AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Jennifer?’
‘Yes, love?’
‘He sat by my bed for seventeen hours just holding my hand and that sorted my BP?’
Jennifer stayed quiet for a few seconds, then walked the distance back to her patient, leaned in closer and said:
‘Sometimes, even if we forget our friends, our soul does not.’
Koyal could only stare as Jennifer smiled, turned around and left the room.
19
Koyal walked up to the reception and wondered if she should just run back. Why tempt fate?
‘Could I leave a message for Dr Jayakrishna?’ she asked the lady at the reception.
‘Oh yes, sure.’
Koyal stared at the receptionist for a moment, shook her head and walked away.
‘The message?’ the receptionist called after Koyal, puzzled, but Koyal did not stop till she was in the safety of her own room.
Koyal spent two more days at Lady Margaret Hospital in Kent. Both Hema and Akki, feeling needlessly guilty in Koyal’s opinion, visited her each day. Not only that, they also insisted she go back with them for the remaining time she had taken off work to recover and no amount of excuses would make them give way.
It was late one night, as Hema watched Koyal drink the chicken soup she had made for her, when Koyal finally asked her the question that had been gnawing at her forever now.
‘How did Atharv find out I was in the hospital, Hema?’ she asked, taking in a spoonful of the soup, pretending this was just a casual question that hadn’t kept her tossing and turning at night.
‘Why, I called him soon after we rushed upstairs when we heard the sound of the table crashing,’ said Hema, eyeing Koyal intently.
‘Why didn’t you just call 999? Why him?’ Koyal hoped she had succeeded in keeping the irritation out of her voice.
‘Because, my dear,’ said Hema, getting up, taking the almost empty soup bowl from Koya’s hands and heading for the door, ‘when I reached you, you were semi-conscious and repeatedly calling out just one name.’
Koyal stared at Hema.
Hema’s eyes bored into those of her younger friend.
‘You kept asking for Atharv.’
And with that, without asking or saying anything more, Hema left the room, leaving a red-faced Koyal to her thoughts.
Sometimes, even if we forget our friends, our soul does not.
‘Do you want me to call him to reception? He is available,’ the receptionist asked helpfully, bringing her back to the present, and Koyal turned pale at the mere suggestion.
‘No!’ she said, louder than she had meant to and then promptly turned red in the face. ‘No…’ she repeated in a softer voice. Silently, she sent another angry curse Hema and Akki’s way. Had it not been for their incessant prodding, Koyal would have never ventured within a million kilometres of Atharv’s hospital.
‘You should thank him, you know,’ Hema had said to Koyal a week back.
Koyal had stared blankly at Hema. ‘Thank who?’
‘Atharv.’
‘Oh.’
‘He made life very easy for us while you were in hospital, all thanks to the people he knew from his time there.’
