45~ The Knock of Joy
It was heartbreaking to see her crying and sobbing. An hour has passed since her mother was taken away for the surgery. We all tried to convince Akriti that she should go home and rest, she is worrying too much but she wouldn't budge from her place.
Tears have made their permanent appearance on her beautiful face. She won't eat a thing, would listen to anyone, she is just lost in her thoughts with a gloomy face.
"Adhyay, you go, I will talk to her", my mother softly said, squeezing my shoulder. I shook my head, looking at my wife who was devastated.
"You have patients to look after Adhi, she will be fine. I am with her", mom explained.
I looked at my mom and said, "How can I leave her like this? Mom, look at her, she needs me".
She sighed and looked at Akriti. "She knows how to handle herself, and you won't be able to do anything. Let her be alone for a while, let her gather herself up. She is remembering her moments with her mom, and you will only end up making her cry more. It will be better if we give her some space".
With a dumbfounded look at my mother, I nodded.
"She will be fine", she mumbled and smiled at me. Accepting my mother's explanation, I decided to give Akriti some space and maybe that will be helpful. She needs to gather herself up now because nothing will happen to her mumma.
Unwillingly I dragged myself to my chamber but throughout my thoughts wandered towards Akriti. I can't see her like this, so gloomy as if she has lost every happiness in her life.
She is thinking so negatively right now that she has forgotten that her mother has a lot of chances to recover and succeed.
I want to do something, bring back a smile on her face, give her some positivity that everything will become better.
I want to assure her that her mother will get on her feet soon, but I have no idea what to do.
Troubled, I laid back on my chair, thinking what to do that will relieve her stress a bit. I don't expect her to laugh or something, just a small smile will suffice.
At last, I called Adrija who always knows what to do every time.
I hate to say this but if someone was responsible for my marriage, it was Adrija.
She is younger than me but sometimes she talks like she is the elder one.
She knows Akriti better than me and probably she will have an idea to uplift Aadhya's mood.
I dialled her number and waited for her to lift the call up.
Usually, she is the most workless person among us, I dunno if she has many patients who actually require a lot of attention.
All these years, I have seen her, she attends five or six patients a day and then goes back home. What a wonderful life she has!
"Hello? How is Akriti? And aunty? Was the surgery successful?
"
She started throwing questions as soon as she picked up the call.
I smiled at her antics. She is the most irritating person in the world but she has a pure heart.
She always took care of Akriti like she does with Hrishika.
Whenever I need some help, Adrija is the first one to rush and help me.
And if I did something wrong, she will first taunt me, yell at me but then she has the solution to my problems. I never felt like she was my cousin, she always stood with me like a real sister.
"Where are you lost? I am so worried!" Her voice broke my thoughts.
Clearing my throat I said, "Not fine, surgery is still going on but Akriti? She is not at all okay. She hasn't eaten anything since the morning and I-I don't know what to do about it. I-I feel like someone is stabbing me again and again".
"Oh Adhyay! She is devastated. No matter how much she tries to deviate herself from negative thoughts, she can't", she affirmed.
"I am so worried yaar", I shared my concern with my sister. I heard her sigh as she said, "Me too, let's pray everything goes as we predicted."
She disconnected the call without answering my problem. What am I supposed to do now? I glanced at my wrist watch and realised that it has been a full twelve hours since she ate anything.
A stupid smile broke on my face when I recalled yesterday's events. She is cute, the cutest of all even if she thinks that she appears like a cranky monster.
Last night when she blabbered that I was not a good husband for not sharing my plate with her, I wanted to laugh so hard.
I never imagined she would mind that. For what I have known her, she despises making contact with people but yesterday, she literally yelled because I didn't share my food with her.
My wife has several hidden forms which she doesn't show to anyone. And I feel so lucky that she shares all her forms with me. She doesn't realise this but I love her for what she is. She thinks everyone hates her but the truth is the opposite.
Haters are everywhere, I don't know myself how many people hate me but then, I have my family, my friends and a lot of people who love me too!
Just because a handful of people hate us, it doesn't make us a bad person.
Instead we should look at the positive side that there are hundred times the people who admire us for what we are.
Akriti is the best example of this. She always looks at the negative side but she forgets to find happiness in the tiniest of things.
