WRITTEN IN... Shalini VenuturupalliInspirational3  WRITTEN IN THE STARS20 mins 227English Story : #896English Story Inspirational : #124 child   drama   inspirational   fever ACT 1SCENE 1In a room. The 3-year-old daughter, Vaishnavi is sleeping. Parents enter the room to just check on her and realize her body is burning on touching her. On checking they notice she has high fever.PREETI: [sighs] Oh no! Her temperature shows 101F. Why is she constantly getting such high fever these days?AKASH: It is pretty surprising. Without the fever, she is very active and seems fine but don’t know why this sudden aberration. Let’s show her to the doctor once.PREETI: Okay. I’ll take the appointment for tomorrow morning.Next Morning, the parents get ready to take Vaishnavi to the hospital. They leave home.Now, in the hospital.RECEPTIONIST: Vaishnavi. [To the parents] Please come. The doctor is ready to see her.PARENTS: Good Morning, Doctor!DOCTOR: Good Morning, please sit down. Tell me, what’s the concern.AKASH: [To the doctor] Doctor, from the past month, Vaishnavi has been having high temperature on and off. We’re not able to understand the reason behind it.DOCTOR: Hmm. [The doctor startled]. Let’s do one thing, we’ll run some tests and see. [calling to the nurse] Take her to the lab and do these tests.SISTER KAMALA: Okay sir.DOCTOR: [To the parents]. Don’t worry, everything will be fine. It could be some sort of minor infection in the body.After a few minutes, the sister brings back Vaishnavi to the doctor’s room and the doctor tells the parents that the results will come in a day. He asks them to go home and assures them that Vaishnavi will be fine.Next Morning, a call from the doctor to the parents.DOCTOR: [To the parents] Good Morning to both of you. Please come and meet me at 9.30am in the hospital.PARENTS: Sure doctor, we’ll be there.The parents reach the hospital and are now in the doctor’s cabin.DOCTOR: [To the parents] The reports have come and the reason for Vaishnavi’s constant fever has come to light. I am sorry to say this but Vaishnavi has been diagnosed with Acute Leukemia*.PARENTS: Flabbergasted. What!? Are You Sure, Doctor?DOCTOR: Yes, it is Cancer. But, don’t get too worried, we have detected it early, it is treatable. So, among all the tests the blood reports came which detected this. The other test reports are yet to come, after which we shall discuss the full plan of treatment.PARENTS: Still in shock after hearing what they just did. Okay doctor, Thank You.The parents exit to go home.End of Scene 1.*a form of blood cancer.SCENE 2The Parents and Vaishnavi are back home from the hospital. With heavy hearts, worried about what the future holds for them and their little one, they set foot in the house. Akash, all shattered, just goes into his room. Preeti sees him and follows him into the room. She sees him sobbing.PREETI: Please calm down. I understand it’s not going to be easy to go through this. But for Vaishnavi, we have to be strong.AKASH: Crying inconsolably. Why is this happening to us? Vaishnavi is a three-year old child. Why should she be going through this!? How is her body going to take so much of pain? I am really scared.PREETI: No, don’t worry. I am sure she will be completely fine. Have faith in God.AKASH: Yes, of course I do have faith in God but… why us?PREETI: Medicine has progressed so much. We will tide over this. Let’s be positive and move ahead. Someone calling to Akash and Preeti. Looks like mom and dad are calling us, let’s go. (Vaishnavi’s grandparents being referred to here).In the process of consoling Akash, Preeti absorbs all her anguish she is having after the correspondence with the doctor at the hospital. So, after a few minutes Akash gets up and both of them go to inform the grandparents.The Grandparents are in their bed room, eagerly awaiting to know what happened at the hospital. The parents enter the room. The grandparents, at once start asking a number of questions.GRANDPARENTS: [To the parents] What happened? Why did it take you people so long? What did the doctor say? Is Vaishnavi okay?AKASH: Mom, Dad, the doctor told us the reason for Vaishnavi’s constant fever. He s-said (stammering due to the tension) she has Acute Leukemia, Blood Cancer.GRANDPARENTS: Dumbstruck. Is he sure? Did they check properly?PREETI: [To the grandparents] Yes mom and dad.GRANDMOTHER: I can’t believe this! I think there is some mistake from their side. Nobody in our family ever had anything like this. We are all very healthy people.PREETI: Mom…. They are professionals. They won’t make a mistake in such cases. Even we asked them the same thing when we heard the news for the first time. But the doctor said they double-checked the reports and it is Cancer. Saying so, Preeti breaks