The Girl Who Danced in Rain

Chapter:2 The Trouble Lingered On

But… Ron kept on getting weaker as his health declined. Doctors said he had Schizophrenia.Her simpleton family did not suspect the dangers this disease would pose to the patient's life.

Ron was a boy of 21; sensitive, naïve and inexperienced. He went to public college and there he encountered a lot of bullies who mocked and provoked him until his mind was fractured. Later, when the family tried to ask him about the time his life was on the brink of destruction; he had no answer. He used to stare in space and remain silent even amid his family members.

Her father was a strong man who dared a lot of dangers and difficulties in his life. He was an officer who retired from the army and people were afraid of his mental and physical power. He never feared the jealous and ill-will people who in their absolute meanness would harm his family if they could not stagger him. This time, those mean people were successful in harming Ron. His opponents made the life of Ron a living hell by plotting against him. They directed their guns and cannons towards the poor Ron and made him an example of their revenge and redress.

She was not too worried about the condition of Ron as she hoped that he would get better eventually but she was not familiar with the kind of danger her family was in. She was a

light-spirited girl who thought everything would eventually go back to its original shape.

One usual day, her father gently asked her, “Do you know what happened to Ron?” and she replied calmly, “I knew he had some boys in college who teased him but I don’t know who really got to him." Father’s tone turned doubtful as though he suspected that she knows more than she’s letting on “ what else do you know? “And she looked into her father’s eyes sensing his suspicion, “N… nothing” and turned her back towards him.

After this encounter, to avoid any trouble with her father, she never questioned what happened to Ron. She became carefree again and life went on.

She had another brother named Mickey whom she never understood. He was a sharp boy who had envisioned life at its best at a very young age. He was the right hand of his father and usually underestimated Ron and Anne. He thought of them as some inferior beings who cannot climb the ladder of success due to their naivety. He was studying in the first year of medicine and besides medicine he had other passions too like investing in crypto, singing and acting. He always had beef with Ron. Due to his declining mental health, Mickey stopped harassing him but deep down he hated his elder brother for his failures. Mickey had sharp and handsome features, and he really knew how to cash them on and off, but the way he bullied the rest of his siblings along with his father’s dictatorship was indescribable.

Anne’s mother needed mental and physical help. She never acknowledged the fact that she needs assistance. When her son Ron fell ill, she thought of some enemy cursing the family instead of the fact that disease came on its own and does not have to do anything with any enemy. She was very amicable with Anne but when the crisis hit, she was the first one who left her alone.

Anne found it very difficult to bond with her family. Consequently, she remained alone in the family and had no one to talk about what she thought to be and what might not be. She tried to talk to her mother about Ron and all the other things, and her mother always ended it saying they were doomed by a curse. She used to tell her the mysterious stories of death and trouble of other people and had a habit of relating herself to the awestruck people. This made her sick of her mother.

Anne had a friend whom she could turn to. She was the one with whom she could share all her longings, desires, and passion, and she never judged it. Rami, her friend, had almost a similar family set up. She really understood what was happening to Anne and her family. Rami had a strange convincing power with which she always convinced Anne. If Anne ever asked her, why her brother Ron is ill, she would say, “It’s because he's misunderstood", she then asked, “ Why’s he misunderstood” and Rami would say, “that’s because he never found anyone whom he could trust to open up” and then Rami used to encourage her to be close to Ron and the more she tried, the more she was pushed back!

One day, she tried to chat with Ron when he was in his room, alone. She tried to cheer him up, said the things she used to say when he was normal, but he did not even flinch. She wrote him a poem on a white paper and folded it in a very careful manner, but Ron did not open the poem and put it in the dustbin. Ron started spitting a lot. Whenever she saw him, he was spitting in the basket. When asked, he never replied. He was six feet tall but seeing him drawn over a small portion of bed all the time was very painful for Anne. She used to call him by his nickname, but Ron remained unmoved over it.

When it came to psychological help, they referred him to a lot of well-known doctors, but no one could make him react to the medication. The father was helpless, but he never showed it. sometimes, Anne thought it must be the fault of his father that Ron’s mental state is not resurfacing and she managed to build up a pile of excuses to blame her father for it. One day, she accused him of being responsible for the worsening health of Ron, but he somehow deflected the blame and asked Anne to focus over herself.