Our Story

Chapter 11

I headed towards the hospital and reached my destination in half an hour. After reaching there, I saw two ladies at the inquiry counter. That made me a bit nervous and I stood at a distance thinking, "What's now? Should I go to those ladies and ask? But what if I ask them something wrong or do something that gives them any chance to make my situation worse?"

But my inner soul reminded me, "You are already in the worst situation, James." And Ofcourse my soul was right. ‘She’ was driving me crazy. To get out of that situation I had to find her. I had to search for her at any cost, that was the only option left for me and for my hopeless condition.

I decided to take the plunge and stepped forward to the inquiry counter.

"Excuse me!.. Ma’am... I am looking for a female oncology student whose father is middle-aged." I asked one of the girls at the inquiry counter.

That girl at the counter looked at me as if I was a comedian. And she started laughing at me. ‘As I just c***k a joke!’’, seeing the other girl's face who was sitting next to her.

I waited patiently to get over their laughter.

When she was done, she replied looking at me, "Mister, Almost all the girls' fathers are middle-aged here."

And I envisaged it. Really I was the one who gave them a reason to laugh at me.

‘Huff! Stupid me.’ I scoffed at myself.

Covering my stupidity, I again said, " Um.. I am sorry but he had cancer. Al… and people call him Al."

"Apology sir, we can't give any of our patient information to a stranger." She replied to me again.

I shifted my inquiry to her, " Ok! Don't tell me about the patient, please tell me about that female student."

"I am sorry, Sir. We can't provide any of our student's information either. Don’t take me wrong but this is a security measure." She replied again.

I requested giving her some respect, "Please, Ma'am. It's very important for me to find her."

"Ok. What is her name?" She asked me.

That was an expected question which I was unexpecting and I replied the truth, "Ahem… I don't know her name. Actually… I used to see her in the metro. All I know is that she is practicing here and her father is a cancer patient."

"Then again an apology, Sir. We can't give any stranger any information about any student as well as any patient." She replied firmly, folding her hands.

I requested her again, "Mam, please. Try to understand, it's very important for me to find her."

"As I told you, Sir. It's against our rule." She respectfully denied my request.

And soon our conversation turned to an argument as I continued inquiring about her and she continued rejecting my requests.

In the end that debate ended with me saying, "Alright, you do your work and I'll do mine."

I stepped from there thumping my feet forcefully on the tailed floor, showing them how annoyed I was with them and meeting ‘her’ was really important for me. But of course my anger was absolutely neglected by them and unwillingly, I had to come out to the main gates.

I stood at the gate wondering, "What to do now? I said to them to mind their own work while I will do mine but that was not easy. What should I do?”

Again my inner self replied, " You can only wait for her here till she comes here."

I said, "Okay!" As I also didn't have any other choice and looked near the gate where I could adjust myself without making trouble for anyone.

I saw a blind beggar, who must be in his fifties, standing on a rubber mat just at the right of the main gate. He wore black glasses, held the white cane in one hand and a bowl in the other.

I quietly, without making myself audible to him, sat near him keeping my gaze at the people passing through the main gates.

A few minutes later I was hit on my back by the white cane that blind man was holding.

I looked at him and felt pity for him, thinking to myself, "Poor blind, for him the whole world is black, must have hit me mistakenly." Without speaking anything to him I froze and acted like an object while again fixing my gaze at the main gates.

But again he hit me saying, "You can't steal my place, go somewhere else and beg."

I craned my neck at him and he was staring at me through those black glasses. I immediately stood up in shock, questioning him, "What? You aren't a blind ?"

He answered, "Of course I am blind. Doesn't my appearance define you that I am blind? And well it's none of your business, go somewhere else. This place is mine."

And I replied, " Oh! No, no. You're getting me wrong. I am not here to beg. It's something important that makes me stay here."

He still questioned me, "You aren't a beggar, hmm?"

I hit him with the same line as his, "Doesn't my appearance define you that I am not a beggar ?"

And he checked up on me from head to my shoes, then again from my shoes to head. He half grinned and replied, " Sit." He sat leaving half of his mat and giving me some space to sit.

"Did he agreed with me or just insulted me, indirectly?" I asked myself. My inner self laughed at me, even though that fake blind man had more attitude and guts than me. Huh!

Anyways! Leaving my indirect insult aside, I sat down on the half of his mat leaning against the wall.

I clicked my mobile and it was displaying 4:39 PM with 12 percent of battery life.

Huff ! Scatty me. I even forgot to charge my mobile phone. I kept my mobile back in my pocket, sat stretching my legs straight in a comfortable position as I didn't have any idea how long I was gonna be there.

After an hour, the day slowly started getting darker and I was just sitting and staring at the people passing through the main gates continuously but still I didn't find her. And while passing a few more minutes there, I saw the counter girls leaving the hospital. They left straight to their way without noticing me there.

And soon it was dark, only the street lights were piercing the darkness and I started to feel dizzy but suddenly my phone rang. I immediately took my phone out of my pockets and tried to pick the call but my ring disturb the man trying to sleep beside me. It was a call from Max. Before I could pick that call, fortunately my mobile switched off and I glanced at my right. Scott, that 'fake blind man', was continuously changing his positions from left to right then right to left. He must be uncomfortable by the hardness of the footpath.

After a while my eyes started to feel heavy. And now I wasn't staring at the gates but the sky full of bright stars. Taking long deep breaths I started remembering everything about 'her' from the first day I saw her, when she smiled for the first time looking at me, till the last day when she cried looking at me.

I was spending my night out of the house after years, strangely ‘she’ was making me do the things I never expected from myself.

I adjusted myself more comfortably taking the support of Scott's bag, but that couldn't helped me much.

I was uncomfortable, my hips were numb, still I was feeling a strange kind of heartsease. She was the girl who didn't speak a word to me but taught me one can be happy even inside that metro steel box and then this world is so big, full of beautiful things.

After a very long time I was staring at the night sky, it looked beautiful and mesmerizing.

And that was the last thing I remembered of that day, keeping her in my mind and staring at the calm sky and bright stars I don't know when I drowse-off to my dream land.