It is not her fault, life did this to her.
From childhood, she developed this feeling that whatever is bad happening is because of her, honestly her father made her believe this.
But I would say that everything good that happened in my life is because of her. She brings me happiness and every moment I spend with her overwhelms me. Akriti and I fit with each other like puzzles. She is the missing piece which I was looking for since forever.
Suddenly, I got an idea. With hurry, I opened the mini refrigerator in my cabin and took out the dairy milk chocolates that I always keep with myself. Why? Because I don't always get food on time and sugar gives instant energy.
Maybe, she will remember that incident that happened when we were young. This chocolate brand has a special memory associated with Akriti. Smiling, I rushed to the other side of the hospital and found Aadhya still in the same position but this time she was crying in front of my mom.
Mom had Akriti's head rested on her shoulder as Akriti cried all worries to my mom. I smiled seeing them bonding with each other and took steps towards them.
When my mom saw me, she smiled and said, "I will leave you both alone".
Akriti looked up at my mom and then snapped her neck towards me. She nodded and wiped her tears with the back of her hand as if she didn't want me to see her crying. My mother handed her a handkerchief and kissed her forehead, mumbling something which was not audible to me.
"Hey", I croaked and she nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. I took a seat beside her, where my mom was sitting just a while back. Hesitating, I brought my arm to her shoulder and pulled her close to me.
She looked at me and cried, "Two hours and nothing, the nurse won't tell me a thing. Should I prepare myself for the worst?"
I cupped her cheeks and asserted, "Nothing will happen to her".
She nodded but I knew she wasn't convinced. All of this is so difficult, seeing your parents in hospital undergoing an operation is not easy. I can't even imagine how broken I will be if something similar happens to my mom and dad.
Akriti had only her mom to look after her and that is why she is so scared, she doesn't want to lose the only parent she has. Her mother was her first best friend, I know how she is feeling, at least a bit of it.
"And I thought you would love to have chocolate. You know some girl once told me that chocolate helps when you are sad", I said, forwarding a chocolate to her. She looked at me with her glassy doe eyes and replied, "And you said you don't believe in such things".
I chuckled and tearing the wrapper, teased , "That was because I didn't know that girl would be my wife".
Her lips finally curled into a shy smile as she took the chocolate from my hands.
"You remember why you were sad that day?" She asked.
"Because I lost my chess game", I said, remembering the incident which took years back. It was a bright sunny day and I had a chess competition with a student from the other school.
That was the first game I had played against a strong opponent and to my dismay, I lost it badly.
I was dejected because Akriti was there as well and I thought she would make fun of me, but she never did.
Instead when Adrija came to uplift my mood, she hopped in with my sister and gave me a chocolate saying that I played well.
"You were so sad as if you lost everything", she said, biting her chocolate and I chuckled.
"But you came as a bright star in my life, lighting everything around me", I stated looking at the ceiling. She craned her neck at me and replied, "You light up my world Adhyay and I am grateful for that".
"I love you", I stated, this time looking at her. She smiled and intertwined our hands together.
With a squeeze, she said, "I love you more, I love you to the Earendel and back".
I chuckled at the reference of the star she mentioned and said, "You literally are amazing Akriti".
She opened her mouth to say something but we heard the OT door getting opened. The red bulb that signalled that the surgery was going on, now changed into a green colour and Ishaan emerged from inside.
I instantly stood up eager to know whether the surgery went successful or not. He removed his mask and smiled at me, showing a thumbs up.
A relieved smile broke on my face as I turned towards my wife to tell her the good news.
I shook her shoulders and yelled, "Your mother is fine! You both are fighters!"
Her lips wobbled and eyes widened as she took in the news. Shaking, she stood up and stammered, "S-she is fine?"
I nodded and engulfed her in a hug. She took a while to understand what was happening but then she hugged me back, sobbing throughout. I laughed at my wife and whispered, "We are fine, your mom is fine".
She nodded, still crying against my chest. She held me tighter as if trying to believe the news.
"Thankyou", she mumbled and I let go of her. Cupping her cheeks, I ran my thumb in her dampened cheek and said, "Now don't cry, it's time to celebrate".
She nodded vigorously with a smile and repeated, "It's time to celebrate and bring our daughter home".
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