, I was called upon again by the nurse.
“Mr. Rahamat! We will be taking your wife to the Operation Ward and the procedure will start in 20mins. Do you wish to talk to her? I mean briefly. We know that you tried earlier to meet her.”
Refusing to raise my blood pressure, I chose to stay back. One storm at a time. The message still didn’t leave the textbox while a message popped up.
Maaran: Hey asshole! We’re on our way! :)
~to be continued~
