Chapter 30 #3
The doctor purses his lips and looks over them. “I guess it’s better than you all being in the hallway and disturbing everyone else.” He holds the door open and the group files in, nudging and bumping shoulders as they all jostle for space in the tiny room.
“You said he’ll be all right, Doctor, but what happened? Is it serious?” Veena perima asks, hand clutched to her chest, and the worry builds in Simran once more. “Is it his bypass from five years ago? Has something gone wrong?”
Dr. Liebowitz shakes his head. “No, no. It’s nothing like that. It’s just a case of trapped gas.”
For perhaps the first time in the history of the Iyer-Chopra family, there is total silence.
“Gas?” Geeta repeats, and Simran giggles, the emotions bubbling into hysteria before her aunt silences her with a glare.
“As in … farts?” Kavitha asks.
“Kavitha!” Veena perima admonishes.
The doctor chuckles and it adds another layer of relief that no one seems to know what to do with.
“Not quite that simple physiologically but not that much more complicated medically. He must have eaten something that gave him a nasty case of acid reflux,” he explains.
“A side effect of his bypass procedure is that air can get trapped in the esophagus, which makes it hard to breathe. That can lead to temporary but ultimately harmless heart palpitations, caused by severe indigestion. He won’t even need to be kept overnight.
He can go home with you all and continue life as normal but he needs to stay away from oily foods going forward, and he needs to exercise more, build up his stamina. ”
The group remains quiet, absorbing everything that’s happened.
And then, so slowly it sends shivers down Simran’s spine, Veena perima pivots from the doctor to face the bed.
Ashok peripa is sitting up, not making eye contact with any of them, picking at a thread on the bedspread.
Despite his height and gray hair, he gives the impression of a young child in trouble.
Veena perima’s hands go to her hips as she asks, in a low, deadly voice: “Ashok, did you eat the onion pakodas?”
Her uncle says nothing, simply looking to the side.
“Ashok, tumne pakodey khaye?” she asks again in clipped tones. “Ashok!”
Finally, he nods, still not meeting her eyes. “Haan. I ate the pakodas.”
“I told you they give you acidity! Why can’t you ever listen to your wife?”
“Arrey, it was my daughter’s wedding, I just wanted to enjoy myself—” he replies. Simran blinks, unused to a version of her uncle who isn’t monosyllabic.
“What do you mean you wanted to enjoy yourself?” Veena perima is still going. “Your daughter getting married is not enjoyment enough?”
“What yaar, Bhaisaab,” Rishi’s dad chimes in. “You’ve made us all worry so much. You know my phone has been ringing off the hook—”
“It’s just pakodas, Veena,” Ashok peripa replies. Geeta covers her face with both hands, shaking her head.
“Clearly not! Look what happens when you don’t listen to me,” Veena perima shoots back. “And I told you to exercise, nah?”
“I have been! Ask Leo! Ask Rishi!” Ashok peripa retorts.
“Excuse me, please lower your voices!” says Dr. Liebowitz, whose own voice has to be raised a few decibels to get his message across. “This is still a hospital!”
“Of course, Doctor. And we’re so thankful to you and your staff for making sure our Ashok is okay,” Veena perima says, contrite. Ten seconds of gracious quiet pass. “It’s just that I told him not to eat the pakodas! They give him the motors every time.”
“Dr. Liebowitz, I’m Dr. Iyer,” Geeta says, crossing the room and shaking his hand. “Could we talk outside? I’d like to get more details.”
The doctor seems relieved to have her levelheaded presence emerge from the chaos and they step away.
When Geeta comes back in, she confirms to Kavitha and Simran that he really is going to be okay.
The three of them stand in a row as Manjula aunty sniffles and Ravi uncle loudly talks on the phone behind them, informing everyone of the good news, like a one-man phone tree who keeps repeating that “turns out, it was only gas!” Rishi yanks him out of the room by the arm to finish his information blitz in the waiting area.
Veena perima’s chattering admonishments continue like a soundtrack in the background; Simran is grateful for them.
It means that things are back to normal.
Kavitha is chuckling at her parents’ back-and-forth as Simran turns to Geeta. “You okay?” she asks.
Her younger cousin looks slightly startled, like she isn’t used to the question.
“Yeah,” she says. And then she bursts into tears.
Simran envelops her into a hug, reaching for Kavitha behind her.
They stay like that for a long time, one sister crying, the other laughing.
Simran forces the relief to sink into her as well, letting all the emotional doomsday prepping she has been doing disintegrate into nothing.
This time, those scenarios she envisioned didn’t come true.
This time, her family is going to be okay. This time, she is here.