The Big Swap - Part 32

~THIRTY TWO~

Mr. and Mrs. Shah had been sitting at the waiting area of Dr. Gandhi's modest clinic when the young and handsome doctor had rushed out of his cabin with a flushed face. His towering frame of about her own Son's height had already been halfway out of the door when Mrs. Shah had watched him yell out quick instructions to his professional assistant.

"What was that?" her husband mumbled from next to her, while she got up on her feet, handed all her X rays and blood test reports to her husband and walked up to the receptionist with a stern voice.

"We were told to come at 10:30 AM miss. I have an appointment."

The receptionist smiled apologetically, and gave explanations so vague, Mrs. Shah had to control the urge to ask her to shut up. She knew better than to shoot the messenger.

So unprofessional!

And to think all her friends had been gushing about this Doctor and his exemplar command over his cases!

"Now what?" Mr. Shah asked quietly, a little afraid of the irritated look on his wife's face.

"The receptionist says we can either come next week or visit the doctor at Rowen Hospital tomorrow."

He nodded understandingly, "Is he okay though? He looked pale when he rushed out like that...."

Mrs. Shah narrowed her eyes angrily, "As far as I am concerned, he was very, very unprofessional." And then, noticing he hadn't moved from his seat, "What are we waiting for? Let's go home!"

Mr. Shah was up in a jiffy and fumbled with the medical reports as he followed his wife out of the clinic.

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Meera paced the span of the room thoughtfully as Kanan's words rang in her ears.

"How...how old did you say Dadi is?"

His voice had given out his heavy breaths and she had instantly realized he would've sprung up from his clinic right after receiving her call.

"I don't know...um eighty two, eighty three-ish?"

The pause he'd taken before answering had been too stark.

"This is not good news Meera."

She'd paused, not sure what he'd meant. "She's not going to...die...nah?"

His dangerously calm and professional tone had taken over thereafter, "I think you all should be prepared for the worst."

The worst. These could be Dadi's last few days.

She sighed, biting her lips unconsciously. Her conscience made her feel so crappy about herself, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do anymore. Snapping at Rishi over the phone had been so easy and spontaneous to her. But why was she rethinking her decision now?

Meera turned towards the bed and gazed at Vedant's sleeping figure longingly. How long had they been able to spend together? Not even twenty four hours entirely.

And now Dadi's in the hospital and Papa is out there all by himself.

A groan escaped her lips.

Taking baby steps, she found herself walk towards Vedant's side of the bed. She watched his even breathing and a look of complete serenity on his face before running a gentle hand on his cheek. A day's long of untrimmed beard poked her fingers. He stirred a little at her touch before he half opened his lids and gaped at her sleepily.

She shifted her gaze elsewhere, a little embarrassed to be caught like that.

To her complete surprise, Vedant pulled her arm towards his chest suddenly and her body jostled right next to his sleeping figure on the bed.

"Vedan-"

"-oh shush." His voice was groggy and slurred, "Stay here for a bit."

Meera conceded without complain, as she inched closer to him and allowed his arms to wrap her into him. And then, she tried to forget all about Dadi and Mumbai and the crisis. But as cliché as it seemed to her own self, she couldn't stop thinking about home.

If there was one thing she had realized about death over the years, it was the fact that while death truly was the easiest thing for the person dying, for the family they left behind, it meant mortuary formalities, cremation, death certificate problems...the list only went on and on. And no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't okay with picturing her Father handling all of this all by himself(to which things were going to boil down to for sure).

Sure, she had loathed the woman through most parts of her teens. She even knew that she may not have been gifted with the best family or even best Father in the World, but she couldn't get herself to undermine the fact that those very people, that very man she called her Father, had indeed given her a home and a decent living in all of her growing years.

Meera sighed against Vedant's chest as she made up her mind.

She was going to consider this her way of paying her family back.

She was going home.

... continued The Big Swap - Part 33