BEYOND US

Second Ending

".... I know what you're thinking and I know it has always been all promises to make things better but this time I have a.." he hesitated slightly but enough for her to see through his doubt "..conviction that this one would be it, okay, don't think about anything alright, you'll be better soon" he said, coming to sit at the edge of her bed and taking her hand that had been lying on her stomach

"Daddy is going to make sure that you are alright soon, Okay??" she could still hear the doubt in his voice.

She turned her eyes to stare at him, she knew her eyes were judging him and he knew it too.

"So..." he started again, flashing her a wary smile before keeping her hand back on her stomach, patting it slightly and then getting up, doing it all as if he wasn't running away even though that was exactly what he was doing

"... I'll see you at night, am so sorry that I can't join you for lunch, something cropped up at the company and I have to be there, I'll tell you what doc says when he talks to me and Cindy would be coming in about..." he took a look at his watch "five minutes, so, eehh... I'd better be going"

He turned immediately and left the room, his burly form and his receding hair that was a little bit long at the back, lending the feeling that he was fleeing.

She stared at the door for a while before turning to her side and tapping the bed with her slender fingers that had cuts on them, old and new, and her ragged, short nails.

At the dinner table that same afternoon

".....And when you look all so pretty, Mr Rhea, I mean your dad, would bring you to the launch of his new product and there everyone will see what a blossoming flower Mr Rhea had kept in his backyard all this while... Wouldn't you like that Rina, how all so wonderful would that be"

Cindy asked as she chatted with Rina, but she didn't respond and Cindy went on talking, not minding the fact she was carrying on a monologue.

Instead Rina stared at the bowl of soup in front of her as if there were having a contest of who could look at themselves the most but Cindy carried on as if she couldn't see that Rina wasn't eating instead she talked about dresses and make up

Things that if Rina was normal would elicit her interest, not now that the whole world was now black and white for her.

After a little while, she took the spoon that lay by the side of the soup, carried some soup

She stared at the soup in her spoon as if it was medicine and then put it in her mouth, she did that a couple of times before dropping the spoon by the soup plate and getting up.

"Rina, the food won't eat itself, you need more energy for yourself, Okay? Come on eat more" Cindy was saying this, even though she made no move to stop Rina from going upstairs, instead she sighed.

Conny, who was manning the kitchen came out in time to hear Cindy's sigh.

"No??" he asked in a soft voice that fit his oldish kind face.

Cindy shook her head, he sat on the seat Rina had vacated. "I feel so sorry for her" Cindy started in a small voice

"Yeah, me too", he paused his mouth in a slight way.

Then he took the spoon that Rina used before to carry the soup into his own mouth, he swallowed with some difficulty

"But come to think of it, I'd rather go to prison and eat the food there than actually eat this" he complained

Cindy snickered "You're insulting your own handiwork"

"Even though I made it, it doesn't mean am proud of it"

Cindy sighed again "it wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't always skip meals, now her food has to be stuffed with so much nutrients, that it's now practically medicine...it is medicine actually"

"I thought today shouldn't have happened again, I know it had only been a week since the last one, but I thought that doctor promised" Cindy said

Conny's kind face was frowning "goes to prove you shouldn't always trust the doctor's prescription"

There was no more conversation in the room again. They were dealing with their different ways of pitying Rina.